3 New Sony Readers announced today, apps coming this fall

[kjk]

Great (and rather surprising) news about the apps-gives iOS and Android devices even more options to get books.

[flyingpostman]

Originally Posted by khalleron

I'm not put off by the prices - a tough reader, something I carry with me all the time, is worth much more than a piece of plastic crap to me.

This isn't always the case (pardon the pun). A metal case doesn't have much give to it, and has more weight which when dropped can cause quite a bit more damage. Plastic has more give and a lighter weight, a drop from a height of 3 feet probably wouldn't do anything. A drop from 3 feet for my leather-cased PRS-505 caused the power slider to pop out (which I fixed) and crack on the (what I once thought was metal) corner of the foil-coated plastic top plate. Otherwise I'm all for the more-heft and weight equals quality feel.

I'm interested in the new PRS-650 *if* it is equal in non-reflectiveness as the 505. The new display looks crisp and the touch-dictionary would come in useful, although I would never touch the screen with my fingers, I can't stand dust, let alone fingerprints all over the reading screen.

[Salgueiros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

*SOME* of us think so.
And, remember, both the 5 and 6in screens have the same pixel-count (600x800) so the smaller screen is going to have smaller pixels and a sharper screen. With the *right* software you can put up the same amount of text onscreen on both but it'll look sharper on the smaller screen.

I think the pixel count is a measure of the resolution per unit area, so the screen will be basically the same for Touch and Pocket Edition, only with a larger available area to display text or pictures.

I am quite curious to have one of the new readers in my hands. I will have to see if the addition of a touchscreen does not degrades the quality of the screen, which is one of the most important things in a reader for me. The inclusion of a couple of dictionaries also is a very very useful idea. Any idea about which translation dictionaries are supplied?

A noticeable change from the Pocket edition from previous to new one is the support for images. I did missed that from my 505. I usually carry lots of pictures with me along with the books.

Also, i still think these readers are the best looking ones out there. Good work by Sony.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by rammbam

How u know?

Fun fact! Mobile Read is not text messaging.

[kjk]

If Sony is really using IR technology for their touch-then the Pearl screen should be pretty much unaffected.

[jcatl]

At a price point of $200 the 950 would be a K3 killer from a hardware standpoint, book shopping ease notwithstanding. The others will be also rans to the K3 at the current pricing and feature set (I'm speaking of mass market consumers, not frequenters of this site).

At $300 only the die-hard ePub or Sony fans, or gadget fanatics who prefer form over function are going to really be willing to spend that much when the competition does it for so much less. Yes the brushed metal finish puts the Kindle and Nook's plastic outer shell to shame, but at a cost.

Of course by this time next year the 950 will probably be going for $200 and the K3 WiFi for $99 so it may just be a matter of waiting to see how things shake out.

If you already have a decent reader I suspect that now is not the time to buy.

[pendragginp]

Has there been any news on how usable the 3g will be for anything besides the Sony store?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by pendragginp

Has there been any news on how usable the 3g will be for anything besides the Sony store?

It's not. That's why they added Wifi.

[igorsk]

Waterstones added new models. Says "16 days to publication" (lol), has some details on the dictionaries:

Dictionaries: 2 English (British/American) + 10 Translation (French/German/Spanish/ Dutch/Italian – to and from English)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

I think the pixel count is a measure of the resolution per unit area,

Uh, no.
The pixel count of 600x800 is for the entire screen. Same number of pixels on both screens; what changes is the size of the individual pixels.
The 6 in eink screens run at 167 dpi and the 5in screens run at 200 dpi.
Hence they are in fact demonstrably sharper.

What determines the amount of text that gets rendered on-screen is the software and how the software maps the logical screen size to the physical screen size. In other words, how the software uses the 480000 pixels available on both screens.

The software can choose to maintain the logical text size the same (using the same pixel count per character) and thus put up the exact same amount of text using slightly smaller characters or it can choose to maintain the physical text size which results in a larger pixel count per character and less text on the smaller screen. Either way the 5in screen will be sharper; through smaller pixels or more pixels per character.

All this assumes a competent renderer and a quality scalable font, of course.
With these Sony readers we can safely assume the same software so the software effects should be a wash and what remains is the physical differences of the screens themselves.

[Salgueiros]

From the Sony website:

"Enjoy quick, easy page turning with convenient right and left-hand side page advance buttons."

I don't see buttons besides the ones below the screen... anyone noticed?

[Graham]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Waterstones added new models. Says "16 days to publication" (lol), has some details on the dictionaries:

£159 for the 2 GB 5" version? With the 6" wifi K3 at £109? And the 4GB Elonex 5" with twice the battery life in the same shop at £129?

And they expect to sell how many?

Graham

[Salgueiros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Uh, no.
The pixel count of 600x800 is for the entire screen. Same number of pixels on both screens; what changes is the size of the individual pixels.
The 6 in eink screens run at 167 dpi and the 5in screens run at 200 dpi.
Hence they are in fact demonstrably sharper.

What determines the amount of text that gets rendered on-screen is the software and how the software maps the logical screen size to the physical screen size. In other words, how the software uses the 480000 pixels available on both screens.

The software can choose to maintain the logical text size the same (using the same pixel count per character) and thus put up the exact same amount of text using slightly smaller characters or it can choose to maintain the physical text size which results in a larger pixel count per character and less text on the smaller screen. Either way the 5in screen will be sharper; through smaller pixels or more pixels per character.

All this assumes a competent renderer and a quality scalable font, of course.
With these Sony readers we can safely assume the same software so the software effects should be a wash and what remains is the physical differences of the screens themselves.

Let's wait then and see.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Graham

£159 for the 2 GB 5" version? With the 6" wifi K3 at £109? And the 4GB Elonex 5" with twice the battery life in the same shop at £129?

And they expect to sell how many?

Graham

Yes, but these are Sony's! It says so right on the case.

And Sony expects to ride their touchscreen tech to the (bitter?) end.
If you truly believe that touchscreen tech is indispensable then surely £50 isn't much of a premium at all.
Of course, if you don't see much value to it...

There's room for different approaches; let's see how consumers vote with their wallets. Variety is good. Competition is good. Time will tell if we're looking at a killer product or roadkill.

[deltop]

Originally Posted by Graham

£159 for the 2 GB 5" version? With the 6" wifi K3 at £109? And the 4GB Elonex 5" with twice the battery life in the same shop at £129?

And they expect to sell how many?

Graham

You know if the Kindle supported epub, even drm-less epub, I'd order one right now. I've even considered converting my few hundred epub's to mobi. But I'm just not too keen on doing that. It just results in formatting issues even if they aren't major ones. So it'll probably be the PRS-650 for me. Maybe. I might reconsider if I so some test conversions and they go well.