Slashdot Mirror
Sony Reader Taking Hold?
An anonymous reader writes "Sony recently launched their latest attempt at an electronic book reader. The 'Sony Reader' is small and lightweight, about the size of a paperback book, and using E-Ink technology it only requires battery power when changing the page so light on power requirements. While it isn't their first attempt at an electronic book reader, critics are already predicting the Reader's success."
But what is the DRM, and how will it rootkit me?
What can it take hold of? It's not even out yet.
Unfortunately with most ebook sellers pricing themselves higher than equivalent paperbacks it's going to take more than this to really liven up the market. I favour SF&F so Baen ( http://www.baen.com/library/ ) are a welcome exception. They offer DRM-free downloads and subscriptions AND offer a load of books for free download.
The critics need to factor in that in early sightings of the book store, Sony only seems to be stocking hardback priced ebooks. I don't know too many folks whom will only purchase hardback editions at first released hardback prices for their collections.
I just want to remind everyone, before there was the RIAA, there were book publishers. And some of them make the RIAA look like Girl Scouts.
There's an obligatory joke whenever Sony is mentioned these days. Hmmm, let's see... Got it!
It comes with the rootkit pre-installed!
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
granted books are probably more fulfilling, which do you /really/ think the public is going to choose? Personally I'm not going to pay 400bucks (+ whatever the book fee is) for a couple books I might read.
Shouldn't that be "taking root?"
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
but when it comes down to it, redundant gadgets are.... well... redundant. my (impulsive) friend spent around 400$ on this kickass mp3 player about a year ago, he ended up buying a laptop a month later and he was like 'uh, this junk mp3 player is just going to end up another of my unused gadgets', so he gave it to me.. i left it at a different friends house, and it was pawned :/.. anyway my beaten around the bush point is this..... people would rather have a laptop for this kind of thing, generally, because a laptop is multifunction.
If someone has a laptop, they are going to look at this device and say 'well.. i guess its somewhat easier to handle/hold, but I can already read a vast majority more on my wifi enabled laptop, and i wont have to pay an extra 400$ just to do something i can already do.'
and on the other hand, which is almost as bad-- if someone doesn't own a laptop, they will look at this and say 'wow, 400$ just to read e-books? i could spend the same amount, and have infinite ebooks, infinite music, and infinite free wifi, and (insert everything else here)'.
in other words, this technology simply isn't cheap enough for the common all american materalistic faddist.
Paperback books are cheap. This ebook reader can't compete with real books so long as it will be priced $300 to $400. The only way eBook readers could become commonplace is if they give them away.
They'd have me if it was possible to install other readers onto it (I don't want Sony to write the programs, just make it so other people CAN write the programs and the user can install them on the reader). Alternately I'd be more tempted if their format wasn't DRM'd (yup, non-DRM e-books do exist. One store that sells quite a bit from numerous prominent authors (such as Kevin J Andserson) is Fictionwise).
I'm a big time e-book reader and I'm migrating to an e-book only library (for new books anyway). If Sony has success, that's great. But I'm finding it doubtful that they will, because if someone like me isn't interested, what is their demographic?
you can get the previous sony e-ink device, on ebey or elsewhere, install an english firmware patch and make your own drm-free ebooks... HOWTO - Sony Librie English GUI Firmware Patch http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/06/howto _sony_libr.html
HOW TO make DRM-free ebooks for the Sony Librie e-ink ebook reader
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/08/how_t o_make_drm_1.html
if sony screws up this new reader, i'm sure we'll all hack these up to for the functionality needed.
without DRM, but I'm assuming that their book store is going to impose less DRM than the one they launched in Japan. In that bookstore, you could only "buy" your book for 2 months, after that it became unreadable. That defeats the whole purpose of having an e-reader! If I'm laying down $400 for an e-reader, I want to be able to bust out "Breakfast of Champions" on a whim, not make sure that my license is up to date before doing so. One of the reasons I don't buy a lot of books right now is that I hate having to find storage places for them, plus I tend to move around a great bit and shipping books is expensive and a pain.
I think a sanely priced bookstore would be a great idea, but till then I'm sticking with the library!
Monstar L
Sera
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
Anyway, the good bits are that it lasts 7,500 pages per charge and weighs half a pound. The bad news is that it costs $300.
The bottom line is that I love the idea of not burning a forest of trees... for College textbooks this is a great idea (lessens back pains and you could easily drop $300 in a single quarter!), not to mention point-and-click TOC and index, keyword search, etc. I'll have to see the screen first-hand, but I can't believe it would be better than print. Still, is there really a market for this for the airplane-book-club crowd?
Just like with games this technology will only pick up if the "graphics" are good and if there are enough "books" for it. The biggest difference between a book and a screen is eye strain (The BBC article says the screen is not backlit...big difference?), I wonder if Sony has tested this with hard core readers. I would use it I think. I wonder how you can mark pages (since I tend to twist the edges of book pages). Is it true that backlit screens cause less eye strain? I want one of these...
--gks
Hey SONY, your 2005 DRM fiasco has cost you more than you realize.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
I'd say any success depends on it's DRM. I mean, if it can only display ebooks in a specific proprietary filetype (remember the success of ATRAC?) then I would suggest that the chance of it catching on are pretty much nil.
The reasons ipods became so popular were that it had the best UI of the time, and it played mp3s you could convert yourself. If this device can't display open formats (or at least PDFs), then it's just another electronic white elephant.
It's claimed to offer a display "almost as sharp as paper", and perhaps it does, but in all the photos I've seen the contrast ratio doesn't look nearly as good as paper (even comparing to cheap paperbacks or newsprint).
Maybe the photos are just bad. Sony's own photos look much better, though they're probably retouched.
It's about time. I've played with one of these 2 years ago in Tokyo and fell in love with it. If it wasn't for the price (aroud 400 US$) and the fact that it was all in Japanese (so I couln't check if it read PDF files), I would have bought one. If these baby can read PDF and HTML, it's going to be one great tool to read technical documentation during my daily train commute. No more heavy books to carry around breaking my back.
"You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
I realise it is a niche market, but i cant wait for this technology to develop. As a lawyer i would love to be able to carry around a small little device and store all my law books and acts/regs with me. Honestly i couldnt think of a better way of doing it than through a digital reader like this. The only problem is that law IS a niche market and the chances of getting digital copies of our books is slim to none. And secondly when you are reading through a 600pg book on contracts it is kinda helpful to put a postit note on important pages - i didnt notice anything from www.sony.com that suggested you could.
.... now if only you could print from it : /
Not saying that i would run out and buy all my books in ebook format, i love my hardbacked books. But in the situation im describing i would prefer to carry one little digital book in place of the 400-800 page bibles we use. Eitherway im looking forward to what this technology will bring us
Great, something else to put with my $400 ipod, $200 cell phone, and $300 PDA. The question is, *when* are they going to start talking to each other? I would love to actually be able to use the HD in my ipod to hook up with other portable devices. I really only need/want *one* HD.
Does it allow mark up of text? Can you search through your books? Bookmark a page? Cross reference books? Are we going to actually get some intelligent addition to text than just a stupid conversion of paper->binary? These things are obvious. They aren't hard to implement. Why haven't they been done before? Do these big companies *really* lack so much imagination!?
Also, if it does do PDFs, which would be a major reason I'd care, how fast will they be rendered? If I have to wait 20 minutes per page, I'll take paper thank you.
Identical display,
r o/newpro.asp
lcd touch screen for controls ( bypasses the crap 1second refresh of e-ink as a display for entering text)
0 drm.
accepts doc, txt, rtf, html, pdf in addition to its own format.
accepts standard sd memory ( not sony proprietary memsticks)
integrated mp3 player.
http://www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedp
Sony has realised the importance of making sure there is good content for a gadget like this.
/hey, does this one come with a rootkit, too?
Translation: Sony has realised that to appease the god named Shareholder, they will have to plug this device as the consumer interface to a long and lucrative supply chain, reaching back to publishers (but not to authors: there it's the same as music: either you're one of very few stars, or you do it for love, and only love).
In 2004 it launched a similar device [...] which failed to take off due to [price and] the restrictions it imposed on readers.
Ooh, the sweet smell of insight.
yes, we have no bananas
I'm still wondering who the target audience for this device is.
-More expensive than books
-Less 'enviroment friendly' than books
-More restrictive than books (a 60 day ebook DRM deadline that self deletes, versus at my leisure, 1 day through forever)
It has to be able to display these to be of interest to me:
http://www.gutenberg.org/
I do like to read contemporary works as well, (Strange and Norrell recently and Dowd's Bushworld) but I heavily favor the classics. I would not turn my nose up at proprietary formats and limited ownership times for most contemporary works since I rarely want to keep them after reading them. Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is a recent exception to that general rule (have them in hard back, looking forward to reading them again soon.)
PDFs and the ability to load one's own ASCII files would be most useful and thus a tempting electronic morsel for consumption by my eager wallet.
Very nice battery life on this unit, regardless.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
Plucker has been growing on me and seen increased use as of late. Its very versatile, and the format is open so I shouldn't get stuck with more eBooks having only semi-obsolete (or missing) readers on my palmtop of choice.
Any word on how much work they put into protecting it from running home-brew software? I'm sure there are a million uses for electronic paper but only if we're allowed to do what we want with it.
And really I don't see what the problem is. With PSP their money comes from selling software. But with this reader most of the money will probably come from the hardware.
Reading is bed will never be the same again :o). I can't believe how long these devices have taken to be developed as I feel the potential market is huge. Perhaps the problem is simply that it is a huge shift in thinking. It's the first time that paper really will become some what redundant. I'm not saying we won't need paper but if these devices became ubiquitous and with a decent display (which I think would be needed for them to become ubiquitous) I could easily see paper useage dropping dramatically.
I, for one, look forward to the day when 1000 page books weigh as much as a paper back and I don't have to struggle with forcing open a book that has printing running to within 3mm of the spine.
In fact the only downside I can envisage is that it will put publishers out of business because it will become trivial to self publish. I realize that you could self publish in electronic format already but sticking a PDF on a website is different to producing a book.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
...and i SO want it.
.txt files) as well as PDF files, so i could just put all of project gutenberg and schnoogle on it (with a choice selection of big SD cards) and be happy for the rest of my life... do any of you guys realize how inconvenient it is to read ebooks on your laptop when you're somewhere where handling a laptop is rather inconvenient?
from what i've seen, it does sony's own ebook file format (which can be made DIY, sony offers tools to convert web pages and
As much as I love reading actual paper, I find books awkward to hold. They never seem to stay open enough so I must struggle to keep them from closing. Is there some secret trick I'm missing on breaking books in so they're comfortable? A device like this that doesn't blast light into my eyes could be a great alternative.
a) iPod compatibility
This allows to leave your iPod behind.
b) PDA functionality with standard PDA OS
This allows to leave your PDA behind and allows to use alternative readers.
These dedicated e-readers are all trying to look like a dead-tree book and are missing a big part of the point. My PDA is small enough to fit in my shirt pocket. A book, even a paperback, isn't. Neither is a paperback-sized e-reader.
It's like trying to make automobiles palatable to horse'n'cart users by putting a fake horse in front of it.
I do all my reading on a Palm (T3, if you care) and have done for years. All it took to make it worthwhile was a paper-white screen with 320x320 or better resolution.
Why do I prefer ebooks?
The 800-page book I just read weighed no more than the short story I read before that. And I could have hundreds of 800-page books in my pocket at once.
I can touch a word on the page and instantly call up a definition from a 150,000 word dictionary.
I can read in the dark, I can read while waiting in a queue, I can read while floating in a canoe (with the PDA in a waterproof bag.)
I can bookmark interesting pages, I can jot notes in an electronic 'margin', I can copy a relevant passage into an email without re-typing it.
If my house burns down, I have an off-site backup of my library.
I can search for a character's name or a phrase I want to look up.
And I don't need something that _looks_ like a book to do it!
The unit reads PDF files as well as Sony's proprietary (anyone surprised?) BBeB format (stands for Broadband Electronic Books). They will be releasing software for reading BBeB format on your computer so you can read books you've purchased on your PC as well as on the Reader, but apparently you can only "share" your copy of the book with up to six other devices. When pressed for details about how this "document DRM" actually works, the PR rep we spoke with had zero information -- we asked whether a Mac version of the BBeB-reading software would be released but no word on that either. - Engadget
Reduce, reuse, cycle
The wikipedia entry says it should accept PDF files.
A general purpose reader would be more useful, than one restricted to only the BBeB format.
This thing looks like a plastic hunk of technology. Like an Ipaq, or more, like one of those cheap ripoff PDA's you see at the checkout at staples.
No matter how good it is, its hard to see this thing taking off. Especially at that price!
The main thing I would do diffent is give it a nice leather binding like a fancy book. And make it *look* like a book. Finally, the border around the LCD makes it look junky and distracting.
800 x 600, 4 level grayscale.
Displays PDF and JPEG in addition to eBook formats.
Online store looks a little familiar... but it only works in IE. And requires admin privs.
OK, so how are they doing "4 level grayscale" with e-Ink? Spatial dither?
irc://irc.efnet.com/ebooks can get an amazing amount of warez'd books there! :D
I like the idea of e-books but they do lack some of the conveniencs of a paper back. The major one being cost. If I leave a £4.99 book on a train I am mostly just upset that I can't read it until I get another copy and then I will have to relocate my position. But if I leave £400 of e-book on a train I probably won't give a stuff about the books! Although if it carries 80 books will my insurance reimburse me for those too? Or will the ebook library let me have another download for free (this kind of thing also applies to DRM linked music too - you might the insurance to pay out for a new music player, but will your current license let you move it to your new, possibly incompatible player?)
In the UK there has been a movement to openly share good paperbacks by leaving them on trains and in other public places, perhaps with a few comments in on what you thought about the book. I think it may have been a BBC idea - sorry no weblink (bad slashdotter, dirty slashdotter, in your bed!). This is great idea and gets people exposed to books they wouldn't have normally read. Could we imagine a digital equivalent? Maybe a random download for every 5 you buy.
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
$400 for a device that can't search an e-book? Forget it! Even my palm does that.
As a /. reader and com sci graduate the advantages of a single, lightweight low power solution versus the tomes that I used to have to chug around are obvious... although when I needed it most, university, I could have afforded it least. Even now, I find myself turning to electronic texts for referance over paper equivalents, but I have never read a novel from either a PDA or a VDU.
From a referance point of view an electronic reader is a long time comming. With any luck it will mean the publishers can stop charging £30 for a 200 page book thats bought by maybe 200 people a year. For short run publications this could be the philosophers stone. But for novels and fun reading I'm not so sure.
There are simply too many conflicts. Although the cost of publishing will be massively reduced so will the returns. We know from DVDs and CDs that people have very little respect for DRM as it feels artificial and more than any other medium I share books. I share them at work, work shares them with me (we have a library... more on that) and I share them with friends and family. This happens on an almost daily basis, and with the exception of reference books, once read, I rarely have any use for the books except to share them with others.
And what about libraries?
Libraries are a great good for any society providing education for all ages, free at the point of service, but they are intrinsically linked to the fact that you have to give the book back. Thats what seperates them from shops. With a digital library you would never have to give the book back, and if you did it would only be because of incredibly strict DRM. So what happens?
In my view the only way it could ever work was if nations openned up their national libraries to their citizens. Each citizen is provided with 'library card' and that allows them unlimited access to all the books via a website. The nation then keeps track of books and a nominal fee is handed out to publishers and authors at set points in the year... I dunno a $1 a book. Libraries would still be funded by the government, and paid for by direct taxation, and publishers would still be encourage not to publish crap because if no one reads it then they don't get paid, but librarians and high street books stores would be out of a job and libraries up and down the country would close and be turned into pubs. There would be no file sharing because everyone could access the books for free.
I dunno, there's something a little too utopian about this for it to ever happen. What will actually happen is that public libraries will close and not be replaced, because publishers will see it as a loss in revenue. A draconian DRM will be announced that means that you can't even cut and paste between your book and Word, this will be cracked with minutes and file sharing will kill short run publishing and severely damage small publishers who can't take the hit of a succesful book getting copied around the interent, leaving us with nothing but middle of the road, religious pap that people don't copy because its so awful and then think that they'll go to hell if they do.
Or worse, authors, desperate to spread their books will release them for free on the internet, but you'll only be able to read them if you also watch flashing adverts. Nightmare.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
I've been seeing some of the bestsellers in bookstores in an audiobook format complete with the reader. Add a AA battery and it's ready to play.
The total price including the audioplayer is cheaper than Sony wants for a text file of the same book.
The article says it supports BBeB/PDF/JPEG/MP3. I bought an MS Reader ebook a couple years ago (just to see how it all worked) for my ipaq, so I obviously can't use that - I have to buy my book again.
.txt format (for extra points, let me zip them up!) available for ebooks so as I change and upgrade my handheld reader, I don't have to keep buying the books.
I'd like to see
DRM sure is grand.
Someone made a nice bit of ebook reader software for the PSP, it'd clock the CPU and bus down to 1mhz so you'd get 10 hours of battery life even with the screen turned all the way up... Too bad it was rendered useless by not being able to run homebrew anymore. Oh well... I guess something like this is worth a look. (Though, minimizing the number of devices I carry around is always important to me...)
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
The GP2X can play music, watch video's, and also display books for reading, is cheap, and 100% open. I got a laptop too (powerbook) but lately when I've got something to tote, I load up the GP2X and off I go .. very easy, very fun...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Let me do some wild speculation...
/. just as well in B&W. Quick, large screen format, hi-res web browsing, on the go, that folds into a tiny package. cool!
Apple will introduce an E-ink paper add on to the Ipod. A little clip-on device, that rolls/folds into a convenient to carry size. The device will need no storage of its own, and no logic, perhaps not even its own power source, just clip it on, and use the familiar iPod click wheel to navigate your documents. Of course, it will support PDF, and some other form of DRM content that works with your existing iTunes/Fairplay account with a similiar set of restrictions.
Just as Apple was certainly not the first to market with an mp3 player, they just made one that was really great to use... don't be surprised if they do the same for e-reading - should the market show there's sufficient demand for the device.
And while I'm doing some wild speculation, why don't I add....
There will then be an iPod with built-in WiFi, that will allow you to use this hi-res 1 bit display to browse the web with on-the-fly dithering of color graphics into pseudo-greyscale images. There will even be an option of sending a particular image to the color iPod display for viewing in color if it's critical... but let's face we can read
ok... my minds getting carried way, I really should get some sleep - it's almost 4:30am where I am.
--Aaron Greenberg
If I lose it, I've lost maybe £10.
If I get sand on it at a beach, I can brush it off.
I can use it on a plane, and no-ones going to tell me to switch it off.
I can give it to a friend
I can trade it in at a bookstore
I can read it if I don't have a power supply
I can put it in my coat pocket and not worry about crushing it.
I can use it in the kitchen and not worry that getting food on it will cause expensive damage.
No-one pinches novels.
I'm sure there's a niche for this, but the idea that they'll be doing for paperbacks what Apple did with iPods is ridiculous. You can't play music without a power source, and you often want to choose a track to suit your mood. People did this before by carrying cd players and having a bunch of CDs. The iPod made it simpler. I don't forsee wanting to read one of half a dozen novels - I finish one before I start another.
I'm sure there's a niche, though.
Can an aussie please translate what the heck 'dearer' means to American? :) I think he means 'cheaper' but the context is confusing me.
Okay, your mileage may vary BUT I have the Sony Librie and I read nearly all my books with it.
With the exception of native PDF and HTML (I think) support, the difference between the new eBook and the Librie is small.
The Librie looke better as it is in white AND it has a keyboard. It also has a headphone socket. Neither of these are used by anyone, but the device is Linux as so there is a large hacker community and tools are coming out all the time. Initially the effort was to translate all the Japanese software into English and now people are talking about making the device to other things.
There is third party software out there to make your own books and you can use pretty much any source you want. Sony already has book creating software on the market, there is already an RSS to eBook application and there is also a reader on you PC (Windows only) for your books.
For the new eBook, Sony hasn't used the latest in eInk technology but let me tell you this, whenever I show the Librie to people, their jaw drops at the quality of the display. The viewing angle is tremendous (just the same as a book)
The display is not paper white - don't let Sony make you beleive that it is - but it can be used in low light and bright light conditions, just like a book.
The Librie (and I assume this holds true for the new reader) is lighter than a book - excellent for travelling - and is powered by 4 AAA batteries. This means that no matter where you are, you can always get power.
The only addition to my Librie that I have added is a wrist strap from a mobile phone so that when I am on a train or subway, I donlt keep thinking someone is about to grap the Librie and run.
The size of display is grat for books, probably fine for HTML but is isn't good for comics. It is simply not big enough. The new reader apparently has a zoom and pan function, but that isn't exactly ideal.
The eBook is great for anyone who travels a lot, anyone in a tech related business where you need to have technical documentation that you refer to. If you are up to creating your own books, then it is a fantastic way to read all your books. Never have the trouble of finishing a book and then being at a loss until you can get home or to the book store to get your next installment.
Check out the yahoo Librie group for more information.
Books dont have DRM. So why the hell should e-books? In any case, meet Karl's formula for hassle free shopping: ME + DRM = NO SALE
kin242.net
wake me up when somebody starts thinking about p0rn?
HORRIBLE. They were also very big and clunky devices. You might also note that modern Creatives ape the iPod UI about as far as they can while staying the right side of a lawsuit. They would take the scroll wheel if they could, but instead have to make do with a strip which means you have to constantly take your finger up when you run out of room. UI is quite important when you are trying to navigate through thousands of songs.
The iPod was successful because it was small, easy to use, and actually competitively priced (e.g. I didn't see any similarly priced 4gb flash players in the market when the Nano came out.)
I would TOTALLY use one of these things (especially because I have seen the type of display they use, and it's really very nice). I would use it to work on my novel, read bits of text that I'm translating while on the train, take a report from work to look at on the plane -- as long as it can read plain text and HTML files it's fine. Excel, and powerpoint would be good too but I can see how there could be issues there. But text and HTML are fine.
Oh, wait.
I can use it to read particular selected books that Sony has done a deal with Random House on. And PDF files. That are on a Sony(r) brand memory stick. In other words, no attempt is made to make it useful as a general purpose display device -- the focus is a game console like business model where they make the money on licensing someone else's content to me.
Well done, Sony. Another great idea from the planet's most bloated, directionless and internally divided consumer goods megacorp. Here is a lollipop for you. Now sit in a corner and wait till a Chinese or Korean company buys you.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
The digital equivalent of sharing books by leaving them around would be putting a bluetooth node in this thing, and a piece of software that shares the catalogue (or a subset) of ebooks installed with fellow e-bookers (and other bluetooth nodes) in the area. The user could then download his choice of reading material from other users.
I can see this being a real boon for commuters. I can even see it being a real advantage for (e-)print media - you could download the newspaper (without pictures), or your subscription to a magazine, just by walking into a "Bluebook zone" and pushing a button.
Hell, since an e-book is such a small filesize compared to music, you could even allocate a certain amount of storage space to *uploads*, as long as you made sure the formats were bulletproof in terms of viral infection vectors (ASCII files seem pretty harmless as long as you only treat them as ASCII). The equivalent of leaving a paperback lying around in a public place - upload something to someone who would not have otherwise read it!
I wonder if it has an expansion bus you can get at....
does it run Linux?
If I want a computer, I use a laptop or a tower. If I call somebody, a cell phone's a handy thing. I keep my phone book there. If I want a place to keep notes, I use a notepad. If I want to read something longer than an op-ed or a blog post, I get one of those handy little things made of paper and cardboard, all glued together real nice. They cost between about $10 or $20 new, and even less if you get it at a yard sale. Free in a library. The batteries never run out, the screen doesn't crack, and if you lose it you don't panic over the $400 thing you just lost. You go to Amazon and order another copy. Sometimes technology is just stupid and worthless. May the "e-book" rot in hell.
From Sony's website
I think i need this line for the lameness filter
if you try and copy any of the text out with a pen and paper, it explodes the pen in your hand and makes you unable to read any word prefixed by a the string $sony$
Effectively that's what a hood ornament is.
Paid Q&A/Research
I would very much like to have such a thing. I love Victorian literature, so I can download all of it from Gutenberg and read it from such a device. But after the rootkit debacle I decided never to buy Sony if I can help it, so...
-- Cheers!
According to Sony's website, it will read PDFs and other files (presumably including plain text), but you need to convert them to the Reader's own file format "using supplied software".
But apparently Sony have not confirmed whether a Mac version of the conversion software will be available. And I'm guessing that Linux users certainly need not apply. *sigh*
exactly.. this is 2006 for god sake. we have 1/2" cell phones which can display news feeds to us on the go. why do we need something thats the size of a book.. this is epaper we're talking about. the reader should be a pocket sized cyllindrical object from which you can pull out the screen like a windowshade. and $400 for a screen and an os more primitive than a cell phone is rediculous. Apple could probably blow it out of the water with a small software update to add much broader ebook functionality to ipod.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I absolutely adore Palm devices. I don't go anywhere without my Tungsten E. Yet, there's still some very small nitpicks I have with it. One of the main problems for me is battery life. My old IIIxe used to go for a month or two on a single pair of AAA batteries. Today, I need to charge nightly in order to keep the battery up. The screen is also a problem - I usually work in areas with lighting that requires me to turn the Palm's backlight up 100% just to read the screen.
If e-paper is as good as others have said, I would jump at the opportunity to carry a Palm-powered e-paper PDA. (Perhaps they could call it "Palm Canvas".) The PDA would be lighter, be easier to read in most light (perhaps with a backlight for those situations where I need it) and last longer on its batteries.
Combining Palm's PDA apps with e-paper would really get my attention. Having it not manufactured by Sony or DRM-encumbered would be really nice, too.
The screen is passive. It only requires new energy when the page is being changed. The battery lasts 7500 page-changes on average.
Unless you regularly head out into the wilderness and read the same 50 page novel one hundred times in a row, this is just as practical for power. A 300 page book is comparable in size to this. A 1000 page book is comparable in size to this and a solar charger. The next model probably will be solar powered, actually. I'm surprised this one isn't.
As for the rest of your points, a book is only durable if you don't care what it looks like. It will endure and stay readable through twelve careless readings, true, but it will be a mess by the end. Waterspots from the rain, dog-eared pages and cracked spines are just about unavoidable.
Here all I have to do is put the reader in a strong case like I have on my iPod and PDA and I can be certain each page will remain pristine. Standard PDA cases are more than strong enough to handle occasionally being sat on or dropped. This is a solid state device with very few buttons. Nothing I put my books through would break a PDA, even though I read *everywhere.* I even read while walking, stupid as that is.
So for three or four hundred dollars, I get all of Project Gutenberg in a pretty tough little device I can put in a backpack and that I'll only have to recharge about once a week? That's a *fantastic* deal, whether the Sony bookstore takes off or not.
And don't forget the books will cost nearly as much as print editions and will be DRM'ed up to the eyeballs so you can't use your book on any other device or sell it on when you're done. What is the point of that I wonder? I would expect an ebook to cost half as much as a print edition simply because all materials, printing and shipping are eliminated. On top of that I would expect it to be discounted further if I, the reader am not able to pass the book to someone else or sell it on and recoup my losses.
No matter how cool the device might be, you can rely on Sony to shoot themselves in the head. In a space of five years they have gone from being hip and cool to being evil. They must be losing more through lost sales than they'll ever recoup through DRM. I wonder how long it will be and how many failed products before that clue sinks in.
... that had the same great screen but was a nicer looking device and not a Sony product (the rootkit fiasco hurt). Plus id expect a seamless iTMS-like integration with an eBook store... and iTunes like software for managing and syncing your PDFs, .txts, .rtfs, .chms etc. Put it at $250 and you have a winner.
Seriously though, I thoroughly expect e-readers to take off once the iPod of its kind hits.
My bet is like the iPod there is no provision in this thing for the print disabled (blind or dyslexic) to be able to use it.
Really now how hard would it be to build DAISY http://www.daisy.org/ access into this, or other similar devices?
I suppose that we'll have to wait for the NFB http://www.nfb.org/ or the ACB http://www.acb.org/ to sue some hardware maker under the ADA before they will stop making these things that can't be used by the blind. That goes for Slashdot and it's imaged based posting requirement too.
Yeah yeah.
These are the people that have been predicting e-books would take off now for how long? The same people who told us that push technology is the next great thing. Oh, and the iPod-killer, mustn't forget how many iPod-killers they have predicted. Fact: "Critics" and "expert" and (even worse) "analysts" tend to be terrible in predicting what people will buy. If they did know jack, they would be wearing black turtlenecks, earning a dollar a year, and making people in San Francisco swoon with the really successful things.
I'll say it again and again, until I can drop my e-book in the bathtub without ill effects, the batteries will never go out on me, I can scrawl notes on the margins of "Cryptonomicon" where Stephenson got the German wrong, and dog-ear it where I like to reread, the things will remain a toy. Paper has too many advantages and too few disadvantages to be in danger.
You can tell this is Slashdot by the comments alone. A bunch of people have basically said, "I don't understand why this will sell, the feature list isn't different from other things out there." If a device in this space catches hold, it won't be because of the feature list. It will be because of usability-- the interface and form factor need to make reading a book feel natural.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
probably lots of you have mentioned this.. i personally thing E-book readers are a great idea.. especially with this new E-ink technology.. but you've got to be out of your mind if you're selling them for $300-400 ?? thats a price of a fucking sweet ass PDA.. what the hell's the point??
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
This will save my wrists!
... not if it displays porn, though.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist!)
Yeah, somewhere along the line they stopped trying to do one thing well and put all of those bells-n-whistles on the unit which sap battery life.
I still miss my IIIx, being able to swap batteries out was a very handy thing. I usually got about 2-3 weeks of life out of mine.
Nowadays, I've been using a Palm OS cellphone (Kyocera) that I bought back in 2001. Since it's a cellphone, the short battery life is a little more palatable. I can get 2-3 days between charges if I'm not using it to make calls. The screen is also smaller then the old IIIx. And it requires large pockets.
It still works after 5 years, I'm mostly happy with it. I'm at a loss of what I will replace it with (due to losing all of my PalmOS apps unless I can find another).
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
So we get a new generation of Newton without the sdk, just DRM?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Who doesn't love the noise of two folding pages, who can't enjoy the pleasure of that "ink on paper" smell reminding of youth and heavy removals; what about the immediate disappointing and then the memories by those spots of pizza all over the pages; what about underlining with a pink pen or that funny pencil notes and "art shapes" on the sides, or that phone number secretly written on the corner of page 356?
./ entry.
Who can forget the beautiful view of a wall-bookshelf completely full of of multi-color covers, with titles always written on the wrong side for your current observation angle? How will this change be handled by the old-fashion small-minded who always dream of burning piles of immoral books in a public square, and what about the billions of people who have never seen a cheap paper book, then will never see ANY?
Should we replace all this with a silly anynomous piece of plastic, maybe expensive in itself? Should we once again be filled of preemptive panic for any drops of our tea or other liquid to fall on it, like we worry for too many other electronics? What if we fall asleep and it falls on the floor?
Should we once again be desperately running over airports or engage in infamous "Starbucks plug-wars" to find a socket for the last four pages and, besides, who on earth can swear he is able to truly read and concentrate on an electronic device? Ten minutes from buy time and we'll think of a way of running linux and firefox on it, plug in someway a wireless device and rush to put a stupid comment on the last duped
Last but not least, should we start be frustrated by DRMs and awkward limitations for books as well!? Should we become paranoid because They(r) not only will know which books we bought or like, but will also be aware of how many pages we have read so far? See "book ratings", "age limits", then entire "disliked" series be censored then disappear from the face of hearth with one single 'rm -fr'
Should we assist unharmed to format wars leading to huge "imcompatibility headaches"? Be worried if pdf or rtf or text are going to be supported in the next firmware or have to find a way to hack it? Start silly counting how many copies of the book we made and how many we can still make on our "registered devices"? Will there be yet another hunt for witches for book downloads, another huge source of profit to pay lawyers' private jets, a BOOK Jon, perhaps a DBAA (Digital Books Association of America)?
Oh, please. Nothing to see here, move along.
What happened since last month's article that claimed e-paper was going to be so cheap it'd be on every cereal box?
1 5/1720224&tid=126&tid=14
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/
Does it feel soft in the hand? Can I bend it, or do I have to mould my wrist bones to hold it comfortably? Does its cover change to match what i'm reading? Can I pick one up for a few dollars? Will it work if I drop it? What the hell am I going to have in my house now that I don't need a bookshelf?
Czech language for absolute beginners
How can their reader be taking hold? It was just unveiled at CES according to TFA. At least wait until they have a retail product out before announcing that it's "taking hold".
Books are cheap, easy to use, don't need batteries, and are accessible to everyone through the public library. I don't see books going away any time soon.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
You have to pick your finger up? That's crap. Maybe my girlfriend's Toshiba m205 spoiled me, but that touch pad knows how to scroll. The right-hand side of the touch pad mouse acts as a scroll wheel. If you drag your finger and hold, it continues scrolling at a speed proportional to the distance your finger dragged, until you raise the finger. Done that way, I'd prefer the strip to the wheel, which is an awkward motion that's bound to give me arthritis.
This may be true for you, but other people have different requests. For me, I'd much prefer this solution, were it not for the cost. I have a PDA (a Sony NR-70V with a large, 320x480 screen), and have played around with some e=books on it, but I have issues, many of which this device resolves.
Where I see the big application for this is with commuting (where you probably have a laptop bag or backpack anyway), which would give the ability to bring dozens of novels/ technical boks/newspapers/emails with you and vacationing (where you are definitely bringing bags with you anyway). By all means, load e-books onto your PDA; that's still great for spontaneous reading (waiting in line for 20 minutes, or whatnot) or for times when space and weight is at an ultimate premium (as in your stated example of canoe tripping). But I think this technology has promise for a lot of people. It's just too expensive at the moment
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
stay in my pants pockets....
sometimes more than 2.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
This reader, unlike the Librie, can display formats other than BBeB. Supported formats are BBeB Book, PDF, JPEG, MP3. According to Gizmodo the reader will also support syncing to RSS feeds with images.
These dedicated e-readers are all trying to look like a dead-tree book and are missing a big part of the point. My PDA is small enough to fit in my shirt pocket. A book, even a paperback, isn't. Neither is a paperback-sized e-reader.
Paperback size is about perfect for a form-factor. Why do you think books converged on that size? It's not as if making smaller books were impossible, but publishers rather vary the page count than the size. Yes, I know there is a lot of variation in book sizes - but up from paperback size rather than down. There are lots of thicker or larger books, but very few smaller. Most publishers rather publish a thin book than a small one.
You might be comfortable reading on a PDA screen. I for sure am not. I don't want to have the screen 10 cm in front of me, and neither do I want to ready tiny letters.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
But will Sony allow me to borrow it from a friend?
Will an e-book be readable in 300 years? 30? Heck ... how about THREE?
Of course it will be a success! I for one rushed out of my Dymaxion house wearing a disposable paper coat, jumped on my Segway and rushed to the store to get one.
Sooner or later there will be a subscription model that will reduce the up-front costs of the reader, provided you sign up to a newspaper or a book club. Wow, my wife will really love this. Er, does anyone have a link to the sourceforge linux/ebook project yet?
Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
non-DRM e-books do exist
"There are 17,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog." - Project Gutenberg
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
...this was the argument against a certain mp3 player....
I think books are pretty intuitive and userfriendly. 36-42 lines per page, 12 words per line is OK with me, and that needs a pocket-sized book to be readable. The only thing I miss in dead-tree books is the last three lines of the previous page and the first three lines of the next page (in italic or with a gray bg to distinguish it), so I don't have to flip pages when I lost track of the sentence.....
They tried before with the Librie, it failed because of DRM and high price in my opinion. Wake me when a light waterproof unit appears, that can read freely avaiable content from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/. If the price is below 200$ it WILL stand a fair chance replacing a pocketbook for me.
accept no limits but time
this sony reader is absolutely a cool device.
however, nothing can change the fact that it's still an EREADER and that nobody really wants this functionality. Also given the fact that it's really hard to actually find eBooks to read.
they should use the display technology for something else. Sony is wasting their time.
There are a lot of posts already up complaining about the DRM, but most fail to address what I've always considered DRM's biggest pain-in-the-ass - interoperability. This thing is useless to me if I can only buy content from Sony's content providers. Let's envision a market where e-books take off, but there are three or four different formats - each DRMed up the wazoo. Hitchhiker's guide is available in the Sony format, but Slaughterhouse Five is only available in the (for instance) Microsoft format, and I can only get the latest Dave Barry in (let's say) some Phillips format. Am I going to need three seperate, expensive readers, even though any one of them has the hardware necessary to do the job?
If the market doesn't build itself around open-spec, non-DRMed formats, it's going to create one hell of a barrier to entry. It's a good thing this device can read PDFs or other formats - but that doesn't help very much if the publishers don't put out content in those formats.
Of course, the same issue exists with music files and other media content already, and it sadly doesn't seem to have slowed the market. I just hope all those people with iTunes libraries and iPods never decide they want to buy an exclusive track from a WMA-only merchant, or switch to another brand of player.
Slated for release in April '06, price probably around 500 US$.
Okay, I'll buy it!! If they have Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds.
Olsen's "Standard Book of British Birds"?
Yes.
O-l-s-e-n?
Yes.
B-i-r-d-s?
Yes.
Yes, well we do have that one.
The expurgated version, of course.
I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that.
The expurgated version.
The *expurgated* version of Olsen's "Standard Book Of British Birds"?
Yes. It's the one without the DRM.
The one without the DRM? They've all got the DRM - This a SONY Reader!
Well I don't like them!
Well you can't expect them to produce a special edition for SONY-haters!
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
Is it really so hard for you to convert your html into PDF? No, it isn't, if all else fails boot a knoppix cd, open them in konqueror, and print them to PDF. I prefer html to PDF, but really, it's undeniably the standard format for stuff like this.
I am trolling
I see no need to have a PDA for addresses and phone numbers, an iPod for music, and an ebook reader for books, when I can do all of this and much more with the computer I already have. If you are going to juggle all of this crap, you might as well just carry a laptop. Furthermore, I have no interest in any books locked down with ridiculous DRM crap when I can get more excellent literature than I have time to read, free of DRM, free of charge, and in an editable format (so I can add my own notes or bookmarks or correct spelling errors) from Gutenberg. So this reader miserably fails the "why should I cough up the cash" test.
"I can read in the dark, I can read while waiting in a queue, I can read while floating in a canoe "
I can read in Timbuktu.
I can read in the zoo.
I can read about Green Eggs and Ham.
I can read on Slashdot about Can-Spam.
I can read almost anything, anywhere, Hot Damn!
I'm not too excited about the DRM possibilities, but I took a look at the reader hardware at CES and was really impressed. It was my first time using an e-ink based display. They are very readable and surprisingly light. It is odd to poke at a display and not have it react like an LCD. The display looks like a nicely contrasted grayscale, but feels like a solid printed surface.
The demo units had various print media samples including technical, fiction and manga. All looked fantastic.
I was into the whole Microsoft Reader thing when it came out, but battery life made it unusable. This answers that challange in spades.
I saw a lot of cool things at CES, but this was one of my favorites. My only complaint, make it while like the Sony Libre.
The catch for me will be if the books are priced right. They have an amazing opprotunity here to storm the market but pricing books cheaper than printed versions and giving away sample chapters to entice, but I have a feeling that won't happen.
-Xen
Now change the effort required to 'turn the page' to a slight pressure on the button that your finger's already on. (Like a mouse-click when you're already holding the mouse.) Having fewer words per page now matters less and the perfect form-factor shifts towards ease of holding.
I don't notice when I change pages, any more than you notice the page turns if you're sitting comfortably. I can also be lying in bed and not notice the page 'turns', one handed.
I hold the PDA at the same distance I once held a paperback, and a 320x480 pixel screen is very legible. If you forget your glasses, just increase the font size!
It's about time. I've played with one of these 2 years ago in Tokyo and fell in love with it.
Yup, you belong here. Carry on.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
... if I can put what I want on it. I don't have a problem with them providing a DRM-ed format, as long as I can also put other, non-DRM'd content on it. I had a few Rocket eBooks, and now own a Gemstar eBook, and I think it's the best way to read. I can carry dozens of books in one compact package, I never lose my place (no, I am not capable of using a paper bookmark. I do reasonably well at simply remembering the page number where I stopped reading, but the eBook is much better), I can read one-handed, or even zero-handed, by putting the eBook in a plastic baggie I can read in places I wouldn't take a paper book, I can read in the dark... the list goes on. eBooks rock.
And I already have a good source of reading material to use with this eBook. Baen sells all of their books in various non-DRM'd formats, including the RocketBook format (which is usable by Gemstar also). Further, Baen's prices on their ebooks are low enough to partially offset the price of the reader device (assuming you read a lot, which I do).
I'm quite happy at the moment with my Gemstar reader, but I know it will eventually die, and no more are available, except secondhand at exorbitant prices (they generally cost more to buy used than they did when they were new). Price aside, the secondhand supply is problematic because all of the existing devices contain batteries which are not easy to replace and are gradually deteriorating.
In addition, this Sony reader is lighter and thinner, which makes it even more attractive. The fact that it doesn't draw any power except when pages are changed should make it more airplane-acceptable as well (though in practice it probably won't).
Since it supports PDF, I should be able to convert other formats for use on this device easily enough. I'll wait and see what people say, and probably wait for the price to drop down to the ~$200 range, but I see a Sony Reader in my future.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
There are many tools out there for creating your own content. Sony Sell Book Creator, there is an Application call Book Designer that is free, there is something calle makelrf which is a basic .txt to eBook parser/creator, Libreate for OSX. Creating your own content is not a problem.
I don't think these will ever become popular until they incorporate these types of screens into traditional laptops--or, more likely, tablets. People do not want a $400 device that only replaces traditional books.
They want to be able to bring these devices on the go and keep them with them. With something like an iPod that's easy enough, since it's very small. However, with ebook readers, they need to be somewhat large to have good readability, and I don't think Sony et al. are going to have an easy time marketing them for that price unless they have other features to make them necessities to keep around.
If I (I don't... but people do) already have a PDA, cell phone, and iPod with me all the time, where's the room for one of these?
michael greene
Baen has put a bunch of ebook/multimedia cd's out with the hardback versions of a number of books. The licensing is quite liberal: in a nutshell, you can give it away, but just can't sell it.
There's a site for torrents for all of them at http://oberon.zlynx.org/. I try to seed whenever I can, but it can be spotty, so be patient.
Oh yeah - Buy Baen Books!
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Really, I wonder where the market for such devices is. I personally have one of the earliest (to my knowledge) eBook readers to come to market, the Rocket eBook. (Link to review of one: http://www.atpm.com/6.05/rocketebook.shtml) I'll admit that at first I really liked it. I'm a gadget freak, and the eBook reader was a lot of fun, especially back in ~1998, 1999 when such concepts and devices were still new. Furthermore, Nuvomedia (or whomever actually manufactured and designed the devices) did a good job with the software allowing you to underline/highlight words and IIRC even take notes in the "margins." They also provided a built in dictionary in case you didn't know what a word meant. Oh, and they provided the software to convert from several different formats to their eBook format, meaning you could download books from Project Gutenburg for reading on your eBook reader.
That said, after the initial newness wore off, I realized that I still prefered the eBook's dead tree counterpart. There's just something about the whole experience of turning the pages yourself. Not to mention, a paper book seems much easier on the eyes, although I will admit that LCD technology has progressed quite a bit since those days. Weight and size was another factor against the eBook. I know that Sony's eBook is going to be smaller, but I have a hard time figuring out, subjectively, just how heavy 250g is.
Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out just who out there wants to spend so much more time staring at another screen. For me, that's part of the whole experience of reading a book - it's partly a way for me to get away from technology for a bit.
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
I read ebooks all the time and unless this thing allows me to read any ebook like my PDA, it's not worth spit. The $300-$400 price tag is also extremely high for a single purpose device like this anyway.
BTW, Baen also sells non-DRM ebooks and also has a great library of FREE ebooks that come in multiple formats.
d4,...,Nf3, or maybe I should use a Ratfaced Mcdougal?
Care to suggest a quite cheap PDA which are good for ebookreading? I've been thinking of getting one myself but haven't done so. The cheapest palms use to low resolution I suppose? So what alternatives are there if you want text which are quite easy to read?
For an ebookreader I would say around $100 would be ok if the books are sold at a decent price (say $30 for computer books max), if they are just as expensive as paper books I don't see why I should read them electronically. The $100 might be to much for me aslong as I can't copy (yes, pirate!) books thought. $300-400 for a worse way to read books? No way.
With a PDA atleast I get a decent organiser aswell.
The small screen doesn't make it uncomfortable? How readable are the text? How does images look? Care to take a picture for me while reading a computer book with some text, code examples and images or something? If you don't wanna post the image in this thread feel free to e-mail me at aliquis@link-net.org. Thanks in advance.
Cost of Sony electronic book reader: $300 and $400 USD
Cost of borrowing a book from the library: $0
Even if the prices of downloadable books are equal to or a little less than their paperback counterparts, it'll take a while for the difference to make up for the cash spent on the gadget up front. Then you still have to worry about the device crashing, potential DRM, and the battery dying.
Give me a paper novel any day. The e-book reader is a solution without a problem. If you argue that it will help the environment, I cry bullshit. Trees, despite our current management of them, are a renewable resource. Paper in landfills, if for some reason it isn't recycled, biodegrades quite quickly. Compare that to a plastic-and-metal e-book reader that will be obsolete in less than a year. Oh yes, and 100 years from now, a book could still be readable... Even if the e-book still functioned (and in today's age of disposable electronics, I highly doubt it), finding a compatible battery alone would be a challenge. This is one of the many reasons why, despite the prevalence of computers in the workplace, people still use paper.
Not to replace all the dead tree books that I read, but primarily for the newspaper, blogs, newsgroups, some magazines, work trade rags. You can stuff any content you want on this thing (I've read about html & Pdf) - so I could read all the stuff that I currently read online but have to sit in front of a computer for, during my commute (I take the train or my wife drives). Not to mention all of the references that I'd love to carry. Forget e-books - the value of this thing is reading online content without being in front of a computer.
If it works with O'Reilly's Safari service, count me in.
"All it took to make it worthwhile was a paper-white screen with 320x320 or better resolution."
Am I correct in interpreting this to mean that you read dark characters on a white background?
This has always seemed to me like looking into a light bulb. When my Palm m125 is backlit I see light green characters on a dark background, and I find it much easier on my eyes.
Similarily, when reading a long HTML document I add the line
BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#FFFFFF" LINK="#9690CC"
to get white characters on a black background. I wish slashdot had this option.
One advantage that a dead-tree book has over an e-book is that you can read it on the airplane during those times when the attendants hassle you for turning on electronics. Air travel is when I get some of my best reading time.
You can't have a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent.
I prefer html to PDF, but really, it's undeniably the standard format for stuff like this.
.pdb files. (I think that is a text file for plam pilot. is pretty popular as well.)
Nope, PDFs are a standard, but not THE standard. The big standard is just acsii text files, next html & pdf are tied, then rtf, & last is lit. (I hate lit with a passion. That damn MS lit reader wastes a ton of screen space trying to make your displayed page look like a freaking book. I'd love to easily convert alot of books in that format to something else.) Oh, I also forgot
Now if you are talking about "e-book readers" then I'm sorry, there isn't a standard in that freaking field. Each maker wants you to use their format and only their format on their "e-book reader".
The first company that makes a nice reader that supports txt, html, rtf, pdf, and lit and has either a USB or compact flash to transfer files could make alot of money. They'd want to sell the damn thing for more than a laptop though, and it won't sell for that much.
I'd just like to add a "me too". Their conversion software will almost certainly be a piece of Windows-only crap, and hence useless to me.
If they'd just made the thing understand at least one open format (PDF, OEB, whatever) they'd have gotten a sale.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
There's more to the human book interaction than reading letters on a page. The idea of thumbing through a book either to scan it or to look for the page where something you recall is located is essential. I can't think of a single book I have read that I read page by page without thumbing through.
There truly is a muscle memory in addition to a photogrphic memory that can help you thumb back to a point in the text where you the thing you read previously is located. I know this from experience. I can frequently tell someone where on the page boundaries and about where in a book a certain picture or paragraph is located even though I did not really intend to memorize it.
Likewise in some books I bend the corners or insert sticky notes on margins. (Oddly to me some books are sacrosanct and I would never bend their corners). In text book I will pencil in corrections to mistkaes I find in fomulas.
A heavily used book develops natural breakpoints from the wear and tear so the naturally open to the critical information for you.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It is possible the publishers has someone other than the reader in mind when creating a standard for paperbacks... just to be devil's adv. I'll say that it's possible they were thinking of both the print houses and the distribution channels when standardizing, ie: Covers and artwork specs all the same, shipping box sizes that fit x*x number of books per stack, same for displays in bookstores, etc.
I'm not saying that a paperback isn't a great size for reading, just that reading convenience isn't the only reason to standardize on a size for cheap economical production of paperbacks.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I'd love to see them add an eBook reader to the PSP. It already does everything else. If the GP2X can already do it with a smaller screen, it would be even better on a PSP.
So close and yet so far... Once again Sonys hardware is cool, only to be crippled by shoddy software.
In this case, even their online store is IE only. I got this in Firefox:
"We appreciate your interest in the Connect music store, but our store currently only works with Internet Explorer 5.5 and above. You don't seem to be using that particular browser at the moment, so, unfortunately, we'll have to part ways until we support the browser you're currently using or you upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer. Please click the Download link below if you'd like to upgrade now." http://www.connect.com/non_ie.html
Just as with the iPod my bet is that this device will not be accessible to the blind or print disabled. How hard would it be to add DAISY http://www.daisy.org/ support to this. Daisy is the international standard for digital talking books produced by the various talking book libraries.
At some point organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind http://www.nfb.org/ are going to start to sue hardware makers, web sites and so on under the ADA for creating inaccessible products.
I've been following eBooks for years now.
.txt, .pdf, .doc, or .rtf documents.
I used to own a Franklin EBook.
In concept, they should be great.
The readers themselves have been (for me) one disappointment after another.
In practice, as Jon Stewart so often says, "ehh... not so great."
First, they have tended to be inflexible. Many want you to use only their own proprietary file formats and won't even touch
Second they have tended to be fragile, with delicate screens and power supplies. I once went through three EBooks in as many months and I am NOT brutal on hardware. (On of my WORKING laptops is eleven years old!)
Between Project Guttenberg (currently 17,000 free and legal downloadable books at www.guttenberg.org) and the vast returns when Googling one could read for centuries and never get bored.
For those who MUST have the latest, www.ebooks.com boasts their current inventory to be 45,000 titles, most between $5 and $20 (US).
What we REALLY need is a laptop/tablet with a 4" by 6" folded form factor (so it will fit in a jacket pocket). Price it between $499 and $699 and we will have a WINNER.
We could also use Bluetooth "sunglasses" that block out everything but the screen for reading at the beach/pool.
An optional hand-crank attachment to deal with dead batteries isn't a bad idea either. For Christmas, I bought my camper-fanatic brother-in-law a combination television/radio/lantern that hand cranks the power. Why not a PC?
If the thing is going to the beach, enclose it in a water-proof/sand-proof enclosure. I worked in the industrial hand-held industry eons ago (industrial meter reader, supermarket inventory devices, etc.) and they licked this problem in the 1980's.
Come to think of it, crank up an IPod with a 8" by 6" display that folds to 4" by 6" (Think bigger Nintendo DS) and the bugger could provide background music while reading. (I prefer classical during most reading, thank you.)
I can still hope......
Live Long and Prosper - Thanks Leonard. You are missed.
Unless I can borrow my books to my friends or borrow their's, I am not interested in any of these technologies.
My books are MINE. I OWN them. I don't want something that will take away something that is so very much part of my life. I will not want someone to DRM my soul on the same token, I sure hell don't want DRM on my books.
I bought a $100 eBookWise(old geb1150 reborn) device last year and I love it. However, one of the best features is I can read it in the dark, and I still get up to 20 hours/charge out of it. I can read it for hours on end without any strain at all.
I deliberately chose a dedicated device over a PDA for screen size and battery life. However, the ergonomics of this sony look horrible by comparison. Sure the screen is nicer and a touch bigger, but I will stick with the $100 device I can read anytime, anywhere. The gemstar is heavier and thicker because of the battery compartment, but I like the feel of it in my hand. It has a rubber grip, is searchable, has top to bottom symmetry so it can be switched for lefties, and I can convert just about anything using their software to read on it.
Sony missed the boat. The device I have was technically a failure that was given an extended life by another company, and it is still better that this sony.
I have had an ebookwise device for a little over a year now and I LOVE it. The only problem is that their isn't enough content and the device can't read PDFs. Limiting how and what content can be put on a device will ruin its chances of success. It took me far too many steps to put my pirated copy of the davinci code on my ebook reader. Also, while I can barrow, and resell "real" books, I can't do that with an ebook, yet ebooks cost almost as much, that sucks. I am excited by the sony's screen, the ebookwise screen is nice but not perfect. G.
I take pictures
My question would be if anyone knows of other companies that make similar devices, but not Sony and not DRM'ed. Personally I'd be looking for something that reads a flash card with perhaps XML formatted or rich-text files. Bold schemas should handle most documents (except for maybe images?) and should also be fairly standard so they'd be easy to convert from other formats/applications.
However, as this current product is Sony branded, even if it did feature what I wanted I'd not by it due to the fact that the brand/company leaves a very ugly taste in my mouth overall.
You want iSilo and a palm pilot.
To get DRM free books try irc.Nullus.net
Just wait until you need reading glasses, and all those comments about "why do we need something as big as a book?" will go away. Best thing about this is that the text could be zoomed on the fly -- no more having to by larger print versions as you age.
That's the cost of 30-40 paperbacks, or 15-20 hardcovers.
Since the average American reads maybe one book a year, who's going to spend that kind of money to read that one book?
This is why readers have never taken off - too damn expensive. They aren't LAPTOPS, for Pete's sakes, which cost twice as much but do far more.
Produce a reader that costs $50, people may buy them.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
The big hullabaloo about the Librie was the DRM. IMHO, they should have put that famous spin on it "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Just like you cant rent a movie at Blockbuster for $4 that costs $20 to buy at BestBuy, if Sony has a service where you could rent an ebook for a resonably lengthed limited time (such as the 60 days of the Librie DRM) for a similarly reduced price (say about $2) I'd jump at it. I go through 5-10 books a month, usually rented free from the library some purchases at Barnes&Noble or Amazon.com, but to have access to a bigger selection and the advantages of an ebook reader over a paperback would be worth the investment and paying $10-$20 per month for new content
Free MacMini
Greed on the part of publishers will sink any and all device makers, no matter how good the hardware is. They smell one thing and one thing only: HUGE MARGINS. Let's see: no dead trees, no printing plants, no distributors, no brick-and-morter stores and we're STILL going to charge retail price for the IP.
No, no, no, no, no.
Mike
Since the average American reads maybe one book a year, who's going to spend that kind of money to read that one book?
Where did you come up with that stat? I know many people that read two or three books a week. Most of these are women and they are reading fluff fiction, but they are reading books. Personally I read at least 2 or 3 a month. If these readers are heavy duty enough to take being thrown in my gym bag or taken on a camping trip, waterproof enough for my sister to use in a bathtub and have widespread enough file format support so I'm not locked into Sony's DRM I would consider buying one. You are right though, for $300 it better be an amazing piece of hardware.
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"Additionally other companies are also working on devices using the same E Ink technology. And some are working on flexible electronic paper displays that can be rolled up."
Sony has already proven themselves to be evil. Why not wait for one of these other companies to come out with a product? In this case the devil we know is pretty evil (vs. the devil we don't know). I'm still boycotting sony, which is tough for me because I really want a PSP, but I can't stomach giving them any money.
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
The Hanlin e-book reader by Tanjin Jinke Electronics Co. Ltd. is a Linux based PDA-looking reader that claims to use ePaper. I don't know if that's eInk's technology or a knock-off, but otherwise things sound good, it doesn't seem to be a DRM-encumbered device at all, and supports a lot of different technologies. The V8 is supposedly out this month and the V2 is out in May.
There's one feature I want (aside from reading of TXT, PDF, and other common formats without being crushed by DRM). I'd love it if the reader could be an alarm clock. Think of it. No glow from LEDs, much higher contrast than LCDs so it can be read with ambient light, even in the middle of the night. That alone is a great start but it's also a no noise, low-power, battery powered device so it works even when the power fails. Finally, both the Sony one and the Hanlin device claim to be MP3 players so if they include an external speaker they could wake you up to music.
Maybe it's just me, but I like the idea of being able to read my eBook before I go to bed, lay down the reader on a bedside table, having it wake me up a good 8 hours later, and being able to easily see the time in any light conditions.
I've tried out rapid serial visual presentation software (RSVP) on my desktop, and it does seem to allow me to read substantially faster. I doubt I'd read this way for pleasure, but I'd like to do it with reference manuals. It would be great for skimming textbooks to review or preview material, and studies show that you can read about three times faster without losing any comprehension ability.
I'm also interested in electronic chess books. It's almost impossible for me to read anything but tactics books without a board. Even with a board, moving the pieces is slow, and setting up the main position after examining a line of analysis is slow. I'd like to read through games and be able to follow the game with an on-screen board next to the text.
Both these options already exist for the Pocket PC, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on E-Ink displays.
I like how "analysts" (paid guessers) liken this to the Ipod (I read that in some other article).
This will not take ahold like the Ipod (though perhaps in a different way, though I dont think so) because it isnt so convenient as an Ipod. You cant plug this ebook reader into your ears and walk around town listening to it like you can an ipod. You need free time to devote attention to the device.
I think that if it could read the book to you audibly, then it could have a chance, but at around $400 for what is basically a book, I think it will go nowhere.
Not that I have problems with books, I read a ton, but the current pop culture in America seems to shun books in lieu of more popular passtimes (music, games, TV, loitering)
I'm an early adopter, and fond of ebooks. You know those guys that bought Rocketbooks way back? That's me.
I learned a hard lesson there, and I'll share it with you. The thing holding up eBooks from mainstream acceptance doesn't have anything to do with the hardware, or even the availability of books (though that is a problem).
The big issue is that they charge the same as a paper book, and often as much as a hardback, but I don't get the ability to:
Sell the book
Trade it with a friend for one I haven't read
Trade it in for credit at a used book store, like Half Price books
So, I've given up a large part of the intrinsic value of a paper book, and recieved exactly nothing in return for the same, or more, cash.
I'm already paying a premium for the reader, and I'm already living with a reduced selection of reading material. Now, I'm losing value of the material I can get?
This will never catch on until it has the same value as a paper book, period. No matter how fancy the display device might be.
I'm with you. I hate having a white background when using any kind of computer app. The ease of keeping things grey on black, is one of the primary reasons I spend so much time in consoles instead of using windows type applications. Anyway, slashdot looks real real good in lynx, so if you are serious about wanting to view slashdot with grey on black or white on black, give it a try.
Here are my color settings for lynx:
COLOR:0:lightgray:black
COLOR:1:cyan:black
COLOR:2:lightgray:blue
COLOR:3:green:black
COLOR:4:green:black
COLOR:5:brightcyan:black
COLOR:6:red:black
COLOR:7:black:white
I think the new paper-like display will be the driving force behind the new revolution. If you think about reading on-line on a PC, a laptop or a PDA you'll agree that it's just not the real thing. With book-like reading experience this will change...
All the components are here: Reader devices: Sony , Phillips, Hanlin all built using the new display from E-Ink
The major search engines are digitalizing books like crazy; think about Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Payment gateways are offering (more or less) micro payments. Ebay-Paypal offers reasonable transaction fees for 1$ transactions and digital download stores on EBay. Google will probably do something similar with copyrighted books in the book-search and the Google wallet.
re: PDA like functionality -- I think these readers will be able to do more than just display text; the Illiad's (Phillips - IRex) screen for example has touch-screen capabilities that gives it more paper-like usability (i.e. write not just read) and their business model is to develop B2B solutions, so I'm looking forward to see if they provide a development platform for that device. Those looking for smaller size than paper books whatch out for the rollable display!
As a sw developer I'm wondering if this will create a dot-com-era like Eldorado...
Well I don't want a miniture thing to strain my eyes on, I want to have a certain size. Of course I also don't want any trace of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), or at least I want to be able to download PDF's and plain tekst files and be able to display them (perhaps even html)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I too am very reluctant in installing any software or tools on my computer in order to be able to use a device, unless absolutely necessary. This is especially true with software by hardware manufacturers, who usually suck at writing user applications.
That's why I chose the Creative Zen Micro over any other portable digital audio player. With the Playsforsure-compatible firmware, I do not have and do not need to install any software from Creative; the device shows up as a removeable drive when plugged and I just drap-and-drop files to and from the player -- no buggy and bloated software to run, no conversion, encryption or what not to go through.
Not all e-books are DRM'd up the wazoo, manybooks.net has 12,537 free un-DRM'd texts available in a variety of formats for each text. They are produced by Project Gutenberg and if you like you can help out too !
I have a palm tungsten C which has ended up being used mainly as an e-reader. I currently have around 70 full length books on it, and one of the best aspects of it is, if I get bored of one book and feel like a change, when I go back to the same book later on, it's still at the same page (dead handy for tomes like War and Peace !). Add to that the inline dictionary, bookmarks and notepad and it's a cool tool.
I have had to play with the background and font colours a bit to get it just right for my eyes, but now I can read comfortably at the same distance as I would a normal book, either while in the dark in bed, or in daylight.
Also, as the Tungsten C is wireless, I can dload the ebooks to my home server, and if I need to add a new selection to the palm, I just dload it over the LAN, and it goes right into the library. No need to fire up the crappy "Documents To Go" software on my XP laptop anymore.
Battery life is fine. I can read a whole book with only one recharge, as long as I turn off the wifi.
I have yet to see any real life "e-paper" and so I'll reserve judgement, but it can't be much easier to use than my tungsten c.
If you want to use content sold by Sony in the reader's native format, you'll need to go to Sony's Connect site, which redirects you to http://www.connect.com/non_ie.html if you're not using IE on a Windows platform as an administrator user. As for me, I'd never buy a Sony device until I knew that I could provide my own content derived from text, HTML, or other formats via another operating system.
"Most people don't know what an eyeball is, so why should they care if they lose theirs?"
True, I do read books while sitting on the toilet, and sometimes in chairs, but I am happiest when I am reading while lying in bed. Lying in bed is the very best way to read, I think because you are comfortable and cozy and open to the data you are exposing yourself to. Stuff sticks better when you're at rest and not worrying about your body and environment.
The Sony device, however, has it's navigation wheel on the bottom right corner. --This is exactly the least-comfortable place for a control node to be when I am lying down. The designers should lie down with a paperback book and see where their hands fall. They should lie on both sides and find the common spot/s where it is comfortable to hold a book, and put navigation buttons there.
This is not difficult thinking. Surely designers read books, right?
Anyway, if the device is going to be really great, it should also have a USB keyboard input, an embedded word processor, and a flashcard slot. The screen should also be easy to read at an angle and should not have any reflection problems or daylight viewing issues.
I figure when somebody makes a good device, the end of the world will be upon us because by then it won't matter.
When the problems in a dream resolve, the dream ends.
-FL
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Well, the Archos was big and clunky because it was a 20 Gig portable media player and it was out several years before the iPod. And I made a mistake, I meant to say that Rio has a better on-screen interface than the iPod, rather than Creative. I've seen ipods, and I'm so so happy that I got a Rio Karma instead.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
In Japan paperbacks are smaller and thinner than American versions. Perhaps this is to make them easier to read on the packed trains? For example, LOTR is published on in 3, but 10 volumes: http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/456602373 7/qid%3D1136925516/250-7285753-9795433
This new device is still to thick and too small. It needs to be a real replacement for 8.5x11" sheet of paper, so it should be like a magazine in size and thickness: 8.5x11x.5", no more than 0.5" thick. But it won't be long now... It also needs Wifi and a browser and support for PDF/PS.
Everything s/he says, except that I have a Palm PDA, and that I would not mind if the epaper screen were foldable or rollable.
Well, all the stuff will be public domain for your great-grandchildren...
"Similarily, when reading a long HTML document I add the line
BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#FFFFFF" LINK="#9690CC"
to get white characters on a black background. I wish slashdot had this option."
Most webbrowsers allow you to use a user style sheet, so that you can always have this setting if you wish.
Also, if you download the Developer plugin for Firefox, you can change colours on the spot with the CSS menu.
I agree 100%. If they would bother to split the savings 50/50 with us, the ebooks would probably be cheap enough to become wildly successful. Instead, they seem to be using them as a "premium service" and charging us accordingly.
I actually might pick one of these up in Japan...if only there were an easy way to convert my hard copies!!
Here's Philips' device, the iRex (a Philips spin-off, apparently) Iliad:
a d.htm
http://www.irextechnologies.com/shop/products/ili
Ooh, Sony has a new toy! Let's all buy it, regardless of what we said last week about their rootkit CDs!
Honestly, is anyone else who claimed to boycott Sony going to pass this up _because_of_the_boycott?
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
I'm at a loss of what I will replace it with (due to losing all of my PalmOS apps unless I can find another).
The obvious answer would be a Treo. Anything in particular keeping you from them?
Yeah, I mean it's not like putting a prancing horse on the front of a car raises its percieved value or anything ; )
Not really, mostly that my old phone hasn't broken yet...
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
A PDA isn't ideal for books with pre-formatted material, be it graphics or tables or formatted code.
It's great for plain prose where the reader can wrap to screen size without losing any information.
Small (i.e. less than 320x320 pixels) graphics look fine, larger embedded graphics can be scaled and/or scrolled around, but it's less than ideal.
Horses for courses, but I'd stick to paper or larger screens (laptop or notepad PC) for this sort of material.
It's worth noting that the DPI is actually better on high-res PDA screens than on most desktop monitors, so the text looks very clear and crisp, especially if anti-aliasing algorithms are used. It's just that there's not many "I"s to fit those "D"s into!
Could you tell me what software you use for reading/reference/etc. I haven't been up to date with the software - still use an old version of iSilo on my Palm E2. Thanks in advance.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Meanwhile, djvu and pnm tools have been compiled for the Librie Linux ARM kernel, add them to some bash scripting and using Marko's lbhook-hacked firmware is is possible to run a sort of djvu reader from the Memory Stick.
If people takes seriously the issue of acking into the Reader when it is available, they should be no problem to get native linux tools running there. The quest will be to open a way to the bash shell.