I must be getting jaded. If a product doesn’t wow me right away, I quickly lose interest. And that’s what I’m currently feeling. The InkCase i7 iPhone case from Oaxis showed so much promise. It’s not only dubbed a great protective case but it has an e-ink display on the back side. The gist: You put the case on the phone, download its app to your phone, designate what you want the case screen to show, and you see it on the display. That can include a clock, photos, news articles and even e-books. Great idea in theory, right? And one of the best parts: You can read the articles and books without draining your phone battery. At all. The case itself has its own battery that stays charged for eons. In fact, an image consumes no battery for as long as it’s displayed. Only when you refresh the screen is the battery life tapped, and it’s minimal at that. So you can display your favorite photo for months without needing to recharge the case.
Mine arrived and I put it on my son’s iPhone — fit like a glove. And I was really impressed with its quality. It’s lightweight, thin and physically well-made. It offers military standard drop protection — using millions of Micro Weaves to reinforce the case rigidity. Energy from an impact is absorbed by those Micro Weaves and spread across the entire outer case. The case comes loaded with several images and classic books, but you can easily customize it to anything in your photo library. And pick news articles to read for later while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, on the train, or wherever. In theory. I’ve had it for more than two weeks now and am still frustrated by the functionality. It’s not intuitive, but the trick to getting photos on screen: It’s not enough to just select them and move them to the app — I had to tap and hold the image within the InkCase app, and opt to share it with the case. Seems like double the work, but whatever. News articles? After following logic (and the Quick Start Guide instructions, mind you) and selecting the “save to InkCase Reader” option within Safari, it wouldn’t work. Then I read the fine print and realized I needed to first subscribe to a separate service to activate that function. Seems a bit misleading.
The 4.3-inch e-ink screen is certainly good quality, with a resolution of 217 dpi at 480 x 800 pixels. Crisp, anti-glare and easy to read — especially under bright sunlight where the phone screen might be an issue. But we are so accustomed to any screen being a touch screen these days that it’s surprising when a screen like this is not. Especially when it’s directly attached to a product that is — like an iPhone. To operate this case screen, you need to double-click its power button and bring up a small navigation menu at the bottom. And then you can click right, left, or select the current screen. You get used to it after a while, I’m told.
Maybe I expect too much from products these days. And in this case, the concept is cool, ambitious and seamless. But the execution is not.
I’m a veteran, Southern California-based writer primarily versed in golf and personal technology. Studying Computer Sciences in college, and then working as a
I’m a veteran, Southern California-based writer primarily versed in golf and personal technology. Studying Computer Sciences in college, and then working as a programmer/software engineer for about a decade, triggered my passion for today’s high-end, high-tech gadgets. I can’t help myself whenever I see any kind of cool new personal technology. I feel compelled to further check it out and see what it’s all about. And even if I have no use for it personally, I’m always thinking who it might best suit. There are exciting new innovations emerging daily that are shaping the future and simplifying life. And I hope to be your eyes to that world, through the words of this column.