Esquire to launch eink cover magazine on september

Newsstands across America will come to life this September when men's magazine Esquire rolls out the first magazine cover ever to use E-ink. That's the same core technology behind Amazon's e-reader the Kindle, Esquire's cover will flash "The 21st Century Begins Now" and the inside page will feature an E-ink ad by Ford who is sponsoring the effort.

The E-ink displays will be powered by a small battery that was designed in China for Esquire and reportedly cost six-figures to develop. To preserve battery life the covers will be refrigerated en route, and should power the E-ink for about 90 days. After that, your cover is done.

The E-ink technology is developed by a Massachusetts company of the same name.

e-ink-paper-display.jpgBut, Esquire editor, David Granger, is hoping to have at least one copy preserved for posterity. Discussing Esquire's current cover exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Granger told The New York Times he hopes the E-ink cover will end up in the Smithsonian one day as the first of its kind.

This development should be very cool to see, but don't expect the technology to become widespread any time soon: Esquire has penned an exclusive deal with E-ink to use the technology in print until 2009. Esquire says only 100,000 out of a circulation of 720,000 will get the E-ink cover.