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Originally Posted by jboardman
Now that Sony has published the user's manual on the 950, I see that it does NOT have what they advertise in the initial splash - i.e. "Thoughtful navigation and button placement Designed for ease of use, the Reader Daily Edition™ provides intuitive navigation and button placement, including right and left-hand side page advance buttons." I guess we are stuck with either the finger wave page turn or the little button on the bottom left. I am also a bit disappointed that the page screen in the book reading mode does not state the title and author at the top as does the Kindle.
I was looking forward to both of these changes. I guess the PRS 950 is just a "juiced up" PRS 900. The Pearl screen alone may be worth it, but I wonder why Sony didn't incorporate the changes they advertised.
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Maybe you should write Sony which may be enough to pesuade them to live up to their promise before releasing the product. In addition I'm disappointed that they did not include color using color epaper technology (for reading graphic novels and magazines). $299 is a high price to pay without full 3G access (the Kindle and Nook has both full wifi and 3G web access for less and they have a better and cheaper bookstore).
For some reason Sony skipped color just like Amazon did. Both were rumored late last year to come out with a color eReader but they thought the technololgy is not yet ready for prime time. Both companies work with Prime View International (now E-Ink Holdings) for their Pearl ePaper display but I think the color technology did not live up to their expectations. I have a feeling that Amazon (and perhaps Sony) might ditch E-Ink (they just bought TouchCo which competes with PVI's touch screen display) in favor of more advanced color digital ink technologies from companies like Liquavista, Qualcomm, Bridgestone, Kent Displays, and SiPix.
Bridgestone and SiPix use the same electrophoretic technology as PVI so I don't think they will be partnering with Amazon or Sony. I think the next eReaders from these companies will have displays coming from Qualcomm (Mirasol) using interferometric modulation or Liquavista using electrowetting technology. Or maybe even Pixel Qi (3qi) which actually uses a different kind of LCD technology that would look like you are reading an epaper display (EPD). It's a hybrid technology where you can turn off the backlight to read the screen on EPD mode.
Don't you just love technology? Here are the players in this fast developing ePaper technology.
http://www.epapercentral.com/epaper-technologies-guide