Sony Reader Daily Edition - SCOOP!

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Ervserver

It is sad, many small town libraries may not ever have ebooks. Maybe someday there will be an online nationwide library

This is very true - I live in a county that has several small towns, all with their own small libraries. Only one of them offers ebook downloads, due to an alliance with several other library systems in the state. However, since the vast majority of the people in this county don't live in that one town, very few people here have access to them. I'm fortunate in that I was able to get a library card from one of the larger library systems in the state because I worked in the city, but most of the people in my little community have no library access at all (ebook or pbook) without paying a fee that ranges from about $50-$100 per year.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by lunged

Library Finder is live: http://sonysearch.overdrive.com/
Still no 3.0 software...

(I'm not sure if this is old news or not, as I don't use the Sony book store)

US only. Won't accept Canadian postal codes.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Definitely interesting to read all the different views on the announcement. I've been hoping someone would come out with a reader in roughly this size. I loved the screen size of my iLiad, but hated just about everything else about it like speed, no suspend, thickness, battery life etc. Can't wait to see what the actual screen dimensions are and what the contrast looks like.

The earlier comparison picture making this device look like it has worse contrast than the 600 may be primarily due to increased grey levels. The chapter highlight and bottom bar darkness could be due to better grey level depth where it's just using a lighter shade of grey for those elements. Still concerned about loss of overall contrast when compared to 505, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by advocate2

I agree with Lemurion. The revolution here is not the hardware, but that Sony is taking a huge step toward expanding the availability of books. What are the odds that Amazon would have taken such a step? We can rent DVD's, why not ebooks? I can't remember the last time I purchased a new DVD. I just get it on Netflix and return it after I have watched it. The is the business model for which ebooks must adapt.

I personally agree that some sort of subscription service with a limit on how many books a user can download a month might make the most sense. Unfortunately, I expect publishers are so tied to their current business models (which is built around the concept of best sellers, multilevel pricing, etc) to ever go for it. They live for the big hardback that will sell like gangbusters for several months, then sell again when it is released in paperback. It seems to me that it makes it very difficult for them to predict revenue, but they have always done business this way and reading some articles written by people in the publishing industry, they seem incapable of imagining anything else working.

That being said, here is how I would spec it out:
$5 a month entitles you to one download per month.
$10 a month entitles you to three downloads.
$15 a month entitles you to 5 downloads.
$20 a month entitles you to unlimited downloads.

Authors and publishers would get compensated proportionately to how often their books are downloaded (Though I look Stallmans idea of paying a higher per copy rate to relatively low sellers as a way of encouraging newer authors).

My biggest concern with Ebooks has been the requirement that they be purchased (which is fine) but not subject to passing on to others. I much prefer to rent an ebook or get it from my library which I can currently do for many titles.

Ah, but see, the media companies really don't see it as buying a book, they see it as buying a license to use the file you download. Its the sort of semantic only a lawyer could love .

--
Bill

[Tuna]

Clever sony.

Screens still can't be produced quite big enough to make a reliably good job of PDF rendering. The Kindle DX certainly doesn't get it right all of the time and to me sits in that half way house of being too big to be pocketable, yet too small to display an A4 PDF comfortably. So they've done well not to be suckered into trying to compete with the DX which is a bit of a dead end.

This screen format improves book reading, will be fine for magazines and newspapers and keeps the reader itself a comfortable size. It moves the game on for eReaders.

I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, and to the software improvements. It's got a lot to do to make me regret buying the 505, but this seems to me to be a good start.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

Now, if they had a firmware upgrade to allow the 500 to display ePubs and access library content, *that* would be cool!

Um, the 505 can already access library content... if it's in EPUB format.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Um, the 505 can already access library content... if it's in EPUB format.

IF you reread the quote your quoted it says 500 not 505.

BOb

[igorsk]

Oh, my bad.

[Zero9]

Originally Posted by lunged

Library Finder is live: http://sonysearch.overdrive.com/
Still no 3.0 software...

(I'm not sure if this is old news or not, as I don't use the Sony book store)

Quite annoyingly, the search tool displays tons of libraries that only offer audiobooks. Overdrive really needs to work on that and only display libraries with eBooks as advertised.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Updated pics from engadget.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/s...mily-portrait/

[lunged]

Yea, this current Library Finder is quite lacking. We can only hope a better version is integrated into the 3.0 software... but then why even have a special webpage?

Originally Posted by Zero9

Quite annoyingly, the search tool displays tons of libraries that only offer audiobooks. Overdrive really needs to work on that and only display libraries with eBooks as advertised.

[astrodad]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

Updated pics from engadget.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/s...mily-portrait/

It does look pretty slick. I wonder why they didn't turn it on? Maybe they're tweaking the contrast?

[jankovicgood]

So, you need a library card to download an ebook from Overdrive? But what happens if I'm not from the US?

[rrburton]

Originally Posted by CTH

And 3G connectivity might not work outside US and possible UK (if they sell it there too) and the library thing wont work at all.

So what will a Swede like me do?

Being that it is ATT 3G, that is UMTS/HSDPA which is pretty much standard in most worldwide locations - europe, asia, etc. The question to ponder is whether this new device will be allowed to roam on international networks or not.

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by jankovicgood

So, you need a library card to download an ebook from Overdrive? But what happens if I'm not from the US?

Then you cannot download library books except if Overdrive is in your country then you can get a local library card if your library offers ebooks. It's not a Sony decision, US libraries are funded by tax payers so there could be no way they could offer access to people outside of the US.