How would you change the Sony Reader?

So we were noodling around the laptop section at Best Buy the other day, semi-shocked at the relatively frenzied activity at the big box retailer, when we happened to glance over and notice a very lonely device being ignored by the throngs of shoppers. That poor, unloved gadget was none other than the Sony Reader, which saw a fair amount of hype prior to its (perpetually-delayed) release, but now seems to have basically slipped off most people's radar. Are people buying this thing? Has it developed a following? Is there a community devoted to software and hardware hacks? We're honestly not sure, which lead us to wonder how Sony could have changed things up to make the Reader -- in general, a solid concept -- a more desirable purchase for the mass market. Since it's surprisingly format agnostic for a Sony product, we don't expect to hear too many suggestions in the compatibility department, although there will understandably be some folks seeking support for WMA, non-BBeB protected content, native DOCs, and the like. That being said, should they have loaded it up with more flash, or at least made it compatible with memory cards bigger than 4GB? Would out-of-the-box support for Mac and Linux users help? How about a non-crippled RSS reader? (Hey, at least they hooked you up with Engadget, though). Help us out here, people, what would it take to send you home with a brand new Sony Reader?

[bobo @ Jan 25th 2008 4:05AM]

The display is too small. It's size make it useless for anyting other than reding novels in .txt format.

What it needs, is a display the size of a folded (in half) regular sheet of paper. ca 10 inches or so.

A built-in mp3-player is nice, but it is also fluff. What I want, and what I think most college/university student want, is a portable library, of the size of one book.

It needs to be rugged enough not to get totally wrecked by bringing to school, in a backpack, full of other heavy stuff.

--The canges I think it needs:--
-Larger display (ca 10 inches)
-No costly exessive features.
-Rugged enough for the real world
-Affordably priced. Why buy one, if you could buy a notebook computer for the same price?

[David Odland @ Mar 22nd 2008 8:54PM]

My gripe isn't with the reader, my wife loves it, but with the eBook store you are forced to use for content. The limited availability of titles coupled with unreliable tech support has rendered it DOA. My wife gives me lists of titles and authors to research but to no avail. Sony is going down the Betamax video route unless it gets with it and acquires a much more extensive library.

[Kathleen Rodriguez @ May 26th 2008 9:57AM]

This e-reader is nothing but a money pit. If I could Legally use it to read the PDF books from the library I would use if for sure. I bought one and gave it away because I am not going to buy my books from Sony. They are nuts and honestly I never read any warning on the ads or website about not being able to access drm materials.(until i found the fine print) Sony has the market so tightly controlled that my sister can not even read the book that I purchased. Is there a hack out there to defeat the drm? thanks for listening Kathie

[Samantha @ Oct 8th 2008 11:39AM]

You know I really want a sony reader more because I'm an avid reader and I read so fast that I finish my book and have nothing with me for after wards. That and the sony reader will make reading in doctors offices a lot easier. Trying to read a big book in those evil chairs it quite uncomfortable.

Things that would make me happier with the reader would be 1, to be able to use a bigger SD card.
2, for the reader to actually come the with wall charger like the kindle
and 3, for the reader to come with a more sturdy case.. like one of the ones they sell as an accessory. It's an expensive device.. the least you can do is to include a more sturdy case to protect the investment someone just made in the product. That and including the wall charger would make people happier to buy it. Not everyone is in easy access to a computer whenever they need to charge the reader. Give us a wall charger we can have with us for long trips since not everyone has a laptop.

[Steve @ Jan 5th 2009 6:12PM]

I'd love to have one, and I'll buy one just as soon as the price drops into the neighborhood of $100. I used a Franklin Ebook man for years until it just plain wore out, and I really, really miss reading digital texts. I still have an extensive library that I want to get back to. But I'm just not going to spend $300 on a reader. Surely someone will come out with a knockoff of the Sony device. Are you listening, China?

[Polimer @ Apr 4th 2009 12:35PM]

Just purchased the reader and copied some of my engineering ebooks which are in PDF.
First of all I will say its not what I was thinking it to be, the screen is too small, I can hardly read it without the aid of magnifying glass.
When I increase the font size, the figures and tables disappear. In addition to this, the color of the font is greyish which is pretty much similar to backgroud greyish color. Should have been pure white to make it look more easy to read the text.
I like nothing about this reader, totally disappointed.
I will not recommend it to anyone who intends to read any ebook on this reader other than the fairy tales ebooks that come with the reader.

Im not found of reading fairy tales, so this ebook reader is a total loss of money to me.

[TD @ Oct 24th 2009 4:56PM]

I have a reader 505, after accident water get in, i try to dry it by open 4 crews at bottom.
after few days. after charged can't do power off. I can do that if release DS memory card.
but the power drain all after few hours.

[Daniel Foster @ Aug 24th 2007 5:19PM]

The price should be changed. I wouldn't spend more than $100 on any ebook reader. Who would spend hundreds of dollars to adopt new, unproven technology? Not to mention the thought of a book not being available for the device. Printed books have been the norm for centuries and people will need a good reason before making such a big switch.

So I guess the answer is because no one wants an ebook reader.

[David @ Aug 24th 2007 5:28PM]

The price. I have torrented enough books to pay off the 300$ investment, but i still cant bring myself to pay up. 60 panda express meals, or an Ebook reader?
Opportunity cost will supress popularity of the reader until a more affordable one is available.

[illured @ Aug 24th 2007 5:28PM]

I, for one, would love an e-book reader, and I would spend more than $100 on it. However, for me the Sony device lacks the contrast of the screen to make it easy on my eyes, and it lacks the ability to download periodicals, such as Financial Times Mobile.

[Anthony @ Aug 24th 2007 6:55PM]

I have one (well- two- as I just purchased a replacement for my lost one). The price is significantly less than when it was released. I paid full price originally (350) but now it's 299 plus you can get up to 180 back plus 150 in "classics" (these are out of copyright books @ 2.00 a piece- meaning 75 books total).

I find the contrast fine, the functionality fine, the battery fine, etc.

My real complaints are:

1) The menu is weak - you can't quickly move around in the book. If you're on page one & want to go to page 200 there's a lot of button pushing, even w/ the 1-9 on the bottom of the Reader
2) Navigation is poor (multiple clicks to get back to the main screen) from the 1 usable part of the circular wheel.
3) Buttons are actually useless (there's a joystick that does basically nothing w/ a circular pad that literally does nothing)
4) Startup's slow (more than 1 minute if you've let the thing die).
5) USB won't really charge like they claim it does. I've left mine on the USB to PC charge all night. Know what? Still not charged.
6) Bring other companies on board. netLibrary owns the ebook business (small as it is) & Adobe builds their platform. Work with them for greater content.
7) Teach flight attendants that you don't use electricity unless you're changing pages. I always have to stow it when we take off & land. There's 10 minutes out of every flight.

Other than those things, however, I really like it. I've probably ready about 40 books on the thing & find it convenient to carry.

[Steve @ Aug 24th 2007 6:36PM]

PlayStation Integration "PS3 + PSP"

[nerrrrrrd @ Aug 24th 2007 5:26PM]

I would add Divx.

[John @ Aug 25th 2007 12:19AM]

Isn't that what PMPs, laptops and tablets are for?

[Abdul Quraishi @ Aug 25th 2007 11:33AM]

How the HELL would you be able to watch movies on that book?

[Will @ Aug 28th 2007 8:00AM]

With a screen update of around a second or so, I think video might be a problem!! ;-)

[sooperman23 @ Aug 24th 2007 5:27PM]

Definatelty must have flexible E-paper.

[miller @ Aug 24th 2007 5:29PM]

yes, there is an online support group that even uploads books for people for this fantastic device....

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100

[Acceptable Risk @ Aug 24th 2007 5:27PM]

Agreed. As soon as a decent reader is available for less than $100, I'll buy one. I don't need it to play music or have wireless internet access or make toast. I just want good battery life and wide format compatibility.

[Hoover @ Aug 24th 2007 5:28PM]

Considering that part of the enjoyment of reading is being able to escape a computer for a little (especially for us office drones), mixing the two concepts just seems unnatural. Like a fishing pole cell phone.

[Phil @ Aug 24th 2007 6:07PM]

LOL

Totally agree with you! :-)

[Tara @ Aug 24th 2007 8:11PM]

Well I have one and I love it, but I don't see why there are two ways to turn pages on the left side of the thing and none on the right!

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Aug 25th 2007 12:31AM]

I agree the user controls were very poorly thought out. I can't imagine that anyone at Sony actually tried to use the thing for more than a few hours.

There are some hacks available that allow you to use the joystick to turn pages. Take a look at this page:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12876

You'll also have options for a clock in the taskbar, direct page input, and more.

[Tara @ Aug 27th 2007 3:20PM]

Oh wow, thanks! I'm gonna mess around with some of these when I get home tonight.

[rahul @ Aug 24th 2007 5:28PM]

y buy a ebook reader at all?? most the gadgets v use can read text.. waste of bucks if u ask me. all u get is some relief from small font and screen. i'd include some media capabilities if at all i wer to buy the book. and a wi-fi or bluetooth connectivity to share all those pirated books... lol

[EatingPie @ Aug 24th 2007 5:57PM]

E-Ink is completely different than an LCD. It's completely static text, just like printed paper. No flashing... the only refresh is when you turn a page.

Your comment is exactly why it's not selling. The technology is subtle (but awesome) and most people don't get it.

-Pie

[pcosmos @ Aug 27th 2007 10:04AM]

Notably, you also need to be able to read in order to utilize an e-reader.

[Acceptable Risk @ Aug 24th 2007 5:29PM]

I agree with Mr. Foster, that is. Video support is close to the very last thing I want in a book reader. It's impractical and entirely contrary to the design and intention of the device.

[Harkonian @ Aug 31st 2007 12:31PM]

I read. A lot. I have boxes and boxes and boxes of books sitting in storage. I would love never to have to buy a paperback/hardback book again. If I could get every single book I want to buy in an eBook version, I would buy the thing--even at $200. When it first came out I wanted to buy it, but I did a search for the 8 or so books I had in my list of things to read and none of them were available.

But aside from that, here is what I woudl improve:

1. Design. The design is god-awful. They need to work with Apple designers or some top notch design firm to get this thing up to snuff. Really. Just terrible design. It needs to be sleek and sexy--not a clunky looking throwback to device design from 10 years ago.

2. UI. The physical user interface (this goes hand and hand with the design) is also terrible. Too many buttons, wheels, joysticks...this needs to be rethought. The best solution (although perhaps not pratical in terms of price) is a touch screen display.

3. Better screen contrast. The current black text on a light gray background doesn't have enough contrast. It's readable, but I still find myself wishing I had a book in my hand because of it.

4. Graphics. It would be nice to see the cover art for books in color. This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but anything that gets my eBook experience closer to my printed book experience is a plus. And I also read technical book with color inserts--photoshop how-to books and the like. Without color graphcis I would still need to buy these in print version.

[The E @ Aug 24th 2007 5:30PM]

They need to make it clear that the screen is equal to reading a piece of paper. Screens, in general, are notorious for being hard on the eyes for long spans of reading, causing people to blink less, etc. Is this screen THAT different, basically a type of "ePaper". The screenshots don't really reflect that. The screenshots make it appear like a typical greyscale LCD screen (i.e. old Palm), which is not reader friendly like good 'ol paper.

[Jamar @ Aug 25th 2007 10:03AM]

Exactly- the Reader is lacking in that regard. I wish they just sold the Librié (their Japanese e-book reader) here instead of making another product. That did a far better job of imitating paper than the Reader does- plus it had a full keyboard.

In fact, you can probably find a place online that sells the Librié to the US- I recommend it over the Reader.

[Will @ Aug 28th 2007 8:00AM]

... Actually the Librie and the Reader use the same version of media from E Ink. There aren't many products using their newer "Visplex" media yet.

[Will @ Aug 28th 2007 8:07AM]

Additionally, E Ink is nothing like an LCD and screenshots do not do the product justice. The contrast isn't huge, white reflectance is around the 30-40% mark, but the contrast is larger than the FT newspaper.

[m16 @ Aug 24th 2007 5:29PM]

add a color screen, wifi, core2 duo and Vista....and make it cost less.

Basically make it a UMPC, but cheap. fin

[The Grand Master @ Aug 24th 2007 5:39PM]

They asked how you'd make it better, not how you'd ruin it completely.

[Lumptoe @ Aug 24th 2007 5:33PM]

I agree with Daniel except I am willing to go to $200 but with no rebates or signing up for a BS Sony Credit Card.

Make PDFs legible. I have a co-worker who purchased one for $99 (refurbished) and the PDF fonts render were the worst. I think my treo did a better job. Faster refresh or at least a cleaner refresh. These are all features which are available from other e-book readers that use e-ink display technology.

[Chris @ Aug 24th 2007 5:56PM]

If there was a way to read and/or subscribe to magazines (Time, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, etc.) and newspapers (WSJ, NYT, Wash. Post, etc.), I would be all over this thing. I still don't understand why the content companies haven't gotten together with Sony and done this, it would make the Reader a huge device. Honestly, more people read newspapers and magazines daily than books, so this almost seems like a no-brainer.

The Reader does support a limited form of RSS feeds, but Sony completely underdeveloped this feature. I would almost guarantee that WiFi will be on the next model, or at least it should be.

[David @ Aug 24th 2007 6:56PM]

Re: "newspapers, magazines"
Check out the forums on Mobileread.com. There are many tools to get content. "web2lrf" has profiles for NYTimes, Newsweek, BBC. You can add your own profiles.

[Sizer @ Aug 24th 2007 5:33PM]

There were two things that made it bad for me.

First, the contrast was very good, but the screen was quite shiny and introduced a significant amount of glare and probably reduced the contrast further than what it could have been.

Second, the abominable refresh rate doesn't matter at all when you're just reading, but when you're trying to find something or change some settings it's maddening to have to wait a full second between button presses.

Still, I could live with the second if the screen were better.

[Anonymous Coward @ Aug 24th 2007 7:52PM]

I agree. The delay on the page refresh is acceptable when reading a book start to finish. But if you are trying to jump to a page you might have been reading on the computer, it takes far too long. In general the navigation is crippled by the slow refresh rate of the e-ink screen.

I think it would also be good if more zoom was provided. Sometimes a book will have tons of white space on the outside and tiny text. On the computer I can zoom in and ignore it but on the reader I am stuck with the tiny font and tons of blank.

[Tom @ Aug 24th 2007 5:36PM]

They need to improve the firmware. I own one, and I'm actually using it recently. However, there are quite a few problems that need to be addressed, both about the device, and about the software.

First of all, books need to be able to be categorized better. Unlike the iPod, Sony's eReader doesn't have the ability to create folders. It makes finding the book you want extremely painful. It seems like a huge oversight on Sony's part.

Second, books cannot be renamed. This may not seem that big of a deal, but when you have ebooks downloaded with strange names and numbers and characters in their titles, it becomes extremely irritating to see them in the menu.

Also, the device is very slow at times. This isn't a problem when flipping the pages, but starting up the thing takes over a minute, maybe even two. That's completely unreasonable, in my opinion.

Otherwise, it's a very solid device. I really enjoy having all my books with me in one place. If these issues were fixed, I think there would be more demand for me.

[Nicholas @ Aug 24th 2007 5:36PM]

Actually...

I love it. I just can't afford one...yet.

[The Grand Master @ Aug 24th 2007 5:37PM]

Call me old fashioned but I just don't think you can replace a book with a computer.

Sure there might be plenty of advantages to using a reader over just buying a paperback, but it seems to me that people who like reading novels, are just going to go buy the book instead of shelling out on one of these.

[thethreepercent @ Aug 24th 2007 7:06PM]

There is absolutely no question that when all of us old folk are dead, the next generation will wonder why the hell we needed to read things on dead tree. My e-reader is perfectly good on the eyes, no flicker, reads in sunlight...all that...and it feels as good to hold in the hand as a book. But flat out it pisses me off when I go to the connect store, ready to shell out whatever it costs for the newest Harry Potter on a format that the thing can readily read only to discover I can't get it. And it pisses me off a whole lot more when I find a book that actually is in electronic format but isn't in Sony's Connect list. That alone makes me want to throw the thing - and every Sony product I own - out the window.

The space is still waiting for the general feeling among users that when you go looking for a book, you will reliably find it in the electronic store and format of your reader.

One other problem with the reader...doesn't charge reliably with USB, and there is a battery problem that causes it often to drain when unused.

[Linda @ Aug 25th 2007 5:08PM]

I agree that the printed book will likely not be replaced, nor should it. However, there is a definite need for more available and flexible alternate formats for reading. Many people are unable to read traditional printed books - because of low vision, dyslexia, motor impairments, etc. Digital books offer a solution. The challenge is making them widely available and flexible in their use so consumers have a choice. The many comments referring to features needed (reasonable refresh rate, ability to enlarge text....) and the issues with availability (compatibility of formats, timely release of new titles) hit the nail on the head.

I would add that the ebook reader should have a text to speech option for the blind and dyslexic and well-conceived navigation options for those with motor impairments.

[Elux Troxl @ Aug 24th 2007 9:58PM]

I will wait for Apple to make one.

[Solomon @ Aug 25th 2007 1:07PM]

Apple make on?
HaHaHaHa! The iRead... Uch, I can imagine it transforming the text industry just like the iPod did. Other people made them first, Apple makes it look 'cool', teens waste their wallets, and, monopoly!
That made my day.

[jon hendry @ Aug 25th 2007 7:07PM]

That'd be nice.

My ideal ebook reader would use Apple's type rendering, on a larger version of the iPhone's high-dpi screen.

Alternately, I've wondered why people haven't made color LCDs without the color, so instead of R,G,B sub-pixels, there would be three black and white subpixels. That would provide three times as much resolution on one axis, and would allow awesome subpixel antialiasing without any color fringing.

[Dragod @ Aug 24th 2007 5:41PM]

Pfft, we just need to get a reader on Zunes... That'd be great.

[AndrewNeo @ Aug 24th 2007 6:41PM]

You can read for three minutes, or you can read three pages!