Sony To Launch E Ink-based eBook In April
Holly Gates writes "Sony will launch an ebook based on E Ink technology in Japan in late April. The screen is about as big as half a paperback book and has a spatial resolution of ~170ppi. The device includes various edictionaries and audio playback functionality. I am a hardware engineer for E Ink by the way, but I figured slashdotters might be interested." An anonymous reader notes that it is supposed to "display over 10,000 pages on a single set of batteries."
Good viewing in direct sunlight (or so they claim) might make this the first ebook platform worthwhile. The only problem is, if it costs more than $200 it will probably be a tough sell. I can get a lot of books (especially used) for that, and not have to change to batteries. But for those who like to take their entire collection of books with them (sort of a book iPOD) this might a neat device. The biggest question in my mind, is just how much support are publishers going to give this thing? Judging from ebook platforms of the recent past, probably not much.
Can it display PDF's? Lack of PDF support is the only thing that stopped me from buying one of the current Ebook readers.