Sony launching Reader refresh next month?

Sony isn't exactly going for subtle in the invitation to its upcoming event on October 2nd. In addition to that picture up above -- which is decidedly bookish, if you ask us -- the press event is being held in "Bookmarks Lounge" at the "Library Hotel" in NY. If that's still too obscure for you, perhaps the "join Sony Electronics as we open a new chapter on digital reading" will tip you off. Yes, Sony did recently improve the Reader's software to work with more booksellers, but the hardware of the PRS-505 itself is nearly a year old, and Sony has found itself decidedly out-Kindled. Our money's on a new Reader, or barring that, some subtle, Sony-esque potshots at Amazon for having the nerve to show up late to the e-book party and swipe all the glory. Those jerks.

[nathan.wong @ Sep 9th 2008 9:41AM]

Can't wait to see what they might have up their sleeves. I'll probably keep and continue to enjoy my prs-505 and not upgrade though.

[Electromodo @ Sep 9th 2008 10:00AM]

"...but the hardware of the PRS-505 itself is nearly a year old, and Sony has found itself decidedly out-Kindled...."

The hardware on PRS-505 might be old, but neither me nor any of my friends who bought 505 think of switching to a new one. Sony Reader 505 model appeared to be a very solid and comfortable product. The only complain from most of us - 505-owners - is: MAKE A BETTER eBOOK STORE, SONY!

The inventory in eBook store is just ridiculous! Mostly cheap fiction, no technical books, and much less titles than available for Kindle.

Just fix your eBook store inventory, Sony, otherwise hardware upgrades would be a joke.

(and, maybe, add color eInk paper??? ;)

[Anthony @ Sep 9th 2008 10:16AM]

I actually still like my 500. Recently looked at the 505 again & found the refresh rate to be *too fast* as to be distracting.

However, I disagree about the book selection. I don't know what types of stuff you're looking for but I'm pleasantly surprised to find nearly 75% of what I'm looking for after reading reviews, hearing author interviews, etc.

I like that they've opened things up & that they're not Amazon (I like Amazon but I don't want them to own the distribution market outright).

Definitely interested.

[Kris @ Sep 9th 2008 11:22AM]

Are you aware that the last update brought Adobe Digital Edition books to the eBook Reader? You don't have to look at only Sony's eBook store.

[Plothole @ Sep 9th 2008 6:50PM]

Color eInk would be out of the question at this moment. The most we could expect with the technology available now is a leap from 8 to 16 shades of gray.

[Electromodo @ Sep 9th 2008 10:03AM]

"...but the hardware of the PRS-505 itself is nearly a year old, and Sony has found itself decidedly out-Kindled...."

The hardware on PRS-505 might be old, but neither me nor any of my friends who bought 505 think of switching to a new one. Sony Reader 505 model appeared to be a very solid and comfortable product. The only complain from most of us - 505-owners - is: MAKE A BETTER eBOOK STORE, SONY!

The inventory in eBook store is just ridiculous! Mostly a cheap fiction, no technical books, and much less titles than available for Kindle.

Just fix your eBook store inventory, Sony, otherwise hardware upgrades would be unnecessary.

(and, maybe a color eInk paper??? ;)

[Electromodo @ Sep 9th 2008 10:09AM]

What is going on with your comments system, Engadget??? No refresh and the double post?

[ElevatorHappyFun @ Sep 9th 2008 10:09AM]

Is there a way to get a kindle "book" onto a sony?
Is there a software solution similar to converting a AAC to MP3?

im sure there is a /torrent/ of possibilities if there isnt a legal one.

[Electromodo @ Sep 9th 2008 10:37AM]

Well, there are no legal approach, since Kindle's AZW format is a proprietary DRM format. There are illegal hacks though.

Sony Reader, on the other hand, was hacked from head to tail a long time ago, both legally and illegaly :)

[sodakar @ Sep 9th 2008 10:16AM]

For those with PRS-500's and PRS-505's, there might not be the *need* to upgrade, but if their goal is to continue to capture new customers, the hardware refreshes are important.

As a not-yet-customer, I have to say that the PRS-505 nor the Kindle keep up with my reading/skimming speed, and while I can forgive the flash of the e-ink, the sluggishness of navigating through the menu system on the PRS-505 is like being logged onto a BBS with a 300 baud modem. Ahh, the good'ol... well, no, let's be honest -- there was nothing "good" about those days.

I'm happy with the form factor of the PRS-505 -- it's an elegant machine that's built well. Make it go faster and keep the price close, and you've got a potential customer here...

[Rob @ Sep 9th 2008 11:16AM]

I agree. I've been on the fence wanting to get an e-reader for my wife. After comparing the Sony and the Kindle, there was no comparison and wanted to get the Kindle, only to find out that it's strictly available to US citizens only (I'm in Canada). In my comparison I also compared the title line-up. We looked for five books my wife recently purchased; all of them available for the Kindle, only one out of the five was available from the Sony book store.

So I'm excited about this Sony event. Here's hoping for an expanded title line-up, a built-in dictionary, and possibly a new way to connect and download books/files that also support macs.

[David @ Sep 9th 2008 6:53PM]

I was in exactly the same situation (in Canada, wanting a Kindle, noticing the poor selection of the Sony), but I finally jumped anyway. My wife got me the Reader a few weeks ago, and I'll never look back. I'll never buy a physical book again. Though Sony's selection is not anywhere near as good as Amazon's, now that it can use Adobe Digital Editions, you can also buy books from such places as Books on Board (my favourite), Fictionwise, Diesel, and eBooks.com. The screen refreshes aren't perfect, but they're not much worse than turning a page. And it seems silly to me when people complain about the slowness of menu navigation -- most of the time I'm reading, I'm just reading. That's all. I spend hours and hours reading a book, then I spend a minute navigating the menus to get another book which I spend hours and hours reading.

I'm not saying I wouldn't dump my reader in a second if Amazon remembered the existence of Canada -- I would -- but until then, the Reader rocks.

[holycow @ Sep 9th 2008 10:15AM]

the guy looks like a stalker! =/

[Harrie Nak @ Sep 9th 2008 10:25AM]

Who cares about the Sony reader anyway... http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/09/sony-launching-reader-refresh-next-month/

[Harrie Nak @ Sep 9th 2008 10:26AM]

Sorry, I meant http://www.plasticlogic.com/PRPlasticLogicPreviewsElectronicReadingDevice.html

[KilgoreTrout @ Sep 9th 2008 10:38AM]

My humble opinion is that the poketbook technology on recycled paper, beside being BY FAR ,the cheapest, simplest, most tested, hassle free, and eco-friendly, book reading tech available , is also the one least in need of replacement.
When reading devices for news(papers?) or magazines will (if ever) become convenient and practical enough for people to use, they will have a sens only if they will be integrated with those gadgets that we already carry around: UMPC/smartphone/camera/GPS/PMP , or netbook/GPS/Media-entertrainement center/portable TV, (7" netbooks?), or whatever a smart marketing crew will manage to push on the masses.
Before I would consider one they would also have to provide lifetime guarantee against data loss (as paperback do) and a practical way to take notes on the margins and underline passages.

[Plothole @ Sep 9th 2008 6:41PM]

How can anything made of naturally flammable, continuously degrading materials have a "lifetime guarantee against data loss"? At least with a digital book, you can have numerous copies stored on different media in different places.

[Plothole @ Sep 9th 2008 6:46PM]

How can anything made of naturally flammable, continuously degrading materials have a "lifetime guarantee against data loss"? At least with a digital book, you can have numerous copies stored on different media in different places.

[David @ Sep 9th 2008 6:58PM]

It isn't the cheapest for me. I read a lot of books. Sixty or seventy in a slow year. Now that I have a reader, I can buy those books at a savings of, on average, maybe four bucks a book. In less than two years, my Reader will have paid for itself, and instead of looking at a pile of books, I'll be looking at, well, my Reader.

I hear a lot of people attacking the idea of electronic book readers, and about half of them don't seem like real readers. They want colour or faster menus or email. It's not for those things. It's for silent reading time, people. If you read a lot of books, these things are really cool.

[uucp @ Sep 9th 2008 10:53AM]

I agree with the bulk of the comments above -- the PR-505 has fine design, but the software is appallingly bad and it lacks content. I could not recommend it to anybody until they solve these problems.

[Caleb @ Sep 10th 2008 4:04AM]

That's why many people don't use the included software and use Caliber insted ( http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net ). It's free and it allows you to convert books from tons of formats, even Microsofts .lit format, Mobi book, XHTML, Cbr & Cbz and stuff inside of zip files. ( I count 20 formats...). It's fee and its better at organizing your books and sending them where you want, either to the reader or one of the cards. The best part is that you can use books from an almost endless list of sources. That's how I feed my 3 to 5 SciFi, historical fiction and spy novels a week adiction. I can read all the books I previously bought for my Palm, new books from Baen Books (including there free library), books from Project Guttenburg, free stuff from newsgroups etc.

Of course I'm a little biased as I designed the logo for Caliber but still it's the best solution I've found yet. :-)

[Sonny @ Sep 9th 2008 11:04AM]

I don't have the Sony...yet. After doing some research I found Sony's a better option than the Kindle and I got one for my girlfriend who is a bookworm.
Yes Amazon has a ton of books but that is almost exclusively the only place you can get books onto the Kindle. There are some places to get Epubs but those are mostly DIY, technical manuals, better yourself books, at least the ones I saw, and only a few places had the right format for the Kindle.
With the Sony reader you can get digital books from the library, which is great if you don't want to buy books. Once downloaded the Sony Reader gives you the count down till the book is no longer readable(depends on the library, Queens library only gave a week, Manhattan Library gave 2 weeks). Yes you have to delete it but the ability to get books from the library was a big sell for me.
Also you can use projectgutenberg.com to download a plethora of books for free. These would also be considered classics but basically their copyright has expired. But they have tons of books also.
Although Amazon claims to have all those books, ones that were not available on Sony's estore were also not available on Amazon. I am sure Amazon has some that Sony doesn't but I think this is a publisher issue and for the msot part why wouldn't they have books in a more general format rather than one specified for just one peripheral.
Books on Amazon are just a fraction cheaper than Sony's, that's one downfall and another is that sometimes the estore freezes, but as far as I know, my girlfriend has "checked out" mostly from the library.
Wifi is cool for the Kindle but again you can only get books from Amazon.

All in all, I will be getting one soon. I am in no shape or form an avid reader but aesthetically speaking, Sony's reader looks a lot better than the amazon wedge and I like the ability to get books from a library.

[Kris @ Sep 9th 2008 11:27AM]

The Kindle doesn't have WiFi... Also, you don't have to buy books from Sony's eBook Store. They support Adobe DE now

[SCassidy @ Sep 11th 2008 1:08PM]

You don't have to buy books for the Kindle from Amazon. Any un-DRM'ed Mobipocket book will work, and Mobipocket Creator (free software) will convert pdf, Word, txt, html, etc. It sounds like the Caliber software mentioned above might be useful, also. You can also email files to Amazon to be converted, and either sent directly to your Kindle, or emailed to you so that you can copy it over to the Kindle yourself.

The Project Gutenberg books (and several other sites carrying the same copyright-free books) are easily used on the Kindle. Some scripts are available to allow use of Secure Mobipocket files with the Kindle, but most books available in that format are available on Amazon. Baen.com and Fictionwise.com have a bunch of books that work on the Kindle.

Amazon's prices are excellent. Most books that I get there for my Kindle are cheaper than paperback prices.

The Kindle has Sprint's EVDO Whispernet cellular network, not Wi-Fi.

[guilt+1 @ Sep 9th 2008 11:07AM]

I've had my 500 since launch and not a day goes by without me reading on it for at least a couple of hours. I skipped the 505 upgrade because it didn't off much but maybe if the price is right and there are enough new features then maybe I'll grab the next version as well.

[GregH @ Sep 9th 2008 11:11AM]

I like the Sony Reader better than the Kindle anyway - I don't want it to do all sorts of different things - just give me a screen to read books and some basic navigation controls (ie: no keyboard).

The only thing holding me back from buying a Reader is the screen contrast - the background is just too grey for me. I'm crossing my fingers that this is improved in the new version.

[Paul @ Sep 9th 2008 2:14PM]

Wow, if they do release new hardware it's going to be a significant snub those in the UK who bought the reader when it was released last week, and Waterstones who sell it.

[weg @ Sep 11th 2008 5:26AM]

Well, perhaps they'll release the new model in the US and make the UK customers wait for another year or so ;-)

[Adam @ Sep 28th 2008 12:09PM]

Good! I hope they fix/update what I want:
1) the pointless, wasteful border on the screen around the text. The screen is hardly big anyway!
2) larger screen (without changing the form factor. It's possible!) and higher resolution. It would be nice if PDFs were viewable.
3) faster screen refresh and processor, for rendering.
4) more onboard memory, larger memory cards supported.
We'll see on 2 October. It may well just be an update to the failed ebook store... Hope not.