Sony's PRS-500 eBook reader subject to another delay

First off, contrary to the beliefs of certain commenters, we absolutely do not hate Sony -- we just think that after the infamous PS3 and BDP-S1 Blu-ray delays, the company would want to do everything possible to make sure that another highly-anticipated product doesn't fall into the same cycle. Yet that's exactly what we're seeing with the upcoming PRS-500 eBook reader first announced at CES -- originally scheduled for a spring release before slipping to a summer time frame -- whose launch has now been pushed back once again to sometime this fall. According to an email Sony sent out to potential customers -- wisely thanking them for their patience -- the e-ink-based Reader will now be shipping "in time for the holidays," which hopefully doesn't refer to December 24th. Sample launch titles include Freakanomics and The Da Vinci Code, although by the time you can actually get your hands on the hardware, you'll probably have already read those books along with many of the other initial offerings. As much as we'd like to own one of these handy ~$350 devices -- and despite having no need whatsoever for a bunch of aviation documents -- we're pretty close to just biting the bullet and shelling out $900 for the eFlyBook version of iRex's iLiad that went on sale yesterday.

[Thanks, Curt C. and Riley P.]

[chad @ Jul 25th 2006 4:27PM]

I can't imagine why its ok for this to keep happening, are any of the devices we see actual working devices, or mockups of plastic.

[Clint @ Jul 25th 2006 4:39PM]

It's ok to delay to make a good product. No need to rush it out the door and have it catch on fire like those Xbox 360s.

[DC @ Jul 25th 2006 4:39PM]

$350 plus to read "The Da Vinci Code" on a screen? You can pick up a paperback version of this book for about $7 and it won't need batteries.

[Dimitri @ Jul 25th 2006 4:44PM]

Having owned a Sony Librie (which is all the PRS-500 actually is, minus some cosmetic changes and a firmware update) I can't understand the delay either.

I could understand if it was just coming to market, but the Librie has been around for several years.

Dunno...
Dimitri

[Christian @ Jul 25th 2006 5:15PM]

$350 is still definitely too much money, when people could buy a PDA for the same cost that views ebooks, plays MP3s, and even has wifi. As DC said, a paperback book is still way preferable, especially when they mostly just offer best sellers in this format which go for less than $10 in the grocery store checkout line.

[matt @ Jul 25th 2006 5:25PM]

I'm more curious to see how e-ink looks in person, and how my eyes respond to it - it has the potential to really change things. Imagine getting your newspaper delivered wirelessly every morning to your reader (where you can store and search as you please) - or even your rss feeds from your computer...

Anyway, the pull for me (though I'm waiting for devices to drop in price) is all in the screen. If what I've read is accurate, it should be far easier on the eyes, to the point where it would really be just like reading a book...

[trout-101 @ Jul 25th 2006 5:34PM]

"PDA for the same cost that views ebooks, plays MP3s, and even has wifi"

I've tried them and they are terrible for reading long passages. My first was a HandSpring and finding books formatted for small screens was a real pain. Even the newer ones with color screens put some strain on my eyes and killed the battery life.

I'll give them a shot at least, e-ink sounds very interesting.

As for the price, new technologies are always expensive so what's new?

One of my big concerns is the syc software that's bundled. Will the device show up as another drive letter? Or will we have the same garbage software like their MiniDisk players?

Another is Sony's Connect service. I'm hoping that it's on par with ITunes, yes I know that might be alot to ask from Sony.

[paolo @ Jul 25th 2006 6:10PM]

You guys should really watch the pre-review on PcMag. this thing has great specs!

[Eugene @ Jul 25th 2006 6:28PM]

"Another is Sony's Connect service. I'm hoping that it's on par with ITunes, yes I know that might be alot to ask from Sony."

The italicized sentence on the picture says "Pain is good". ;-] Well, I guess that's what Sony's software (oh, and some hardware) is all about.

[Veritas II @ Jul 25th 2006 7:17PM]

It's more than likely the Connect store itself that's generating the delay. The hardware looked pretty well finished at E3. More @ the link ^

[Will O'Neal @ Jul 25th 2006 7:37PM]

I don't really care about the specs or the price. Who in the right mind would by an electronic book displayer that has so many buttons? Where is the simplified iPod like interface? Why does an electronic version of a book need 10 buttons, a joystick, 2 sets of next/back buttons, a mark button, a special individual button for "size," 4 interface connectors (on the bottom), and all that is included on only 2 sides of the device? No wonder Sony isn't selling this thing yet, it's FAR TOO COMPLICATED TO USE!

[evo @ Jul 25th 2006 7:41PM]

Tsk tsk; such pandering to your readership, Engadget. I would hardly call this product "highly anticipated" compared to the PS3 and Blu-ray - hundreds of millions of people that don't read Engadget actually know about those.

Despite the fact that there are some early adopters looking forward to them, e-book readers like this are currently a product searching for a market. The general populace couldn't care less about this technology, if they've even heard of it at all. Unfortunately, I have serious doubts that Sony can pull off the kind of marketing and product integration needed to make it successful beyond a very small niche. Too bad, since it would be a step in an interesting direction. Once they get an e-book reader that has *two* screens and folds like a book, I'm not interested.

[evo @ Jul 25th 2006 7:45PM]

Whoops, that should have read "*Until* the get an e-book reader that has two screens and folds like a book, I'm not interested."

[Coin @ Jul 25th 2006 7:51PM]

What shocked me about the email was the price of the books. The promotional page has a link to a screenshot of the upcoming store which displays the price of the Da Vinci Code book at $14.99. (http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/images/connect_pop.gif)

I sincerely hope it's just a designers mistake when creating the mock-up picture.

[Robb @ Jul 25th 2006 8:16PM]

I bought the iLiad already and it cost $700. I like the idea of buying open source. The Sony Reader is a closed system. I will give my review later once I have tried it out. I believe this technology should receive a lot more media attention. I think this will be as disruptive a technology as the Internet.

[paintist @ Jul 25th 2006 10:43PM]

Good on ya Robb, I really look forward to a user-review of the Iliad regardless of how overly expensive I consider it to be.

Does Sony's e-Reader have marginality features because, IIRC, the Iliad does. If that's true then it's time I start savin' up because that would be a brilliant feature.

[dj @ Jul 26th 2006 12:29AM]

where did you buy the illiad for 700???

WHERE WHERE WHERE?

[d3wd @ Jul 26th 2006 12:30AM]

can a ebook thing load and allow you to read pdf documents? that is what most of the publications of research are often available on the web as. this would be a great easy tool for that. if not, don't need it.

[tofuman @ Jul 26th 2006 5:02AM]

I ordered iLiad at https://www.irexshop.com/ although they didn't ship it yet. The US price is $700 + shipping. The list price is somewhat higher but you'll see the correct price ($700) when you check out.

[tofuman @ Jul 26th 2006 5:05AM]

You can certainly read pdfs on iLiad.

[Jeff Myers @ Jul 26th 2006 6:00AM]

I'll probably get an Iliad instead of this. As is typical of Sony, seems every non-proprietary format (even pdf and txt!) has to be converted via their software to work on the thing. Who needs that?

[Dave @ Jul 26th 2006 8:12AM]

I'm also interested (read: concerned) about the conversion software. I have two uses in mind: electronic delivery of the New York Times, and reading books from Project Gutenberg, a growing number of which are available in HTML format (with images). I hope Sony provides some way for me to verify that I can successfully convert these to their format.

[Mathew @ Jul 26th 2006 2:32PM]

I'm interested. The price is currently too high but if they can eventually get these down to under $200 I would probably buy one. Like others have said, it needs to be open sourced. What I want is something that I can copy articles from the net and upload them to the device. It needs PDF compliance too. Color would be great and will eventually happen but it's not a necessity.

The reason I want one is simple: It sucks trying to read anything other than a two paragraph blog while sitting upright looking at a computer screen. Laptops don't cut it as you're stuck with the keyboard and extra weight.

These could potentially be even leased out to newspaper subscribers. Instead of having your 'paper' delivered every morning you would receive an upload of the news to your e-ink device via a wifi interface. Include basic mp3 playback ability and 512meg storage and it could be great for those who don't care about watching video on a portable device.

[Alexander @ Jul 28th 2006 1:17PM]

We are currently preparing a Q&A for Sony regarding the Sony Reader. If you have any questions regarding the release date or the product itself, feel free to post them here: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=7165

[Lan @ Jul 29th 2006 1:22AM]

I played with an Iliad for the past two months. I also have a full DVD worth of Guttenberg ebooks and transfered some of them to two 2GB USB sticks. The majority of the Guttenberg ebooks display fonts are crisp, but too tiny to be readable. I estimate that about less than 10% of the books I randomly pull out of Guttenberg are readable. I am trying to understand how these tiny fonts can be reformatted so all the books are readable. Not so easy unless you can find software that batch convert all fonts to one that Iliad can display that is readable. For the tiny fonts, I can strain my eyes for about two page worth and always give up. Navigation within a book is still problematic, but I think iRex is working hard on improving it.

Lan

[SonyIsGay @ Sep 29th 2006 11:22AM]

I own a Librie and I really think their hardware and software are total garbage. I am not impressed at all by Sony's product. My biggest complaint is that librie runs too slow;uploading tiny lrf files(sony's ebook format) and deleteing them takes forever(over a minute to delete a couple of ebook from stupid librie!!!). As if that wasn't bad enough, opening and closing ebooks also takes lots of time(over 10 seconds). Yes, the screen looks beautiful but that's about the only thing they got it right. This is a defective product in my opinion. It's like a beta version or something. It does not function properly. Knowing all this, some retard at Sony decided to release this garbage to the public anyway charging the consumers over $300. And they still want to control how we can "use" the content which we purchased; we are "leased" ebooks for 60 days and guess what? The ebooks magically will disappear after 60 days! Honestly,how much lamer and greedier can they be? But again, this company has no integrity. I seem to recall several years ago, Sony was indicted for being a tax cheat;over 244 million dollars of undeclared tax! I hope Apple would make a better ebook reader and push them out of ebook business. Ipod was the best product I have purchased last year and Librie was the absolute worst. Yes Sony and its products were great back in the days... Like back in the late 80s. But now all they produce is over-priced brand garbage.

[Arniskido @ Nov 4th 2006 3:22PM]

I just played with a Sony Reader at a Boarders book store. I really like the size, thinkness and screen. Reading it was just like reading a piece of paper.

I have not decided if it is the device for me. I want books and also PDF's of technical white papers so I don't have to carry a ream of paper onto the airplane.

[Michael @ Nov 19th 2006 1:35AM]

I used the PRS-500 toda at Borders book store. It is pretty neat. I wonder if it could be hacked to do other things. That is what is great about some Sony products. Though, it is a bit expensive. I could just read books on my Playstation Portable.

[Michael @ Nov 19th 2006 9:50PM]

Borders has a whole bunch of these Sony readers in a fancy display case. I have seen them in 2 different Borders Book Stores. I am sure that Waldenbooks has them too as they are the same company. Shortage? Not for what I have seen. I will buy this product just to see what can be done with it that Sony does not tell you about.

[Ralph Linder @ Nov 20th 2006 3:44AM]

I actually saw a working PRs 500 at Fry's Electronics in Las Vegas. (It was a demo only none is stock.)I do want one, though the price is a bit steep. I am also interested in how it works with PDF files I upload to it either because I have converted it from an OCR .Doc file or a pdf image that I loaded via me scanning it in. I did e-mail sony about how many grey scale levels the balck and white picture has, but they never responded.
I do want one when it becomes available.

[Jerry Silver @ Sep 17th 2007 12:46AM]

Almost six months since I first got my hands on it and all I can say is that is really great.. my family and I enjoy very much reading books on our sony readers (we actually bought 3). My daughter is even happier with hers because since we downloaded a software last month http://www.prs-500formatter.com/ she can have her school papers and other school material on her reader that in the past she would have had to print. I hope schools incorporate this sony reader in the future so students can carry more material with them (less back pain from carrying a heavy bag) and learn better (they could have all their class materials in just one paperback size electronic). This would also be a great solution for the environment and for sure save many trees.

[B. Keith Mason @ Dec 19th 2007 11:29PM]

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