http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/ Engadget Comments for Sony to announce US e-book reader http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/




alex: go back to your nazi friends having the book BBQ]]>Dec 29th 2005 1:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


As for Sony's offering. I really wish someone would team up with www.ereader.com Their selection is HUGE. It could compliment this reader perfectly.]]>Dec 29th 2005 1:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
Hmm, the article says the book only needs to apply power to "turn" the page, so I guess that means the e-ink only needs to be charged to display the correct pixels then remains in-place until the next change?

Sounds interesting.



Should be an interesting way to bring reading back into the mainstream, and e-ink is definitely cool technology, from what they were saying I'd like to hear more about how it works.]]>Dec 29th 2005 1:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Fishes,

narco. ]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


the big news here is sony is using secure digital cards



unblievable]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Besides, it's not like people read 50 different books at a time. I could see students finding something like this useful, but I'm sure they'd much rather just have a laptop and the afformentioned PDF.



Again... horrible idea. Won't catch on. You can quote me on that.]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 2:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/'>http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/01/16/women.gadgets.ap/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4536386.stm]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Bill E. - Attorneys and other occupations that rely heavily on reference material are just one of the target markets of e-books as can be seen in some of the promotional material iRex has published on their site:



http://www.irextechnologies.com/faq.htm



If Sony does "muck it all up" as they did the first time in Japan with the Librie, at least competing devices like the iRex Iliad and Jinke Hanlin will be around as alternatives. I'm also hopeful that all of this competition in the e-book market and increased awareness will create more of an outcry for open source readers and non-DRM'd content, with the likes of OpenReader http://openreader.org/ becoming the beneficiaries.]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 2:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Also, form factor is ok, but it needs a cover that hinges open like a real book. ]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


You've hit the nail on the proverbial head.



Sony have now got MemoryStick, Compact Flash and now the most popular of them all SD appearing in it's products.



Are we truly seeing the dawn of a new Sony? One that seems to look to offer.... .... what the customer wants?



Time will tell, but the signs are good. At least they've had the kahuna's to try things their own way. You don't get anywhere in this world by resting on your laurels.]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


I say these devices will be here to stay, but they need to have the apps and services to be there before they catch on.]]>Dec 29th 2005 2:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 3:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/before the content is added, which isn't significantly discounted. And their lifespan can't be more than 2-3 years given the pounding kids'll give these things. Better to just buy the kids a backpack, they need the exercise anyway.



Mind you, I like the idea of eBooks. If they can be made small (or at least compactable) and inexpensive (under $50) they might start to catch on. But right now their market is people who are willing to pay $300 so they can carry a lot more books with them at a time. Lawyers or doctors maybe, but if it's just for reference works, the small screens of a pda are probably adequate for most people.



And women are the gadget heads? Wouldn't know it to look at the reader comments at Engadget. But at least women have purses to carry around a monster like that.]]>Dec 29th 2005 3:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 3:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
Many federal courts in the United States already have transitioned to electronic filing of documents in PDF format, and the problem of the "original" is solved by a simple affidavit from the filing attorney. Having a quality reader on which you could store and carry all these documents would be a huge boon to those of us who have to create PDF documents for filing, and then have to print them out to carry them around and read them.]]>Dec 29th 2005 3:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=15578

http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.com/



As a recently graduate of an ongoing medical program, I will happily attest to the fact that I spent over $1k per year and had to carry TONS of textbooks (albiet not all at once.)



Note my prediction that there will be a consumer company that unveils a product in this vein at CES this coming January. Wishful thinking that it were an iPad!

]]>Dec 29th 2005 4:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Turns out that his company (which he didn't name, but it's based in Seattle) is working with Sony on what sounds like this device



They are not just going after the ebooks stuff, but more the emagazines stuff - so imagine zinio or (shudder) newstand in something you can use on a subway/ bus/ plane - but with a (comparitively) usable legible screen vs the PDA size



Looks like Sony might have tried to build a bit of a baseball field before launch... so perhaps we'll all come and watch... (apologies to Mr K. Costner(!))



]]>Dec 29th 2005 4:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 4:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 4:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 5:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


I'd like to think so, but this is SONY we are talking about. It was only a couple of months ago that their whole secret rootkit installation was made public.]]>Dec 29th 2005 5:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 6:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


E-Ink is not like any other electronic screen. It's "painted" once, and stays static. Just like the page of a book. Eye fatigue from the 60hz flashing of your LCD -- be it your Powerbook or your Palm -- is now gone.



Did I mention that it's just like the page of a book?



This is one of the primary reasons e-books haven't caught one before -- your Palm flashes at you, whether you notice it or not. Then there's the issue of form-factor and how much the screen holds vs. a paperback page.



These seemingly meaningless problems have held back all forms of electronic readers in the past. The Librie -- and presumably its competitors -- have eliminated many of the electronic book problems, thus opening it up to new potentials like never before.



-Pie]]>Dec 29th 2005 7:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 29th 2005 9:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 30th 2005 1:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Arguably, that wasn't Sony, that was SonyBMG. They don't operate as one company... yet. And in the light of the rather rapid resolution of some of the legal issues over the dreaded DRM, I get the impression the big S is pulling the reigns in on it's subsiduary, as 2006 is a crucial year for Sony with product launches, and wouldn't want the bad press of DRM getting in the way of CELL, BluRay and Playstation3 brand marketing. It would make sense.



And you think you've got DRM problems with SonyBMG? Just wait until Vista launches! lol]]>Dec 30th 2005 4:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


I'm not too enthused with the offerings for ebook readers I've seen... probably because they're built around the concept of the book and as such, their screens are still way too small for my liking (most being basically modified PDAs). What I'd really want is a display around the size of a standard sheet of paper (8x11 inches) and maybe a little thicker than a typical laptop screen, with USB connectivity and slots for flash memory cards. Instead of hinging in the middle like a book, there would be a thin latchable flipcover screenprotector that would fold completely over the back of the unit. Minimal control navigation, think touchsensitive clickwheel ala the iPod, "a device for data consumption, not data entry - all screen, no baggage" as the column posits. And that means any type of data consumption, being able to display the gamut from plain textfile to wordprocessor documents to HTML reader to adobe PDFs. There should be the ability to highlight and cut/paste to a 'save note' file as well as saving bookmarks, all of which would be easily exported. Perhaps most importantly is a change from the clunky methods through which current ebooks seem to be made available, toward using the podcast model instead! I would pay... oh, fifty cents each for a downloadable personalized podprint version of the Times and Washington Post (or any other newspaper or magazine worldwide for that matter) every day, where all I would need to do is let my viewpad sync up with the iText software on my computer, transferring my preferred newsmix while I'm showering in the morning. But that's not all, because it's also going to be collecting the overnight RSS feeds for the weblogs you read and anything else which uses the syndication standard - what your friends posted on LiveJournal last night, favorite online comics, a list of new thread topics on messageboards you visit, the day's detailed weather forecast, latest eBay auctions for items you're in the market for, disturbing Harry Potter slash fanfiction, whatever you want.



Though I personally don't desire it, I know a lot of others would be clamoring for the viewpad to include wifi access to teh intarwebs and the ability to continually update... eh, that could be nice but I don't see it as absolutely necessary (just as an iPod doesn't need to go online and get a radiostream). If you require that kind of connectivity and the capability to browse around and/or reply to what you read, just go ahead and lug around a laptop. The point of the viewpad would be a reader to be whipped out and perused anywhere with a minimum of fuss - on the train during a morning commute, during downtime at work, while out to lunch, hanging out with friends, at home comfy on the couch, wherever you are.]]>Dec 30th 2005 7:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Download a manga anthology, read on the train, and delete, all for a fraction of the cost of a printed anthology.]]>Dec 30th 2005 10:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 30th 2005 11:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


Sony is the dumbest bunch of smart people on the planet...here in Japan they can only sell their DAPs at a discount..my students don't like them because they won't natively play MP3s, so the battery life is awful when playing ripped music.



]]>Dec 30th 2005 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


For those of you who think this is the same as reading documents on a normal computer or handheld, it's not.

Think of it as a computer driven etch-a-sketch but with better resolution & contrast. You won't be watching videos on these devices anytime soon.

Just google e-ink and you can get up to speed on this.



]]>Dec 30th 2005 9:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


My major worry is in the BusinessWeek article, where the publishers apparently expect to charge slightly less than a mass paperback for the electronic version of a book. That's nuts. I'm willing to pay almost-CD prices for downloaded music because the convenience is so high, and I can always burn the music to a CD for a few cents if I want to. The cost of printing and distribution for books is much higher than for CDs, so I would think that there would be room for a lot more discounting. Otherwise, I can order up a used copy through Amazon for a lot less. For people to switch from real books to electronic, they either need to be a) significantly more convenient, and/or b) significantly less expensive.



After all, we've used books in their present form for around 1,000 years. To break a habit of that duration takes a big push. ]]>Dec 30th 2005 11:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Dec 31st 2005 11:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
While I do enjoy the feel and smell of paper, books to me are a lot more restful, more "inert", wamer objects.

Poetically , sensually speaking, the cold luminosity, the buzzing electromagnetic field and the very nature of an electronic apparatus are not very condusive to a fully quiet, meditative moment.

BL]]>Dec 31st 2005 11:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/


there's no point going backwards in using the thing...



*eg: like speed reading: looking for an image or a heading or a block of code, etc.



my 2c only]]>Jan 4th 2006 8:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
]]>Jan 8th 2006 2:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/Jan 10th 2006 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
Imagine that you could read all the free Public Domain books on The Gutenberg Project on your Sony Reader. Great! Except this is NOT promised.

I have been hoping for e-ink for years, but I worry that the publishing industry will attempt to p*** their territory around every device... which will doom the Sony Reader to a slow death.
:-(]]>Jan 24th 2006 9:50AM