Sony reveals prototype 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus

[markom]

Originally Posted by Barty

Plastic logic had something just like this at 10". They were going to sell it for around $800 but the iPad came out and they realized it would not cut it.

This looks like it will be good for college and business -- any where people need to read and annotate technical, legal, business documents. It's Sony, so it will be premium pricing. But I think it's what a lot of people having been waiting for.

Plastic Logic has also developed similar technology.

First e-readers are expected to come out next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhZ9aefdNUU

http://www.plasticlogic.com/media-centre/videos/

http://www.plasticlogic.com/technology/

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Barty

Plastic logic had something just like this at 10". They were going to sell it for around $800 but the iPad came out and they realized it would not cut it.

This looks like it will be good for college and business -- any where people need to read and annotate technical, legal, business documents. It's Sony, so it will be premium pricing. But I think it's what a lot of people having been waiting for.

I actually believe that Sony will release it without premium pricing. Sony just showed their first quarter with a profit since I don't know when, they have stopped producing tvs because people aren't willing to pay the premium required. They have gone through a catharsis and seem to have realized that they need to change their attitude. But until they release it to the general public we won't know.

[Feher]

Sony has a done a wonderful job indeed.
Their firmware looks good (with tab support etc) and they have made an excellent decision by implementing two touch screens - IR and Wacom. I was hoping for it to have a decent price, but looking at all the excellent features i am starting to think that the device will be costly. It cannot be too costly because the primary consumers would be students. It will have some premium till other manufacturers enter the fray

[BoldlyDubious]

Originally Posted by Feher

It cannot be too costly because the primary consumers would be students. It will have some premium till other manufacturers enter the fray

I suspect that Sony is thinking that their main customers will be institutions and companies. These could significantly reduce the costs associated to paper, printing and form-filling by giving this device to their staff (and possibly, in the case of universities, to students). The fact that Sony is doing tests at Japanese universities is coherent with such a scenario.
If this is the business model, the bulk price to these customers may be much lower than the street price to consumers, these being a niche market with negligible impact on overall sales. Unless consumers show that this is not the case, which I don't think can happen. Honestly, I can't see this type of device as having much appeal to the average consumer.
In this scenario, if and when competitors will emerge they will tend to target the "big" market (institutions/companies) and not the "small" one (consumers).

[talaivan]

Would you really rather use this than an iPad? By the time it comes out, the new, lighter iPad will be available, and it has a few more uses than reading pdf's and annotating them. This thing apparently has no color, is ungainly, and has 0 apps (unless it sort of runs Android). And who wants a huge 13" screen? We'll see, but it doesn't make sense to me.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by talaivan

Would you really rather use this than an iPad? By the time it comes out, the new, lighter iPad will be available, and it has a few more uses than reading pdf's and annotating them. This thing apparently has no color, is ungainly, and has 0 apps (unless it sort of runs Android). And who wants a huge 13" screen? We'll see, but it doesn't make sense to me.

Actually anyone who's primary format is PDF would like this reader with several weeks battery life instead of about 10 hours and even if a new iPad were lighter than the old one it would still weigh more than 50% higher and apps are not necessary for some people who can use a different device for that sort of thing and many schools would applaud a device that doesn't run games when the student should be paying attention.

There are lots of different people and they don't all have to like the same thing.

Dale

[BoldlyDubious]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Actually anyone who's primary format is PDF would like this reader with several weeks battery life instead of about 10 hours and even if a new iPad were lighter than the old one it would still weigh more than 50% higher and apps are not necessary for some people who can use a different device for that sort of thing and many schools would applaud a device that doesn't run games when the student should be paying attention.

...and the most important thing: reading -especially for long periods- on an electrophoretic screen is pleasant, while on a backlit LCD screen it definitely isn't.

[Dulin's Books]

Lawyers,clerks,judges. Imagine how much less the brief case will weight.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Lawyers,clerks,judges. Imagine how much less the brief case will weight.

Hang on, are briefcases so-called because people carry (legal) briefs in them? Why didn't that ever occur to me?

Andrew

[Pismire]

Quite excited about this. I do not believe the market for this device is small: think of anyone doing a lot of paperwork. This slate would save them thousands of copies per year.

Either way: this thread lists a few things an academic audience would be hoping for. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=214190

[cghipp]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

Hang on, are briefcases so-called because people carry (legal) briefs in them? Why didn't that ever occur to me?

Andrew

Don't you just love those moments?

[markom]

Deeper look at the new Sony 13.3 inch e-Reader (by goodereader.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZSGZkEEVfQ

click-the-picture

I haven't noticed any zooming(cropping) capability there as yet.

Zooming part of the page by two-points or at least a landscape mode are essential IMHO even on 13.3".

[BoldlyDubious]

Thanks markom for the link to the very informative video.
So, this ereader definitely has useful tab-based multiple-document features, and good annotation tools too. A first Yes!

A second Yes! for the large screen... I personally could easily live with something that gives me a full, unscaled rendition of and A4/Letter page; even if zooming is not available at all. After all, paper documents don't allow zooming and we use them all the time without complaining :-)
Refresh time seems acceptably fast. Provided that the device does not introduce additional waiting time to actually prepare the new page to be shown on the screen when you jump from one tab to another, even pretty frequent tab changes should be reasonably comfortable.

Finally, a third Yes! for the (supposed) ruggedness coming from having a flexible backplane. This Sony device seems able to live in a bag or knapsack without breaking (which is essential for a "workhorse" product that you bring with you everywhere... at least this is how I would use the thing).

Now I hope very strongly that: (i) it actually goes on sale and (ii) if it does, the price won't be too high.
(It would be surprising if tablets, that many expected to be the killers of electrophoretic devices, should instead contribute to the development of rugged large-screen devices, after all these years of useless waiting!)

[medard]

You'll find the information by the director of Eink that Sony is planning to bring the Mobius Reader to market in the 2nd half of the year in this video:

http://youtu.be/94Ifhuc2bbQ

[BoldlyDubious]

Originally Posted by medard

Sony is planning to bring the Mobius Reader to market in the 2nd half of the year

If I got 10% of an e-reader with an A4-size screen every time some company announced that it was about to bring to market such a product, I would have a couple of them by now ;-)
(...but thanks for the link!)