Sony Reader Now Available 402
Yaksha42 writes "The Sony Reader, which debuted at CES in January, is now available for purchase on the Sony website. The six inch screen uses E Ink, rather than an LCD, to display the text, reducing strain on the eye while reading. While you can buy books on Sony's Connect site, you can also load eBooks and other text onto the Reader in a variety of formats, including PDF and TXT files. It also comes with the ability to receive newsfeeds, display JPG images, and can play unsecured MP3 and AAC music files. Additional information can also be found on the Learning Center site."
The bookstore has more than just "regular" books (Score:5, Interesting)
At $350 USD, it's already doomed. (Score:5, Insightful)
Good books need good typography (Score:5, Insightful)
I do hope that the supplier of the ebooks for this device take a little more care than do the current crop of ebook producers. Most of the books I read now are ebooks through eReader or Fictionwise, and they often are so poorly converted into electronic form that it hurts to read them.
The one I'm currently reading is obviously an OCR job, because there are occasional soft-turned-hard hyphens peppered through it, and some lines where the wordspacing was evidently tight in the original, leadingtoareallylongwordin the ebook. Another one used hyphens for dashes too-which is extremely jarring in a proportional font-as this sentence demonstrates. Quotation marks and apostrophes are usually just the ASCII ones, which really isn't very professional-looking in print.
Then you see situations where the culture shock just got too much for the converter and they gave up. The sample book in the SonyStyle web page, The Da Vinci Code, has some pictograms in it. Those probably just get included in the ebook as a low-resolution bitmap. They certainly did on my copy from Fictionwise. I've lost count of the books which have hard-coded page references ("see page 321"), which is useless considering that pagination is up to the device itself. Forget about tappable hyperlinks; I've only seen one such ebook in the dozens I've read.
Don't get me wrong. I love my ebooks, and they compare well to Australian dead-tree books in price. But there's more to releasing an ebook than spitting out a plaintext file. If the parent poster is right about manga, hooray, finally. But history doesn't make me optimistic.
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That will give you a titlepage of a book. LaTeX uses a double line-break as a paragraph-break, which I believe is also the standard for Gutenberg. The only other thing you need to do is mark up the chapter headings like this:
Then put this at the end of the document:
Save this as ebook.tex and then
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Re:The bookstore has more than just "regular" book (Score:5, Interesting)
Ogg support would be nice, but I wouldn't say that its abscence makes the product "nearly useless". If it provided a stylus or input method for adding comments and markup to PDF documents I would probably buy one. As it is, the functionality wouldn't be worth the price and clunkyness of carrying a fragile piece of equipment around.
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HTML? Most of the Gutenberg texts that have formatted versions are HTML.
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drm and closed formats are why i wont touch any commercially available e-books. the people publishing them are so worried about protecting their intellectual property that they make they property worthless to me. (Just ran into this the other day with a Sybex book - it came with a pdf
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But rest assured, as with the previous readers (and with almost all DRM-heavy Sony products, like the PSP and Playstations) it will soon be hacked to run anything you might see fit. The Reader runs on Linux, anyway, AFAIK.
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Re:The bookstore has more than just "regular" book (Score:4, Insightful)
Can you take e.g. 10 paperbacks into long journey? After carrying heavy bag for several hours, believe me, $350 wouldn't look all that much.
PG (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:PG oblig. (Score:2, Funny)
eBooks still to expensive! (Score:5, Insightful)
Even the 'better' deals (Angels and Demons for $5.59) still seem absured.
Jeeze, Sony. It's so like you! Create a really cool product, technologically, then have shit media for sale. And I want so hard to like e-readers...
-Trillian
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-Trillian
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But that alone wouldn't be too bad, as one can likely find some other stuff to load it up with.
What I'm worried about is how good the software will be to read PDFs and such (not like the whole page can fit on the tiny screen, and what about graphics? etc). They say you should resize them yourself if you want them to look better on the tiny screen - not something I like to do. And if there is conversion required, how good will that be (for sa
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You know those Barnes and Noble hardback classics? The ones that are often in the $6-$10 range? Dostoevsky, Melville, that kind of thing?
They are still making a profit on those!
Now, think about the paperback classics you see around sometimes. Not uncommon to get one for $2 or $3, not on sale. And they're still making money at that price!
Think about that the next time you're about to pay $14 for a trade paperback, or $9 for a normal one. Hell, I saw a shitty,
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This means that a new book sells for about 400% to 600% of the cost of manufacturing the book. That extra is what goes to the publishing company and the author, mostly. So over 75% of a book sale is profit, in one form or another.
I maintain that this is ridiculous, especially for "trade paperbacks" which are all t
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The publishers love it. Low production costs and you get to lose the right of first sale. In otherwords, you can resell the dead tree edition when you are done with it, or exchange it at your favorite used book store.
Your eBook? How are you going to sell the copy or even give it away? Isn't it DRM'ed to your registered display device?
DRM, Right of first sale, etc. Don
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What I meant is that while movies and music require physical equipment to produce - microphones, instruments, video equipment, etc - books require a single person and - if you really want to go bare-bones - a pen and paper. Even a nice computer is going to be cheaper than a recording studio rental for any significant period of time. So,
Re:Creating still toO expensive! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah yes. Slashdot: Where uninformed opinions, flawed logic and factual inaccuracies are mere fertilizer to the flowerbed that is yet another ignorant rant.
(PS: "distribution".)
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If you can show that even an international bestseller book costs several hundred million dollars to write then I'll believe you.
However, I think you'll have a hard time proving:
1. There are more people involved in the production of a book than a movie.
2. Book production requires more equipment.
3. Book production (of necessity) takes noticeably longer than films.
If this isn't the case, then someone, somewhere
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The actual price of manufacturing in distributing ANY book is probably just south of that price. So, under $2 for a mass-market paperback, and that's if they don't go with the very cheapest paper, and maybe $5-$8 or less for a hardback.
Which means that the author, the store you buy it from, and the publisher's staff are takin
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ps: I'd welcome any corrections on this, I ju
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I believe it's not unknown to return torn off covers for credit if the book turns out to be a real stinker and the rest of the books ends up in the dumpster.
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but the assumption with books was that you were paying a good chunk toward the physical 'stuff' the book is made out of. With that cost gone, it would seem books should be dirt-cheap, but clearly they're not...
I never made that assumption for a second. Do you really think that a hardback novel costs something akin to $25 to make and distribute? If the costs were in the binding then they would bring out the hardback and paperback at the same time and let the customer choose. Instead they delay the paperb
Numbers and the inevitable (Score:2)
The only other thing that makes any impact is the money the publishing company spends to promote and distribute the book. Now that we have digital distribution it's got to be less than a buck to add a book to a site and the bandwidth is nothing. The main money is in publicity and most of that is advertising flyers (bus adds, billboards, all the static printed poster stuff) not too many commercials and complex adds like they have for movies and concer
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Unless you know a number or percentage be quiet.
We all don't know everything on every topic yet we come in here spouting off like we're experts.
My main point is to draw attention to what we actually want to buy. And that's an experience that an author created. If that's a bunch of researchers and the cost is more for lets say an encycleopedia set then fine we can all understand that. If it's a sci-fi novel written by 1 aut
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Daniel
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You're right in that you're not paying for the equipment... but you are paying for the author's time (and food, and rent, and...).
It's great (Score:2)
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It is very expensive, but quality-wise, it makes other e-book readers feel clunky and painful to the eyes. And it even comes with a cover that makes it *feel* like a book. No backlight, but it conveniently runs on ordinary aaa batteries. The quality only problems are the slow refresh and occasional slight ghosting that reminds me of an etch-a-sketch. It's as close to the real thing as it gets.
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Wow... (Score:2)
That's unpossible!
I need to see one live, but I like what I see so far - The ability to also display pdf, word and txt are a (finally) smart move by Sony, and the mp3 AND AAC capability is a nice bonus.
The GUI for the Connect app looks awful familiar though...
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The display, based on technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff E Ink Corp., is composed of tiny capsules with electrically charged particles of white and black ink. When a static electric charge is applied on the side of the capsule that faces the reader, it attracts the white particles to the face of the display, making that pixel show light gray. Reversing the charge brings the black pigments floating through the capsule to
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Why does it look familiar? BTW, if it's an itunes reference (thus making me look dumber than I am, due to my clarification above), then I should note that I've never actually seen itunes. I just know what it's supposed to do.
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... and no Ogg! (Score:2)
Seriously, this thing cries out to be hacked. Although one with stylus input would be a lot more useful, hacked.
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I was thinking the same thing
Thanks for the DRM Sony (Score:2, Interesting)
So I'll own the books so much that I get to put them on a whole six different player. Thank you very much Sony, your generosity is awe inspiring.
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No, but my one copy can end up on more than 6 different book shelves or other furnitures in my home (or in other peoples homes) over the years. I might read it in/on a whole lot more different furnitures, most of which might not even be mine. Now, what did paper books have to do with the original article?
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This is just speculation as they don't specifically mention it on the website, but I suspect it works similarly to iTunes.
Academics (Score:5, Insightful)
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One important thing that sounds to be missing... I wonder if there is any way to annotate on the documents? While I read papers, I usually mark them up, references and formulae and such. Is there an E Ink equivalent?
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Yeah, but $350 worth of paper? :-)
also technicians (Score:2)
I have a serious hankering for this device. I can fit a giant shitton of PDFs on a 1GB memory stick. As long as I'm not forced to run some shitsack software to get stuff onto it, I may actually get one of these. I guess it's a choice between this and a Wii.
Re:Academics (Score:5, Informative)
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Finally.. (Score:4, Informative)
The main competition to this sony reader seems to be the Iliad from I-Rex. I think it is a much nicer reader for a couple reasons.
It has a nice page turn interface, it has a proper paperback A5 sized screen, and runs linux. There has already been quite a bit of hacking on it. Can code your own readers for various formats etc.
The downsize? It is like $850 instead of $350 of the sony
Guess I'm still stuck waiting till the iliad comes down in price or another reader comes out at a lower price point. These things are way to specialized for the price they are demanding.
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The Iliad has a Wacom Tablet (Score:5, Informative)
build in.
The Sony does not have a pen-interface, AFAIK.
That's a lot of additional potential for the Iliad, let's see if their software leaves beta soon and whether they provide us with an appropriate SDK...
For Iliad-Discussion from iRex [irextechnologies.com] see forum.irexnet.com [irexnet.com]
k2rFor more independent info on both products see [mobileread.com]http://www.mobileread.com/ [mobileread.com] .
Sony Reader runs Linux too (Score:3, Interesting)
It has a nice page turn interface, it has a proper paperback A5 sized screen, and runs linux. There has already been quite a bit of hacking on it. Can code your own readers for various formats etc.
The Sony Reader runs Linux too. The manual [sony.com] says it runs MonteVista® Linux® professional edition and gives a link for download [sony.net] of the GPL bits.
Source code to GPL'd components (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/catego ry3.html#2 [sony.net]
The older, Japan only model is there too. As well as various other interesting products.
Just say no. (Score:4, Insightful)
Just say no...to online books. (Score:2, Insightful)
The Indianapolis Public Library offers online electronic books.
"It's easier to just say "no" and rely on the old battery free paper versions."
It also represents a good solution against piracy. Certainly better than what the MPAA/RIAA are offering.
"At least no one can deny that I "own" it if it's sitting on my bedside table."
You own the "original book", not the words on the pages.
Barfly (Score:2)
What that means is I read a large amount of ebooks. Baen books, http:/// [http] www.baen.com , was started by the dearly departed Jim Baen who saw the internet as a way to hook readers. They created http://www.webscription.net/ [webscription.net] which has most of their library for sale. Books which aren't even in hardback and are 2+ months from publication are $15. Books in hardback are around 6. Older books are even cheaper, some less than $4.
All of them DRM fr
Shipping On or Before October 31 (Score:2)
But it's not a reeeeeallll book! (Score:5, Interesting)
This Sony device has some of the same advantages; potential for large number of books in hand and ability to buy books online at any time.
However, it still misses some of the point of an e-reader vs a dead-tree book!
Portability: it won't fit in my shirt pocket like the Palm does. Why is it the size of a dead-tree book? Because that's what people who haven't used ebooks much think that they want!
The paperback size is a compromise between having enough words to balance the effort and inconvenience of page turning, and having a reasonable thickness for an average-length book. When turning a page requires just a minimal thumb pressure, fewer words per page is less of a consideration.
Backlight: Sure, it shortens the battery life, but being able to read in bed without the light on is great. Or in any other environment where the light levels are low enough to cause your mother to worry about you going blind!
Dictionary: being able to tap on a word on the screen and have a dictionary entry pop up is so useful, especially with obtuse and erudite writers. I always _mean_ to go look up words, but with ereader and a 150,000 word dictionary loaded, I actually _do_!
Availability: my PDA is a general-purpose device and I use it as an alarm clock, an organiser, an MP3 player, a movie viewer, a calculator, a map (with BT GPSr), a note-taker, etc., etc. Because I use it so much, I always have it with me. Because I always have it with me, I always have my current book(s) and magazines available for those unexpected spare moments (or hours!) Since even a long novel is rarely more than 3-400kB, they really don't make much of a dent in a 1GB SD card.
I often hear fellow bibliophiles say that they wouldn't like an e-book reader because they really like the smell and feel of real paper, and the tactile experience of turning pages, and so on.
I imagine that their great-great grandparents thought that automotives were never going to be popular, because people would miss the feel of the reins and the clip-clop of the hooves...
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(1) Yeah, it's big, but if it's popular I'm sure you'll see variations in multiple sizes from multiple producers. Also, I don't think your PDA has 20 gig of space. Also, the Apple Newton was rather large, and there are people who STILL swear by it.
(2) I don't think you can put a backlight on an e-ink display. Even so, it'll be of high enough contrast to read in most situations you can read an ordinary paperback book. You could always use one of those litt
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I do agree that I'd like to see something smaller, but I guess I'd have to actually see how it looks and feels in person. If the device is decently durable and I can throw it onto a table like I would wit
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The PDA does have its usages in that is is very flexible in what it can do, however the problem with a PDA is that it has a small screen which can be quite irritating to people who need to display large amounts of text and/or drawings in context rather than scroll. This is a major issue with human interfaces because you still need an input device (stylus, keyboard, mouse,
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Barry
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(Quickly pulls out PDA and scribbles both words in dictionary lookup)
Bugger. Well, don't I feel obtuse! 8-)}
On the images/formatted text issue; yes, a PDA screen is too small for that to be at all comfortable. I've done it, when that was the only option available, but the scrolling gets annoying very quickly.
Small(ish) images embed into ebooks fairly well, with those larger than screen size
What about images? (Score:2, Interesting)
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"Ultimate digital reading experience" (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, at least the sight-impaired won't be distracted by the two logos and all the buttons. Last I checked, books didn't have logos or big buttons on every page, so my guess is that the sight-impaired will be at an advantage in that they'll less distracted than everyone else using this device.
On the plus side, the device offers a list of features that include 7,500 page turns per charge, readability in sunlight, 180 degree viewing, and support
Foreign language books? (Score:2)
OpenDocument files? (Score:2)
How do you perform the file conversions when loading PDF:s from a Linux host?
I didn't see anything that looked like a conversion program among the published GPL files [sony.net] for the device.
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1) Can you read your own books in native mode, and get them in and out using normal file transfer tools?
2) Can you read books bought at the store on other readers?
3) Can you read other ebooks bought at other stores on it?
4) Can you buy the ebooks using an ordinary web browser or do you have to use proprietary software?
Otherwise we are headed down towards a rather familiar place. In this place you are locked into both bookstore, reader and download/m
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About DjVu:
I'm excited at least (Score:2)
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Resolution, file formats, battery life (Score:2)
I got to wondering what the screen pixel count was, and found "170 DPI". Curious to put that down as "numbers I know"; my 20" dell is 1680 pixels wide and ~17 inches wide; almost exactly 100dpi. This is a fair bit higher (not quite twice!) so they should be able to put down a fair amount of decent-looking print on a "page".
It's slightly disappointing that HTML support isn't standard; they support everything else, but HTML requires "conversion." Yuck.
You know what I like best, though? Battery life is
It's about time (Score:2, Funny)
How about combination books? (Score:2)
Sony and open standards - too good to be true? (Score:4, Insightful)
From the presentation, it appears that the Sony Reader supports
So where's the real Sony? Does this show what they are capable of developing when their audio division gets out of the way? If this reader actually supports these standards natively without requiring silly conversion software on the PC, I might even consider un-boycotting Sony to show that they are on the right track.
Project Gutenburg, documentation (Score:2, Interesting)
It's Sony - remember? (Score:2)
So it doesn't matter how good the product is. I will not buy
anything from Sony, _ever_. The boycott is eternal.
Not that I have many illusions about the length of the
collective memory...
Loved ebooks, but the pricing.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Alas, the publishers were much like the record labels and that means too greedy! If they provide price incentives than I'd use this, but given the expected restrictions if the prices are the same, I'll skip it and use the old fashion hard copies.
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Clearly you've never seen e-paper in action. No backlight, stupid, it's just dark print on a white sheet. Just like... paper, just as easy to read.
Glad to see Sony has finally released one of these in the States. Been out for years in Japan, though more expensive.
None of the reasons you list will be the downfall of the device. It'll be two things: Sony's crappy Connect service. Sony has never been able to make any software worth a d
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I can explain why I'd like to be able to read in the dark (or in poorly lighted room), can you please explain why you prefer to keep your fingers in your ears?
Re:It's not LCD, dumbass (Score:4, Funny)
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In any case, we've been using books for almost a thousand years now. They're not going anywhere. Readers like these
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What's to stop you curling up with this reader?
Re:PDF-s !? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:PDF-s !? (Score:4, Informative)
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I find it amusing how you said that, and were modded insightful. This requires serious lack of sarcasm in both you, and all the people that modded you.
Congratulations.
CHM minor issue, my gripe: extra bulk (Score:2)
My biggest complaint is that it incorporates irrelevant extras that add to the weight. It ought to be possible to create an e-Ink based device with a small battery that would be lighter than a paperback book. Do that for US$100-150 and I shall be an immediate customer.
Sony marketing may assume that, because people like extra features in their cellphones, the same will be true with electronic readers.
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