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Well, they introduced the item as being about the 'literary iPod'.
The first part of the discussion mentioned that the Sony is a page-size deivice that could hold 160 books. It is availailable in the UK via Waterstone's and is largely sold out.
A Waterstone's spokesman agreed that the stock had sold out within 3 or 4 days, but that they had managed to get a little bit more stock since the initial launch. More stock is on order from Sony. He advised anyone wanting a Reader to put their name down for one in a store, and hoped to have 'plenty in stock' by October. He said that Waterstones had the majority of Sony Reader stock in the UK.
Alternatives were then mentioned: the kindle (USA only) and the Iliad. the Iliad has a larger screen and more features but is more expensive.
A technology expert, Bill Thompson, said that he had tried the Sony and that it was a 'useful little device'. He wasn't pleased with the slow refresh rate but friends had told him that he would get used to it. E-ink was clearly explained.
The expert said that these were very usable devices, had gone beyond early adopters, but were still fairly early. He liked paper books (saw them as 'furniture') but thought that the new Readers would be useful as 'supplementary devices', so that one could read while away from one's paper library.
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