Sony's PRS-505 ebook reader leaks out
By Nilay Patel 
posted September 10th 2007 9:03PM
posted September 10th 2007 9:03PM
[Thanks, hamster]
posted September 10th 2007 9:03PM
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So its about the same size as a paperback (maybe a smidge heavier). Is the text density even close the average book? Ever picture i've seen make it look like the page count practically doubles.
I think I'll wait until they release something that feels like a small hardback with high quality paper stock.
(btw, can you even get most books in ebook format?)
You can change text density. You can have the text all crammed in or real big (like those books for the elderly). This is a real benefit, since the text size is exactly what you want (and can be changed on the fly).
Personally I think the weight is pretty great. Since the Sony reader comes with the leather/suade cover it tells like a small leather-bound book.
The resolution is 170dpi which is like cheap newspaper. It's not as high as highquality printed paper, but it's at least twice as sharp as your best LCD/TFT screen.
Strangely, I don't recall "more of the same in silver and blue" being suggested on the most recent Reader thread.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/how-would-you-change-the-sony-reader/
Well... I won't buy it unless this new model has good PDF support (not the same way that it supports now).
Wait for the newer A4-sized ereaders then. Probably coming from jinke (jinke.com)
Where's the damn keyboard for notation???
Thumbs down...
When did you have a keyboard on your paperback? This is an ebook reader, not a fricking pda.
Yeah but when I have a paper book, I could always take a pen, pencil or highlighter and make a notation on the printed page.
Didn't you ever do that?
They have more information @ Staples if you wanna research it...
I don't annotate books. And IF I do, then it's probably for educational books like college books. And for that, the iliad was made.
The sony reader is for reading normal books. (it does have a bookmark functionality though)
The store took out the pages already. You can find the specs here:
http://hightech.afmag.net/sneak-preview-on-the-new-sony-ebook-reader-e-reader-prs505sc.html
Ugh, a white background so my eyes can be tormented by a plethora of blasting electrons while reading books.
The best feature of Adobe Acrobat/Foxit Pro; "highlighting" the document which puts a nice soft blue behind it and cures headaches.
"my eyes can be tormented by a plethora of blasting electrons" - mrj
You misunderstand the whole point of e-ink displays, it is a reflective screen not an emissive one (ie it *only* reflects ambient light and has no light source itself). Very easy on the eyes.
And in answer to my own question from earlier I found this at the Sony store : http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=20005520
I have a heap of MS Reader format books (.lit). Can you read those with this?
If not, why not?
You can convert them easily. It does not support other DRM-formats because of licensing and such I guess
In fact, at this moment, you can pretty much convert any reading format to something the reader can read.
Im aghast! just came across this page via my gmail.
What is the world coming to!
Firstly, how heavy is a paperback? seriously?
Secondly, how tangible, connecting, soulful, memorable, historical is a piece of corporate plastic?
Thirdly, how detrimentally evil is this piece of junk to the publishing and literary world?
Im appauled that people would rather spend $300 on an electronic device than spend a few bucks on a beautifully packaged, compact, tactile piece of literature - oh, and also support the writer through a books purchase.
How many of these bits of 'kit' can you hand down from generation to generation? hmmmm....well, plenty I guess given your batteries are still being made.
Utterly ridiculous product. Shame on you sony.
Your question should not be "how heavy is a paperback?". Instead it should be "heavy are 160 paperbacks?"
Now, the publishing world have another medium to promote their work. Starting authors could even skip the whole distributor thing and digitize and sell their own ebooks.
And an ebook can live forever on internet. At least it won't be under influence of termites. DRM-books? well that's a different matter.
what, and your gonna read 160 books a journey are you? Even if you get through 2 on a long hawl, guess what! Books are so cheap and readily available, you could just drop into a book store, or even better a second hand book store and purchase another! WOW! Genius!!! Hmmm...maybe you could even be an even more consciencous person and DONATE your old book to a charity shop.
As far as publishers/writers extending their reach via an electronic medium, agreed. However, how many people in the world have the internet let alone a piece of expensive crap on which to view it?
The idea is dumfoundingly obselete and yet another vast waste on the earths resources.
Termites? My god, when was the last time you picked up a book? Moron.
Oh, I am taking bookcases worth of magazines, books, comics, documents, manuals with me when i'm traveling. I don't ever need to buy a book on impulse, or think about which because I got a complete library with me all the time.
And really, calling people morons helps with your arguments. You must be one of those who still clings to LPs
It must be so nice to be you, not ever having to actually be aware of anything even vaguely interesting going on around you, or to even have to bother thinking or 'buying on impulse'. To be so culturally devoid of emotion that you'd rather scroll a wheel than have the energy to turn a page or carry a book (hmm, strain your yourself!) must be so beneficial to you, so convenient.
I hope that if/when you have children they take great pleasure remembering those long journeys when daddy/mommy gave them their nice shiny interface to flick through. Cherished memories those im sure.
And yes, you are a moron for even contemplating the argument. Clearly those termites you speak of have entered your mind, im sure its full of good nesting material.
And you must be one sad individual that you has to get his pleasurable memories from the packaging.
It's the content that counts, not the material on which it's published. I don't mind reading a masterpiece, even it's a mere scribble on the back of a toiletdoor.
If you can't bring up your kids to understand that concept, your kids are probably going to belong to the most superficial beings alive.
Maybe they could learn that from your precious books. But well, seeing that their parent can't refrain from namecalling in a simple discussion and isn't open to changes, they won't get that far anyway.
If even their parent can't understand that termites are just an obvious pointer to the many problems a dead tree book face. Bindings which falls apart, degrading yellow paper (yes, the whiter a book is, the faster it degrades), fingerprints, accidently spilled fluids.
All these won't happen when they're digital. When the waterproof bag which encloses my reader when I'm reading in bath fails, I could simply get another reader and still have all my content. Oh wait... you can't read your books in bath?
Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you wait till this article is printed in a magazine or something that you can pass along to your kids?
Ha, fantastic reaction!
I especially like the part about dropping your reader in the bath. Im sure the electrical output in these things isnt enough to electricute you, but yeah, i agree $300 is throw away money for most of us, who cares! lets just go buy another!
I cant read in the bath? Do you not posses hands or something?
You're a facile waste of air. Go and blow it some place else. Im outa here.
Oh, and incidentally a book can be re-cycled 100%, that means the very same novel can be re-produced indefinitely, INDEFINITELY.
Spread the word.
Well, I agree with you. Really depends on the book, though.
If it's a high quality duplicate of the original manuscript of Alice in Wonderland, or a limited edition of Wind in the Willows with a hand drawn cover, I'm with you.
If it's one of 12 million copies of a Harry Potter book, I probably wouldn't care.
I really hope that digital media does not bring too much harm to the tactile things that deserve to exist. As for the rest (AOL CDs, flyers, basic books printed in huge publishing runs, crappy music, receipts)... I don't really mind.
Dear Mr.Picklesworth,
Many thanks for at least acknowledging my point. The main crux of my argument is simply the necessity of a product such as this reader.
Im a product designer/graphic designer and from my moral soapbox, I get outraged when I see product odevelopment in areas which not only have massive detrimental effect environmentally, but are also of very little human/social conscience.
Of course the point is slightly moot, and the fact that im writing this on a gadget website means it will no doubt fall on deaf ears, but the proliferation and mass marketing on products which basically contribute very little is something which I wish the vast majority would understand and absolutely vito.
The existence of corps such as sony is completely reliant on the impulsive 'must have' consumer, and whilst on one hand the point can be argued that they are expanding societies technological awareness/capabilities both on a communicative and creative level, the flip side is that the consumer remains forever passive to the fact they dont really need these products in order to carry out their daily functions.
They will argue that their 'experience' is somehow better/faster/more convenient and rewarding, but question why...is it really?
Dont get me wrong, I would be a hypocrite to say all technology is redundant, of course it isnt and I rely on a solid, fully functioning, fast and adaptable computer (for instance) in order to carry out my work. When I see a product such as this sony reader however, I cant help question why on earth it should exist.
It does nothing more than a book can do, other than contain more material so therefore its sole positive attribute is to act as a container.
Fine, accepted. However, as per my original post "how heavy is a paperback" or a few magazines etc?
This wasnt a dig at peoples 'lazyness' per se, it was simply pointing an awareness to the fact this product, which will survive through countless upgrades (minor ones at that) which is a vast waste in a time where environmental awareness should be of huge priority.
Sony is a corporation. Profit is their priority and technology is their product. People will continue to buy their products for the very simple reason that humans like to be entertained, on whatever level and however subtle. The government wants to keep us entertained. as long as we remain entertained we dont question things, we remain oblivious to real concerns and real issues and dont have to think.
Im sure im stating the obvious alot in this thread so I will finish simply by saying, consumers have vast power and the end vote in how markets are shaped. Products like this reader sincerely dont do a great deal other than play on your 'if only it could do this' emotion. When did you last feel that about a book (other than the story line?) When was the last time you actually felt annoyed that the book was bulky or a nuisance to travel with? A book or a good magazine is id say generally %100 satisfying, it serves its purpose entirely and nearly all published material, from whatever sector is in constant recycle.
I entirely agree with you, direct marketing materials (aol disks, flyers etc ) should absolutely be regulated. Its a vast waste. If people did their homework, it could all very easily be stopped.
Cheers!
While the value of reading "real" books vs. soul-less electronic versions is very subjective, I think this product has fairly universal value when it comes to reference books. I don't know about anyone else, but I never liked lugging around a bunch of books between classes at school, and more than one nerdy game I played had a list of rule books that put the Encyclopedia Brittanica to shame. Though I do like real books, and the ease of flipping pages, bookmarking with your fingers, etc. I sometimes would trade that for the ability to carry them all.
I bought the current eReader when it was breifly available for $50 if you signed up (and then promptly cancelled) the Sony card.
I thought it would be slightly gimmicky and overly technical, but Sony has surprised me with this gadget. It's very simple, the display is great and the industrial design makes a lot of sense once you start to use it (you need lots of dedicated buttons because refreshing any portion of the screen takes a few seconds). Add a 2 gig sd card (which costs basically nothing these days) and you can carry hundreds of books and hundreds of tunes with you. Best of all, reading on the eReader becomes "transparent" very quickly, you never feel the technology intruding, it feels just like reading a book.
The one true problem is the very rudimentary and basically useless PDF support. Sony needs to either create a player that is truly A4 sized or introduce software that will allow you to easily resize and reflow PDFs. If they did so, the eReader would be pretty damned close to perfect (especially at $50...)
Also, anyone saying "Jeez, how heavy is a paperback" has never spent time trying to hold anything by Neil Stephenson... Trust me, once you use an eReader, you'll understand why they make so much sense.
I got a question for you Hiro.
How is the jpeg support? Would it be any good for reading comic book/manga?
Aside from the troll visit this thread hits upon the strengths/weaknesses of e-ink ebook readers.
I don't understand why it comes with music support but not a built in book light? I mean really, a nice little swing out led itty-bitty book light arm so that you could read it just like you would any other book in low light.
They need to focus on the reading experience and then once they nail that down move on to adding gizmo's & widgets to it.
I love reading and the feel of books but not every book I read needs to be on paper, especially after I have read a book it would be nice to have an electronic duplicate of it handy if you ever wanted to re-read it.
ebook readers are wonderful for serial pulp books (see men's adventure area in most book stores). I know more than a few people who found the last few Harry Potter books rather unweildy.
I suppose when they first started making books the people hooked on scrolls screamed bloody murder as well. ;-)
How is the mp3 player? Could it eliminate books and a separate mp3 player in my bag?
well it depends on your eyes. I make my text very SMALL and my page count goes DOWN considerably. Thankfully when my eyes are tired or the light is dimmer I can just hit a button and make the text bigger :-) I like that.
YES the resolution is easily the equal of printed text for the purposes of reading. Contrast while not perfect is VERY good.
It takes a VERY small amount of light to make it readable. ANY book like you can make fit will work fine.
My problem with LCD readers is I can NEVER make the screen "dim enough" to keep it from hurting my eyes. When I was using an LCD (ebook or pda etc..) to read books I had to leave the rooms lights ON since in the door even the dimmest settings are way to bright.
I love my ebook reader from sony. its wonderful. It has some faults that annoy me but they are minor for now.
Here is what I would do to improve the reader.
Add DIRECT folder access on the memory card so I can organize and divide my books to work with the limited interface.
Get rid of the Lithium batteries and go back to AAA usage. It would only be a few millimeters thicker and I would be surprised if the leisurely reader would have to change batteries more than once a YEAR (a heavy reader like me might have to change batteries twice a year) and NO END CAP battery cover. Mid spine please so even if I break or lose it the book does not become junk.
Thats about it.
"not required" but suggestions for imrprovements?
MORE open file support (direct doc pdb etc..)
A "socket" for an after market LED light using a SINGLE lower power low brightness VERY wide angle led (square to shine on just the screen to efficiently use the light from the LED. IE I want this to be a nice skinny neck that I "snap" right into a socket on the reader. if you can make it flat enough to be able to "install" in a socket in the reader ala stylus all the better. Or an extending NECK that you pull out the top and fold over.
Another model with an 8" 16shade screen to allow viewing of 8.5x11 PDF's
One of the few things sony did RIGHT. Congratulations sony so DON"T SCREW IT UP NOW.
Just getting to grips with the various ereaders on the market and a colleague is heading to the US in a few weeks (from the UK) and I was gonna ask them to pick me one of these up if possible... can somebody give me the basics about a) is this is a good plan? b) how much am I looking at? and finally c) is the new reader open to all the other format ebooks on the market?
thanks very much
Nick
It amazes me how ridiculous some individuals get in hating a product that others might enjoy. Its like the mere existence of a reality where others do things differently than themselves is spiteful to them.
This product obviously appeals a lot to a lot of "techies", and for me, the idea of being able to put all of my reference documents into a single device would be fantastic. Its unfortunate that the Sony reader still, for the moment, has less than stellar PDF support and no DRM PDF support, other than that I would absolutely love this device. I'm not certain I would switch to a ebook reader for novels, but I wouldn't be opposed to it out of something like nostalgic reasons. I think I "would" love to switch to something like a color eink reader for magazines, the amount of junk paper that disposable media like magazines creates is ridiculous.
was cruising around the web and found this photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13914232@N02/tags/sonyprs505/
It always amuses me to hear the anti-eBook people come out of the woodwork. Is a book about paper or words?
These people screamed when society decided to scribble oral tradition onto paper. They screamed when the printing press made important books available to the masses. They screamed when movable type allowed anything to be published quickly and easily. History has shown these people love tradition and their dead-tree fetish objects far more than they love literature or story telling.
Can anyone honestly imagine that we'll still be reading from stacks of flattened trees glued together in 200 years?
I see eBooks more as a replacement for cheap paperbacks anyway - people will continue to buy nice hardcover versions of the books they really love for many many years to come.
I'm buying this baby the day it comes out.
I have used the Sony Reader for 11 months; I've read many, many books with it.
I did not find it difficult to adapt to page turning and didn't really miss a backlight.
My biggest problem is the lack of recent content outside the US (in my case, Canada). I make a lot of use of Manybooks.net for older titles, but I would like more recent content that the classics.
If the Connect Store does not accept out of country purchases soon, I will need to buy another type of reader which does. Iliad? Suggestions welcome ...
There are many long webpages I would like to read offline (no wifi). If there was a way I could easily load a webpage into an ebook reader, this would be the perfect device for me.