Another PC Mag Review -- 07/24/06

NatCh · 08-29-2006, 10:28 PM

I don't think we've seen this one yet (I hadn't, at least), it has some more detail on how the Sony Reader actually works. It appears to be a companion write-up (follow-up maybe?) to the video review that ComanderROR posted earlier

PC Magazine Review -- 07/24/06

Teaser Quote: ".... it lasted for a full week without needing a recharge."

diabloNL · 08-30-2006, 01:19 AM

I don't see any differences with the one that I posted.

NatCh · 08-30-2006, 08:46 AM

Doh! Did you?

Sorry, somehow I missed it. I certainly wouldn't have (re)posted it if I'd realized....

yvanleterrible · 08-30-2006, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

Doh! Did you?

Sorry, somehow I missed it. I certainly wouldn't have (re)posted it if I'd realized....

Well at least bringing it back made me notice that I had'nt seen the slideshow

diabloNL · 08-30-2006, 11:59 AM

Better twice than never NatCh!

Man! My ebooks can't wait anymore to be loaded on the reader. Please Sony hurry up!

NatCh · 08-30-2006, 06:09 PM

I wish something would at least happen for us to talk about in the meantime! I guess I'm getting a bit 'board.'

The iLiadites used up a lot of good ideas for time-passers; what to read first, what size to make pdf's, that whole 'invite' business, and of course the venerable 'meditation thread' -- I'm trying to think of other stuff to kick around.

Frogsmasha had the idea of memory card hunting, which was a good one, but it didn't take long for a crew as sharp as this one to find some really rock-bottom prices.

It's funny, we've actually got better info on the Sony, in some regards, than we had on the iLiad before release ... well, before HenryCat got hold of one, anyway.

But that makes it hard to come up with stuff to discuss until we get new information to chew over. (sigh) That's why I was so excited when I found what I thought was a new (to us) article, I suppose.

It does give us confirmation that Sony has made at least one unit that gets a week's use on a single charge.

I was just reading back through the article, and noticed that it says $250-300 for a price range -- last I heard it was looking more like $350 for MSRP -- I wonder if that lower number accurately represents a lower price than we're expecting, or if it's some sort of miscommunication between PC Mag and Sony. PC Mag is usually pretty reliable, as these things go .... (I want a "shrug" smilie!)

61 Days 'till October 31st (based on PC Mag's comment in their video of "late October"

)

bingle · 08-30-2006, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

The iLiadites used up a lot of good ideas for time-passers; what to read first, what size to make pdf's, that whole 'invite' business, and of course the venerable 'meditation thread' -- I'm trying to think of other stuff to kick around.

The PDF/document size question is a good one, since it's even harder for the 6" screens to handle normal document sizes.

Fiction will work well in paperback size, I'm sure, but I'm a little concerned about technical books and game rule books (I want to put all my D&D and Warhammer rule books on my Reader). It seems like the PDFs will be practically unreadable at that small size.

Anyone have any tips for dealing with content like that for small screens? (Text that flows around illustrations, especially charts and tables, and just small text in general)

NatCh · 08-31-2006, 11:03 AM

Based on the screen dimensions that TaKir measured for us (assumes the Sony screen is, in fact, the same size as the HanLin V8), I came up with a "well, duh" WAG for pure text PDF pages: 3.54" by 4.84" with a .03" margin (90mm, 123mm and .8mm, respectively). But we won't know how well that will work 'till we have one to play with.

For your manuals, bingle, first I'd like to comment that the idea of putting D&D manuals on an e-ink reader has an incredibly high NQ (Niftiness Quotient).

Since we know how the native Sony PDF viewer will handle zooming PDF pages, I'd say that if you can crop the margins off, and use the 90° rotation feature, you'll probably end up with something somwhat larger than half sized (assuming an A5 size on the original pages), that will display in 3~4 sub chunks as you scroll down the page.

Of course we don't know how much control the rotated function will allow for scrolling -- will it allow you to scroll down as far as you want to, or only in pre-sized chunks? The former would allow more of the material to be useable than the latter; most diagrams aren't much use if you can only see part of them at a time.

At a guess, some of your files will work okay this way, and some won't.

On the other hand, the OS is linux (rather like the iLiad's), so homebrew viewers are pretty much inevitable, and who knows what tricks those might do for us? Especially considering that Sony doesn't have an IDS that effectively controls what apps might get put on its device the way iRex does at the moment -- and ain't that a kick in the teeth?

I think that a lot of material that we traditionally use is going to simply be useless or really suboptimal until someone puts out an A5 sized e-ink reader. (shrug) The present and presently pending devices are mostly aimed at pure text reading, the Sony definitely is, and they should do that quite well. I guess we'll have to decide individually if they do the other, fancier stuff well enough to work for us. I just want to read books, myself, but I think that an A5 format is likely waiting somewhere down the road, waiting to see how these first three offerings do. It'll probably pop up in the corporate world first, I suppose. But I digress.

Xtremegene · 09-06-2006, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

61 Days 'till October 31st (based on PC Mag's comment in their video of "late October"

)

Sort of weird as the second sentence of the article stated end of Sept. as a release date...

I can dream, can't I? With the luck I have though, not to mention just checking the info. constantly since the March '06 date fell through, the Reader will end up being released next year. ...with the PS3 as a dual launch?

NatCh · 09-06-2006, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtremegene

Sort of weird as the second sentence of the article stated end of Sept. as a release date...

I can dream, can't I?

Yeah it does say that, but in the linked video review, the guy says September, and then corrects himself to October. (shrug)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtremegene

With the luck I have though, not to mention just checking the info. constantly since the March '06 date fell through, the Reader will end up being released next year. ...with the PS3 as a dual launch?

I don't think it'll come to that -- the best indications I can come up with is that we should be seeing these rascals before Halloween. (Hey! Maybe that's the holiday they mean!

)

As always, salt to taste....

08-29-2006, 10:28 PM	#1
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	New PC Mag Review -- 07/24/06 I don't think we've seen this one yet (I hadn't, at least), it has some more detail on how the Sony Reader actually works. It appears to be a companion write-up (follow-up maybe?) to the video review that ComanderROR posted earlier PC Magazine Review -- 07/24/06 Teaser Quote: ".... it lasted for a full week without needing a recharge." Last edited by NatCh; 08-29-2006 at 11:38 PM.

08-30-2006, 01:19 AM	#2
diabloNL Gadget Force® Posts: 705 Karma: 2733 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The Netherlands Device: Sony PRS-300 + Cybook with funny screen :P	I don't see any differences with the one that I posted. Last edited by diabloNL; 08-30-2006 at 01:23 AM.

08-30-2006, 06:09 PM	#6
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	I wish something would at least happen for us to talk about in the meantime! I guess I'm getting a bit 'board.' The iLiadites used up a lot of good ideas for time-passers; what to read first, what size to make pdf's, that whole 'invite' business, and of course the venerable 'meditation thread' -- I'm trying to think of other stuff to kick around. Frogsmasha had the idea of memory card hunting, which was a good one, but it didn't take long for a crew as sharp as this one to find some really rock-bottom prices. It's funny, we've actually got better info on the Sony, in some regards, than we had on the iLiad before release ... well, before HenryCat got hold of one, anyway. But that makes it hard to come up with stuff to discuss until we get new information to chew over. (sigh) That's why I was so excited when I found what I thought was a new (to us) article, I suppose. It does give us confirmation that Sony has made at least one unit that gets a week's use on a single charge. I was just reading back through the article, and noticed that it says $250-300 for a price range -- last I heard it was looking more like $350 for MSRP -- I wonder if that lower number accurately represents a lower price than we're expecting, or if it's some sort of miscommunication between PC Mag and Sony. PC Mag is usually pretty reliable, as these things go .... (I want a "shrug" smilie!) 61 Days 'till October 31st (based on PC Mag's comment in their video of "late October" ) Attached Images Last edited by NatCh; 08-30-2006 at 06:12 PM.

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08-30-2006, 08:46 AM	#3
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Doh! Did you? Sorry, somehow I missed it. I certainly wouldn't have (re)posted it if I'd realized....

08-30-2006, 11:59 AM	#5
diabloNL Gadget Force® Posts: 705 Karma: 2733 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The Netherlands Device: Sony PRS-300 + Cybook with funny screen :P	Better twice than never NatCh! Man! My ebooks can't wait anymore to be loaded on the reader. Please Sony hurry up!

08-31-2006, 11:03 AM	#8
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Based on the screen dimensions that TaKir measured for us (assumes the Sony screen is, in fact, the same size as the HanLin V8), I came up with a "well, duh" WAG for pure text PDF pages: 3.54" by 4.84" with a .03" margin (90mm, 123mm and .8mm, respectively). But we won't know how well that will work 'till we have one to play with. For your manuals, bingle, first I'd like to comment that the idea of putting D&D manuals on an e-ink reader has an incredibly high NQ (Niftiness Quotient). Since we know how the native Sony PDF viewer will handle zooming PDF pages, I'd say that if you can crop the margins off, and use the 90° rotation feature, you'll probably end up with something somwhat larger than half sized (assuming an A5 size on the original pages), that will display in 3~4 sub chunks as you scroll down the page. Of course we don't know how much control the rotated function will allow for scrolling -- will it allow you to scroll down as far as you want to, or only in pre-sized chunks? The former would allow more of the material to be useable than the latter; most diagrams aren't much use if you can only see part of them at a time. At a guess, some of your files will work okay this way, and some won't. On the other hand, the OS is linux (rather like the iLiad's), so homebrew viewers are pretty much inevitable, and who knows what tricks those might do for us? Especially considering that Sony doesn't have an IDS that effectively controls what apps might get put on its device the way iRex does at the moment -- and ain't that a kick in the teeth? I think that a lot of material that we traditionally use is going to simply be useless or really suboptimal until someone puts out an A5 sized e-ink reader. (shrug) The present and presently pending devices are mostly aimed at pure text reading, the Sony definitely is, and they should do that quite well. I guess we'll have to decide individually if they do the other, fancier stuff well enough to work for us. I just want to read books, myself, but I think that an A5 format is likely waiting somewhere down the road, waiting to see how these first three offerings do. It'll probably pop up in the corporate world first, I suppose. But I digress.