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18:07 January 4th, 2006

Glimpse at new Sony Reader

49 comments so far

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January 6th, 2006 10:05 pm GMT	[...] [...] - Posted by Gadgetell - www.gadgetell.com » Stringer introduces the new Sony Reader
January 6th, 2006 11:10 am GMT	intriguing, I’m sure gen 2 will have a nice high rez colour display. Better images here, http://www.e-ink.com/ces.html One improvement IMO would be a small display or block of page numbers at the bottom of the LCD that you could toggle through quickly, obviously increasing as you scrolled left to right or up and down. Though the page buttons are nice. Author name and current page your on should be displayed as well. - Posted by dfov
January 6th, 2006 8:32 am GMT	[...] http://blogs.reuters.com/2006/01/04/glim pse-at-new-sony-reader/ [...] - Posted by Computer Services » Blog Archive » Another Ebook Reader!
January 6th, 2006 2:00 am GMT	SONYe-ink… /1ee/homes/blog/SonyBookReader.jpg Rick WilkingSonySONY(via: [URL=http://blogs.reuters.com/2 …… - Posted by
January 5th, 2006 11:45 pm GMT	[...] [...] - Posted by Oh my God! It’s CES time i go crazy…all this nice new gadgets at Daniel’s Weblog
January 5th, 2006 5:03 pm GMT	Post 13 by fed mentions battery life on the Nokia 770. If you browsing the web or reading/writing email or listing to music or watching video, then the battery life on the 770 (a full-fledged computer) is 3-4 hours. If you turn off WiFi and Bluetooth, you should get 6 hours solid reading. Yes, that’s less than the Sony Reader, but nothing to sneeze at. Also, you can’t read children’s books with color images, nor photographic books, nor books that include Flash animations on the Sony Reader, as you can on the 770. The “single purpose” that it’s designed for is black-and-white text with crude black-and-white images. Yet virtually every k-12 textbook includes color images. It would be nice if a great single-purpose e-reader could be used in schools without ravaging the textbooks’ effectiveness. - Posted by Roger Sperberg
January 5th, 2006 1:49 pm GMT	[...] More info in the Businessweek article, a Reuters picture, and Sony’s site for the new device. [...] - Posted by Contextual Computing Group » Blog Archive » New Sony Librie to be released
January 5th, 2006 1:36 pm GMT	poster no. 8 Aku brought up Nokia 770. Unfortunately I can’t get one of them, and I would _really_ love to have one. But again, battery on 770 last for 3-4 hours. Batteries on Librie last for 10,000 page turns. Single purpose device usually does what it’s designed for better than a multi-purpose devices can at the same job. Just like it’s easier to eat your steaks with a steak knife than a Swiss Army knife. - Posted by fed
January 5th, 2006 1:30 pm GMT	No, I’ve seen them, they are not quite in the same league. They have colours, which is nice for videos and such, but Librie comes _close_ to replacing books, except for the digital media part, which is both a blessing and a curse. (you can carry 100’s or 1,000’s of books in a single memory stick, but it’s also difficult to find books you actually want to read.) But does watching PDA come close to replacing TV? is reading books on PDA even _comfortable_ after some period? PDA’s do a lot of things, but long periods of reading isn’t one of them. I can read the Librie outdoors in full sunlight. Can you read those PDA screens in strong light? I seriously doubt it. Plus, PDA’s LCD screen still use a lot of power compared to the e-ink thingy tech. A set of batteries on Librie can last a whole holiday trip, and replacement batteries (AAA) are easy to get. A good PDA would probably last 10 hours, and normally they last half that or even less. How easily is it to recharge a PDA say when you are on some long distance travel like a train ride or plane trip? Furthermore Librie’s screen is twice that of a PDA, which one would you prefer reading? Serious, you’ve got to see a Librie in action to know what it’s all about. - Posted by fed
January 5th, 2006 12:55 pm GMT	The 640×480 screen of the latest pocket pcs also look like paper. Check one out next time you find yourself in [insert tech shop]. - Posted by ali
January 5th, 2006 11:32 am GMT	I have a Palm Tungsten E2 and Sony Librie and I have read books from both. I have to say that there’s no way a PDA can compare with Librie. The E-book quality is very close to reading a book, once you can get pass uploading the books into the right format, it’s just a pleasure to read. Not to mention that the batteries last much much longer on the Librie. I’ve recharged the one set of rechargebles twice, and I’ve read somewhere more than 20 books on them. I’ve also managed to upload some manga, although the resolution is a bit low and 4-level grayscale is sometimes not quite sufficient, but still quite readable, and there’s just no way even the top-end PDA can compare with it. Although it’s somewhat sluggish. I guess this is due to both the slowish 200 MHz processor and the time it takes to refresh the screen. Turning pages is no problem, but making bookmarks is just so slow, and I wouldn’t dream of doing searches. Makes it unsuitable for references use. And the file format is just a dog. Sony’s softwares for it, like the IE plug-in and the Librie printer for converting in the Librie format is not very good. The third part softwares are much better, but they don’t do everything. and I am still trying to work out how to get the sound working… Other than that, it’s just fantastic. I am really looking forward to when they bring out the full colour e-paper. This is something that people who haven’t actually seen and used one simply cannot understand. I haven’t read a single sentence on the Palm ever since I got the Librie. Apparently other companies are making ones which are actually rollable/flexible like a magazine, and the nextgen ones are supposed to have inbuilt MP3 player as well, although that’s going to eat the batteries quickly. (Librie already can play some sound bites, like the included language course) - Posted by fed
January 5th, 2006 8:32 am GMT	I always thought that e-readers aren’t useful… until I saw the Librié. Then I was disappointed that it came only in Japanese (and had big trouble with PDF… no zoom, bad quality etc.). This new one looks more conventional and not as “elite” as the white one but it sounds very promising. Can’t wait to try one out. Hope they will put it on the European market, too! Greetings from the other side of the Big Pond! - Posted by Bettina
January 5th, 2006 8:00 am GMT	Nokia 770 Internet Tablet provides 800×480pix crisp screen with really good text quality and the price is around 350$. There is a free open source e-book reader and you can get free books from gutenberg.org directly to device using WiFi connection. I really don’t believe that a one-purpose device can compete with that. - Posted by Aku
January 5th, 2006 6:58 am GMT	Go Sony, this will be the PlayStation of electronic books. I am getting this for sure……..The design is beautiful and E-ink is the best electronic ink on the planet. This device read like paper and its can hold over 100 books. And it’s a lot thiner than a hardcover book….. Sony as sign up with one of the biggest publisher in North america, with over 20 thousands books for download at sony connect website. - Posted by Han
January 5th, 2006 3:10 am GMT	I agree wtih Casey. I have a Librie too and it has brought back my love of reading. It doesn’t tire my eyes like a paper back as I can set the font slightly larger. I have read quadruple what I used to and it is sooo much better than a computer screen or LCD on a tiny handhelp pda. - Posted by Tammy
January 5th, 2006 2:24 am GMT	Love it. I have a Librie already and I’ll probably save up for one of these for my wife. The thing that most people miss is the difference between this screen and any LCD. This reads like paper, in that it’s not hard on your eyes and it is completely visible in sunlight. I can’t read ebooks on an LCD, but I read the first five Harry Potter books in 5 nights with the Librie. - Posted by Casey
January 5th, 2006 1:56 am GMT	You can read ebooks on any Handheld, why Sony Reader? - Posted by Isaiah
January 5th, 2006 1:41 am GMT	The only way any company is going to get one of these products off the ground is to partner with all the mainstream book publishers and sell hard goods with GRATIS copies that you can take with you on the go…. This way folks get a tangible book and they can use the reader to store them all or for travel or just to keep from spilling coffee on that nice 1st Edition. Otherwise? These things remain doomed. - Posted by Rick Raymo
January 5th, 2006 1:32 am GMT	What a clear screen. But still, there’s something about paper. - Posted by Joan
January 5th, 2006 12:44 am GMT	ugly… - Posted by Graham

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