3 New Sony Readers announced today, apps coming this fall

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

If you look at the row of buttons at the bottom of the reader, the two buttons on the left are back and forward buttons. Those are the only buttons (ignoring power switch) on the reader. As far as a finger stroke, I've been reading my 600 in bed with one hand, using my thumb to advance pages for the past year. In other words, it takes a very short stroke

I played with a 600 (not 650) in the store, and some of my page swipes did not register, which was annoying. How much of a problem is this with touch screens--having to swipe several times to turn a page? How tricky is it to learn to get it just right?

At least with a physical button it will fire every time.

[LDBoblo]

After seeing their little video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOUlOeXjzQ), I'm a bit disappointed. Perhaps the slowness and crappy text are misrepresented in the video, so I'll wait and see.

[harryE123]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I played with a 600 (not 650) in the store, and some of my page swipes did not register, which was annoying. How much of a problem is this with touch screens--having to swipe several times to turn a page? How tricky is it to learn to get it just right?

At least with a physical button it will fire every time.

touch screens don't have this problem, capacitance ones in phones that is (and the ipad) but if sony has chosen a crap touch tec such as ir for cost reasons, maybe it will impact their products.

[c-not-k]

Originally Posted by JWLaRue

...was able to stop by the Sony Style located in the Annapolis Mall yesterday to check out the 350 and 650.

Like others, I didn't have my 505 with me so it's hard to say how much the new screens make a difference. However, I did spend a good amount of time playing with the new interface and found it to be very well executed. I was initially worried about the page turning with the touchscreen but found that is was easier to use than the 505. Page turns didn't seem to be noticeably faster, but certainly fast enough.

The built-in dictionaries are a very nice addition. I must admit that I do miss having one like I did on my Cybook.

Right now I'm trying to decide whether the 5-inch 350 is the way I'd want to go. That 350 is so nice and light when compared to the 505.....155g vs. 250g.

I guess the good news is that I have to wait until the 17th before I can buy one.

-Jeff

Thanks for the info. I'll stop by the mall next week now that I know they have them.

I accidentally left my 505 on the top of my truck; noticed it flying off when I left the parking lot. It's broken now.

Never liked the 700 or 600. Looks like I'll have to get the 650!

My 505 was getting long in the tooth anyway, It's had years of hard use.

Most (95%) of my content is from online forums like this. (I like to read discussions offline. Not today, however.) The lack of WiFi is a non-issue for me.

[perost]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I played with a 600 (not 650) in the store, and some of my page swipes did not register, which was annoying. How much of a problem is this with touch screens--having to swipe several times to turn a page? How tricky is it to learn to get it just right?

A resistive touchscreen requires you to press it to register a swipe, so in your case I would guess that you simply didn't press it hard enough when swiping. Pressing just a little bit more would probably fix any problems you have with the touchscreen. Personally I have never had any problem with the touchscreen on my PRS-900, but then I've never used a capacitive touchscreen so I'm used to having to press the screen.

The new touchscreen technology used by the Sony readers doesn't seem to need any pressure on the screen at all, so hopefully it will be easier to use. But I guess the jury is still out on that one until we get more reviews of the new readers.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by c-not-k

Never liked the 700 or 600. Looks like I'll have to get the 650!

Agree. When the 300 & 700 came out, I decided I'd definitely hold on to my 505. But having had hands on the new ones, I wouldn't hesitate getting one of them were my 505 to suffer a similar fate,

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by harryE123

touch screens don't have this problem, capacitance ones in phones that is (and the ipad) but if sony has chosen a crap touch tec such as ir for cost reasons, maybe it will impact their products.

Read the message you are replying to. You don't seem to know what you are talking about here. 600 has a resistive touch screen. And "crap", "for cost reasons" - yes, you really don't know what you are talking about.

[harryE123]

I do know what I am talking about, sorry to disappoint you. I just misread 600 for 650, which is expected seeing as people are giving impressions here of the new sony models not the old ones as the op did. Now let me ask you on what they think is the case in South Jersey: If ir touchscreens are so good, how come the ipad and all smartphones use capacitance ones instead? I don't know how the ir fair, if you 'd bother to read better what I said, you 'd know that, but I am suspicious because it's a tec that close to no one uses (or maybe even no one) in the consumer market, and because capacitance screens are really very, very good to opt for an alternative it's very easy to hypothesise that cost was an issue for sony. I hope all these didn't fly over your head again.

[Enola]

Any idea on when alternate outlets (Best Buy, Target) will be selling the new readers? I have a gift card to Best buy that I'm going to sacrifice towards a 650 (after playing with it to verify I want to replace my 505), but obsessively checking the online BestBuy to see if they're available is getting depressing.

[Orn8one]

Is this review of the 650 accurate? http://http://www.epubbooks.com/eboo...-touch-edition I don't understand why it is dated Nov 2009.
and @ HarryE123 - some of us prefer resistive touch screens. I am unable to use capacitive screens so no iphone or ipad for me nor can I use my BB Storm. I am thankful that Sony uses resistive screens and their devices have a stylus.

[charleski]

I've been in two minds about the new Pearl screens - some pictures show a noticeable difference while others don't. But I bumped into someone with a Kindle3 on the tube this afternoon and managed to compare it to my 505. There's no doubt that text was much denser on the Pearl screen and the background was slightly lighter (though that was less noticeable). Of course I've hacked my 505 to use Minion Caption whereas the K3 was running slabs'r'us Caecilia (which sacrifices any grace at the altar of readability), so part of the difference might be down to the K3's massively-tweaked font, but there was no doubt that the Pearl screen was able to go quite a bit darker than the Vizplex.

The Pearl screen isn't a massive step forward, but it's enough of an improvement to make a serious difference.

[Squirsier]

Originally Posted by Orn8one

Is this review of the 650 accurate? http://http://www.epubbooks.com/eboo...-touch-edition I don't understand why it is dated Nov 2009.

That would be a review of the PRS-600

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by harryE123

I do know what I am talking about, sorry to disappoint you. I just misread 600 for 650, which is expected seeing as people are giving impressions here of the new sony models not the old ones as the op did. Now let me ask you on what they think is the case in South Jersey: If ir touchscreens are so good, how come the ipad and all smartphones use capacitance ones instead? I don't know how the ir fair, if you 'd bother to read better what I said, you 'd know that, but I am suspicious because it's a tec that close to no one uses (or maybe even no one) in the consumer market, and because capacitance screens are really very, very good to opt for an alternative it's very easy to hypothesise that cost was an issue for sony. I hope all these didn't fly over your head again.

Yet, you seem to dismiss the counter-arguments people are placing before you (including me).

The iPad/etc use capacitive tech because it is cheap and offers good clarity. In the general order of price, resistive is the absolute cheapest, followed by capacitive closely behind, and then the various optical tech (SAW and IR) is the most expensive. Going with a capacitive display would have allowed Sony to cut the price on their readers, easily.

At the very least take a look at one of these in-store. The touch response is easily on par with previous models (and takes less of a 'press' to get a response), still allows for a stylus, and the screen clarity blows away the 505 because of the e-Ink Pearl display's higher contrast and cleaner screen. This is from my own impressions seeing them in my local Sonystyle store, and comparing them side-by-side to my 505.

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by harryE123

I do know what I am talking about, sorry to disappoint you. I just misread 600 for 650, which is expected seeing as people are giving impressions here of the new sony models not the old ones as the op did. Now let me ask you on what they think is the case in South Jersey: If ir touchscreens are so good, how come the ipad and all smartphones use capacitance ones instead? I don't know how the ir fair, if you 'd bother to read better what I said, you 'd know that, but I am suspicious because it's a tec that close to no one uses (or maybe even no one) in the consumer market, and because capacitance screens are really very, very good to opt for an alternative it's very easy to hypothesise that cost was an issue for sony. I hope all these didn't fly over your head again.

have a look at the 650 being reviewed here on Youtube. You can clearly see that the PRS650 respond to the lightest tough. And is very fast as well (for an eink device).



(Review by Charbax, who I think is a MR member as well)

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by perost

A resistive touchscreen requires you to press it to register a swipe, so in your case I would guess that you simply didn't press it hard enough when swiping. Pressing just a little bit more would probably fix any problems you have with the touchscreen. Personally I have never had any problem with the touchscreen on my PRS-900, but then I've never used a capacitive touchscreen so I'm used to having to press the screen.

I can confirm this very issue with the 600. I get the warning icon at the bottom all the time when I have an unregistered swipe. I always do it harder the second time and it works.

But I HATE (did I say HATE? I meant HATE!!!) fingerprints on my screen. So at home I never touch the screen with my fingers. Turning pages, I pretty much exclusively use the buttons. (When I'm out/about, I swipe the screen and clean it off when I get home.)

The new touchscreen technology used by the Sony readers doesn't seem to need any pressure on the screen at all, so hopefully it will be easier to use. But I guess the jury is still out on that one until we get more reviews of the new readers.

Engadget and PC Mag (or similar) has said the new touch was very responsive. Others have said it isn't. I'm a bit inclined to believe Engadget because they had time with the devices before the release announcement.

EDIT: I hadn't seen the above post yet. The video (go to youtube and watch in 480 or 720!) pretty much settles any debate. He's barely touching the screen and it reacts. There's a bit of a lag, but I get similar with the PRS-600; it's either the e-Ink response time, or the still-underpowered CPU.

I can say for sure that I would love to trade my 600 in for one of the newer models, even without having seen one in person. Getting that thrice-damned overlay off there, and the new Pearl technology, are the biggest deals for me.

-Pie