Here’s an article on Engadget carrying the announcement. There will be a small 5" reader with 512MB of internal memory with an interface requiring physical buttons. The larger of the two readers has a 6" touch screen with expandable memory. Neither of these devices have wifi. The prices will be $199 and $299, respectively. They’re currently scheduled to be released at the end of August.
As someone who has been watching eReaders with great interest from the sidelines for quite a long time, I’m rather intrigued. I just may spring for the larger reader. There is no backlight on this one, unlike Sony’s current top-of-the-line eReader, but that is ostensibly to help with the glare issue which I’m told is quite distracting. I have owned an iPod Touch for a few months, and I find that I really like touch screen interfaces. The lack of wifi in this device isn’t even a detraction as far as I’m concerned.
My biggest complaint has to do with the lack of a memory card slot in the smaller reader. I can understand why they’d make the screen smaller. It must surely help reduce the price (since e-ink screens are the most costly component in e-readers) and it helps them market it as a “pocket” device, but how much would it cost to allow for expandable memory? If this one did have expandable memory, I would probably prefer the smaller one over the larger due to the lower price point.
Anyone else eye-ing their wallet after looking at these e-readers?
I’ve no interest in it for my personal reading, but it if does true PDF files and allows them to be annotated and PDF forms to be filled, I might be able to use it in my current project.
I have the PRS-500 and love it. I’d seriously consider getting the PRS-600 for faster speed and ePub support. But the economy will have to improve first.
I’m hoping because they’ll be a price drop on the PRS-505 models, I’d be happy with one of those for a few years.
An aside, I think the current pricing scheme on eBooks are ridiculous, why are they more expensive than hardbacks at times? But, there are enough books on gutenberg.org and other sites to keep me busy for years so I’m a big fan of eReaders. It’s nice when traveling to not lug around a ton of books. They won’t replace books for me but are a nice complement.
I’ve taken an interest in eReaders lately, and from what I’ve seen the tech is definitely improving. These Sony ones are close, but they’re not quite there yet.
Touch screens - Having an iPhone has shown me how great multi-touch interfaces can be, especially with just fingers and no need for a stylus. So I’m still hanging out for an iphone-quality touch interface.
Responsiveness - I’m very interested to see how responsive the interface is with navigating and the speed of scrolling or turning pages. I watched some video demos of other eReaders like the Cybook but found the achingly slow response times to be too much to bear. I’m very interested to see how snappy the Sony ones are.
UI - The UI looks great.
Wifi - The article states that Sony is going to release the wifi editions soon, so I’ll wait for that.
Formats and DRM - Any idea what formats and DRM it has? I’d hate to be locked into Sony-only.
In terms of my requirements for an eReader, the Sony ones appear to be the closest match to date so I’m tempted but have to hold out for a little longer.
Anyone know what the resolution is on the 5" unit? A $199 ebook reader is finally getting close to the right price range, but not if you can’t read a full page equivalent of a paperback novel on it.
The resolution on the smaller unit is 800 x 600 pixels.
DRM - I think that books downloaded from Sony’s store are limited to six computers and/or readers, but I don’t think it’s as draconian as Amazon’s DRM.
Regarding the price of ebooks - True, many times there is no discount over physical books. But I’ve given up on the idea of an eReader paying for itself by saving on the cover price of physical books. The ultimate value of such a device (to me) is the portability and space savings. Unfortunately for the major manufacturers, though, I don’t think that portability is worth $200-$300 for the devices currently offered, so I’m holding off on buying one for now.
They still sound a little pricey, to me. And one thing I like about the Kindle (which I don’t have) is that you can access Wikipedia from it, if I’m not mistaken?
I sort of want an ereader because I’m a pretty big nerd and I love to read, but I can think of few instances where I read outside my home, so portability isn’t much of an issue, and I get ~90% of my books from the library, which is free, obviously. I don’t think an ereader actually makes sense for me at this point.