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 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.
Hey SONY, your 2005 DRM fiasco has cost you more than you realize.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
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
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
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.
I bought a $200 PDA mainly to read ebooks.
I would not have paid anywhere near that if it could only read ebooks though. I also use it to play games and on occasion as an organizer.
This book reader would have to be much cheaper than a PDA to be viable, and even then I can't see why someone wouldn't spend the extra for a PDA.
Also, this Sony scam charges prices comparable to hardcover for the books. They should be about half to price of a paperback. Of course the DRM sony's including makes it a deal breaker for anyone who's not a total idiot.
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.
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
Screen not big enough? Definately not when it comes to reading arbitrary HTML or PDF documents, but if you are reading a novel then you'd be surprised how easy it is to read when all you can see are just a few lines at a time - as soon as you get into the book a little bit you forget that you are reading on a small screen.
As everyone else is saying, the real problem here isn't the reader - it's content. Someone needs to do an iTMS for books. Better yet, as Amazon suggested, when you buy a book you should get the ebook included for free. Best of both worlds.
Incorrect. DRM is _intrusive_ and limiting - even well-implemented DRM like that provided iTMS. Sure, it plays fine /now/. What happens in 10 years? I have books printed in the beginning of 1900s - and I can still prop-them-open and read, without needing some weird limiting technology to unlock the content. Same goes for tapes, CDs, LPs.
Will I be able to read the ebook or listen to the music in 10 years? Likely no - which btw is perfectly fine with the content providers, who don't think you own anything anyhow and thus are glad to "lend" as many crippled copies as you like/need.
Hence, it's real paper for me for books (or PDF/PS/DJvu) and AllOfMp3 for my music needs (can't find russian music elsewhere anyhow).
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.
One of the main things I use my PDA for is reading books. Sure, I originally bought it for the scheduling and whatever else, but these days the thing that I most like about it is the ebooks.
I'm an avid reader...I'll devour a book in a day or two... Not only is this generally expensive (paperbacks range from $5 to $10), but it takes up a lot of room. I've got bookshelves galore, and boxes upon boxes of books that won't fit on the shelves. I sell what I can, give away even more, and I've still got more books than I know what to do with...
With my PDA, I can fit very literally hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than a single paperback. I can also download tons of books for free. Lots of classic sci-fi, old mystery novels, Shakespeare... All for free. I could certainly download those free books to any old PC, but then I've either got to sit at my monitor to read them, or print them out - thereby eliminating the benefits of the ebook format.
Additionally, from what I've seen, ebooks are often priced less than a printed book. Not a lot less, but a dollar or two. With the amount of reading I do, every little bit helps.
I can certainly see this Sony reader taking off... Obviously the price would have to drop quite a bit... I paid about $400 for my PDA, but it does a hell of a lot more than just read ebooks. I guess if I was looking for something specifically for ebooks, I'd want to spend somewhere in the $100 - $150 range. And I'd also want it to be designed around the concept of prolonged screen reading a bit more than current PDAs are... A larger screen, crisper picture, very good battery life, at least a basic backlight...something I can sit down and read for hours on end without having to squint, strain my eyes, or run out of juice.