Wizpac txtr reader announced - the Kindle killer?

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I entirely agree with you. Without the cover, the CyBook feels very "cheap and flimsy". It isn't, but it certainly feels as though it is. With the cover on, it's a different story - thankfully!



I think personally that the CyBook cover (the original tan one) is excellent. Makes the device look like a high-quality leather-bound book.

[/QUOTE]

I agree that the Cybook cover looks great from the outside and is well made. However when you open it up you lose some of that really clean design feel, but these things tend to be very individual as well.

[pshrynk]

This looks cool, and may even make me hesitate on the Kindle MkII if that is anyting other than vaporware. Will it be available in the US at any foreseeable date?

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

This looks cool, and may even make me hesitate on the Kindle MkII if that is anyting other than vaporware. Will it be available in the US at any foreseeable date?

They indicated earlier that prototypes are expected in February and they expect to ship in the 2nd half of '09. I believe full distribution plans are still to be determined.

[Phogg]

The form factor is definitely a winner.
This will fit in the pocket of the fishing shirts I normally wear to work.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

One thing I would suggest it to use a good solid way to fasten the cover to the reader.

I have to say, the Sony 500 had the best method. It provided a solid attachment method without getting in the way of any of the edges of the device. I think they made a mistake with the change they made with the 505. Now the cover sticks out to the left of the device when folded back. Also, the little clips don't hold as well and are not a sturdy at the 500 clasp was.

BOb

You had to apply a quite alarming amount of pressure to the PRS-500 to make the cover "snap into" its fastener. I strongly suspect that the reason it was changed on the 505 was that so many people broke their screens while trying to attach the cover.

It also suffered from the problem that the "alignment" of the cover with the device depended on the "fastener" on the cover being correctly aligned. On the leather covers, the fastener was attached by hand, and was frequently mis-aligned, resulting in a "crooked cover" which one edge of the device "stuck out" from.

It was, IMHO, a very poor design.

[Mr. Goodbar]

I think there were pros and cons to the original sony cover design. From a pro perspective it held well, looked good, was simple and kept the reader in a tight position on the cover.

From a con perspective it did take a little pressure to apply it and some of them were misaligned. I didn't have that problem with mine, but I do seem to remember people complaining about it.

If someone can just figure out how to take the pro's and eliminate the con's they would have a winner.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You had to apply a quite alarming amount of pressure to the PRS-500 to make the cover "snap into" its fastener. I strongly suspect that the reason it was changed on the 505 was that so many people broke their screens while trying to attach the cover.

If you are reading this and broke your 500 screen buy snapping a cover on, please post here!

Harry, I didn't say it was perfect, but I think it is much better than the 505 attachment method... and certainly better than the Kindles non-existing attachment method.

BOb

[DG25]

I don't know if it was asked before, but is any chance it will have a plastic screen? I'm worried about damaging the screen, as the case protecting it is very slim (8mm).

Also, what's the size of the actual screen? I know it's 6" diagonal, but i don't know the proportions. I never owned an e-reader before and i want to make an ideea about the screen size, if it's enough for me. Seems a little small to me. But on the other hand, the 9.7" or 10" screens are definitely too big for reading books, at least for me.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by DG25

Also, what's the size of the actual screen? I know it's 6" diagonal, but i don't know the proportions.

There is currently only one source for 6" screens, so they are all 90x120 mm and 167 ppi, see E-book Reader Matrix. The difference in grey levels between devices comes primarily from the screen controller used.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by DG25

I don't know if it was asked before, but is any chance it will have a plastic screen? I'm worried about damaging the screen, as the case protecting it is very slim (8mm).

Also, what's the size of the actual screen? I know it's 6" diagonal, but i don't know the proportions. I never owned an e-reader before and i want to make an ideea about the screen size, if it's enough for me. Seems a little small to me. But on the other hand, the 9.7" or 10" screens are definitely too big for reading books, at least for me.

This is very close in size to the Sony 505. From the specs, it is the same thickness, 6mm wider and 29mm shorter. The weight is almost identical as well.

[DG25]

Hmm, it is kinda small, 9cm x 12cm. But i think it will be ok if i can use a small font, so more text can fill the screen. Is there a limit for how small a font can be on an eink device, without losing the sharpness of each letter?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by DG25

Hmm, it is kinda small, 9cm x 12cm. But i think it will be ok if i can use a small font, so more text can fill the screen. Is there a limit for how small a font can be on an eink device, without losing the sharpness of each letter?

Smaller than you can comfortably read.

It works very much like printed text... if you're comfortable reading 4pt text, you can set up your ebooks in that. (And putting letter-sized, 10pt font PDFs into the reader gets a close approximation of this.) It will display, with good contrast, text that is too small (for almost anyone) to comfortably read.

If you like small text, the biggest problem is finding books in it; the readers can make text bigger, but not smaller, and all the sources for ebooks work with either 10pt or 12pt text by default, because those appeal to the greatest number of readers. If you want 15 words per average line, you'd have to create those ebooks yourself.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by DG25

Hmm, it is kinda small, 9cm x 12cm. But i think it will be ok if i can use a small font, so more text can fill the screen. Is there a limit for how small a font can be on an eink device, without losing the sharpness of each letter?

Most ebook formats "reflow", which means that you can use a wide range of font sizes and all that changes is the amount of text per screen. For pictures and screenshots see: Full size .pdfs - screenshots and/or best option available now?, Font Sizes and Does the new CyBook support ultra-large fonts (>72 points) ?. These are from three different 6" devices, and each has slightly different capabilities (we don't yet know how the Wizpac will perform). If you want to get an idea of how the screen will look, try printing a document at about at 3.6" by 4.8" (as in the Cybook thread).

[DG25]

Wallcraft, in your post here, the last picture with the smaller font, what size is it? 10pt or 12pt maybe? Because that would be ok for me, i think...

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by DG25

Wallcraft, in your post here, the last picture with the smaller font, what size is it? 10pt or 12pt maybe? Because that would be ok for me, i think...

Don't forget that the actual screen is probably smaller than the bitmap appears on your computer screen. Amazon claims that the smallest font is 7pt, which is probably about right. You don't need to specify the font size for reflowable formats - you choose this on the device. If you build your own PDF document sized for the screen (or a LRF on the Sony's) then you would choose the font size up front.

If you are happy with the smallest Kindle font, then you might even be able to read standard A4/letter PDFs on a 6" screen (perhaps after cropping the margins). Most people have trouble doing this, and the reflow and/or zoom options for PDFs are not entirely satisfactory.