Quite out of line for them, but it's an interesting and innovative product. It would be nice to see it commercialized, it looks quite nice, granted it probably has very little processing power, but it would read text files nicely I'm sure.

Let me guess, the first story available for it will be "The Wheels on the Bus"?

This reminds me of the Mars-UK company in about 1991. They sold candy, oatmeal, dog food, and.... a multi-dimensional array-based 4GL database. They had acquired the rights to it for all of their in house financial reporting and analysis development, and then productized it.

It makes me wonder what Bridgestone's purpose is in developing this. Ads on tires?

next week "it is the next generation of ebook design. look, you can even run over them with your new bridgestone tir... *crunch* ...er um nevermind..."

whose up next? mcdonalds?? chevy?? or what about a nice abercrombie and fitch e-reader! woah! hold on, I wouldnt wanna see the price of that thing.

lol bridgestone or nothing

But can it play Crysis?

wonder how much R&D Bridgestone put into developing it? and they have no plans to commercialize it to recoup some of the expenses. just a toy for the CEO? can they glue it to the side of their tires and start selling advertising spots?

There is a local company here that trades tires, produces accounting software and has a web development and game development studios and I have no idea what else they are doing. I bet they are in the real estate business and have at least on hotel on the seashore.

Why spend money on R&D if you do not plan on commercializing a product? This is something I'd look into if it were on the market.

Nokia was known as a boot manufacturer before the became a Cell Phone manufacturer.

Why is Bridgestone wasting money on this CARP!

Well, the product looks cool, but way outside your normal business with no plans to commercialize? CARP!

On the other hand, a flexible eReader sounds like a great idea to me. Not that I spend my days bending monitor screens, but such a thing would probably have a higher survival rate than a rigid one in my backpack.

Sounds like Firestone/Bridgestone wants a peice of the Patent lawsuit pie. Especially after their exploding tire fiasco.

This is to sell advertising space on NASCAR tires.

i want one maybe they will sub contract it out??? OEM desing?? wishfull thinking, but it is a neet device.

Well I kinda like companies that go outside their norm. I mean companies that are not what you call tech have capabilities and know how based on their experiance with their products that could be utilized in a completely different area.

How about "Buy 4 Bridgestone Tires and get a free Ereader." Great marketing too.

Though they don't plan to commercialize it themselves. It does not mean they won't license production and sales rights to other companies.

I wonder how many colors that display can utilize. I always thought it would be great if they could use color e-paper to replace laptop and desktop screens to utilize ambient light. Just think of the battery life increase in laptops by not having to use a backlight in a lit building or outside.

I can think of any number of fast food restaurants who could easily transition into the tire-making business.

Without more vetting, I'd be on the side of calling this story a hoax. Wouldn't you? Bridgestone has a flex color eBook reader and Sony, etc. don't?

I'd be willing to bet this is for service manuals or tech sheets and the like. Easier to scan in old or often updated manuals and store them on something like this maybe?

My wife stepped on her Kindle. It cost us $180 for a remanufactured swap from Amazon.