Filed under: Personal Technology
For years, I’ve complained that a good reader for electronic books didn’t exist, and that was what was holding back the adoption of books and other printed items in electronic format. Readers were too big, too clunky, or too limited in what they could display. This whole area has been one of great frustration for me - I can carry half a dozen books in audio format on an MP3 player the size of a match box, but I have no viable way to carry (and read) those books in text format - despite the fact that the storage requirements in text format are far smaller than audio recordings. When I go on a trip, I end up lugging several books, usually hard cover, because there’s no convenient electronic format.
The big problem with readers, of course, has nothing to do with storage. PDAs, cell phones, and other personal devices could all store plenty of books. The problem is that for reading text, the nature of the display and convenience of the device is critical. I’ve used my PDA to read news (via AvantGo), and while it’s an incredibly cool app, even with a decent PDA screen the window is very small. If the text is big enough to read, a quick reader will be scrolling almost continously to advance the text. A photo takes up the entire screen, but is still too small to see much detail. If that’s not bad enough, a typical cell phone screen makes even my PDA screen look like Cinerama.
Laptops and tablets, of course, provide plenty of viewing real estate, and are very flexible in what they can display. They are also heavy, awkward, expensive, fragile, way too big to put in your pocket, and have limited battery life.
Sony has decided to make a run at the reader market with the Sony Personal Reader System.
This reader, the PRS-500, is a little to big to pocket at just under 5″ x 7″, but at only 1/2″ thick and under 9 ounces, it meets the easy portability test. And, most important, its larger footprint allows for a screen about as big as a paperback book - a 6” SVGA 800×600 gray scale display.
The PRS-500 uses what Sony calls E Ink® Display technology - they claim that the gray scale display is entirely flicker free, and is like reading ink on paper. They seem to have addressed the battery life issue, too - they say the unit will allow about 7500 pages to be viewed before it needs to be recharged. If that estimate is anywhere near accurate, one could easily take the device on a trip without even bothering to pack the charger.
So what can one actually read on the PRS-500? Sony is opening an online book store with compatible titles. In my opinion, making content available in a convenient and inexpensive manner is the key to cracking the reader market. If e-books are pricey and their use is restricted (i.e., when I’m done I can’t give or sell my copy to someone else), growth will be slow. Conversely, availability of titles at low prices could let publishers sell far more copies of a book than they would in paper.
The other aspect of the reader that is critical is its ability to handle other content and formats. If I’m going to adopt a reader, I need to be able to download articles, technical papers, perhaps a newspaper - that would begin to be really useful. According to Sony,
Using the included CONNECT™ Reader PC Software, you can easily transfer Adobe® PDF documents, BBeB Book, and other text file formats to the Reader. Seamlessly search, browse and download user-selected RSS Web content from CONNECT™ Store to the PC and transfer to your Sony® Reader. Take along your favorite Web newsfeeds, blogs and more to read where ever you are.
Nearly pocketable, extended battery life, and more reading material than I could plow through in a month… we might have something here. The PRS-500 will ship sometime in Spring, 2006.
Add this post to: del.icio.us - Digg it - Stumble it - Furl - Yahoo MyWeb No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>