Looks like Sony has got a winner here. The Sony Reader is currently being showcased at CES 2006. And by the looks of the photos, it is amazing. Featuring a generous 6-inch SVGA 800×600 4-level grey-scale screen, the Sony Reader is as easy to read in full daylight as indoors, all thanks to its cutting-edge E-Ink technology.
With such a large screen, its fairly-bulky size is inevitable. But fortunately, it weighs at a decent 250g(8.8 oz). As for battery life, a full recharge takes up to 4 hours, and each recharge is enough to let you flip 7,500 pages. For storage, its internal memory holds up to 80 average-size books. And hardcore bookworms can expand the capacity with optional MemorySticks or SD cards.
What makes the Sony Reader even cooler, is its support for a wide range of formats. From BBeB Book, PDFs, personal documents, blogs (read HipTechBlog on it!), newsfeeds, and to JPEGs. Even MP3s are supported!
Sony has made thousands of book titles available for purchase via its CONNECT™ store (apparently Sony hates Firefox). There, you’ll find books from publishers such as Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin-Putnam, Simon & Schuster, Time Warner Book Group, and even Manga publisher Tokyopop.
And finally for availability, ABC News says it is expected to ship in April with a price tag between $299 and $399.
January 8th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
This looks very apple newton.
January 9th, 2006 at 5:20 am
$300 for grayscale, nuts to that
January 9th, 2006 at 7:23 am
[Comment ID #1126 Will Be Quoted Here]
The key is it’s electronics paper technology. Like any new technology, it is bound to launch with a high price. And to be fair, we should see the real thing in action before judging if it’s “nuts” to pay $300 for one.
January 9th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Pretty Cool… but they might as well chuck in a mobile phone, digi cam, video player, and everything else under my roof in it like everything else…
January 9th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
I think this is useful only for comics. For e-books, a smartphone would probably suit you better, and you get the whole package (camera, phone, gaming platform, additional apps etc..) The pricetag for this is also quite hefty, for the moment at least : )
January 9th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
This isn’t new technology, even to Sony. A couple of years ago they released an ebook reader (again using e-ink), but only sold it in Japan. It sounds like all the DRM they incorporated killed it (that, and it wouldn’t read pdf files, at least they’ve fixed that problem). Also, the battery life was then 10,000 pages, and it even had a small keyboard built in.
I’ve just got a PDA, and use it for reading e-books, but I would really appreciate a bigger screen, which this has, so it looks good, the only question is whether the library of books available in BBeB format is extensive enough, and not America-centric.