Sony s Librie ebook reader launchs Saturday in Japan, but J Mark Lytle gets a sneak preview in this captivating peek at the technology Sony hopes will change how the Japanese—and eventually everyone—reads books. The Librie EBR-1000EP is Sony s first electronic paper technology, essentially a scaled-down PDA with a highly-readable reflective screen (the Librie s screen is 170 dots per inch, as opposed to your monitor s 72-90dpi). The reader displays more than static text with its screen of oppositely charged black and white particles, suspended in an oil solution; color animations are in the works, opening up the possibility of Diamond Age-esque moving picture books.
Unfortunately, Sony is also saddling the Librie with their BbeB (BroadBand eBook) format, a compressed, DRM-enabled standard that will lock down book contents, preventing them from being shared with other readers. Although working with publishers to provide good enough DRM can help to open up initial media markets (see: Apple iTunes Music Store), it s not clear that there is a mechanism for copying free texts, like those from Project Gutenberg, into the device for reading. Still, at only 300 grams and with battery life enough to read 10,000 pages on three AAAs, the Librie is promising technology. With Japan s print publishing market pushing $22.6 billion (versus $5.6 billion on music), there s a huge potential market just waiting to be wowed.
