New Sony model to be called PRS-300 and PRS-600

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

I admittedly didn't read all the posts in the thread but...um...no card reader in one of them? :O

And when are they gonna address the real-estate issue? These new readers look tweaked and recycled more than anything. A bit refined on the board, some new parts, minimal redesign fuss.

I can imagine people claiming the extra area below the screen is good for gripping the reader, but if I'm gonna get a 5" screen, I want the reader itself to be not much more than the screen. I find myself tempted to trim down paper books that have massive margins, and a screen with a big bezel and lots of wasted space seems a bit tragic.

I'm quite glad they did minimal design changes. I'm quite happy with the current design. I think the no card reader thing is one of the ways they are cutting cost to make the 300 a much cheaper device. They at least keep the option open on the 600.

Guys, just imagine if this is a $200 or less device. The market is going to go crazy. That's a third off retail price (including almost all the other devices new). Remember the huge grab for the 505 when they went to $199 at Borders for three days? That might have been a test. Clearing existing inventory and seeing what that price point will do.

[Sundara]

Originally Posted by Over

What's the purpose of the 600 model?

Personally I enjoy touch screen devices; I like their being silent without having to push any buttons :-)

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by Lilly

I hope they release it in another color beside that ugly pinkish red!

Manuals mention silver, black and red.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by jswinden

TRUE! I've got a Kindle 2 and the their Whispernet is Sprint and even in 3G it is incredibly slow. It sometimes takes 30 minutes to download a book when not in 3G, and you cannot use the Kindle 2 while it is downloading. Wireless LAN would be next to useless outside the home as most wireless routers are now protected and locked. BTW: The web features on the Kindles are mostly useless because the processor is too slow to support them, and Whispernet will eat up a battery charge in just a few hours.

You must have bad coverage where you live or maybe something wrong with the unit. Have you talked to Amazon about your speed issue? My books download in a matter of seconds even in my house where signal is pretty poor. As you say, though, even aside from that it's not a good platform for web surfing. The slow processor and screen make it painful. But if your download speed is good, having access to content on the go is really very nice. It's a good tie-in with the samples. You can read the samples then buy the book whenever even if your not at home. WiFi would be less convenient for that.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Manuals mention silver, black and red.

Perfect! If it's better then my 505 then I see a black one in my future!

[igorsk]

Another thing I found... it seems the PRS-300 uses the older CPU (Dragonball MX1) that was used in PRS-500 and not the MXL of 505... are they trying to cut costs by using old stock of processors that they piled up?

(PRS-500 board image from http://www.msh-tools.com/ebook/internals.html)

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Guys, just imagine if this is a $200 or less device. The market is going to go crazy. That's a third off retail price (including almost all the other devices new). Remember the huge grab for the 505 when they went to $199 at Borders for three days? That might have been a test. Clearing existing inventory and seeing what that price point will do.

Good point. If they give up a little on bells and whistles to cut the price to consumers, this could be a good move. So long as our existing devices are still supported, I could be very happy.

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I think the no card reader thing is one of the ways they are cutting cost to make the 300 a much cheaper device.

And who needs a card with 440 Mb internal memory? It's enough memory for 400-500 ebooks.
I never understood why people would want to have their whole library on their device. I don't think that anyone of us can read more than 50-100 in a whole year.

Originally Posted by Alisa

You must have bad coverage where you live or maybe something wrong with the unit. Have you talked to Amazon about your speed issue? My books download in a matter of seconds even in my house where signal is pretty poor. As you say, though, even aside from that it's not a good platform for web surfing. The slow processor and screen make it painful. But if your download speed is good, having access to content on the go is really very nice. It's a good tie-in with the samples. You can read the samples then buy the book whenever even if your not at home. WiFi would be less convenient for that.

It seems that every Kindle owner jumps on me when I state the slow downloading of my Kindles. Yep, plural. I had the K2 replaced twice because of the slow downloading. All three have been just as slow. I suspect it is the terrible Sprint network in my area, but then again I live in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. If a metro area with over 6 million people and flat terrain cannot have better Sprint coverage, I can only imagine what rural coverage what be like.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Good point. If they give up a little on bells and whistles to cut the price to consumers, this could be a good move. So long as our existing devices are still supported, I could be very happy.

I doubt we'll lose support for the existing devices. I'll keep my fingers crossed anyway (I really really really like my 505 and don't want to give it up).

Originally Posted by Kostas

And who needs a card with 440 Mb internal memory? It's enough memory for 400-500 ebooks.
I never understood why people would want to have their whole library on their device. I don't think that anyone of us can read more than 50-100 in a whole year.

A lot of people were upset with the Kindle 2 lack of expandable memory and it had even larger internal memory. But I think the main issue with that was the poor way that the books are sorted on the device and being able to swap cards was a good way to do that.

[HarryT]

I honestly don't see any real need for a card reader in an entry-level device. I have 300 books on my CyBook, many of them multi-book omnibus versions, and am using roughly 40% of the 512MB memory of the CyBook.

[BlackVoid]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Why would you need NexT/Prev page buttons if you can simply swipe a symmetrical digit across the page?

Don

Maybe he does not like a screen with greasy fingerprints.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Another thing I found... it seems the PRS-300 uses the older CPU (Dragonball MX1) that was used in PRS-500 and not the MXL of 505... are they trying to cut costs by using old stock of processors that they piled up?

Wow, you're right! That's pretty bad, using a 5 year old microprocessor, not recommended for new designs, in a "brand new" device. Well, perhaps they are using one of the newer Freescale modifications of MX-1...

Sounds like they are trying to come up with a super basic ebook reader (maybe only LRF/X and EPUB support, no PDF). Something real cheap so they don't even need to sell content to make money.

I don't know how they are planning to compete with Netronix and Jinke with their armies of clones in that space.

[lunged]

After some thought, I agree that an entry level device does not need a card reader. The thing for me that would eat space quickly is Manga... and I wouldn't want to read manga on a 5" device.
From the look of that service manual, I expect the 300 to be well under $199. I bet (and hope) Sony prices these to move.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I honestly don't see any real need for a card reader in an entry-level device. I have 300 books on my CyBook, many of them multi-book omnibus versions, and am using roughly 40% of the 512MB memory of the CyBook.

Do you just put multiple copies of the same book file on all of your readers then? and what about categorizing selections to keep the numbers down so the slower machines dont take forever to search and load?

For example, I have one micro SD card with all the "Doc Savage" pulps,another with "The Shadow", and a third full of 19th century authors.

Each of those has 200 - 300 books, and with adapters they can be read on each of the machines we now have in epub.

Putting a copy of each one on each machine would be counterproductive.