Sony's eBook Reader gets a price on SonyStyle store

Well, it's not really any huge surprise that Sony's Reader (PRS-500) has a price and has shown up on Sony's SonyStyle store site, now is it? We mean, it was indeed expected any time now for spring 2006 launch between $300 and $400 US, so if you've got the $350 cash in hand that they want for one of these, head on over friends, and get some serious book wormin' done up.

[Thanks, Maurice]

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 13th 2006 11:13PM]

47) You're right on. I love my eBookwise Reader. Sure, it isn't eInk but a backlit screen is nice in most circumstances. The battery life may be less than with the Sony but it is plenty for me to finish a few novels before charging. Plus it was only $100 which is about the price point that tipped the scales for me. Another $250 dollars because it is eInk? I think not.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 20th 2006 1:20PM]

@47 & 48:

I went looking at the eBookwise Reader, and at first I was impressed, until I saw that there is no support for PDF files. This is a real killer for me, because I have several dozen PDF files (policies, procedures, manuals, textbooks, etc) that I would like to have with me, but cannot because of this limitation. I'm not fond of the idea of spending $350 for a Sony Reader, but it seems to be the best bet for getting PDF support.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 24th 2006 12:08AM]

The price is nuts. If I pay that much I expect it to at least play MP3s as well. (Anyone know if they make one?) For those waiting on Irex's Iliad, don't bother. They want over $550 for it and its underpowered and overpriced too. Why can't RCA just make more damn rocket books at $150? Why are all the sites that sell the ones under $200 always out of them? Anyone know where find one?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 3rd 2007 11:58AM]

It does play Mp3s.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2006 4:01PM]

I've had a Rocket eBook since 1999. There are two in use in this household. Although we love our paper library, we've moved it too many times and know what it weighs and how much space it takes up. As we get older we do not look forward to having to eventually get rid of it when we retire to a smaller living space. Thus I'm still a huge a fan of the ebook concept and anxiously await new devices as they come out. THIS device looks wonderful and if the price would drop a bit, I'd have one. I paid a premium price for my Rocket eBook so don't want to do that again. However, the abilities of this device, such as reading .pdf files, make it very tempting. As for deals with places such as Barnes & Nobles, well, the Rocket device had that when it was first out and it worked well! HOWEVER, my cheif complaint back then is still valid today.. since we BOTH own devices (and would when we buy again) we do NOT like the idea of having to buy TWO copies of each book at full value! With paper books, we share. With music, we share. It's in the same household. I think that in this day and age there must be a way to allow multiple copies of an ebook at one price, or the second..and so on, copies at a much reduced price. THAT will make an ebook device completely take the place of our paper library, WHEN it happens.

Oh, and if for nothing else I will always keep an ebook device for traveling. What a godsend! Ever price a paperback in another country? Ever try to pack a bunch of books for vacation? If you read like we do, and travel, you HAVE to have one of these devices. Reading on a PDA screen is NOT the answer, btw.

-- Ruthie

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 2nd 2006 4:08PM]

Well.. MY BAD!!

Somehow in all my reading about and lusting after this device I missed, until a few moments ago, that you can INDEED share a title between up to 6 devices!! WOW. so this may just be my COMPLETE answer to our dreams of ending the growth of our paper book library, well..most of the growth, and finally bring to life the desire to have the majority of our reading in electronic form. Well done!

--Ruthie

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 1st 2009 10:28AM]

Re sourcing ebooks for this reader (PRS505), try www.booksonboard.com. An American site that has 1,000's of ebooks and you can pay with PayPal.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2006 5:59PM]

Anybody who's actually seen E-ink would know better than to ask what's the difference between this and a PDA. I couldn't believe it when I saw an E-ink display in person (you can't get the effect from photos, because your monitor doesn't have nearly the effective resolution of Eink) -- it looked like it wasn't even a real digital display, but more like a printed piece of plastic. It was hard to believe it was a display until I saw the page turn.

And remember, these things only use power when the page turns; the display remains in the latest state even with no power, and there's no backlighting. That's a huge difference in terms of battery life -- it takes a thousand times longer to read a page than it does to turn it.

At least Sony is saying that you can read PDF and other formats on the thing (though maybe only with re-encoding). If I can download ebooks from Usenet or wherever & convert them to PDF & use them on the thing, it'd be very worth it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 13th 2006 4:41PM]

A slightly larger reader, eRex's iliad, arrives this fall, with a touchscreen and Wi-Fi. It will be sould to businesses and newspapers to sell or give away to subscribers.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2006 10:01AM]

I will wait for next Sony Reader update/upgrade....color and video like youtube.com? Also, I hope that libaray are free soon? I don't want buy anything from downloads.
Thank you.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 9th 2006 7:46AM]

We're now long past spring 2006, even almost past summer, so when can we expect to actually own this nice gadget?
If anyone knows, please come forward!

Greetings,


Wouter

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2006 12:28PM]

I purchased it as soon as the email from Sony came to me notifying me that it was (finally) for sale. When I bought it the ship date was September 29 (tomorrow) and I was so excited.
Now I find out that they're out of stock and the projected ship date is mid-November.
I'm wondering if it was ever in stock or if they just wanted to pre-sell it. I resent being told it'd ship tomorrow when in fact it won't.
I'm disheartened with Sony.
I waited over six months; guess I'll have to wait a little longer.......(sigh).

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2006 10:53PM]

Did you receive it? How do you like it?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 11th 2006 4:29AM]

I saw it today @ a Sony store. Looks very good, also can serve as an mp3 player which brings me to the annotation issue (very important indeed). If handwritten input is out of the question at this stage of the game why not allowing a voice annotation, SONY? ALso a Blackberry Peral trackball would be a much better solution, so please license it from RIM, Sony or let RIM license the gizmo from Sony and improve upon it (RIM OS to annotate things). But seriously it is an AWESOME device. 2 other guys who werer ogling it were equally impressed...

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 14th 2006 9:00AM]

I went to a Borders Book store to try this product. I brought an SD card with a bunch of documents - txt, rtf, doc, pdf

Good:
Very light weight
Very easy on the eyes
Read the native txt, rtf right off the card nicely formatted and easy to read.

Bad:
Did not read the doc format off the card. I suppose it has to be reformated through Sony's software utility??
It read the pdf, but it could not reformat it - the document which was an 8X10 page was just shrunk to fit on the 3X5 screen. Of course, it was unreadable I don't know if the software utility would fix this.
Construction seemed a bit flimsy.
Pages turn very slowly due to the nature of eInk. Not an issue, unless you want to skim or scan quickly though many pages.

I primarily want this in order to read MS Word docs. If anyone knows how well the Sony software utility works, I would appreciate the input.

Overall, I really like this gadget and will likely get one. It is thin and light. Very easy to read. I am concerned about the DRM. I will not buy books if they are unreadable on other devices.

Stan

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 30th 2006 5:55AM]

Hi guys. As far as I know if you want to read your magnificent e-library of downloaded pdf, word, text ecc, you can't. PDF compatibility is not tested and seems to be impossible to resize or zoom a page, and the screen is too litle to read a pdf 2 column book on this device. The only compatibble ebook are those downloaded from the sony website, so you're stuck.
Besides, this devices are soooooooo slow, seconds to change a page and more to change book or going back to table of content. Add these incredible 4 levels of gray display.
Are they kidding us?
I want a reader that can use all my pdf and text, buy ebook from whereever i like, connect to internet.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 20th 2007 1:58PM]

You should check out Plastic Logic's website. And also the press coverage:

Printed electronics—unfolding in an application near you
http://www.modplas.com/inc/mparticle.php?section=mktupdate&thefilename=mktupdate09012007_01

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2007 1:17PM]

What is the best source of ebooks for Sony PRS500 portable reader? Need a good selection for Christmas gifts