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Originally Posted by JohnB
[*]No backlight. Don't tell me adding a light will ruin battery life, or I should get a head-lamp - I'm used to readers with backlights, and both have had a perfectly usable battery life.
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I get really tired of this criticism. I realize you appreciate that the Reader can't be a "full-color magazine", but this is still just as silly. If you want to know what a backlight would do on an e-Ink device then try shining a flashlight behind a page in a book. This among other criticisms are more a problem of the technology as a whole, NOT the Sony Reader. Products should be critiqued within the context of what is possible and practical with current technology.
Let me illustrate this. Here is an example of a critique written about my Sony PSP in the style of which you wrote about Sony Reader:
The Sony PSP is a horrible gaming device.
1. I cannot play my PSOne and PS2 games on it, instead I have to go buy other game from a more limited library and pay FULL PRICE for them.
2. The graphics are not as good as any current consoles, I can even get better graphics on a GameCube
3. The screen is too small. I know they want it to fit in my pocket, but it is nothing compared to my 17" LCD monitor.
4. It has web browsing capabilities, but there is no fold out keyboard. I have to type using a on-screen display and the navigation pad. This takes forever.
5. The controls are cramped, they should have made the PSP bigger
6. I hate the fact that all the game have "load times", what is up with that? That makes the games almost unplayable.
Sony does have a reputation for ruining a good idea (Mylo), but they really got it right with the Reader. eReaders in general have an uphill climb and lot of limitations to overcome. I want to see the Reader to succeed not just for Sony's sake, but for culture's sake. If the Reader takes off, it will pave the way for better Readers in the future. Just compare the first-gen iPod to the current iPod, it is a big difference, but the first one was still well worth it. Brushing off new products that don't fit our Star Trek like visions of the future keeps us from getting there.