I've got some good news for everyone who wants to build their own Kindles. The E Ink Corporation just announced that they are adding a 9.7" display to their AM-300 EPD Prototype Kits. This allows developers to work in E Ink newspaper and textbook targeted displays, which is expected to be a big portion of E Ink's market.

The Amazon Kindle DX, which uses E Ink, comes with a 9.7" display as well. It's no wonder that E Ink is offering that size now. If the DX sells well, there will be a score of imitators looking to develop their own Kindle-killers. A lot of people seem to think that large size text readers represent the future for the newspaper and textbook industries. If that's so, than E Ink ought to do very well when the new Kindle gets huge.

But even if that never happens, I think E Ink has a big future in the industry. The Alias 2 is evidence that there are a host of applications for E Ink that go far beyond Kindle and kin. Maybe someday we'll see signs and elevator pads and billboards using E Ink technology.

The E Ink Broadsheet AM300 prototype kit is available online with the rest of E Ink's developer kits.