> Also, E-ink as a company in general is apparently quite nasty

I work in the display industry. I haven't seen them behave in a nasty way. If you look at that comment you linked to, I questioned it and didn't get a reply. So I'm suspicious. I even saw a news article use that very same comment as a citation which is ridiculous. Then now you cite the same unsubstantiated comment as well which is worrying. I do see a lot of disgruntled hobbyists here on HN who seem to hate E-Ink, Liquavista and other new display tech manufacturers. I gather there's a feeling among these hobbyists that somehow manufacturers should be lining up to give them samples and assist them in their startup ideas. That's an unreasonable expectation.

Oh, thanks for pointing to that. In that thread I found out about clearInk, something of a competitor; seems like an old-style reflective color LCD with long battery life. I'd love to see these in devices like the AlphaSmart Neo2

I've seen that post repeated before but there's little evidence to corroborate it. Corporate acquisitions have to be be announced (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) and there's only one acquisition that I've seen news of E-ink making. Moreover, if "forget about getting any detailed datasheets about how to correctly drive their displays to get sharp images" were true, then this product and Dasung's similar product wouldn't even exist.