Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Kindle 2 Leaked, Sony Reader To Get Touch Screen
suraj.sun writes with news that the e-book reader market is getting more competitive. The Boy Genius Report got its hands on pictures of the Kindle 2, successor to Amazon's first e-book gadget. The new version is a bit bigger, with edges that are less awkward, and it has a revamped key layout. On the same day these pictures were found, Sony announced that a new model of its Reader would be getting a touchscreen, allowing users to "turn the page by swiping their finger across the screen" and "annotate text using a touchscreen keyboard." The advances for each gadget may help them regain market share against the iPhone, which, according to Forbes, has eclipsed both in popularity as a reading device. Hopefully the competition for sales and the work being done by the OLPC Project will help to drop prices as well.
Since the original link is slashdotted, you can find some pics here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10058352-1.html
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
The Sony Reader can. As can the Hanlin eReaderand many more
Bwahahaha! Read a real book on the tiny ipod touch screen?! Seriously, how long do the batteries last? I guess you like reading extremely slowly too.
From the first link:
Typefaces in PDF files formatted for 216 x 280 mm (8.5 x 11 inch) pages may be too small to read comfortably. Such files can be reformatted for the Reader screen size with Adobe Acrobat Professional, but not by Adobe Reader software.
That's going to be the same for any 800x600 6inch screen (like the Handlin). A reader capable of displaying scientific papers readably (8.5x11inch, 10pt font) is still a wet dream unfortunately.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
the only major benefit to the Kindle & Sony Reader are that they use e-ink displays which are viewable under direct sunlight.
And that they don't drain battery life nearly as much as back-lit high-refresh rate screens do. And that they typically are much less likely to cause eyestrain.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
As spoken by someone who haven't used any of them. With the possible exception of the kindle every one of the post librie e-readers handle what I'd call open formats (i.e. PDF, RTF and more). I've about 100 books on my Sony PRS-500 at the moment with the source being many different file formats (RTF DOC HTML TXT LIT) gotten over IRC. All of them have been converted to the Sony's native format with an open source front end (Calibre). So using any format as a source on the Sony PRS isn't a problem.
As for the single purpose of the device it's for people who read a lot of books and like e-ink reflective screens and the battery time they provide. The only real problem with the PRS-500 is that the contrast is lower than I'd like (black on grey) and you need to avoid glare. Other than that I consider it superior to paper books. If you're not in the target group, don't buy one and wait for screen technology to evolve further.
Sony's device, at least, can be rotated, and that splits the page into top and bottom, effectively making 800x1200 for the page, 800x600 visible at any given time. I have used it for letter sized pdfs. It works, but I'm not a fan. Personally I used Kovad Goyal's calibre front end (with a bunch of python scripts written by I don't know who) to convert mobi and other formats to LRF most of the time (I've done this to hundreds of books from Baen) but I am currently reading the PDF files distributed free by TOR. They are PDF files of the layout for regular hard back novels and as such as much more suited to the proper size.
I had a PDA that I used for reading eBooks, the Toshiba e805 with its beautiful 640x480 screen. The problems always seemed to be battery life (3.5-4 hours with screen set to near minimum brightness) so you really had to charge it every day, and distractions (real easy to get distracted while reading, go to look something up, then get distracted surfing the net). Because of this I bought a Sony PRS-505. No regrets. I bought a $2.50 book light, and guess what, I can read a night too. The screen is like reading paper in daylight. I charge it about once every 8-10 books.
Before I bought it I could never manage to really find time to read for enjoyment, I got tired of carrying multiple books, so I welcomes eBooks, but I got tired of forgetting to charge the PDA every night.
Great battery life, multiple books, looks great in sunlight and a cheap booklight makes it readable even at night. Great buy and as a dedicated reader its damned near perfect.
I reject your reality
This people will serve you Gutenberg project texts on a series of specific formats (or custom created PDFs or HTML). To the best of my knowledge, there is no other site like this.
manybooks
Pick a book. On the right side, you will find a button free download and some 500 formating choices (many custom, many gadget-specific).
PS I have no relation whatsoever with manybooks, but I was horrified that it took me so long to find them again at Google).