Sony Reader follows Kindle to the Great White North, conquers entire high school (video)

Why, it was just yesterday that Amazon finally acknowledged the existence of our friendly neighbors to the north, saying "Why not?" before shipping a few Kindles northward. Now Sony is announcing its Reader is also set to take off, but in a very different way. The Reader has always been available in Canada (no pesky wireless contracts to negotiate), but ownership will now be compulsory for students at Toronto's Blyth Academy, who will each be provided with a Touch Edition and who must surely be a little nervous after what happened at Princeton. All textbooks will be replaced by digital equivalents, meaning smaller book bags, fewer strained backs, and no more quality time with parents making covers out of brown paper bags. Slightly uncomfortable promotional video is included below.

[Ratty Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:50AM]

And because I, and the seven other kids that go to Blyth, paid $20,000 a year to go to a school with fireplaces and oak doors we all got a $300 trinket . . and a pony.

[SmokemeaKipper Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:27AM]

giddy up.

[bakunin Posted Nov 21st 2009 2:19AM]

Sure, but to be fair it looks more significant than simply offering a new gadget. Looks like they have institutionalized the digital reader and its digital resources within their school, which is the only effective way to leave the age of the printing press behind them.

[JKooL Posted Nov 18th 2009 5:09PM]

... But daddy had to buy me a unicorn because the school took those away last year due to the recession. :(

[ernie Posted Nov 21st 2009 12:10PM]

I pay close to $15,000 (After all their after fee BS) to go to probably the crappiest private school North of Toronto.... We don't even have air conditioning in some rooms.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 8:53AM]

hmmmmm.............

[NHAnimator Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:45AM]

Coooo-loo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo!

[FraggleRock Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:34AM]

@NHAnimator

Okay, now do the big movie version, hehe

[kevout Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:29AM]

Just be careful not to spill your Elsinore on that thing!

[pskennedySOS Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:34AM]

props for the Strange Brew picture.

[Poobla Posted Nov 18th 2009 9:50AM]

Would be a great idea for any student that has to buy books. ..Too bad text books will still cost hundreds of dollars.

[Nitesh Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:03AM]

This is silly, us Canadians look NOTHING like that.




There are much more beer bottles in reality.

[Loftwyr Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:07AM]

Okay, the Blythe Academy is a tiny private school who's main office is in an alley of a posh shopping district. They also run in office towers in two other regions.

This is not news.

[Lamppost Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:19AM]

Needs more Labatt.

[Jeff Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:23AM]

When an instructor says "I can cater to each student based on their learning styles", they are lying.

[ehisforadam Posted Nov 18th 2009 10:43AM]

Man...I kinda miss making those brown paper bag book covers or buying the purpose made ones, then you could draw all over the outside of your books!

[cashclientel Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:21AM]

Chap on the right aka Paul Merton

[ElNumbre Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:33PM]

I'm glad it wasn't just me...

[logan Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:30AM]

Ummm... how does it work when the teacher asks for a student to go to page 167 when with the different sizes and all the page numbers are lost? My mother has one of those sony ebook readers and has no way of finding a page I'm looking at in a paper copy of a book when I'm talking to her. Just a thought.

[gfar Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:53AM]

Really?!
Can't you just search for an exact string? Aren't there any anchor tags or similar to denote where the original pages start?

[Jay Evans Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:54AM]

Did you ever consider that the teacher also uses a Sony reader?????

And I when your mother says "Go to page 167" it doesn't correspond to your paper book either.
Guess you need to buy a reader then, aye.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 18th 2009 11:53AM]

Is that Rick Moranis on the left of the picture? I havent seen that guy in years!

[To Hell Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:13PM]

Blyth Academy appears to be a school for subversives and homosexuals!

Just kidding, i'm sure it's a fine prostitution front.

[King Kooper Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:53PM]

Isnt she a little old for times tables?

[samzbest1328 Posted Nov 20th 2009 4:35AM]

Wow i hope this comes in the third world countries like pakistan

http://thetechnologycafe.com/sony-e-reader-how-it-is-transforming-education-video/