<![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Ditto Sockermom. Product works well, but is clearly overpriced and Sony/Borders won't honor their promotional offers of $50 towards purchase of ebooks. Email responses from customer support are laughable, repetitive and automated, clearly no human ever sees them. This level of support for such an expensive product is criminal. Reader can read .doc, .pdf files, etc but won't format them well, especially if you want to increase print size. Do not buy this product until price comes way down.

DoctorFish

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I Had one and liked it, until 6 weeks ago I woke up and the screen was shot. Don't know what caused this, but Sony wants an estimated $250 for repair. Don't know what to do, since I purchased a number of books that are not readable unless I read them off my desk top. Frankly the cover is so poor that it offers next to no screen protection. I have searched internet to see if somebody is making a decent cover, with no luck so far. Maybe just need a piece of titanium gluded to the cover would work. If you do buy one, look into some sort of complete product protection no matter what the cause.
Also, the unit has no indicator that the unit is charging, which sucks when it is hooked up all night, you go on a trip and find that it is ready to turn off.

Fix these flaws and I might get another. $350 is a bit high, but it did give a $50. credit towards book purchase.

TerryE

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Just go out and buy a nice used Newton MessagePad 2000 or 2100. Does all this stuff plus a lot more.

DJohnson

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> It's a really, really great idea that doesn't work as well as it will, eventually. Needs a booklight, and the ebooks website really ought to be run by someone who can read. OK, someone who can read and can use e-mail. Maybe someone who can read, can use e-mail, and can pick up a telephone. OK, someone who can read, can use e-mai and pick up a phone, and can fix errors. OK, someone who...well, you get the idea.

sockermom

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> OK, I had the Gemstar Ebook and loved it. I could read it ANYWHERE. I just got the Sony Ebook for Christmas only to find it missing an essential feature. I love to read at night while my husband is sleeping, or on a plane in the dark night, or on a car trip when all you can see are headlights, you get the idea. I can't read the Sony Ebook except in broad daylight. Not putting a backlight function is, in my opinion, a huge oversight and drawback. Who wants to tote around a book light? It cost enough to have this simple feature. And, I agree with most others, the MP3 and photo option is a waste. Maybe, I will use it some in the day when I have a few minutes to spare, and maybe I will replace it when it has a back light feature so I can read any time I want.

laurelwe

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I love it-- with serious reservations:

It must work with Linux.

I need to know if it is durable.

What good is it if on p. 346 the toggle stops toggling?

My experience with Sony products is headphone wires that rupture fast... plug-in sockets that get lazy... one drop-- and it is history--

check out the Alphasmart's Neo to see Taxicab durability...

Sony products must be handled with excessive care-- and still can fall apart.

alabamarasta

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> This is a genius piece of tech! My situation in a few months time will see me going out to Afghanistan with the RAF. Now as you can imagine, I'm going to have to be more concerned about how to best use the limited luggage space I have to fit my kit in, as opposed to wondering how I'm going to get all my reading material there.

And get there safely too.

This will allow me to have a veritable library on me at any time - be it when I'm crashed out in my tent or whether I'm waiting for the next bullet-hole ridden helicopter to arrive.

BTW, how are they intending on letting you have digital access to the books you already own? Will you have to use a barcode scanner? Or will you have to enter the ISBN number for each book?

Mooch

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> For an army aviator this could be priceless. We have so many manuals, study guides, etc. on digits and I can't stand reading on a backlit display. For any military member this will rock, we have so many texts to do our jobs but to save money DOD prefers to distribute electronically. Maybe DOD could buy a bunch of them and that would drive the price down. I have a Helicopter Skills and Gunnery Test next week and I wish I had the e-reader now to study.

autorotator

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Tenshi says:

I'm in love. Especially with the whole choice of 1894 for the photoshoot.


You mean "1984"? Or... 1894, which is the era I expected a non-colour, non-multifunction tech toy to be from.

Paul

Dr. J

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Improvements:

1) Yank the mp3 playback. Don't need it, don't want it, it only adds to cost and complexity.

2) Add a small, one line standard lcd for text searches.

3) Add an open PDA interface for annotations. Plug your Palm (or Clie, if you must) into one of the ports on the reader, scribble your notes on its screen, notes added to ebook with next screen refresh. If you just want to read, leave your PDA at home.

Ni Tsu Alien

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> It is not expensive,

First, do you know how much a text book costs nowadays? Three text books will exceed this price easily.

Seconds, once you take out paper, printing, distribution and storage costs out of books they will cost at about 20% of todays prices. This device will pay for itself.

Third, why should it cost less than an IPod? It has a unique features, such as large enough display, high resolution and battery conservation. No PDA can do that, they should enjoy some competitive advantage.

europria

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Some wonder why this is better than paper. Nothing could be more wonderful for ebook collectors. I have some 40,000 ebooks ... all downloaded for free from the net (Project Gugenheim and the newsgroups). Now I no longer will have to read them on my monitor, and can read them anywhere. What bliss!

robin2k

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Don't let marketing fool you. This device is just an expensive MANGA READER.
Here's why.
Most books are best read on PDA or good cellphone because:
- text is not harder to read in smaller resolution and on smaller screen, you just need some time to get used to it.
- you can carry PDA on your belt, you can hold it in one hand. I can't imagine someone reading this while standing. sony reader needs a big sturdy case or you'll soon break it in half.
- you can use touch screen to copy-paste quotes, to write comments, even to google for more info.
- you can only use Sony reader with sufficient external light.
- Sony reader has crappy user interface. And I can bet Sony PC software sucks too.
- Sony reader is probably much more fragile than most PDA devices on the market.
- on PDA/phone/subnotebook pc you have a choice. You can use lots of book readers, with support for PDF,CHM,TXT, HTML,PDB...
- DRM is bad. They will be able to do lots of nasty tricks with it, such as selling you textbook for duration of 1 year only.

ezh

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I have the Japanese 'white' version, and there is definitely ghosting. When you turn a page, the reader does an inverse 'flip' of the page to clean it, and then displays the new one. There are a few greyscales on the pixels so sometimes they are not fully cleaned and you can see some remnants on the new page. It's not a real problem, it's a bit like seeing the next page through a thin newspaper - not unattractive.

To the person who asked if this was backlit, this is e-paper. It is designed to mimic paper as closely as possible - ie 180degree viewing angle, and contrast that improves as more light is shone on it. This is not designed to be read in the dark. Until you have used one you will not believe how much nicer on the eyes it is compared to LCD.

These devices are perfect for holidays - you load up half a dozen books on it and save quite a bit of weight.

One thing they did really badly on the Jap. version was skipping pages quickly - there was just no accurate way of doing it. Looks like this has not improved...

Selboy

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I would consider it *only* if it supported ereader (pdb).

borax99

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Can you tell us anything more about the ghosting? I thought it was a 'pixel on / pixel off' technology... beads turn to their 'white' side or their 'black' side (or greyscale shade inbetween???).

What's up with the ghosting?

Matty

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> so no highlighting capabiities? does that pretty much the academic usefullness of it? it seems as if this thing is only good for manuals and research data that you dont need to wrtie or highlight over

denrex

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I'm just wondering about screen size; 6 inches is even smaller than A6. Would be hard to read A4 pdf's on that.

Men.k

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> C'mon - we all know that as soon as this technology becomes widespread, there will be easy ways around the DRM. In fact, someone's probably already cooking up a SonyEbbok->PDF converter. Since when has copy-protection ever dissuaded techies?

Narsil:
1) Some aspects are better, such as the ability to carry so many more pages with you; paper adds up quick. It's also just as readable as paper. On the downside, you can't directly annotate, but you can carry a pad with you, and one of the first accessories I'd buy would be a case/writing pad combo.
2) Read above- I'll bet you anything that DRM will have a short life. And even if not, I doubt the protected ebooks would have an expiration date. Prudent data management means the ebook is just as long-lived. And if a physical copy of a particular book is that valuable to have, buy it.
3) OK, so this is a piece of rather fragile electronics. So...you treat it as such. You don't stack laptops or iPods, do you? Do you carry your laptop around without a case? Do you shove your PDA into the bottom of a bookbag? This thing can't be any more or less fragile than those items, so just get a case for protection, and be a bit careful. Simple.

I can't see the overall downside for this tech. Having schlepped textbooks all over campus, I would love a gadget like this. Even without wifi.

syzygy

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> 1) Gotta give Sony credit for what appears to be a slick interface and a great form factor.
2) Gotta do that palm to the face thing for Sony for Windows-only software, and no native file reading support. I'm not saying they have to provide their crappy Connect software for Macs, but I'd at least like it if (like the PSP), you could mount the device as an external hard drive and have it read native file formats...

InfoMofo

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> To take the academic and legal worlds by storm, all this sucker needs is a touch screen / pen interface to leave comments on a PDF or text document. Without some way to make notes, though, it's hard to imagine how anyone who wants to do real work will use this effectively.

On the upside, it will be a way for people to read papers at work while changing their ergonomic enviroment, without wasting tons of paper or dealing with the frequenlty busted printer.

Yeah, and I don't want my papers to be able to play music either. Or take janky photos or whatever. This thing ain't a cell.

gStar

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I wonder if text will be searchable on this? I could see it as a valuable reference tool. One serious concern, though, would be colleges using this for textbooks... such DRM would threaten the used textbook market.

For personal reading, though, it would provide some conveniences. Most paperbacks (and many hardcovers) are a pain to read without physically holding them... you can't just set it on a table and read. This makes hands-free and one-handed reading (oh, hush) more convenient.

Cloudscout

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> One of the most compelling aspects of ePaper is that it's a reflective tech. Should be as readable or more readable in low light than a regular book...backlighting not required. Reading via projected (bakclit) light is really hard on your eyes.

160dpi is sweet. At that rez text should be crisp and clean. So far, score two for usability.

Proprietary DRM outside of TXT and PDF!? Sigh. Sony's done it again. A perfectly good product totally F(*&ed up by Sony's copyright paranoia and insistence that the customers don't know what's best for them. (Angry Sony rant deleted)

It's ok. Once they establish the tech and the market looks ripe the iBook will fix all these issues anyway...and probably have a good MP3 player integrated too. Really, wouldn't Apple love to have books on iTunes too? Sure they would...remember, Jobs used to sit in on typography classes "for fun". He's a print snob at heart...Sony's just doing the dirty work just like Motorola did.

BWGunner

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> That's thinner than I thought it was going to be. As it stands right now I'd love it if I could buy a paperback and it'd come with a link or a cd with a scanned copy of the book that way I can have the book for my shelf (Even if I'll never touch it I love the idea of having physical there to complement the digital.) and have the book in this thing to read.

Also call me back when this thing does color. The day when I'll be able to take every issue of Mike Grell's run on Green Arrow with me on the go is the day I finally enjoy a vacation.

Jesse Mrozowski

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> If you get rid of the MP3 playing feature, I'm pretty sure the price would drop too and this would become more of a viable replacement for books. I never really wanted any of my books to play music. :)

I don't understand why it doesn't say anything about the weight on Sony's site, but it weighs about 250 grams which is almost nothing.

I'd love to hear more about how this DRM-for-books would work.

Omer

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Eww, you have to use Sony's software to do the conversion? (Sony writes really crappy software - ask anyone with a Net-MD player). That there is the deal breaker. if it just read PDFs and the like right off the card, then not only would it work great with Linux/MacOS folks, but it would probably be a great device as well.

Worf

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> It's cool but it's got a looooooong way to go. Sony will have to jump these hurdles to make it commonplace:

1)Why is it better than paper?
2)Why buy a digital book that is copy protected when you can buy the paper version for hep and have it forever?
3)Why use a product that has none of the ruggedness of paper? (Books can be put under heavier books. Books survive falls and moisture. Books need not be charged up. Let's see your product do that.)

Narsil

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Oops. Just read the previous post regarding accessories.

Still, this really needs to be backlit.

Tank

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Is it backlit? I read ebooks on my Clie with the screen reversed (white letters on black) with the backlight on minimum. The battery lasts forever and it's easy on the eyes at night.

Tank

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> You don't need to convert txt and pdf--only Word docs.

daedalus_again

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I hope someone's working on ruggedized variants. Since auto makers are mving to PDFs for service manuals these readers are terrific for mechanics.

HDC

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> This is a HUGE step in the right direction. It is not at a prime-time price yet, but it does not take much imagination to see the direction this is going. When these are being sold for fifty bucks, you can bet that nearly everyone will want one. That is, if Sony does not abandon it before it reaches that price point.

Monty

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> You can order it now from Sony's website. It says "Shipping on or before October 31st".

Full specs are available as well. It says Windows-only and it also says you have to convert JPG, TXT and PDF files to their proprietary format using the included software before viewing them on the reader... to me, that means no Mac or Linux at all.

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Sto...

Cloudscout

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Oh yeah syzygy. Textbooks. Huge education market. When textbook mfrs start subsidizing the cost of these so they can sell more books without printing more copies, and so that you can't sell used copies - huge. Imagine going into the bookstore with your class list for freshman year and walking out with a pre-loaded ebook reader for the same price as the textbooks. It's a no brainer. Better for the consumer (in some respects), better for the publisher.

weatherman

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> If Sony is going to make this successful, they need to market it to corporations and do a study of how many pages of paper can be saved over a period of time and how soon it pays for itself.

But in my opinion, sony dropped the ball by not putting wifi in this thing. If I'm going to share a document such as meeting minutes with my coworkers, I want to be able to send it to them all wirelessly, not send it to them via email so they can copy it to an SD card so they can read it on their eReader. Bah!

Lastly, make it look like the datapads from star trek TNG. You'll get fanboys all over the place buying it!

WinduSucks

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> The price has got me a bit iffy, but I like the tech. Better than carrying around several textbooks, plus any recreational reading. An SD card full of ebooks would be nice to have at my disposal, and 7500 page turns seems to be more than enough battery life. I'll have to play with one before I'm convinced.

syzygy

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> This would be just the item for someone who needs to go on a long trip, but can't carry 10 pounds of books along. (unless of course, this weighs 10 pounds...)

Streich

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I can't think of a device needed more in the legal profession.

Guy Esquire

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Considering the small forest of computer books and technical publications on my desk, I would happily replace them with the Sony Reader. In addition, I could load all our product manuals (in .pdf) on this and not have to print them out every revision.

However, the sudden removal of my books would mean I'm no longer the Alpha-Male of the geeks in my office.

sdonham

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Didn't I see something the other day about a billboard rocking molecule stretching technology that does color? I can't find a link but I bet some other nerd savvy reader knows what I'm talking bout.

wohho

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> mathew:

1. Probably not (see 3)
2. No (see 3)
3. Yes.

I would consider buying it - and enjoy it thoroughly - if it were fifty or perhaps a hundred dollars. First time I've considered that with a Sony product in quite some time.

Operator23

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]>
The Connect software and website will only work for Windows.

However, you won't need it to transfer text, RTF and .pdf files, so Mac & Linux folks (like me) are o.k. there.

And one can always run Windows on the new Intel Macs...

randyman

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Especially with the whole choice of 1894 for the photoshoot.

was "1894" the prequel?

i love the idea of RSS feeds... but the lack of actual content pics... tells me it might not be all that great. i mean nice Gawker-filled index page you show there... what does an actual site look like though? better or worse than in PPC IE? do pics come through at all? comments? or just text of the article itself?

OSX compatibility is something else i am curious about as well.

x23

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I can see buying one of these if a) price drops down to $200, b) they refine it to the point where it doubles as a *usable* music player.

I'm really excited about the RSS feeds! In addition to all the blogs I read (obsessively), I might start reading the 'newspaper' again.

spicedham

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I'm in love. Especially with the whole choice of 1894 for the photoshoot.

Tenshi

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> having a beta iLiad on hand (http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/iliad) I have to say this is amazing for what it is (iLiad uses the same technology as Sony does (by iRex).

in a few years when these things do color too this is going to replace a part of paper readers...


iDD....... just a small part though

iDarkDesign

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> How much does it weigh I wonder. More than a book perhaps?

]RowaN[

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> When's the iReader coming out?

Actually, I like the idea, but it's currently way too expensive for such a limited functionality. The high price is probably just for early adopters, since it is the first of its type. I'd expect them to drop in prices to probably around 100 bucks after a couple of years, with improved battery life and all the good stuff. Then I'll get it.

Doughbuy

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> I like the e-ink, but the thing is just too:

Overpriced for what it does
Overspecialized
Destined to be abandoned by Sony

strider_mt2k

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> 1. Is it Mac compatible?

2. Is it Linux compatible?

3. Can I just stick files on a memory card, or do I have to use Sony software to put content on it?

mathew

]]> <![CDATA[Sony Reader: Gizmodo's Hands All Over]]> Great review. Cool looking product - great for those in document intensive professions (lawyers, publishers, etc) or I suppose heavy fiction readers. I'd consider one.

weatherman

]]>