Sony with larger-screen e-reader this year, no color before 2010

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by MerLock

I guess the reason they do not sell epub books and probably will not is because to me, it appears Sony is a hardware company and not a book retailer. Sony is interested in pushing the reader and has opened it up to a wide variety of formats so that people can get content elsewhere. But I do hope they do realize there is a market for ebooks and consider selling books in epub format and continue to increase the volume of their library. Hopefully, they'll also be able to do a better job in offering competitive prices since they currently seem to be lacking in that area.

i agree that sony is primarily a hardware company, but recently they've been making great strides in increasing their content offer. the partnership with google is huge, and even before that the offer in their bookstore has been increasing at a much higher rate than previously in this thread some members have been tracking the increase in content available through the sony store and recently it has increased at a much higher rate than previously. so that seems to indicate that they want to concentrate on both aspects, even while they are opening their devices to content from other sources (which is a very good move on their part). it would be nice if they could lower prices as well but i suspect that does not depend exclusively on sony (they have to work with publishers as well on that).

Originally Posted by Icarusbop

Agreed, the displays are currently very expensive, but the company have got a few years of R&D ( and all the other add-ons,like power, materials, equipment, wages, 5 layers of insurance etc.) to pay for with their current income - the now developed E-ink display, before they can start realistically reducing the price.

With a research venture like the one they have undertaken, companies can easily be £10,000,000 in debt before they even get a marketable product -once they have the product, this debt needs to be paid before the prices will start coming down.

that is a good point, but don't you think they could more easily earn back their investment if they lowered the price of the unit and sold more of them ? it seems to me that higher sales, even if their profit margin is somewhat lower on each individual sale, would help them to catch up on their investment much more than selling fewer devices even at a higher markup, particularly if they also hope to earn money on content (as it seems they do). more devices sold means more readers to buy books, as well.

[astra]

Originally Posted by kuliand

Good news for europeans aswell as sony should release it in most of it's main markets. Plus i think sony will do a better job on the hardware after all that's what sony do best.

Did they release 700 over here? Even 505 was released in silver colour only. At least in the UK....and importing 10" screen from bhphotovideo could be very expensive and prone to screen breaks. Even if it is going to work right our of box, who knows how much damage it has sustained during transportation and maybe just another small bump will cause black strips all over the screen....

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The main problem with LCDs is the backlighting, both for power and visibility reasons. They don't really have a refresh rate as such.

Any device without a bi-stable display has a refresh rate. LCD displays in this discussion fall into this category. Refreshing can cause problems for some people under certain lighting conditions particularly with florescent displays. Some people also complain about backlighting. Some people don't complain about either of these things.

Dale

[Coops]

Only just joined - my blue 505 is ordered and on the way (to Thailand.....).

Looking forward to seeing this e-ink for real - took the plunge and ordered on spec and hope.....

I work offshore 4 or 5 weeks at a time, and lugging books around is heavy and the fear of running out of decent reading material is an issue....

I did try using a toshiba PDA some time ago - was one with a fairly large screen, and used it for reading books (using Microsoft reader). It was ok, but any backlit screen is never going to be that comfortable... especially black text on white background - the light from the white background is bad, bad news for long term use.... never did try green text on a black background, though...

Hope Sony pay attention to this board.... I'd think a larger screen (but not 9 or 10" diag) would be great .... use some of the dead space on the sides and top/bottom (a few mm's here and there) and could easily boost the size up usefully without changing the overall 505 size too much... the new Kindle and the 10" Irex just lok too big for comfort.

Coops

Coops

[kuliand]

does anyone think there is a chance we will see this 9.7" sony device out in the next 4 months before the next school year starts?

There can't be much work to do in the development as the electronics would probably be the same as in the 505 and 700 roughly and the screen they just buy in so it is just the case to design and all of this to a large company like sony shouldn't take long.

[wallcraft]

The limiting factor is the supply of 9.7" screens.

Sony normally announces new Readers in October, in time for Christmas. Its likely that there will be enough screens by then, so October is one possibility.

The college student market is huge, so they may announce (and deliver) sooner.

Amazon pre-announcing the KDX is strange. They may be trying to get an early indication of demand, or it may be to get textbook publishers on board. If Amazon does not deliver by September they are going to have some angry customers.

[MV64]

I love Sony. I figure by the time I'm ready to upgrade my PRS-505 they'll have all the new technology involved. I'd really like to be able to download books straight from my reader like you can on the Kindle, that's pretty much the only major addition I'm clamoring for.

[DrMoze]

I will probably get the larger Reader when it comes out (or soon thereafter). Being able to read natively-formatted pdf's (at a legible font size) will be awesome! I do NOT want a keyboard, or wireless, or mp3 player. Just a nice, large-format e-ink device with excellent battery life for me.

[astra]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

I will probably get the larger Reader when it comes out (or soon thereafter). Being able to read natively-formatted pdf's (at a legible font size) will be awesome! I do NOT want a keyboard, or wireless, or mp3 player. Just a nice, large-format e-ink device with excellent battery life for me.

Apparently we are on the same wave length.

[matopping]

Sony should take a look at the range of font sizes they offer. I have been forced to buy the BeeBook for my wife who is visualy impaired. As the Sony font sizes are not large enough.

[astra]

Originally Posted by matopping

Sony should take a look at the range of font sizes they offer. I have been forced to buy the BeeBook for my wife who is visualy impaired. As the Sony font sizes are not large enough.

I think PRS-700 has solved the issue. It has two more font sizes in addition to 505's three.
XL & XXL.

[yagiz]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

I will probably get the larger Reader when it comes out (or soon thereafter). Being able to read natively-formatted pdf's (at a legible font size) will be awesome! I do NOT want a keyboard, or wireless, or mp3 player. Just a nice, large-format e-ink device with excellent battery life for me.

Agreed wholeheartedly!

[Coops]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

I will probably get the larger Reader when it comes out (or soon thereafter). Being able to read natively-formatted pdf's (at a legible font size) will be awesome! I do NOT want a keyboard, or wireless, or mp3 player. Just a nice, large-format e-ink device with excellent battery life for me.

Another agreer (?) .... although the mp3 playback is ok, no?

I have a Sony TX laptop - approx 11" screen, and it looks smaller than that clunky Kindle dx (which is still way better than the embarassing Dell engineers weekend effort, the Kindle2!).... and reduce margins and wasted space and a barely sub 10" scren would be nicely portable, still.

Suggest a scroll wheel for navigation and selection - as for Sonos controller (excellent streaming home audio solution) - and of couse ipods etc....

Otherwise, surely they'll include all other advice/hacks form here re fonts, customisation etc.... and Sony should just let the Memory stick die. Really.

Coops