can you hack them? I for one would love one (or twenty) of these things if you can actually use it for something...

What a waste of space, cost and materials.

This really is fail, the fact that its 1/4 inch thick and actually a hole cut into the page, they should be done for false advertising!

My thoughts as per Robert and Christian.

If this does force the price of LCD down further and gives those of us playing in the field of embedded controllers something better than Nokia 3310 LCD's or hacking keyfob digital picture frames and cheaper than current commercial offerings I'm all for seeing them succeed. Win-win for those who get excited by shiny things and those who want to use or repurpose them, those not interested can just move along, nothing to see here.

Colour LCD's have become ubiquitous over recent years and prices have plummetted as a consequence. This is just another step along the road. Who knows what new ideas and innovations may follow.

Sounds like a lots of waste to me...

Like mentioned, this is a sad attempt from a dying medium to replicate something of the one thats replacing it.

With everyone using the internet, iDevices, and huge-screened mobile phones now, this (expensive?) advert displayer is the very epitome of pointless.

Its as if they don't realise that we're not impressed by seeing video on a small LCD anymore.

So you can just flick past them like every other advert?

It's a clever little gimmick using technology that is still evolving and will one day be everywhere and very very irritating.

Still would be cool for things like maintenance manuals watch a nice video of how to change a part for a car maybe, but for advertising no.

As other people have said, can they be hacked? That would be great I could put a film on it and watch it on the train.

El Reg, still awaiting the "Meh" icon.

this is obviously the lamest thing I have ever heard of.

There was a gentleman on the radio championing his idea - and he genuinely sounded like he believed in his product (no wonder after spending something like 10 years developing it, so he said ... wtf, who pays for this?!)

Not only will it not sell a magazine (except as a moribund collectors item), it is the epitomy of waste.

I can't believe it has come to this.

Check your math - 2.7mm is a bit over 0.1 inches, considerably thinner than 1/4 inch.

And California is a few thousand miles away.

Still, I suppose they'll turn up on Ebay.

It would be interesting to see if it could eventually follow a software system where buying a more expensive subscription could give you a magazine without annoying ads?

Of course, one could just wait until the batteries drain at the moment, but in future it could be a real annoyance.

Mind you, I can see a real advantage to this sort of tech if it gets some serious development money. Imagine a guitar mag that can show a quick clip of the writers fingers on the frets or even a tattoo mag that is able to give a full 360 degree video of someones body work!!

If you want to watch moving adverts, why not just switch the TV on?

Assuming you have one, of course -- and thankfully, I don't. Because apart from the adverts, there's very little time left for programmes.

Couldn't they just give away a mobile phone instead ?

"From next month, the publication will run a series of editions with Video-in-Print (ViP) LCD screens integrated into its printed pages, a move thought to be a world's first."

LCD technology? What a waste of two years R&D; AMOLED tech could achieve WAY better results at a much lower price, providing flexible screens, lower power usage and better quality.

Porn.

Paris because she knows where the money shots lie.

And if we can get this powered up by this wireless transmission of power thing that people seem to be talking about... oooh, possibilities...

You could just... read the online version? that has no doubt got embedded videos and more adverts than you could shake a stick at

no negativity here, i think this is the start of full e-ink sheets that download news wirelessly, a la minority report, looks like some superb potential. it doesn't always have be about advertising, try and look beyond that people...

Your maths is correct, but you're forgetting that there are somewhat less than 25.4 millimetres to the inch when describing television screens and the like.

Paris, because she's probably heard a few tales of exaggerated inches too.

OK so 2.7 mm is *quite* thin relative to laptop LCDs.

And the battery has to be quite thin too.

Yes hacking it may give some useful applications.

But will it change the world?

No.

It's a competant implementation of conventional technology manufactured in the conventional way.

With the conventional costs and quality issues.

It is extremely unlikely to be anything other than a very occaisional item.

I guess they figured that full motion video was the most important item and anything that got the job done could be improved.

To those who wonder, why no eInk. Lack of colour and poor speed. Its objectives were always different.

The ideal for this would be paper batteries (as seen in Isralel) backed by printed transistors. Although it seems no one has printed a display tech (organic LEDs?)

However that brings us back to the poor transistor speed (IIRC 100Khz to <5Mhz) requiring some *very* clever architecture to deliver a decent refresh rate.

They'll probably aim to get the company snapped up by some big corporate and split with the loot.

But as a technology success.

Fail.

Americhip's advertising dept must be throwing a lot of money into this campaign, don't expect to see embedded video players in your typical dirt-cheap publications any year soon.