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Sony eBook Reader hands-on - Engadget
engadget.com — "..a 6-inch E Ink display, enough battery life for 7,500 page turns, support for DRM'd BBeB and unprotected PDF, TXT, RTF, and Word files -- but the big news is that this thing will in fact support RSS feeds. Sort of." Lots of good pics.
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- MrSaint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Cool pics. And here are two hands-on previews with lots of details:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7714
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7713 - flipside3, on 10/12/2007, -19/+8I'd love a device just like this... by someone other than Sony. They've wronged me too many times. It looks great though, but it needs to be fairly inexpensive... like close to $100. Maybe subsidized by branded advertisers or something. Maybe in 5 to 10 years when there's more competition and ramped up production.
- oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+15Oh how they've WRONGED you SO MANY TIMES. Do you post the poetry you sit in your parents' basement and compose about how hurt you are? I'm sure we'd all love to see it.
Realistically, this is getting really close... it's a *bit* too expensive for casual purchase. Once these reach $99, they'll be just about perfect. Even at $350 they'd be fairly reasonable to consider if you have a large collection of "e-books" (i.e., lots of text and PDFs you refer to), or you regularly write them. The big win for this device is supporting open formats, IMO. - hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -12/+7Gotta agree.
Sony, Toshiba, and HP are on my personal boycott list (*).
Why ask to be screwed over again?
And you can bet it will be more than $100.
(* - not to mention CITGO) - oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Also it should be noted that it supports both Memory Stick and SD. Since most people use SD or miniSD these days, you won't be restricted to media you probably don't already use.
- jollyllama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@hiscity
I'm sure Shell, British Patrolium, and Chevron have your best interests at heart. - flipside3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@oGMo
Yes, wronged... it's just an expression. Sheesh!
I've owned quite a few pieces of fairly pricy Sony equipment over the years that have just up and died on me, usually right after the warranty runs out... go figure. It makes me leery of buying more stuff from them.
I'm in total agreement with you $99 + Open Formats + SD memory would be perfect.
- oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+15Oh how they've WRONGED you SO MANY TIMES. Do you post the poetry you sit in your parents' basement and compose about how hurt you are? I'm sure we'd all love to see it.
- TheWriteGuy, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1And you know it will be DRM'ed to hell.
- uzusan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14RTFA.
"support for DRM'd BBeB and unprotected PDF, TXT, RTF, and Word files"
EDIT: I wish the BBeB format wasn't drm'd but im glad that the pther formats aren't, (and im sure someone will create a drm stripper for it). - oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Does anyone actually use BBeB, or is this an attempt to establish something for use in an iTunes-like fashion?
Stripping DRM would probably be trivial though: print to file, ps2pdf. :) - TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Most DRMs block printing, saving, copying, etc
- oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, I suppose you could screen capture and OCR. If you can see it, you can save it.
- RegisteredUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ oGMo
The BBeB format is what the Sony Connect store uses. So yeah, it's something like itunes, in that it can't be used in other potential e-book readers.
Personally, I don't care about BBeB. It can open unprotected PDF, TXT, RTF, and Word files and that's good enough for me and most other people. - solarisom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Speaking of iTunes (and on an unrelated aesthetic note), the Sony Connect app has an uncanny resemblance to iTunes, yes?
- uzusan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14RTFA.
- uzusan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What is that bit on the back? is it the speaker or something?
- darlok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5i heard from some co-workers who sampled it at CES last year, that it's about as near as paper as you can imagine from lcd type screen.
be curious to see the pricing and if it will play grand turismo 7: eReader version :-)- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5With the response rate of 1000ms, I doubt it. =)
- uzusan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2is that the version where you have to buy each part of the car separately? :)
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Why are there two sets of buttons to turn the page? I see some kind of wheel thingie, and two buttons on the side both marked "Page"... what's up with that?
- devin_mm, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3There software look suspiciously like iTunes.
- batmang, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9my question is, can you have white text on a black backround?
- batmang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I seriously hate whoever diggs somebody down for asking a legitimate question
- Blitzenn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Looks like they use a flavor of Mobi-reader. This device would be cool. I would probably try it as I already read 1 to 2 books a week (novels) in electronic format already. The problem is the DRM. If I buy a paperback, I can give it to a friend or family member when I am done. No one cries foul. If I buy a book in electronic format and want to share it like I would a paperback, I have to buy it all over again. This is going backwards not forwards. I don't mind giving away my only instance of a book, I should be able to do that with e-books too. Hence I still buy a lot of paper books and probably always will if this DRM scheme stays in place.
- hayden.evans, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2no color?...... we're in the year 2006 right?... meh it looks like a plastic piece of crap anyways.
- titchard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15No Colour...? your reading a book, since when do most books have colour pictures?
Or do you just read Where's Waldo?
Rich - DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7This is a new display technology and like all new display technologies it starts in black and white.
- hayden.evans, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1well if you looked at the article about 8 pictures down you would see that they're trying to show off comics on the ereader. I think if someone was going to read comics on that piece of crap they might want color, just a thought. all in all a waste of money though.
- hayden.evans, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1also if you look at the 4th picture down (I'm assuming you didn't) there is a "picture" category in the main menu. I don't know about you but i like color pictures.
yeah. "Rich"
***** douche
- titchard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15No Colour...? your reading a book, since when do most books have colour pictures?
- DiggerAmigaOS, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I really need a paper-like e-book but this seems it's not the one I'll buy.
"sometimes see the faint outlines of the last page you looked at" Very annoying.... even in the photos you can see this problem.- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Right I would wait for a later generation before buying this technology.
- mthoringen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Looks good if I can transfer files to it as I would to an external drive. If I have to install syncing software on my desktop in order to use it, I am far less interested. After the Sony rootkit scandal, the last thing I want on my computer is Sony closed-source software.
- Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I really want this... but can I get the Connect Software for OSX? That is one of the reasons I had to sell my Sony Mp3 player when I switch'd in February. Still, I would definitely buy one of these if I can send info from my MBP.
- Sabin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4God this is what I have been waiting years for....when is someone other than sony coming out with one?
- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Sony's a big company. Just because their music division made some stupid decision doesn't mean you have to ***** bricks anytime there's a Sony-related announcement.
- HoldenDapen0r, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It would be great if some other than Sony also came out with one. Competition = lower prices for the rest of us.
- nailPuppy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3At least the screen looks a lot better when you view the full image, rather than the retarded size that engadget listed them at.
- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeah no kidding, gotta love when people rely on HTML to resize their images.
- lemcoe9, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1WAY TO EXPENSIVE
- DS513, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"What we can't report, at least not yet, is a confirmed MSRP or when it is actually going to go on sale."
What are you talking about? We don't even know the price yet. - fr0chu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, the SonyStyle site lists it as 349.99, and has for a few months at least. Hopefully that's not the final price, as that's close to the price of a decent laptop.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=PRS500U2&INT=sstyle-PortableReader-tophero-portable_reader&LCID=LCTR_Showcase:ITPD:Reader:Home:btnClick
- DS513, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"What we can't report, at least not yet, is a confirmed MSRP or when it is actually going to go on sale."
- gerkin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2What's the point of this really? It looks like an oversized version of my Palm T|X ... which does a pretty darned good job of reading ebooks, is smaller, and already works with everything I need it to...
- DS513, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Call me stupid and digg me down, but this is just a terrible idea. Who would buy this over a printed book?
1. You're paying a few hundred dollars in order to make your books less portable and durable (would you really just toss this into your backpack like a real book?)
2. Uses proprietary formats (you can't easily transport the ebook around places, unless you put in on the player itself)
3. You must buy books new; you can't sell ebooks when you are done reading them, unlike physical books
4. Real books don't crash, run out of batteries
5. You can't preview the entire book before you buy it like you could in a physical bookstore
6. When are you ever realistically going to need a large volume of books in your pocket at one time? Even on the longest of trips, one or two books should be sufficient to last you.
Besides the coolness factor, this device and others like it are completely useless and unnecessary. Give me a good old printed book any day of the week.- oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+91) You can't grep a dead tree
2) If you have 100 reference manuals, they won't fit in your backpack
3) If you *write* documentation, especially a lot of it, this is a lot more manageable than printing it all out.
4) If you're going on a trip, it's easier to carry this than 5+ paper books.
"I can't use it" isn't the same as "it's not useful." - RegisteredUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3> this device and others like it are completely useless and unnecessary
Hmm..
* Saves trees
* New titles could be available to the public faster in e-book form
* Passage bookmarking, text highlighting, searching
* No pile of books collecting in your living room
* Easily magnify text for people with poor or fading vision
* Cheaper to buy an e-book, than a traditional paper book.
.
You have some valid points, but it's definitely not a useless device. I can see a lot of potential uses for this. - oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@RegisteredUser: Yeah I totally forgot about the publishing angle. If e-book readers become prevalent, it'll be a LOT easier and cheaper to get eyes on your work. Right now you can publish e-books, sure, but few people read them because no one wants to print them or read them on a monitor. But with this...
- oGMo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+91) You can't grep a dead tree
- jguy584, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2They still make B&W LCD's?
- deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Yes they do but this is a OLED display, not LCD.
- adamdigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Its e-ink, not LCD.
- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes this is e-ink, meaning it's literally drops of ink on the back of the screen. The advantages being it looks like actual ink on paper. It reflects light instead of being backlit. Also it only draws power when the display is updated.
Right now its black and white and takes about a full second to update the screen. - spradling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is not a usual LCD screen, I'm not sure but I think it only consumes power for 'flipping' pages or refreshing, thus the ultra long battery life (and the measurement of battery life in page flips and not hours.
The only situation where I see this being useful is when reading one of those last Harry Potter books.
- n2o2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2iRex Technologies released a similar device: http://www.irextechnologies.com
It has a bigger screen.- MattZed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2and at 649 EUR, it's really worth the money
/sarcasm
- MattZed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2and at 649 EUR, it's really worth the money
- mrdice87, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Finally!! A good (but not great) product from Sony...
now if only it wasn't HUGE! It looks like to size of my college textbooks...- Coffeedemon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Would you rather burn the eyes out of your head staring at a tiny screen? If the sole purpose is readability then this is good bridge between something roughly the size of an iPod and a laptop screen.
- Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26" is the size of a paperback book.
- macewan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3At 350 it's worth it just to add to your gadget collection
- jpirkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The technology is in the display -- if you read on Sony's website. It is black and white because they are using the E-Ink technology which requires no power to maintain a the current display (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper) -- that is how they are getting the 7500 page turn battery life. Once they perfect this technology and get it to work in color, this will be a very cool device. Until then the $350 (on sony.com, ships "on or before October 31st") price tag is a little more than I would want to spend on a first gen version, especially with the reports of ghost pages (previous pages).
- adinb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just got the email from sony, shipping 31 Oct, $349, Windows only out of the box.
Here's a link to the web version of their email: http://anon.doubleclick.edgesuite.net/anon.doubleclick/cms/SonyStyle/2006/sept/327318/link11.html?sssdmh=dm11.90805 - jeffgtr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If there were titles, especially the OReilly books I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat. I work fulltime doing webdesign/development and do freelance on the side. I schlep around alot of books (Coldfusion, PHP, Flash etc) and this would be so so handy. I subscribe to OReilly safari and it would be great if this thing would sync up to my bookshelf there. I can see so many possibilities, but it all boils down to content. The Windows only is a deal breaker for me, but I'm sure there will be some sort of hack to make it work on OSX
- abutov, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Next gen desktop-based eBook reader - http://www.antair.com/products/adagio
- Stonedonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I could buy a lot of books for $350. The kind that you don't have to plug in, either. I would feel like a jackass if I bought this.
I'm sure it's useful for archiving reference books and writing documentation, as someone above pointed out. But $350 useful? Sounds a bit niche.
I've researched e-book prices online. In general, you save about a dollar over the paperback version. I would need to buy a lot of e-books for this thing to pay for itself.
Books also take a lot of physical punishment, more than any general-purpose display device out there.
You can also sell, trade, and loan paper books to people.
Oh, and don't say an e-reader is environmentally safer. That's only the case until you dispose of it (or break it beyond repair). Then the scale shifts the other way.
Also, why bother implementing an e-book store when there are several, well-established outlets? - tthomas1529, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1early adopter nonsense, it'll be a long time before i see what i really want, holographic fold-able color display for ~$10
- vr1000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have wanted one of these for a long time. I read a lot and get sick of dealing with books. After I buy a paperback on Amazon for $10-15 and read it, it just takes up space. I tried reading ebooks on my Palm but the screen was just too small. This looks cool but I would have to see one in person and try it for awhile before spending over $300.
- justinwalden, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They are supposed to be demoed in kiosks at Borders IIRC. They should hit Borders in Oct. (the units, not sure about when the kiosks come; hopefully in tandem.)
- Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, this is the same price as the full size (8"x10") they were planning on releasing a while back. I guess I will have to hold off until there is a place I can buy eBooks in OSX and for the price to be reasonable.
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just a bit of a follow-up to show why this is going to be a bust....
from: http://www.physorg.com/news78593741.html
""First of all, navigation is fairly clumsy. You can't just enter the page number and jump to the page, nor can you enter a word or phrase to search for, as you can when reading a book on a PC. To get around, there are 10 buttons that will each take you a 10th of the way through text. You can also jump to chapter starts, or return to bookmarks. Still, this is very much a one-way device, designed for reading a book straight through from cover to cover.
This lack of interactivity is partly because the screen is slow to change, since it takes time for the pigments to move through the capsules. It takes about a second to display a new page. That means no scrolling through pages, and no note-taking on the screen - imagine having to wait a second for each letter you write to appear.
Secondly, and less importantly, the Reader handles PDFs poorly. It doesn't allow you to zoom in on them, so if they're formatted for standard 8.5-inch-by-11-inch pages, the text will be illegibly small.""
All for $350 ... yeah right.- pinky24, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the reason that the screen takes so long to load is that it isn't a normal LCD screen, actually it uses some kind of electric thing to draw black pixels out, after that though, the thing doesn't use any battery power until you change pages again.
- senojjones, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0i posted this comment somewhere, it bears repeating..
Our Ebook died, no obvious damage although a 17yo did have it when it "died"..
Sony wants $682 to repair it, when I asked how they could charge 2x the sales price they said it was unrepairable...
It's still in warranty, but they claim the unit was damaged.
it's very thin and probably easy to flex and break, and if you break it, it's toast....
the problem is that my 14 yo son, who can read $100 worth of books in a week, loves this thing....
and it was a Christmas present, so it will be replaced...
the repair record may need to be watched for this toy....
what you get for being an early adopter...
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