The chumps at PRS are suing Kwik-Fit, a car repair chain, for copyright infringement, claiming that they play their music too loudly and that people can hear it. Yep, that's the offense. They claim that if you play music loud enough for others to hear, it counts as "performance." Of course, if Kwik-Fit had a license to play their music, everything would be dandy. The price of said license? A mere $61,000 a year.

Are they insane? Seriously, this blows my mind. By their logic, you would need to pay the labels to listen to music in your car with your windows rolled down at a stop light if you were delivering pizzas or to listen to music at your desk at your office. Those all count as "performances" now, and if you're at a place of business, they'd better pay up. Seriously, will someone burn this industry to the ground and built it anew with people who have souls? [Ars Technica]

And though Sony claims the screen has a higher contrast and faster refresh rate, no exact specs were given. Other new features include a doubling of the internal memory to hold 160 eBooks instead of 80, and a new USB mass storage mode. Old features: battery life still lasts for 7,500 page turns and the Reader also displays PDF, RTF, TXT and JPEG formats like before. SD and Memory Stick slots are also provided for memory expansion.

Of course, the PRS-505 works with the Sony Connect store, where there are over 20,000 eBooks available for download. The Sony Reader will hit stores later this month for $300 (cheaper than the initial release of the PRS-500 by $50).

SONY UNVEILS SECOND EDITION OF READER DIGITAL BOOK

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 2, 2007 ⎯ In its version of a literary sequel, Sony Electronics is taking the cover off a new edition of its ground-breaking Reader Digital Book this month.
The new Reader (model PRS-505) features a svelte body design and is available in two colors - silver and dark blue. Re-styled controls more closely mimic paper page turns and allow for quick, intuitive navigation.
A next-generation electronic paper display delivers faster response and a higher contrast ratio for easy reading even in bright sunshine. Eight levels of gray scale provide for crisp and clear text, images, and graphics.
"For people on the go, this device is compelling because it allows them to carry a wide variety of reading materials whether they are on a cross-country flight, in a doctor's office waiting room, or at a beach resort," said Steve Haber, senior vice president of Sony's Digital Imaging and Audio Division. "The Reader can handle a stack of books and other documents that people would rather not carry, yet offers a 'book-like' reading experience unavailable with other electronic devices."
With the capacity to store up to 160 typical eBooks, the Reader can act as a mobile library. Expansion slots for Memory Stick Duo™ media or SD memory cards make the device's library potential practically limitless.
More advanced users will appreciate the new USB-based mass storage capability that allows them to use the device as a portable drive for the direct transfer of documents, images and other files to the Reader. A new auto sync feature also lets users set up folders with books and documents that can be automatically synchronized when the device is connected to a PC.
A Growing Online Store
Since Sony's launch of the CONNECT™ eBooks Store last year, the number of downloadable eBooks offered has expanded to more than 20,000 titles with new ones added weekly.
Grove/Atlantic, Harcourt Trade, Kensington, Pearson Education, The Perseus Books Group, Regnery Publishing, Taylor & Francis and W.W. Norton have joined the ranks of publishers such as Hachette Book Group USA, Harlequin, HarperCollins Publishers, Holtzbrinck Publishers, Hyperion, McGraw Hill, Penguin Group, Random House and Simon & Schuster in their commitment to electronic publishing.
Recent newcomers to the store include Reader's Digest, the first magazine to produce content for the Reader and Dorling Kindersley with titles coming soon. The site also boasts a number of Rough Guide travel titles.
The New International Version Bible by Zondervan® (a unit of HarperCollins Publishers) quickly rose to the top of the eBook store's bestseller list after it was added to the collection last month. And blockbuster authors such as Dean Koontz and Mitch Albom recently debuted electronic versions of their work to an enthusiastic response.
For a limited time, when a Reader is registered on Sony's CONNECT eBooks Store, customers will receive a credit good for the purchase of 100 available CONNECT Classics titles, including the works of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, H.G. Wells and more.
"Since launching almost a year ago, we've confirmed that Reader owners are avid book readers and great customers of our growing selection of book titles," said Lee Shirani, vice president for eBooks at Sony CONNECT. "Publishers are responding by making more electronic titles available, and, increasingly by making them available at the same time as print versions are released.
"As a result, at any given time, we carry a majority of what's on the New York Times Bestsellers list and our weekly top downloads closely track with the most popular print titles."
The CONNECT store offers a broad selection of fiction and non-fiction, bestsellers, well-known authors, classics and more, with rich descriptive content in the form of author biographies, expert book reviews and reader commentary.
Benefits Remain the Same
The Reader's high-resolution electronic paper display delivers a realistic print look that rivals traditional paper and uses minimal power. A single battery charge provides up to 7,500 pages of continuous reading. The option to magnify the text in three sizes offers a distinct advantage for sight-impaired readers. Switching the Reader to landscape mode offers yet another level of magnification as well as a wider page view.
In addition to electronic books, the Reader can also store and display personal and business documents in Adobe PDF format (best when formatted for the Reader's display), RTF, text and JPEG images.
Pricing and Availability
The new Reader will retail for about $300 and come complete with a USB cable; eBook Library PC companion software; and a color-coordinated, protective soft cover. The Reader and optional accessories such as pink or black leather covers and an AC wall charger will be available this month direct through HYPERLINK "http://www.sonystyle.com" www.sonystyle.com, at SonyStyle® stores nationwide, Borders stores and at authorized retailers across the country. More information about Sony Reader is available online at HYPERLINK "http://www.sony.com/reader" www.sony.com/reader.
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The Sony Reader is one of those quirky products that attracted reviewers originally because it was unique. The E-Ink screen was very easy to read, in spite of a lack of back lighting. And the idea of an iPod/iTunes system for books made sense. Or did it? Books from the Connect store were terribly expensive, and there was too much pressure to own digital titles, rather than rent them out, like a for-pay library model. How does doubling the book capacity help with that?

I'd hate to pronounce the new Reader DOA. (Heck, it might never arrive, since the listing and photos were pulled from the retailer's site after the post went up.) But while it's nice to know Sony is trying to tweak the formula, I'm just not sure the formula itself is worth the chalk. [Wowio via Gadget Lab]

Sony pulled Gizmodo into a little back room to play with the final hardware and we've made our decision: Shit ain't half bad for a greyscale, book replacement...it's like a gameboy...for the game of Reading. Here's what we know, what we think, and all our photos, after the jump.

The electronic ink technology is passive, looks good as paper, and only uses power when refreshing, so a single battery charge'll last 7,500 page turns.

The screen is 160 DPI, with a 6-inch display. But we were a little bit too busy admiring the resolution...and furrowing our brow at the ghosting you can see from some of the photos below. And page turns? Sluggish, but obviously fast enough for reading. (Well, for you guys...I'm a speed reader.)

It'll playback DRM'd books you can purchase through the Connect Bookstore (more on that later), with titles provided by all the major publishing houses. But it's easy enough to use simple text, RTF, PDF (unprotected)), JPGs, GIFs, MP3s, and AAC files. It'll even do RSS feed...including some Gawker titles, thank you very much!

Yes, it'll playback greyscale images, or music files from its Memory Stick, or SD card. (Yes, SD card) The greyscale images look all right.

MP3 playback is totally not recommended. Sure, you'd think it would be good for audio books, but I can't imagine what digital audio playback does for battery life on this guy. And once you're in book mode, it takes over 10 clicks to get to MP3 control menus to, say, switch a track or stop playing, and then go back to reading. Hmmmph.

It charges via USB (6 hours) or a PSP-type power adapter (4 hours).

There are a lot of buttons on this thing, including two sets of page up/down triggers. We liked the bookmark button, which also dog-ears the page.

Dedicated volume buttons? All right. Then there's the 10 digit menu pad on the bottom of the screen that correlates with the numbers on the right hand side of the screen. Those numbers are for going through menus, not entering page numbers to jump to. WTF?

You might ask yourself why there isn't a simple digital cross for all the controls. That's easy — every time you clicked up or down, it would count as a page refresh, and drain the Reader's juice.

The Connect Store looks..iTunes-ish. That's a good thing. Oh, and you can redownload your purchased books, which is sweet. Books should be cheaper than paperbacks, but that stuff is set by the publishers. Should be 10,000 titles or so, and all major pubs are playing ball to combat those evil libraries and second-hand book stores.
–Brian Lam

The night light uses LEDs.

The dock transfers data and recharging power, and fits the Reader in and out of its leather case.