Kris Abel of CTA.ca already had his hands on the 700!

His say about the touchscreen:

The touchscreen display is built for single touch commands only, but you can perform swipes across the screen to flip pages or highlight text. You can change the settings to change the direction of your swipes, to allow for both left-handed and right-handed page turning. Highlighting text is fairly easy to use and use accurately, to select only the words you need.

The trick with touchscreen displays is that they have to be useful, not merely a gimmick added to cash in on the trend started by Apple’s iPhone. Here it genuinely adds to the ease of the Reader’s use and makes reading and navigating through a book’s pages more pleasurable.

Also check out the virtual keyboard... looks great for dictionary lookups! :2thumbsup

CTV.ca Blog: http://krisabel.ctv.ca/blog/_archives/2008/10/2/3912118.html

Soft keyboard? Uh-oh, I sense a full-blown gadget lust coming on.

Another, nice find, TadW!

Very nice! I guess it's time to revisit meditation thread :(

Hopefully the spec sheet will have it but I wonder how badly the front-lighting cuts into the battery life of the reader? I've had my 500 for about 2 years, battery life was great to start but not that great anymore.

Gizmodo has one hands-on photo, presumably from the Sony NYC event that is going on right now:

http://gizmodo.com/5058380/sonys-third+gen-prs+700-reader-adds-touchscreen-frontlight

I'm worried about one thing though: my favorite thing on the 500/505, is the long click on the bookmark button that get you instant access to all your bookmarks (in my case, the books that I'm currently reading). There's no bookmark button anymore, will it be possible to do the same thing on the 700 then ?

That's another thing I'm very interested in knowing myself, Hadrien.

Gizmodo has one hands-on photo, presumably from the Sony NYC event that is going on right now:

http://gizmodo.com/5058380/sonys-third+gen-prs+700-reader-adds-touchscreen-frontlight

Now more hands-on photos there. Check out the frontlight. Very futuristic! :thumbsup:

Yeah. I can't wait to see some vids to see if the light is really so great. :)

Now more hands-on photos there. Check out the frontlight. Very futuristic! :thumbsup:

It's funny actually. I said quite a while ago on this forum when people were talking about wanting "back lite" eInk... and Harry and others said it couldn't be done. I suggested that a device with a lighted screen could be done by using lights mounted along the side in front of the screen similar to how some car dash boards or airplane dashboards are done. But, everyone told me that wasn't practical.

I should search the form to find that message.

BOb

It's funny actually. I said quite a while ago on this forum when people were talking about wanting "back lite" eInk... and Harry and others said it could be done. I suggested that a device with a lighted screen could be done by using lights mounted along the side in front of the screen similar to how some car dash boards or airplane dashboards are done. But, everyone told me that wasn't practical.

I should search the form to find that message.I must have missed that discussion, because I'd've chimed in that while backlighting e-ink is impossible due to its opacity, some sort of frontlighting is an interesting idea. I've actually been talking about it since some time in '06, I think.

The frontlight cover that Sony recently put out is an obvious evidence that the concept works. :shrug:

looks neat

Do they let you do annotations like using your own handwriting on the screen, circling text, making small drawings or whatever you want using the stylus?

I haven't seen any picture of it having such iRex Iliad type annotations support..

Do they let you do annotations like using your own handwriting on the screen, circling text, making small drawings or whatever you want using the stylus?

I haven't seen any picture of it having such iRex Iliad type annotations support..

I believe you can highlight things and annotate using the keyboard possibly but no free hand drawing. This is more like the Kindle than the iLiad. Of course there are always future releases.

It's funny actually. I said quite a while ago on this forum when people were talking about wanting "back lite" eInk... and Harry and others said it could be done. I suggested that a device with a lighted screen could be done by using lights mounted along the side in front of the screen similar to how some car dash boards or airplane dashboards are done. But, everyone told me that wasn't practical.


No, I said that backlighting couldn't be done (for the simple reason that the screen is opaque). The proliferation of "lightwedge"-style covers clearly shows that sidelighting is very practical.

A hands on report from cnet

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10057331-1.html

No, I said that backlighting couldn't be done (for the simple reason that the screen is opaque). The proliferation of "lightwedge"-style covers clearly shows that sidelighting is very practical.

Right... sorry... an example of my mind being faster than my fingers. I edited my original post to fix this.

BOb

No, I said that backlighting couldn't be done (for the simple reason that the screen is opaque). The proliferation of "lightwedge"-style covers clearly shows that sidelighting is very practical.


yeah, backlighting has been around for ages - even my old palm t3 had tiny led lights just on the inside edge of the screen (if you looked carefully enough)

Yep, I want it even more now. Oh man!

I know this is probably a dumb question, but where's the bookmark button?

I know this is probably a dumb question, but where's the bookmark button?

My guess is the you touch the top right corner of the screen to bookmark. The little fake dog ear icon is still in that location.

BOb

yeah, backlighting has been around for ages - even my old palm t3 had tiny led lights just on the inside edge of the screen (if you looked carefully enough)

That's not backlighting.

No, I said that backlighting couldn't be done (for the simple reason that the screen is opaque). The proliferation of "lightwedge"-style covers clearly shows that sidelighting is very practical.

Heard that argument a thousand times... Pages in regular books are opaque too. Put some lightsource behind that page and the light will shine through.

Why should that be impossible with eInk?

Why no mention of dictionary support?

Heard that argument a thousand times... Pages in regular books are opaque too. Put some lightsource behind that page and the light will shine through.

Why should that be impossible with eInk?Paper is not completely opaque, it's slightly translucent. Backlighting e-ink is closer to trying to backlight cardboard.

E-ink works by moving particles (black and white) up and down in little bubbles. Regardless of whether a given bubble is black or white, both sets of particles are still inside it, and will block the light equally. Even if the substrate weren't also completely opaque (which it probably is), the fact that all the particles are there regardless of state, would give you a pretty close to uniform blockage of light.

Actually, your example of putting a light behind a page is a good one: when you do that, you see the text on this side of the page, and strong shadows of the text on the other side as well, making it rather difficult to read. Same deal with e-ink, except there's no spaces between and around the letters, effectively the whole page is covered, one "side" or the other, with ink, making it impossible to read.

Pages in regular books are opaque too. Put some lightsource behind that page and the light will shine through.


Considering the definition of opaque is "impenetrable to light"... your second sentence proves that the first is incorrect.

BOb

I must have missed that discussion, because I'd've chimed in that while backlighting e-ink is impossible due to its opacity, some sort of frontlighting is an interesting idea. I've actually been talking about it since some time in '06, I think.

The frontlight cover that Sony recently put out is an obvious evidence that the concept works. :shrug:

The lightwedge-based frontlight has been used fort a long tine now. They were using them as aftermarket mods on the original unlit Gameboy Advance. (The old Afterburner kits, circa 2001-2002.) The Sony frontlight is just a slight resizing of old, proven technology.

I hope that keyboard can be displayed landscape mode as to be big enough to touch type. Picking letters from a tiny keyboard is not my thing. Besides, having an actual usable keyboard means I can stop lugging both the Reader and my Alphasmart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart) around, the 700 doing it for both.

Does the PRS-700 have a metal case like previous Sony Readers? Just my own personal gadget fetish.

Does the PRS-700 have a metal case like previous Sony Readers? Just my own personal gadget fetish.

Yep. Such does seem to be the case.

Yep. Such does seem to be the case.

Are you sure ?
In this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=271373&postcount=17) , it's said it's made of plastic

R.

Are you sure ?
In this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=271373&postcount=17) , it's said it's made of plastic

R.

Positively :). Only the casing is made of plastic. In the words of Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en): "Corps device is made of dark-sulfur plastic ends on - a metal alloy."

Positively :). Only the casing is made of plastic. In the words of Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en): "Corps device is made of dark-sulfur plastic ends on - a metal alloy."

You just have to love Google Translations....

You just have to love Google Translations....:thumbsup:

Oh for cryin' out loud, what a crock. Dale? Nick? Is it just me, or have they re-invented the EB-1150? Lighted touch screen, left or right handed, bookmarks, dictionary, keyboard. Learn to convert PRC to IMP, and save yourself a lot of money by getting the EB-1150.

Sorry to be so cranky sounding.

Oh for cryin' out loud, what a crock. Dale? Nick? Is it just me, or have they re-invented the EB-1150? Lighted touch screen, left or right handed, bookmarks, dictionary, keyboard. Learn to convert PRC to IMP, and save yourself a lot of money by getting the EB-1150.

Sorry to be so cranky sounding.

Reinvention is not always a bad thing. In many ways, the EB-1150 was before his time. For example ,it has better ergonomics that all the other readers. So Sony took the concept, added eink, and put it in a smaller, stylish package. What's wrong with it?

Oh, and there's no dictionary support yet. Here's to hope:thumbsup:.

Positively :). Only the casing is made of plastic. In the words of Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en): "Corps device is made of dark-sulfur plastic ends on - a metal alloy."

Yahoo Babel fish says: The housing of device is made from the dark- sulfuric plastic, on the ends - metallic alloy.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&lp=ru_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

Dale

Yahoo Babel fish says: The housing of device is made from the dark- sulfuric plastic, on the ends - metallic alloy.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&lp=ru_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

Dale

Interesting how a slightly different translation will change the meaning completely.

Oh for cryin' out loud, what a crock. Dale? Nick? Is it just me, or have they re-invented the EB-1150? Lighted touch screen, left or right handed, bookmarks, dictionary, keyboard. Learn to convert PRC to IMP, and save yourself a lot of money by getting the EB-1150.

Sorry to be so cranky sounding.
If they got the ergonomics done as well as the REB1100/EB-1150, that'll be a fantastic thing! Every reader since then has been several steps inferior on that front. Add in an eInk screen and improvements in page-turn time, and it might (might, I say) be the reader I've been wanting since I upgraded from the REB1100 to my current Sony PRS-500.

I'm still waiting to hear about library organization, and exact details on the improvements they (may have) made.

Xenophon

P.S. The screen quality of the PRS-500 trumped the ergonomic advantage of the REB1100 (for me), but I've been dreaming of a reader that had both for some time now...

Positively :). Only the casing is made of plastic. In the words of Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Freader-sony.ru%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ru&tl=en): "Corps device is made of dark-sulfur plastic ends on - a metal alloy."
Ok, I'll translate for you, Russian being my native language. First, the guy who wrote this has made a typo, and wrote "темно-серного" (dark-sulfur) instead of "темно-серого" (dark-gray). He did mean the body housing, not the "casing" or cover or whatever.

When pressed on the "plastic" issue at the Russian eBook forum, the guy ("berboris") conceded that he actually wasn't sure what the housing was made of. He said "it felt like plastic", and the ends "felt like metal". Chances are it's the other way around. If you want to get a definitive answer, you should ask other people who got to handle the device, as this information is virtually worthless.

The web page also shows pictures with Russian text on the Reader. That's Russian PDF with built-in fonts, which the Sony Readers were able to display from the very beginning of PRS-500. The new Reader (PRS-700) doesn't appear to have full Unicode support, just as its predecessors. It has the same set of Bitstream fonts as PRS-505 and PRS-500.

Thanks porkupan!

I'm not so for all touchscreen use.
The screen gets dirty quickly,gets scratched and matte over time.
Also,I wonder how long the battery lasts with all those leds.
Blue leds are probably the best; closest to blacklight you can get.
White leds are good too.
Red or green leds used on other devices are way less effective. they consume more battery for what they emit than white or blue.

Blacklight is probably something I want to see, with the reflective white page (provided if it will be gentle on the eyes).

So battery life with the leds would be nice!
However, the leds don't make it seem like a new technology, but rather make it look like it's a PDA.

Youtube introduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5dpLiMAOv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W32iFBbaA1A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5dpLiMAOv4I dunno what they're smoking here, but at ~50 seconds in it flashes several things up on the video that are just bogus 20MB internal memory
Internet Enabled
800 MHz Intel Celeron class processor

Then at about 1:13, he makes the comment that the books from the store are "accessible directly from the Reader." :unafraid:

Good footage of it in action, but their info is way off. :shrug:

should be 200Mb,I guess that's a typo.

Internet, well... You have to understand the guy is just a reporter making a report (and a lousy one too). He probably doesn't even know what an 800Mhz celeron processor is.

200-400Mhz makes more sense here; but at least you've seen the device.

It probably is a typo, it's just that the other stuff is all so wrong!

I think the 505 is 200 MHz, the 700 may be a bit faster, I haven't seen any specs on that yet, none that I'd actually trust, anyway. :rolleyes:

As mentioned in another thread, those specs are taken from "System Requirements" on Sony Reader's page. I guess we should at least be glad they didn't claim Reader runs Windows :)
I expect PRS-700 to have a more advanced version of i.MX CPU - probably i.MX21 or maybe even i.MX31.

Hi all!

I recently placed an order for the PRS-700 and am really looking forward to this new unit. Although I really liked the PRS-500, the improved contrast and screen refresh of the 505 and 700 seem very attractive to me.

I did install the hacked firmware from this forum to add a system power down on the 500 to save on battery life.

Does anyone know if the new 700 will allow you to have this feature?

Any more tips on saving battery power?
--- such as removing the SD card, avoid the mp3 player, and just use the complete power-down?

thanks.

Does anyone know if the new 700 will allow you to have this feature?

Any more tips on saving battery power?
--- such as removing the SD card, avoid the mp3 player, and just use the complete power-down?

I suspect more of us will have to get the unit in our hands before we can answer these questions, especially around the usefulness of the 505 hacks. Hey, can you buy me one? Or igorsk, maybe?

I did install the hacked firmware from this forum to add a system power down on the 500 to save on battery life.

Does anyone know if the new 700 will allow you to have this feature?Obviously I can't say definitely yet, but the 505 has that feature as part of its factory firmware (it's buried in one of the menus), so I'm guessing that the 700 is likely to have it as well. :shrug:

The good guys from the-ebook.org are sending me a unit (even though I would've bought one myself ;p) and I'm definitely going to look for the ways in.

hey, that is good news ! thank you, guys from the-ebook.org ! can't wait to hear what you're going to concoct for us !

The good guys from the-ebook.org are sending me a unit (even though I would've bought one myself ;p) and I'm definitely going to look for the ways in.

What unit, a PRS-700?

BOb

Why no mention of dictionary support?
I think because it has no dictionary support yet but it has virtual keyboard so probably they can add it in the future versions.