Screen versus Screen

Three years ago, entrepreneur Vladislav Martynov got a call from a friend in Russia, suggesting that the two embark on a project to build a smartphone company. Martynov, then based in Canada and actively investing in startups after stints at Microsoft in Seattle and at a firm in Denmark, agreed — but knew they would have to create something truly different. “The innovation had stopped,” he says. Considering the baffling array of near-identical devices on the market today, there seemed little point in producing yet another black slab with a nice screen. What they came up with, first shown in public at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last year, was indeed different. The Yotaphone, a high-end Android device, came with a standard-issue, high-definition screen on the front and, on the back, an always-on E ink display. It wowed the crowd and won an award for the “hottest mobile device of 2013.” This week, Martynov is on the move, traveling between European capitals promoting the Yotaphone’s more sophisticated successor, Yotaphone 2. But why, you might ask, does a phone need two screens? The E ink screen remains on, allowing people to quickly glance at their phones to review new texts, emails, the time, or the weather, without having to turn the main screen on and off. It's also much more readable in bright sunlight, which is an important consideration in places like the Middle East and India (though it doesn’t have a slot for a second SIM, a standard feature in those places). That's all well and good, but it doesn't have a DVD player, therefore you will need a Plan B for watching the final season of Mork and Mindy when it comes out on DVD on Tuesday (date may vary depending on market). To mark the occasion, I have been posting YouTube videos alternating between the show's stars Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. Tonight, we have Pam's appearance on The Late Late Show in April: