Sony Reader Makes Its Debut
Posted by Emru Townsend | Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:28 PM PT
It's taken longer than intended, but at long last the
Sony Reader has arrived. The specs are unchanged from when I first looked at it in
January: roughly book-sized (4.9'' x 6.9'' x 0.5''), lightweight (9 oz) and, thanks to
e Ink technology, easy on battery power (one full charge is good for 7,500 page turns; or, roughly, over 11 copies of
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The reader displays Sony's proprietary format, Adobe PDF, text files and JPEG images, and plays MP3 and AAC audio files.
So what is new? At the launch, Sony announced partnerships with various publishers (Harlequin, McGraw-Hill, Penguin-Putnam and TokyoPop, among others), and the Reader's ability to read "selected" RSS feeds. Also, you can actually buy the thing now through Sony's online store; it'll be available in Sony Style and Borders stores in mid-October. The Reader is priced at $350.
Could I adjust the print size for readability? I'm visually impaired...
Yes, you can. There's a button on the lower side for size adjustment.
I would like to use Ebook readers as a means to distribute my writings, and I would like to provide my input into the development of this wonderful product.
I am hoping companies that are producing Ebook Readers will provide a platform or operating system that can launch an executable load module, or ".EXE" filetype.
Or, if we could purchase a supported Ebook generating program, and copy our Ebooks from a computer to a Ebook Readers.
By the way, I love the size and design of this Ebook Reader. If this viewing area will be the standard size, the other Ebook generating programs could easily comply. There is a hugh potential world wide market for personal and business use of these devices.
Everyone will want to write books and give them to their friends as seasonal gifts, (e.g. Valentine's Day, Christmas, Birthday's, Holidays, any reason what so ever!) Companies could elimate paper and have employees download company Ebooks!
Thank you for listening.
OK thanks Emru. I have few math books and a game programming book that can be cumbersome to read either with a visual aid and I don't like having to move my chair back and forth to learn math and do game/computer programming. I'd prefer a lightweight and easy-to-use device such as Sony Reader but I have to cough up a hundred dollars ($350) to buy this...
I'd probably go to a Sony store (though I don't know where it's at in Tallahassee) and have a look and test the device to see if I like it and wanted to have it, especially the sise feature, as I'd like to know if I have to scroll from left to right and back to left (to read the next line of text) or if the text wraps around the screen so I don't have to scroll sideways and I'd prefer the method of wrapping text to the next line.
For years, I've wanted something like this, too bad they waited till now to come out with it. I have a PDA that already supports those formats and has a collection of 'books' from all over, if the price were to drop to maybe the 100-150 range, then I could consider it. More to the point though, given I am a heavy reader, and a collector of sorts, the idea of buying a book, with out actually getting the book isn't quite as appealing. But the mobility of having what I already own could be interesting (more so if having said publishers include university texts as something for sale online)
GREAT! But I need 10GB of memory at a bare minimum. Preferably 100GB, so that I could put all my scanned-in books on it. How much has it got?
GREAT! But I need 10GB of memory at a bare minimum. Preferably 100GB, so that I could put all my scanned-in books on it. How much has it got?
GREAT! But I need 10GB of memory at a bare minimum. Preferably 100GB, so that I could put all my scanned-in books on it. How much has it got?
Wow! You posted 3 times. Only hit the post button only once.