Sony Reader to go unwired!

[radleyp]

As an earlier poster pointed out, without a way to enter text, such a feature is completely pointless so, frankly, I don't get it. Some of you may think the Kindle ugly because of the keyboard, but it's there because it's needed.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by radleyp

As an earlier poster pointed out, without a way to enter text, such a feature is completely pointless so, frankly, I don't get it. Some of you may think the Kindle ugly because of the keyboard, but it's there because it's needed.

Not necessarily. We heard news before that PVI has a produced a touch-enabled panel for E Ink screens. With it, a keyboard would be obsolete.

[cstross]

Originally Posted by TadW

Not necessarily. We heard news before that PVI has a produced a touch-enabled panel for E Ink screens. With it, a keyboard would be obsolete.

Tell me you wrote that post using a pen?

("Keyboard" and "obsolete" do not belong in the same sentence when it is encountered in the same context as a pen.)

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by cstross

Tell me you wrote that post using a pen?

("Keyboard" and "obsolete" do not belong in the same sentence when it is encountered in the same context as a pen.)

I agree, and writing "Accelerando" on a touch screen using e-ink would be painful: the refresh is a bit too slow for such a virtual keyboard

[radleyp]

Tad W: I did say "text input", one method for that, though not the only one, being a keyboard. I found it interesting that in a recent interview, Jeff Bezos said that he thought a touchscreen was not ideal for eink text input, because as he put it, the ink is too near the surface (I don't know what that means, do you?). He may just have been trying to justify the inclusion of a keyboard on the Kindle. As for the Sony it does not have a touchscreen, so you must be assuming that a new version will have: I have not seen any mention of that, have you?

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

I agree, and writing "Accelerando" on a touch screen using e-ink would be painful: the refresh is a bit too slow for such a virtual keyboard

There is something called partial refresh with E Ink, which doesn't require a full screen refresh and is substantially faster.

[rmeister0]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Well, they should focus on releasing DE on the PRS-505 first, they should have released this update months ago !

I partially agree; the Sony has software issues that should be addressed before putting a battery-draining feature such as WiFi into the thing. I'd like to see some support for a more widely used content format; heck, I'd like to be able to put a plain html file on the device and read it directly.

And please, please, do something to make browsing the on-line store in the Connect software faster than molasses in January.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by TadW

There is something called partial refresh with E Ink, which doesn't require a full screen refresh and is substantially faster.

Oh sure, I use partial refresh to select items in a menu for example. But I'm still not satisfied by the speed of a partial refresh for a virtual keyboard...

[TadW]

Originally Posted by radleyp

I found it interesting that in a recent interview, Jeff Bezos said that he thought a touchscreen was not ideal for eink text input, because as he put it, the ink is too near the surface (I don't know what that means, do you?).

Do you think Bezos has already played with PVI's touch panels?

He may just have been trying to justify the inclusion of a keyboard on the Kindle.

Agreed.

As for the Sony it does not have a touchscreen, so you must be assuming that a new version will have: I have not seen any mention of that, have you?

Why? Everything in this thread is based on assumptions. We are assuming that the COO of Sony hasn't been misquoted by Gizmodo. We are assuming that wireless capability implies something like WiFi or Whispernet. And we are assuming that this connectivity could be used for online shopping. So what's wrong with assuming that either a keyboard OR a touch panel will be used?

[TadW]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

Oh sure, I use partial refresh to select items in a menu for example. But I'm still not satisfied by the speed of a partial refresh for a virtual keyboard...

Your judgement is based on the E Ink technology that is used in today's devices. Have you heard about PVI's touch panel, introduced only a couple of months ago?

Leading global ePaper display vendor PVI will announce new product Touch EPD in the 2008 Society of Information Display Exhibition in Los Angeles. “Touch Reader combines innovative touch panel technology and PVI’s existing e-paper product.” says PVI Chairman and CEO Scott Liu, “By humanizing e-paper’s user interface, we expect this new product to spur demands for e-books and solidify PVI’s leadership position in the global ePaper market.”

[...]

Unlike capacitive touch panels which requires the touch medium be conductive (such as a finger), this force sensing technology works with either stylus or fingers. The cost of the technology is competitive with resistive and lower than capacitive touch panels. In other words, the force sensing technology is highly competitive against all existing touch technology in the market, especially for the e-paper application.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by TadW

Your judgement is based on the E Ink technology that is used in today's devices. Have you heard about PVI's touch panel, introduced only a couple of months ago?

I sure did, but haven't worked on any SDK with touch screen support yet. Touch screen support itself won't be enough, currently Vizplex is still limited speedwise and different display controllers might be necessary too.

[radleyp]

Are you assuming handwriting recognition or an onscreen keyboard? I never liked the latter (I like feedback keys and hate smudges), but don't see the former working well.

[AMacD]

Originally Posted by Walk Broad

(I'm still of the opinion it isn't DRM that is keeping folks away from e-book readers, it's the high prices)

I didn't shy away from my Kindle because it had DRM, because it doesn't. The books do. So I bought the Kindle and read non-DRM books on it. DRM is a blight on book sales, not on e-reader sales. I have read all of Steve Jordan's books, many of Edgar Rice Burroughs books, many books from Baen Publishing, a few from Tor and just a few from Amazon, all because of DRM, not because of high book prices. I think Amazon's prices are fair, but I just don't like the idea of renting a book that I thought I bought. I do agree that high reader prices are restricting the sale of e-book readers to avid readers, or people with vision problems, or the elderly that just have problems holding a big paper book.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by doctorow

I’m personally going to set up a little voodoo shrine for the next Sony Reader. There will be needles and fire and possibly goat parts. Am I forgetting something?

Burning the manual on the altar with the sheep guts is reputed to be useful...
______
Dennis

[seajewel]

Originally Posted by Walk Broad

<snip>
Now, how soon will be the real sticking point. It would be foolish to announce so early without a model coming (very) soon unless they are really getting beaten up in the sales department by the Kindle
<snip>

I agree. It must be coming soon enough. I just bought my Reader last week, which is somewhat of a disappointment, but I knew there had to be a new version, Kindle or Sony, coming in some months anyways. I'm happy with my Reader, but I would be happiest if it had native Asian language support. The Unicode Patch is what ultimately made my decision for me in Kindle v. Sony, but it's caused a lot of problems. Blue screens on my computer, corrupted cache on the Reader (all fixable as long as I do a hard reset, and does not happen if I soft reset before transferring new files and then reapply Unicode patch..). If it worked natively and we could put our own fonts on it for readability, also natively (I dislike TNR for reading on these ebook devices.. TNR only looks good when in semi-large size imo) .. well, that's my wishlist. I would not say no to a bigger screen, either.

Wifi is nice but I personally love the Kindle's whispernet function right now. I know that's limiting in terms of international sales, but it sounds pretty handy. 3G at no monthly fee.. if only it had korean support.