Sony Preparing New E-Book Reader to Challenge Amazon

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

Whoa Ho! You miss a few days reading the general Sony forum, and you miss everything!!

Can't wait to see how this baby obsoletes my current readers!

-Pie

I'm hoping the T1 has the latest version of ADE on board that supports hyphens.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BeccaAnn

Has anyone heard of a release date? Or even an official notice date? I can't remember if I read anything saying this.

Sony has been releasing Readers in October and announcing in September. So if Sony sticks to this, wait for October to buy.

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm hoping the T1 has the latest version of ADE on board that supports hyphens.

You refer to auto-hyphenated text for flow?

I was actually talking about hardware obsolesence. It drives me nuts that Sony STILL doesn't update previous model firmware. They really need to change that policy.

-Pie

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

You refer to auto-hyphenated text for flow?

I was actually talking about hardware obsolesence. It drives me nuts that Sony STILL doesn't update previous model firmware. They really need to change that policy.

-Pie

Yes, I'm still irritated that they haven't updated the firmware for my 505 to let me use touch control...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by EatingPie

You refer to auto-hyphenated text for flow?

I was actually talking about hardware obsolesence. It drives me nuts that Sony STILL doesn't update previous model firmware. They really need to change that policy.

-Pie

I'm not sure if it would be a good idea or not to update ADE on the 505. Maybe it would end up being too slow. But that being said, I don't see why Sony could not update ADE on the 600 & 700.

I'm hoping that if Sony uses the new ADE on the T1 that they update the x50 line for the same version.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm not sure if it would be a good idea or not to update ADE on the 505. Maybe it would end up being too slow. But that being said, I don't see why Sony could not update ADE on the 600 & 700.

I'm hoping that if Sony uses the new ADE on the T1 that they update the x50 line for the same version.

Sony tends to see devices as "complete" when they ship. That's why you only see one update or so per device, and it's to fix bugs. The 505's ePub support was the exception.

Now I could be wrong, and Sony could change their stance on the subject. There is certainly evidence of that with the 1.1 update for the 950. But it's not something I'd expect from them at this point.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by EBookBro

The market is saturated with E-readers. Does Sony really need to do this?
[spam edit - moderator]

Well. if it's connected to the Potter biz, it's a no-brainer, and they'll make an awful lot of money !


[Which may go someway to helping the loss of the 3 million+ CD's that went up in flames this week. Hope there weren't any new ereaders amongst the rest of the kit that went up with them ......... ]

[MickeyC]

I'll probably grab one of these as soon as they come out as my 505 is really starting to show its age (mainly battery issues).

One feature I'd like to see is a note next to the page number at the bottom of each page stating how many pages to the end of the chapter. The iPad has that feature and I'd like to see it on the T 1.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by cassidym

One feature I'd like to see is a note next to the page number at the bottom of each page stating how many pages to the end of the chapter. The iPad has that feature and I'd like to see it on the T 1.

I don't care about the number of pages to the end of the chapter; if it is added that's fine, if not added, that's fine too.

What I would like to see is the book title and possibly the author displayed, perhaps in the same area as the page number information. I'd be happy even if it was just the book title.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rhadin

What I would like to see is the book title and possibly the author displayed, perhaps in the same area as the page number information. I'd be happy even if it was just the book title.

I must admit that I've never seen the use of that. Don't you know what book you're reading?

[sun surfer]

I'll tell you what I'd like in a similar vein: for the page number to automatically configure to show exact e-reader pages left and each page equals exactly one page number. So it would say "page 8" instead of "pages 7-9" on a given page. I mean, imagine reading a paperback if it were numbered with the page numbers from the hardback; it's the same idea as what goes on now with e-books. It seems like a no-brainer to me to fix this, but it must be too much work for the e-reader to have to figure that out depending on font size and all for developers to bother with. (if there already is a way to do this, someone let me know and I will blush)

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I'll tell you what I'd like in a similar vein: for the page number to automatically configure to show exact e-reader pages left and each page equals exactly one page number. So it would say "page 8" instead of "pages 7-9" on a given page. I mean, imagine reading a paperback if it were numbered with the page numbers from the hardback; it's the same idea as what goes on now with e-books. It seems like a no-brainer to me to fix this, but it must be too much work for the e-reader to have to figure that out depending on font size and all for developers to bother with. (if there already is a way to do this, someone let me know and I will blush)

ePub in Adobe's SDK treats 1024 characters as 1 page. No matter the font size. That means if I say something is on page 7 to someone, they can actually find it when they use an entirely different font and size than I do. If the page count changes with font size, page numbers become worthless (this is why the Kindle called them location numbers instead so they wouldn't be confused with the concept of a 'page' or 'screen').

The Sony displays something like '7-8' when both pages 7 and 8 are being displayed. It's somewhat helpful to know when there are no page markers in the margins, so I can at least say a passage is on 7 or 8. But the whole idea that page numbers are not based on the font size is completely intentional, and it's to make the page numbers worth something more than a pretty number to display.

[khalleron]

^this.

With a standard page size across all ePubs, I can look at the page count and have a good idea how long it will take me to read the book.

If the page numbers change with font size, then I really have no idea how big the book actually is. It's completely arbitrary.

'How many page turns/screen refreshes' sounds nice on the surface, but a 'page' can take less or more time to read depending on how many words are on the screen. I'd rather measure my reading in 'time' than in 'button presses' or thumb swipes.

[sun surfer]

Why can't an e-reader have both options?

I'd much rather it display pages by screen, not by characters. A book does it the same way. It doesn't count characters for page numbers; it just numbers whatever happens to be on each page.

For me anyway, I think it's a much better indicator of how much is left in a book if I knew the pages by screen, because I can estimate how fast I'm reading each page to estimate how much longer the book will take. True, I can do that with pages by characters, but it's more complicated.

I can see how some who read on multiple platforms may like pages by characters, but I generally use just one, and I'd much rather pages by screen.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Why can't an e-reader have both options?

Page is already overloaded as it is between Adobe's eBook definition, Amazon trying to map eBooks to certain print editions, and the definition for print editions. I'd have preferred they didn't use "page" at all because of that.

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I'd much rather it display pages by screen, not by characters. A book does it the same way. It doesn't count characters for page numbers; it just numbers whatever happens to be on each page.

<snip>

I can see how some who read on multiple platforms may like pages by characters, but I generally use just one, and I'd much rather pages by screen.

The problem is that if pages are by screen, the work becomes impossible to cite as a reference without some other means to cite location within an eBook. That's why Adobe did what they did. Citations are a big roadblock towards wide-spread acceptance of eBooks if you cannot appropriately cite the source. Having to include device, font, size, etc in your citation doesn't actually make the book any more citable.

A printed book can be cited by page because the page is constant for the edition. You cite the work, edition and page and you have a means to locate the cited source. I can pick up any copy of that edition and find the source. What Adobe was trying to do is make it possible to cite the work, edition (ePub + date usually), and page, just like books to date. I can then grab that ePub edition on any device I have (laptop, nook, Sony, Kobo, desktop, blah, blah, blah) and find the source.

As I said though, I don't like how overloaded the term page is, and actually liked that Amazon used the term 'location' instead. But as it is, we can't just change the meaning of 'page' in the context of ePub without other more drastic changes (and invalidating all current citations of ePub works).