It appears that Sony is planning yet more reaching out.

For those who also are blessed to be in the Great State of Texas, have a look at the Texas Book Festival (Oct. 27-29) (http://www.texasbookfestival.org) -- particularly note the list of exibitors (http://www.texasbookfestival.org/exhibitors/index.html) (down in the S's, if it needs to be said :happy2: )

Anyone who's going to be in Austin, TX this Saturday (10/28) might want to come by the State Capital grounds for this.

Sony is definitely going to be there, so it's a chance to meet one or two of the marketing team folks who brought us the Reader, and maybe ask them a question or two directly. :beam:

<speculation alert>
Who knows? They may even bring some Readers to sell. :grin2:
</speculation alert>

Darn, Texas is somewhat too far for me to reach ;( Wish I had a chance to talk to those Sony guys myself.

Would've been nice to maybe meet you, Alex, but I can see how Switzerland to Austin might be a bit of a hike for you. :grin:

Would've been nice to maybe meet you, Alex, but I can see how Switzerland to Austin might be a bit of a hike for you. :grin:
I know. It's too bad. Had Sony been present at the Book Fair in Frankfurt, I would probably have visited it.

Damn! I'll be at ren-fest on saturday. Maybe ill leave a bit early to make it back.

They'll be there Sunday, too.... :beam:

Sure would love to be there. We've had the first snowfall. It's melted now but still cold. Snowthrower's ready!

Rats, that's a nice festival, too! I was there 2-3 years ago and saw the Rock Bottom Remainders perform (Dave Barry, Amy Tan in leather, etc.). Let us know how it went, NatCh!

Okay, folks, just to let all know, I'll be traveling the next couple of days, and my access will be a bit spotty, so if I seem to have dissappeared, it's only 'cause I have. :beam:

I'll be back in a couple though.

(and thought of the posting backlog I'll have waiting for me to wade through truly frightens me :uhoh: )

Nat have a safe trip! And make some photos if you can... wish I could be there!

So, any news?

Well I made it there and back well enough, though I'm still recovering from the long day somewhat. I'm not going to do a formal-type report because I wasn't paying close enough attention to do a proper job of one -- I was having way too much fun! :grin:

I didn't do pictures (sorry, Alex), but there wasn't really anything to photograph anyway. It was a large tent with standard booth spaces in it, and they had several Readers on a table along the front and a couple more along the side, as well as a laptop so folks could see the Connect Store listings. There were five Sony folks there, including two who were at the Blogger's Day in San Diego last month, one of whom is the product manager, it was cool to see them again.

They let me talk to folks who walked by, talked myself hoarse, actually, and they joked that I knew the Reader better than they did, which I found amusing. I told folks what I thought of the Reader, and answered questions from a user perspective that the marketing folks who were there really couldn't answer as marketing folks. I especially enjoyed answering the "how long does the battery last" question. I suggested folks come here to MobileRead for (lots and lots) more information, which I think surprised the Product Manager the first time he heard me do it, though he didn't object in the least. :laugh4:

General response from folks was positive. There were some who were really excited, of course, and a few that were completely unimpressed.

I most liked the folks who didn't figure out that they were functional until they saw the page change. The expressions on their faces were priceless!

Like I said, not much to say about the Sony Booth itself, it was more or l less what you'd expect.

Oh, they also had a ~32" plasma screen set up on its side with a giant cut-out of the Reader around it, so that the plasma showed where the Reader's screen would be. I joked some that it was next year's model.

Hmm, I had some things I was supposed to ask about....

prslabs.com -- they do want to open it, but can't tell when, not can't say, but don't know, it seemed to be a matter of limited resources and lots to do. :shrug:

I specifically asked about "Function Expansion" (aka hacking). I didn't write it down, and they didn't want me to straight quote them anyway, but as a paraphrase: they're watching what's going on here in that area with great interest, and are excited and pleased that people are so interested in the Reader and what it can do. Add that to the past attitude toward hacking in the Librie' ....

I had some free time to talk informally with them and I was impressed with their interest in trying to make the Reader as open and accessible as they can. They apparently watch MR quite closely and are particularly interested in some of the suggestions and ideas that are popping up here. I don't know how long that level of attention can last, as they must have other things to do than read this forum, but it seems to be so for the moment. :grin:

Okay, I know I'm not remembering some other things I was supposed to ask about, so if y'all will remind me, I'll answer as I can. I think I was pretty good as far as remembering to ask the questions, but the discussion was pretty random, and I didn't take notes, as I said. And there were some things they couldn't comment on (they have bosses to answer to, you know), but I'll answer as best I can, :)

One last tidbit I picked up -- you might want to try looking for Readers at CompUSA before too long. :beam:

So, any news? :laugh4: You caught me typing it up, igorsk. :grin:

Thanks for the report! Pity that there's no date on prslabs, I guess I'll continue on my own for now ;)

BTW, did you ask about the actual sales? Are they going well/not so well/better than expected/etc?

Great report. Thks! I'm also interested in sales results so far...

I didn't ask about the actual sales numbers, and I doubt they'd've answered if I had. But they seemed to be pretty pleased with the way they're selling, and the stores can't keep them in stock, as we know around here. :grin:

Looks like it was loads of fun. Nice job!

FORGOT!

Were there e-publishers around?

No, no e-pubbers that I knew about, anyway. :(

E-publishers in a book fest will be the indicator of the success we're all waiting for.

Well, I think most e-publishers are also p-publishers, so .... :shrug:

Anyway, I didn't spend much time trolling the booths, most of it was talking with the Sony folks, or people who came to the booth. :beam:

Oh yeah, one other interesting thing, the product manger told me that he'd been asking folks (at these demos) who said they had heard of the Reader as to where they'd heard of it, and for the most part, the answer he got was MobileRead. I asked the same question several times, and mostly got the Wall Street Journal. :(

I guess all the Austin MobileReader Readers were at RenFest this weekend. :grin:

NatCh, I'm curious whether they were selling units at the festival, or taking orders. Did they mention whether the mid-November date still looked reasonable for delivery, and would that correspond with an increase in availability at retail outlets?

I've been wowing everyone I meet with my Reader, and they all want to know when they'll be able to find it in time for xmas.

Holy moly, I love this thang.

NatCh
Thanks for the report. It looks like you had a lot of fun. Did you ask something about update :deal: , when do they think it could be open and with what content? :shy:

I'm curious whether they were selling units at the festival, or taking orders. Did they mention whether the mid-November date still looked reasonable for delivery, and would that correspond with an increase in availability at retail outlets?They weren't selling units, nor taking orders, just showing them off. Oddly enough that seemed to make folks more willing to look at the ones they had, once they knew that was the case. :shrug:

I gathered that some of the current stuff going on with availability might have something to do with some internal political stuff that they couldn't really comment on (which explains why I was figuring it out for myself). :smile:

They did mention a few more retail outlets besides Borders, CompUSA, and half the team was saying Fry's Electronics, and the other half wasn't. I'm hoping that the actual demand that they're seeing might have an effect on the factors currently affecting availability. I wouldn't want to guess from that whether availability would increase in the next couple of weeks, though. :shrug:



Did you ask something about update :deal: , when do they think it could be open and with what content? :shy:I'm not sure I'm following what you're asking, vvaann, so I'll answer my two guesses, and you can tell me if you meant something else entirely. :beam:

Firmware update: they did hint a bit that there might be a firmware update in the not too distant future, but I couldn't say when or what would be in it. :shrug:

Opening up the source files: we've already got most (if not all) of it, and judging from the goings on in the developer's subforum (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=115) , it's debatable how much more is really needed. :grin:

Oh, yeah, another thread reminded me -- they said the Connect store is up to nearly 11k titles now.

NatCh
Sorry if I asked indefinite questions or my bad English did not let me to formulate it correctly. I will try to explain it.
I just wonder to know if they really understand our needs in software updates (discussed a lot in this forum), e.g. unicode or better functionality of pdf. The main question – are they going to improve software in general in the foreseeable future or they only collect ideas for the next model?

and you answered by the way :)

Thanks for clarifying, vvaann -- I'm glad I was able to answer what you wanted to know. :beam:

Tnks NatCh for the report....

Be nice to see it in Frys...

The more I use it the better I like it!

Thanks for the report, Scotty! I am posivitely surprised at the sudden cultural change at Sony's ... had you asked me three months ago if Sony would find others trying to hack their products "interesting", I would have called you nuts.

Wait!wait!...There is Sony and there's Sony employees...They might not have the same attitudes.

Thanks for the report, Scotty!You're welcome, doctorow, but I'm not Scotty. :grin:



Wait!wait!...There is Sony and there's Sony employees...They might not have the same attitudes.That is a point Yvan, but the way the product manager said it ... well, it had a more 'considered' flavor to it, and it compliments their comments on the matter from the Blogger's Day thing so I got the impression that it's more than just a couple of individual employees' opinions....