Still doubting that Sony has
a new duo of e-book readers on the horizon? Have a look at this.
Sony Insider is reporting that retailer J&R posted up product listings for both the PRS-300 and PRS-600, but both were quickly pulled in order to avoid a stern wrist slap from the suits at
Sony. 'Course, neither were pulled quickly enough, and what we're left with is a list of full specifications and MSRPs for the both of 'em. If said sheets are to be believed, the 5-inch (800 x 600 resolution) Sony PRS300-RC Reader Pocket Edition will ship with 512MB of onboard memory, PC and Mac support, a battery good for 7,500 page turns and USB 2.0 connectivity. The 6-inch (800 x 600 resolution) PRS600-SC Reader Touch Edition checks in at 0.4-inches thin and boasts a virtual keyboard, doodle capability, 512MB of storage, a built-in English e-dictionary, PC and Mac support and the same battery as on the smaller sibling. We're looking at price tags of $199 and $299, respectively, but with no apparent WiFi or WWAN built in, it'll still be a hard sell over Amazon's connected
Kindle here in America.
posted Aug 3rd 2009 7:52AM
Orwell would buy it.
I dont undrstnd y ppl cant use ther note/netbooks as a reader.. they hv tools for this.. y to pay extra?
fr us to be can easy reed bok withut istrain frm bklite or haveing to hold up hevy lptap wile in bed
Portability.
If these get popular, after a while tablet pcs will too. Twice the price tablet would sell like crazy.
This exact same comment gets posted in every story about an eReader. e-Paper displays are fundamentally different to LCDs. Can your notebook last for weeks without a recharge? Can it display pages while the power is off? Can you view pages in direct sunlight? Can you read entire novels without eyestrain?
Uhhh because most people don't walk around all day long carrying netbooks. My wife's 505 fits nicely in her purse and even takes up less space than a paperback. She reads every day at lunch.
Size, weight, portability, battery life, reading in brightly lit areas/outdoors, eyestrain, etc, etc, etc...
If someone is just looking for something to read a book on, an e-ink device is just infinitely better than an LCD based device.
He can't read your replies, there's sun on his screen and reading gives him eye strain anyway, but he'll be happy to ask the question again, and again.
Books look awful on netbooks.
Having been very pleased with my PRS-505 for a couple years now, I am very intrigued by the 600, especially at that price. Here's hoping they resolved the glare issue of the 700's touch panel
People buy millions of iPods and use their PC to sync - what's the big deal? Plus, no range issues, and works in any country.
As for why a reader, the battery lasts for days, and the screen does not flicker at all (your laptop does, even if you don't notice), you can read it in direct sunlight, and it's small enough to read like a book, in your hand.
I have had the 505 and the 500. You are right in that it's not "hard" to just load stuff up during PC Sync. For me, though, being able to get a book / blog / magazine, anywhere at anytime is worth the bump in cost. It's not necessary, but it's a feature I think a lot of people find they can't live without once they get it.
Also, the Kindle store (for some genres of books) is more robust than the Sony store, so you have to figure that into your pro/con list.
no wireless hardware cost you have to pay for over kindle, $199 price is very sweet, plus you dont get your books deleted remotely by amazon, why is this a 'hard sell'?
Beats the hell out of me dude. I find 3G and wireless connectivity on the Kindle to be next to useless. Does Amazon really think me to be that indecisive that I will want to buy a John Grisham suddenly out of nowhere while I on the subway?
Nope, I rather put in 4-5 ebooks from the laptop (which is always next to me) and carry them around.
@vivi note/netbooks have backlights and they have constant refresh rates (60hz), this in turn makes you very tired when reading. These readers work on a e-ink which get rid of a lot of those issues.
looking at this makes me appreciate the Kindle DX more and more. I really wish Amazon would create a Kindle without the 3G but with the 9.7in screen, and price it at $250, but I know it'll never happen. For people wanting to read newspapers and especially academic PDFs, like students, a product with a bigger screen is absolutely necessary. I know Sony's targeting the book readers with this, but I wish they'd pay mroe attention to the college student demographic, which could single-handedly save like a trillion trees by stopping the textbook ripoff industry in their tracks.
I agree on the Kindle DX without 3G. I can't buy a Kindle in my country because of that.
"I really wish Amazon would create a Kindle without the 3G"
You have made a mistake in thinking that the primary role of the Kindle is ebook reading. Amazon developed the Kindle for ebook *selling* which is why form their perspective there is no point in a Kindle without wireless connectivity.
@radarskiy- if amazon is all about "the content" as they have said (i also read this), then i wish they'd get their act together and enable their ebooks or content delivery system to work on *other* readers besides kindle (and iphone). The kindle just isn't that attractive to me. There are other devices that are attractive, but i can't shop at amazon cause they only support their own proprietary bullshit format. they should just use epub.
I got some nice details from the Google cache of the J&R site.
Here's a list of accessories:
http://74.125.153.132/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Awww.jr.com%2Fsony%2Fpe%2FSON_PRS600SC%2F&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
This one looks interesting:
Sony PRSACL6 Cover with Light
For PRS600 Touch Edition / Continue to read, even in dark places / Protects against minor scratches and damages / Provides easy access [ SON PRSACL6 ]
I'm very interested in something like this but I still wonder what Apple is up to in this space, guess I'll wait for september to see if the rumors pan out otherwise I'll be pulling the trigger on one of these in the future. I know LCD is different on the reading experience compared to eink but the prospect of also taking my media with me is the reason why I'm waiting.
I'm most interested by the Mac compatibility - I wonder if this means that they will make the 505 Mac compatible.
I mean, Calibre is great, and does most of what you would want, but I'd like to be able to buy books legally
It says on the ebook store site that they are developing mac software, probably to coincide with the launch of these devices...
Awesome. I love my 505 and can't wait to stop launching VMWare to manage my paid books.
not sure which model I was looking at when I was barne's and nobles but considering i was originally looking into getting a kindle, the sony one looked slightly better overall to me.
Looks like Sony is building an Etch-a-Sketch...
OMG?! You mean you actually have to plug it into your computer and take like 5 seconds to upload a book to your device?! What's wrong with this world?! [Wait, the Reader can work outside the United States... That's madness!]
...Well, at least Sony won't ever remotely access your Reader and delete your books. Then there's that whole giant library [500,000+] of free books that's easily accessible on the reader, that's pretty sweet. I'll keep my Reader. The Kindle can go to hell. ^^
Why you gotta be a few minutes faster than me man?
"OMG?! You mean you actually have to plug it into your computer and take like 5 seconds to upload a book to your device?! What's wrong with this world?"
The whispernet sure comes in handy when you want to buy a book, newspaper or magazine, while out and about or on vacation and your PC is at home.
"...Well, at least Sony won't ever remotely access your Reader and delete your books."
This was bad, but they did say it will not be done again, so we will have to see how good they are at their word. I mean it's not like Sony ever did anything nearly as bad as this with any of their products *cough* rootkit *cough.
@LC: Yeah. Try using your Kindle to buy a magazine during your vacation in Europe (or Canada, for that matter).
A hard sell? If anyone has been paying attention to the news recently, the Kindle has been getting some poor news coverage. If anything, no wifi or WWAN is a SELLING point, since now no one can get on your machine without you knowing. I have owned an old PRS-500 and have used the Kindle and I can tell you that being able to put any files you want (to an extent) on the PRS vs. only Amazon's format on the Kindle means I will probably be picking up one of the new cheap PRS's.
Word to the wise, don't lean on these things with your elbow. RIP, PRS-500.
I'm very interested in the 6-inch version, but how do readers like these fare with academic journal PDF files (I'm trying to avoid printing massive amounts of PDF)? Or do they tailor best for ebooks only?
if the academic versions contain only text they would work very nicely with the 6 inch devices. if they contain a lot of pictures and graphs, you may want to go with a larger ereading device.
PoisonWolf, for academic papers you'll need something bigger than 6 inch screen. These small screens are perfect for books but they really suck at reading letter/A4 sized PDF documents. (I own a Sony PRS-500)
PDF on these is still not so hot. Give it a few years more. PDF is a simulated printout. Not an e-book format. And on a 6 inch screen, an 8.5X11 page is going to be about half size, and no scrolling possible. Landscape helps, but not as much as you might think.
For what they are intended to do, which is reading e-books, great. For PDF files.. At best, not worth the money, at worst, a pain in the butt.
I see, this is most unfortunate. I was really looking forward to avoid printing hundreds of pages of paper. It's both wasteful and highly unefficient.
Sigh, regardless, thank you again gentlemen, I appreciate the insight.
i really like ereading devices and i hope they become more popular, but it seems that engadget has some sort of infatuation with the Kindle and only the Kindle, and b/c of that they dissuade a lot of people from buying competing products that would create competition and accordingly stimulate growth, innovation and price drops.
i am probably one of the few that read engadget and purchased a jetbook ( http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/24/ectacos-jetbook-reader-will-purportedly-change-your-life/ ). if you were to read the engadget's segway into the full article you would not want to touch the thing with a 10 foot pole. i admit that their marketing is poor and overly dramatic, but why focus on that instead of the unique differences it has over the kindle? (lcd display with tailored technology to display fonts in direct sunlight as good, if not more clearly than e-ink, and no page flashing). from reading the comments of that article, the readers are very misinformed and engadget could have done a little more as a information tech blog.
and here we have them discouraging possible new users that may have tried out the PRS by implying that having no 3G is a severe limitation in a ereading device. drop by mobileread (dedicated site to ereading) and you will find, wow, a variety of device choices, most without 3G, and many loved by their owners.
it's a hardsell to me that the editors at engadget own and personally use anything other than the kindle (which is a great product, but is imo more controlling than apple)
I have a Kindle and a jetbook. I also had a PRS 500, which now belongs to my wife. The Jetbook is a very good device, but I understand Engadgets point with their post about the Jetbook. Ectaco markets the device as having the same and better capabilities than the Sony or the Kindle, especially on the product box which is sold to the general non tech saavy customers at Bed Bath and Beyond. The only problem is that it does not work with DRM'd books. Someone buying this in a BBB may try buying a book at Mobipocket or a DRM'd epub book and find out it doesn't work.
It's great if you only want to read public domain books or if you know how to convert DRM'd books into the format of your choice.
awesome, the 600 is exactly what my wife has been waiting for. she has the 505 now and reads at least 4 hours/day on it. the main feature missing that she wants is the built-in dictionary. the touch features along with the virtual keyboard are great plus's.
"We're looking at price tags of $199" and those of us on treasure island are more than likely looking at prices of £199... :-(
I'm looking at a device where Sony can't remove the books I've purchased at their whim.
"800x600"
No sale.
you do realize that Kindle 2 is the same resolution ?!
800x600 is pretty good for a 5-6" screen.
It may be a hard sell in the US, but it won't be so hard over here in the UK. With no sign of a Kindle ever making it to Europe, Sony have a pretty clear run on the European market. Will be interesting to see what impact these Readers have over here.
I'll probably go with the PRS-600 when I get the money for it. Mac compatibility is a huge plus.
Pity it's sony, the evil ones, also a pity that they in blatant disregard of previous statements continue to ignore the customer's wishes and advise and don't add some sort of WiFi (it seems).
Sometimes I think most companies rather make half the profit or even go bankrupt rather than giving people what they want.
What's the inverse of cupidity called? Spite?
The screen is still way too small for any useful formatted doc viewing.
There is always a trade off between screen size and portability.
A kindle of a Joke.....why bother.
No remote delete. End of story.
Americans have it good with the Kindle but since its not available in Canada, I think the $200/$300 USD price tag is really competitive and I would easily import one. For reference the PRS505 is $350 CDN.
Kindle will probably not see the light of day here so this is the next best thing even without built in wireless.
Also what I found interesting is the PRS-300 doesn't support audio or images.
How scratch resistant is the current Sony touchscreen? I think the touchscreen on a 6 inch device makes playing "newspaper" games much more feasible. I think crosswords, jumbles, sudoku, etc will be more enjoyable to play when you can "write" your answers rather than type them in.
The Sony readers have always been Mac and Linux compatible. It shows up as a removable drive. Then you just drag and drop your files. When you turn the reader on it scans the files and builds a library. If Sony is now stating Mac compatibility they are likely taliking about their eLibrary Software. The software is kind of a joke. It looks a lot like old iTunes software and just organizes your files. If you organize your own files in a folder then you are ok without it.
Something that the Sony does that I don't think the Kindle does (i don't know for sure) is jpeg viewing. Many people will say "what? why would I want to look at my pictures in black and white?". What if those pictures were comic book scans that were already black and white, like most manga? I use my 505 to read a lot of manga as well as pdfs and I sync on a mac with no software, using drag and drop. I am going to be looking for this to drop and probably pick one up when it does.
The Kindle has a lot going for it and is a great product. People like to bash it for many reasons. Well if you want an reader then compare your options and pick what is right for you. The Kindle isn't perfect for everyone, and neither is the Sony. I think the best thing is that there is open competition. This will push all products to be better and cheaper for the customer.
"The Sony readers have always been Mac and Linux compatible. It shows up as a removable drive."
Actually that started with the PRS-505. The original PRS-500 needs the software to do anything.
A touchscreen is really maybe all it would take to kick the Kindle to the curb.
The Kindle's buttons take up a full 1/3 of the kindle real estate. A touch screen (allowing people to take "real" notes) would have an enormous advantage over them.
I'm betting we'll see wirelss shortly.
Keep in mind that touch screens can eat up a bit of the contrast on reflective displays. At least resistive and capacitive types.
i have the sony model from about 18 months ago.. there is no wifi and that is fine. my only complaint with it is it cant scan folders for music (pdf issues are not a fault of sony). I think this whole wi-fi on e-reader thing is way over hyped. I don't buy books on the spur of the moment and likely anyone with an reader is going to have it loaded with books and not be worried about running out on a moments notice. I personally do not feel that magazines format wise transfer well to the smaller screens and for most people using these they are reading books because they dont bother reading the newspaper to or from work.
The Sony Reader is amazing. Just found out you can use the Shortcovers eBooks on it as well.
Super easy process!
http://bit.ly/FsI77
You can compare PRS-300 with other e-bookreader at http://www.coolcheapest.com/EBookReader/3205--Sony_Digital_Reader_Pocket_Edition___Dark_Blue_(PRS300B.aspx . You can also buy other models and e-bookreader accessories at http://www.coolcheapest.com/EBookReader.aspx .