Official Sony PR re PRS-300/600

[igorsk]

Dated August 05, 2009

SONY ANNOUNCES TWO NEW ADDITIONS TO THE READER FAMILY; DROPS eBOOK PRICING

Affordable Pricing for Devices and eBooks to Open Digital Reading to Mass Audience


SAN DIEGO, August 5, 2009 Sony is today delivering on its promise of making digital readers and eBooks accessible and affordable for consumers with the introduction of two new Readers. Part of a new Reader line, the Reader Pocket Edition™ puts a library in your hands for as little as $199. Both the Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition™ will be available at the end of August, at SonyStyle.com, SonyStyle stores and select retail partners. Also, new releases and New York Times bestseller titles in the eBook Store from Sony will now be available for $9.99.

“We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of their digital reading experience,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division. “Our goal is to expand the market and provide greater access to what consumers want to read when they want to read it — whether they buy, borrow or get it for free.”

The Reader Pocket Edition sports a five-inch electronic paper display packaged in a stylish chassis and is available in a variety of colors, including navy blue, rose and silver. The Reader Pocket Edition is easy to navigate with one hand, and fits into a purse or jacket pocket. The diminutive device can store about 350 standard eBooks and provides up to two weeks of reading enjoyment on a single battery charge. It will be available for the ground-breaking price of $199, making it the most affordable dedicated reading device on the market.

The Reader Touch Edition features a responsive, menu-driven six-inch touch screen panel that enables quick, intuitive navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen. Users can take handwritten notes with the stylus pen or type with the virtual keyboard. All notes can be exported and printed out for easy reference. The Reader Touch Edition includes an onboard Oxford American English Dictionary that allows you to look up a word by simply tapping on it. The Touch Edition also offers five adjustable font sizes, as well as expansion slots for both Memory Stick® PRO Duo™ and SD card, making your portable library virtually limitless. It comes in red, black or silver and will retail for about $299.

Both models feature Sony’s award-winning industrial design and an E Ink® Vizplex™ electronic paper display that mimics the look of ink on paper. They will ship with an attractive protective sleeve and USB cable. Sony’s eBook Library software 3.0, which now includes support for many Apple® Macintosh® computers as well as PCs, makes it easy to transfer and read any Adobe® PDF (with reflow capability), Microsoft® Word®, BBeB® files, or other text file formats on the Reader.

Through The eBook Store from Sony (ebookstore.sony.com), users can also access more than one million free public domain books from Google. These titles, which Google has digitized as part of its Google Books project, are available in EPUB format and are optimized for current models of the Sony Reader. From Sony’s eBook Store, Reader owners with a U.S. location can download and transfer any of these titles to their Reader, while new, U.S. located eBook Store users can access available titles after setting up an account and downloading Sony’s free eBook Library software.

Sony is also committed to working with local libraries throughout the country as they make the move to digital books. Sony Readers are compatible with the industry-standard formats that libraries use for their digital collections, so consumers can easily download perennial favorites and new releases from their local libraries and enjoy them for free.

The Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition, as well as available accessories such as AC adaptors, cases and covers with reading lights, will be available at the end of August at SonyStyle.com and SonyStyle stores. Book lovers interested in trying out a Reader in person will also be able to find them for sale at Best Buy, Borders, Costco, Staples, Target, Wal-Mart and other authorized retailers nationwide.

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_ro...ase/41163.html

Image library: PRS-300, PRS-600.


Official specifications:

PRS-600

Display

Screen Size: Vizplex 6 inches
Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels
Gray Scale: 8-levels gray scale

Operating Conditions

Operating Temperature: 41 to 95 ° F

Power

Battery Type: Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery: DC 3.7 V
AC Power: DC 5.2 V
Battery Life (Approx):
7,500 (BBeB Book) Continuous page turns;
6,800 (EPUB) Continuous page turns

Media Formats Supported

Unsecured Text:
EPUB file (Non DRM/ Adobe DRM protected)
BBeB Book (Non DRM/ PRS DRM protected)
PDF file (Non DRM/ Adobe DRM protected)
DRM Text:
Text file
RTF file
Word file (unsecured)
Unsecured Audio:
MP3 (Non encrypted)
AAC (Non encrypted)
Image:
JPEG
PNG
GIF
BMP

System Requirements

Processor: i.MX31L (TO 2.0.1)

Dimensions

Weight: Approx. 10.1 oz
Measurements: 6.9 x 4.8 x .4 inches (LxWxD)

Supplied Accessories

USB Cable

Optional Accessories

AC Adaptor: AC-S5220E
Car Charger: PRSA-CC1
Soft Cover: PRSA-SC6
Cover with Light: PRSA-CL6
Stylus Pack: PRAS-SP1

PRS-300

Display

Screen Size: Vizplex 5 inches
Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels
Gray Scale: 8-levels gray scale

Operating Conditions

Operating Temperature: 41 to 95 ° F

Power

Battery Type: Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery: DC 3.7 V
AC Power: DC 5.2 V
Battery Life (Approx):
7,500 (BBeB Book) Continuous page turns;
6,800 (EPUB) Continuous page turns

Media Formats Supported

Unsecured Text:
EPUB file (Non DRM/ Adobe DRM protected)
BBeB Book (Non DRM/ PRS DRM protected)
PDF file (Non DRM/ Adobe DRM protected)
DRM Text:
Text file
RTF file
Word file (unsecured)

System Requirements

Processor: i.MX1L

Dimensions

Weight: Approx. 7.76 oz
Measurements: 6.2 x 4.2 x .2 inches (LxWxD)

Supplied Accessories

USB Cable
Sleeve
Quick Start
Flyers

Optional Accessories

AC Adaptor: AC-S5220E
Car Charger: PRSA-CC1
Soft Cover: PRSA-SC3
Cover with Light: PRSA-CL3

[zelda_pinwheel]

still awake, eh igorsk ? nice find. can't wait till the end of august !!!

[rebarnmom]

A DICTIONARY!

and handwritten note-taking!

and look at all the stores you can play with them at!

(I really don't need the new Touch 600, so how am I going to justify it? think! think!)

[lilac_jive]

I love how they discussed the Sony's ability to read library books. I don't think enough people know about that.

And now it'll be at Wal-mart? I see a lot of people buying these devices.

Third, they mention protective sleeve, but looking at the side pictures it looks like they kept the slots for the current covers, so it looks like you'll be able to put the normal cover on.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I love how they discussed the Sony's ability to read library books. I don't think enough people know about that.

i agree, that is a really brilliant move on sony's part.

And now it'll be at Wal-mart? I see a lot of people buying these devices.

Third, they mention protective sleeve, but looking at the side pictures it looks like they kept the slots for the current covers, so it looks like you'll be able to put the normal cover on.

i could be wrong but i think i noticed the 600 will be delivered with a cover, and the 300 will get a sleeve... i forget where i saw that though and i could be wrong.

[rebarnmom]

In the pictures of the Touch edition, does the box that normally says "Settings" now say "More Apps"????

[igorsk]

Added official specs. Some interesting tidbits:

1) PRS-300 CPU is i.MX1L (same as in 505), while PRS-600 got i.MX31L (as in PRS-700). No idea what "TO 2.0.1" mentioned for the 600 means.
2) PRS-300 is missing not only support for audio (undestandably) but also the picture viewer.
3) someone swapped "Unsecured Text" and "DRM Text" categories.
4) PRS-300: "Right and left-hand side page advance buttons. Enjoy quick, easy page turning with convenient right and left-hand side page advance buttons."
5) No bundled cover for 600 while 300 gets a sleeve?

[Syniurge]

Stupid me for having imported the Kindle 2 to France (add 100$ of shipping and taxes), because I needed search & note taking..

If they fixed the PRS-700 glare, then the PRS-600 becomes the top reader for students.

Thanks Sony for not having made this announcement two weeks ago. Now I'm poor and my overhyped reader doesn't even support ePub

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Added official specs. Some interesting tidbits:

1) PRS-300 CPU is i.MX1L (same as in 505), while PRS-600 got i.MX31L (as in PRS-700). No idea what "TO 2.0.1" mentioned for the 600 means.
2) PRS-300 is missing not only support for audio (undestandably) but also the picture viewer.
3) someone swapped "Unsecured Text" and "DRM Text" categories.
4) PRS-300: "Right and left-hand side page advance buttons. Enjoy quick, easy page turning with convenient right and left-hand side page advance buttons."
5) No bundled cover for 600 while 300 gets a sleeve?

Could you explain #3, 4, and 5? I'm not sure I follow.

[porkupan]

Igor, fix the screen size of the PRS-300. The spec says 5".

I'd like to see those right and left hand page advance buttons as well. Unless the body is so narrow, the "joystick" is supposed to do for both hands.

[Who are you?]

The current silicon revision for the i.mx31 series is 2.0.1, that might be it.
Perhaps the 600 will also come with a sleeve (it also doesn't list QSG and flyers)?
For the buttons on the 300, I think the lefties will have to read backwards with their leftsided button.

[Cassy]

Thats so exciting I want to buy both!

[boylec]

Maybe now I can pre-order it from somewhere.

I really would like to get this before school starts back up again. I also want to get some LSAT ebooks so I can study during all my commute time on the bus.

The 600 sounds like exactly what I've been waiting for.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Igor, fix the screen size of the PRS-300. The spec says 5".

Thanks, good catch.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Thanks, good catch.

I just hope that they have the new version of the ADEPT engine with the full justification on the new readers (and hopefully soon on the old ones, too)!