Archive for the ‘Sony eBook Readers’ Category
Sony Pocket Edition ereader on sale no comments
Borders.com and Best Buy are currently offering the Sony Pocket eReader for $129.
![Sony-PRS-350-Touch-Edition-eReader_thumb[3]](file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Greenlee/Local Settings/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles14C32F/Sony-PRS-350-Touch-Edition-eReader[7].jpg "Sony-PRS-350-Touch-Edition-eReader_thumb[3]")
This price will only be good from today through April 2, 2011. The Pocket Edition is still listed at $179 at Borders as I write this, but when you put the ereader in your shopping cart it will show the $129 price.
The new Sony ereaders are quite good. I have the Sony Touch and enjoy using it. The Pocket Edition makes a great portable ereader to carry around with you — small and durable.
Borders also has a coupon code — BYP7900G — that is good for a 33 percent discount on one item at Borders.com. Unfortunately, this promo code will not work for ereaders or ebooks. This code expires tomorrow, March 28.
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Sony expands its Reader Library Program no comments
It has really started to feel to me as though Sony is not assigning much importance to its ereaders any more, at least not in this country. Today is the first ereader-related news from Sony in a while:
Sony originally announced its Reader Library Program to promote digital reading about eight months ago. In September, 2010 the first 30 libraries to participate in the program were announced. Today Sony says it is expanding the program to include a second group of 30 public libraries from 20 states across the US.
"The first phase of our Reader Library Program was a tremendous success with participating libraries across the country reporting significant interest from patrons corresponding with strong growth in digital lending," said Phil Lubell, Sony Electronics’ vice president of digital reading. "Today, we’re excited to announce the next 30 participants in the program and look forward to opening up digital reading opportunities to more consumers."
"The Sony Reader Library Program has enabled our Library to successfully spread the word about digital books, and we have seen an unprecedented increase in use since the inception of this timely partnership," said Kara Kohn of the Plainfield Public Library. "Our patrons are enjoying the opportunity to test out devices the library would not otherwise be able to provide in the current economic climate. The training and knowledge we received from Sony goes a long way in communicating to the public that the library is on the cutting edge. We can’t thank Sony enough for this effective initiative and hope it motivates other libraries to be active promoters of eBooks in the public library."
Here is what Sony provides the libraries:
- An in-house training session for participating library staff developed by Sony. This in-person session will cover digital reading formats, an overview of sources for digital materials, and training on Sony’s Reader digital reading devices.
- Sony’s Reader digital reading devices for use by library staff.
- Educational materials and informational bookmarks to provide patrons background on digital reading devices and eBook borrowing programs.
The 30 libraries newly participating in the program:
- Rancho Bernardo Branch Library (San Diego, CA)
- Laguna Hills Technology Library (Laguna Hills, CA)
- Denton Public Library – South (Denton, TX)
- Utica Public Library (Utica, NY)
- Pikes Peak Library District (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Mill Valley Public Library (Mill Valley, CA)
- Mesa County Libraries (Grand Junction, CO)
- Park Ridge Public Library (Park Ridge, NJ)
- Mansfield Public Library (Mansfield, MA)
- Kalamazoo Public Library (Kalamazoo, MI)
- Moline Public Library (Moline, IL)
- Carnegie-Stout Public Library (Dubuque, IA)
- Roxbury Public Library (Succasunna, NJ)
- McHenry Public Library (McHenry, IL)
- Orono Public Library (Orono, ME)
- Mr. Vernon Public Library (Mt. Vernon, NY)
- Westborough Public Library (Westborough, MA)
- Town Hall Library (North Lake, WI)
- Rockville Centre Public Library (Rockville, NY)
- Springville Public Library (Springville, UT)
- Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (Evansville, IN)
- Howard City Library (Howard, KS)
- Buncombe County Public Library (Asheville, NC)
- Pioneer Library (Norman, OK)
- Fairfield County District Library (Lancaster, OH)
- Ohoopee Regional Library (Vidalia, GA)
- Grant County Public Library (Williamstown, KY)
- Parkland Community Library (Allentown, PA)
- Hooksett Public Library (Hooksett, NH)
- West Milford Township Library (West Milford, NJ)
Sony is also providing digital reading assistance to libraries beyond the next 30 participants in the Reader Library Program. Libraries not currently participating will have access to further program information, details on applying for it, free eBook training videos and printable collateral for them to use in educating their patrons at www.sony.com/libraryprogram.
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Sony Reader app for iPhone not approved by Apple no comments
Sony’s promised Reader app for the iPhone was apparently refused admittance to the App Store. Sony now has this
message up on its mobile apps page:
Unfortunately, with little notice, Apple changed the way it enforces its rules and this will prevent the current version of the Reader™ for iPhone® from being available in the app store. We opened a dialog with Apple to see if we can come up with an equitable resolution but reached an impasse at this time. We’re exploring other avenues to bring the Reader experience to Apple mobile devices. We know that many of you are eagerly awaiting the application and we appreciate your continued patience.
UPDATE (2/1/2011): The NYT is reporting that the reason that the Sony app was not allowed is because Apple is tightening its policies on ebook apps. Apple will no longer allow such apps to sell content (ebooks) from within the app, or let customers access ebooks purchased from outside the App Store.
When I originally wrote this post I wondered if Sony tried to enable ebook purchases from the Reader Store from within the app and if this could be the reason for the rejection, but I didn’t want to speculate. According to the NYT article the rejection could signal trouble for the other ereading apps from Amazon, B&N, Kobo, etc. If Apple were to no longer allow these apps I think it would be a bad move on their part as it would eliminate one of the reasons people have for purchasing an iPad. I’m sure all the makers of Android-based tablets would love for Apple to kick all the ereading apps out of the App Store.
Actually, I don’t think this is the case. Kobo just this morning announced that its Reading Life social ereading service is now enabled in its iPhone app, and there is an update to the Kobo iOS apps today. As far as I know, app updates are reviewed just as rigorously as new apps before being allowed into iTunes. Also, the other ereading apps seem to still be working normally.
I have to think that the problem is with the way in which Sony enabled buying ebooks in their app. The Kindle app opens a Safari window if you want to shop in the Kindle Store. The Nook app does the same. I’m not sure with the Kobo app – it does not seem to open a browser window when you go shopping. Perhaps Kobo gives a commission to Apple for ebooks purchased through the app?
I’m guessing that Sony will have to rework their app to open a Safari window to connect to the Reader Store. If this is indeed the problem, then it is old news and Sony should have known better. When the Kindle iPad app first launched, one common complaint was that you had to exit the app and enter the Kindle Store via the browser because of this very issue. This is much less inconvenient now with the multitasking capabilities of iOS 4.2.
If Apple is planning to no longer let users of the reading apps access ebooks that were purchased outside of the Apple App Store then this could indeed prove to be troublesome. One of the major claims to fame of these apps – especially the Kindle app – is that you are able to sync your reading across various platforms. If Apple cripples this I think they will be shooting themselves in the foot. iBooks alone does not for a great ereader make.
UPDATE #2: More info and statements from the concerned parties have come out. It appears that the Sony app did open a browser window for the purpose of shopping at the Reader Store. Apple has apparently decided to enforce existing rules and says that if ebooks are sold outside of the app via a web browser there must also be an option to buy the ebooks through the app, which would entail paying a portion of the sale to Apple – usually 30 percent.
According to Ars Technica, Apple also reportedly told Sony that the app could not access ebooks purchased on other devices. A clarifying statement from Apple said that if the app does not use Apple’s in-app purchasing methods then the app cannot access ebooks purchased elsewhere. This would prevent app developers from disabling ebook sales through the iOS apps and requiring customers to instead buy ebooks from their computers or other devices and then read them on their iPad or iPhone.
Thanks to the Agency Model that Apple was instrumental in bringing about, Amazon and the other ebook sellers only make 30 percent on the ebooks they sell. So basically they would, if Apple follows through with this, receive nothing from selling ebooks. Well, less than nothing if you take their infrastructure costs into consideration – they would be selling ebooks at a loss, with all the profits going into Apple’s purse.
It has not been revealed whether Apple is only enforcing the rules for newcomers or if it will apply them to ereader apps already in the App Store such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others. Sony is a relatively small player, so maybe this was some sort of test case in which Apple could flex its muscles, but this action by Apple does not bode well for the iPad’s future as an ereader.
This puts the reading app makers in a tough position. If Amazon abandons the iDevices they will no doubt anger many customers. Many will probably see Amazon as the bad guys here, rather than Apple. As for me, I’m starting to remember why I never bought Apple products before the iPad.
Perhaps Amazon and the other ebook sellers could set it up so that customers could read their ebooks on the web via the Safari web browser instead of having apps in the App Store. This would not be as elegant or convenient as having an app and would require an internet connection to read the ebooks you have purchased.
If Apple follows through with this the iPad will probably be broken as an ereader. Even if Amazon caves and gives Apple the profit from its Kindle books sold on iDevices to keep its customers happy, other ebook sellers like Barnes & Noble probably can’t afford this and will be forced to pull their apps. The main attraction of the iPad as an ereader is that it currently lets you read ebooks from all of the major ebookstores on one device. This may be coming to an end.
If Apple were to accept a smaller cut that the ebookstores could live with we might see an outcome to all of this that may even be better for consumers. It would be more convenient to buy the books from within the apps rather than through a browser window. And , after all, most of the ebook sellers already pay affiliates (like this site) a small commission when ebooks are sold through their websites.
If you were planning on buying an iPad 2 when it comes out you might want to wait until this gets resolved. The iBookstore does not even come close when compared with Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Kobo. If the iPad looses the non-Apple reading apps it will be less desirable. With all of the new Android-based tablets coming out featuring Android 3.0 there should be a lot of good alternatives to the iPad. The timing on this does not make sense to me in view of all of the upcoming competition the iPad will have.
One has to wonder if Apple will also start enforcing its rules concerning in-app purchases for other apps selling other products such as movies and periodicals, etc.
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Sony quietly lowers price of Pocket Edition ereader no comments
Sony has quietly lowered the price of the PRS-350 Pocket Edition ereader to $129.99. You can find the new price at Sony Style or some of the usual resellers (Bordersand Best Buy to name a couple).
Sony’s newest line of ereaders are quite good except for the lack of Wi-Fi in the Touch and Pocket Editions. Being sturdily built and compact, the Touch and Pocket Editions are very portable and good when travelling. The Sony Store is not the best, but you can also purchase ebooks from Kobo and elsewhere as well (Nookbooks won’t work). You can also borrow ebooks from the public library on Sony’s ereaders. I have the Sony Touch and it is a pleasure to use (my review).
It also seems that Sony may be dropping its line of covers and cases for its ereaders. There are only a few still on offer at Sony Style. The Sony lighted cover for the PRS-650 seems to have disappeared from stores completely. Hopefully this is just a temporary lack of stock and a container full of new covers is on its way from China.
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Sony Android ereading app no comments
Sony has finally released its Android reading app. An iPhone app is also promised but is still in the oven.
I have just had a few minutes to try the new app out.
The app successfully logged me into my Sony Reader Store account and gave me access to my library and wishlist. The Reader app comes with three free public domain titles and excerpts of three contemporary ebooks.
As expected, the app lets you change font sizes. There is also the ability to make highlights and notes. One thing that seems to be missing is a nighttime mode – you can adjust the screen brightness with a slider, but you cannot get light colored fonts on a dark background. This is bad news for me as it is easier on my eyes to read books on an LCD display with the nighttime feature.
The library lets you sort by Recently Read, Author and Title. If you have the Sony PRS-950 Daily Edition (with firmware 2.0) you can sync with that, but as Sony opted to leave out Wi-Fi connectivity on the Sony Touch and Pocket Editions you obviously cannot sync with those ereaders. You can purchase ebooks from the Sony Reader Store from within the app.
I may be missing something, but I don’t see a way to delete a book from within the app. I also tried to sideload PDF and ePub files without DRM but the app would not acknowledge these – looks like it will only work with files from the Reader Store. You will need Android version 2.2 or higher on your device for the app to work.
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Sony ereaders go home for the holidays no comments
While the Sony ereaders have done well in the US and elsewhere, they have never been big in Japan. Sony sold its LIBRIe ereader in Japan from 2004 to 2007, but until now has not been selling the Reader line of ereaders in its home country.
On Dec 10, Sony will reintroduce its ereaders to the Japanese market. The 5-inch Pocket Edition is expected to sell for ¥ 20,000 ($240) and the 6-inch Touch Edition will sell for ¥ 25,000 ($299).
Sony formed partnerships with some of Japan’s largest publishers earlier this year in an effort to make more content available to digital readers in Japan. At launch, the Japanese version of the Reader Store is expected to offer about 20,000 titles.
Source: Akihabara News
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Tablet & eReader News – 11/08/2010 no comments
iOS 4.2 is almost here for the iPad! We don’t know when for sure, but there are rumors that the new OS will be released to the general public this week. Some of the new features that iOS 4.2 will bring to the iPad: multitasking, folders to organize your apps into, direct printing to a Wi-Fi printer, a unified email inbox, additional international keyboard (over 30 new languages) and dictionary support and enhanced enterprise support.
The iPad will also receive some accessibility enhancements. These include the ability to output Braille to over 30 supported Bluetooth Braille displays in more than 25 languages. iOS 4.2 will also add the ability to control VoiceOver using a wireless keyboard.
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Qualcomm MEMS director of marketing Cheryl Goodman 
was interviewed about biomimicry and the Mirasol display by KPBS radio recently and you can listen to the podcast at the KPBS website. The podcast is about 20 minutes and, no, Ms Goodman does not spill the beans about which ereader will be the first to have a Mirasol display.
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Sony today announced that the Sony Daily Edition PRS-950 ereader is now available at Sony Style and other retailers. The Daily Edition features a 7-inch e-ink Pearl display and is the only one of the new Sony ereaders to feature a wireless connection.
Sony is also offering a $75 dollar credit when you trade in your old ereader.
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Blackboard has released Blackboard Mobile Central (BMC) for Android smartphones. BMC is custom built and branded for each educational institution, and the new Android app is making its debut at Northwestern University.
The new Android application will include Athletics, Courses, Directory, Library, Maps, News, Get Help and Links, with other features to be added soon. Developed as a native application exclusive to the Android platform, Blackboard Mobile Central for the Android leverages the device’s unique features to provide an engaging user experience, including:
- Widgets, an Android-specific feature that allows users to quickly and easily access important information from Blackboard Mobile Central at a glance from their home screen.
- Shortcuts, which let users create a direct shortcut to any one of the Blackboard Mobile Central modules directly on their phone’s home screen so that it can be accessed immediately without even opening the app.
For more information about Blackboard Mobile Central, please visit: http://www.blackboard.com/Mobile/Mobile-Central.aspx
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Sony Touch PRS-650 Unboxing & Initial Review 9 comments
I’ve had my Sony Touch PRS-650 for about a week now, and although the buying experience was not very pleasant, the ereader itself is quite nice. I pre-ordered the PRS-650 before Sony started 
shipping it but the Sony Style site lost my order. It took three headache-inducing calls to Sony Customer Service and shipping upgrades to get it here — and it did not ship or arrive when CS promised it would.
As I say, Sony’s new ereader itself is quite nice. It is attractive and seems solidly built. Rather than plastic, Sony uses an aluminum body with a rubberized back panel. My unit also arrived with the batteries fully charged, which is always appreciated.
The only accessory you will find in the box with the Touch is a USB cable. This is how you charge your new ereader unless you spend another $30 to buy the optional AC adaptor from Sony. I would rather buy Geomadic’s charging kit which has both an AC adaptor and a car charger for the same price.
The PRS-650 weighs slightly less than the Kindle 3, but as it is smaller (no keyboard), the weight is more concentrated. In general it feels good and solid in my hands.
Sony has vastly improved the touchscreen. The new line of ereaders now use an IR-based touchscreen from Neonode.
There is no glare this time, even in sunshine or other bright light. The new touchscreen also seems quite responsive. You can use your fingers or the included stylus.
In addition to the touchscreen, you also have five buttons along the bottom of the PRS-650: left and right page turning, Home, Size button (change text size, page formatting) and an Options button.
You can turn pages by either using the buttons on the bottom of the ereader or by swiping on the touchscreen. Taps on the edge of the screen do not work — it has to be a swipe. If you swipe and hold you can flip through multiple pages.
I had several major complaints about the last gen Sony Touch ereader. The main problem, of course, was the glare of the touchscreen. That is gone. Period. There is now no glare, and the touchscreen works well.
The second complaint I had with Sony’s previous ereaders was with the somewhat cumbersome navigation. It seemed like you had to perform too many clicks, button presses and screen taps to get things done. Sony has improved this aspect of their new ereader to some extent, but they could have done more.
Some things just work better with the touchscreen. Highlighting is a breeze, and the ability to make freehand drawings and notes is awesome — if you need it. Getting to a specific page also works very well on the PRS-650 — you just tap on the page numbers in the status bar to get a menu where you can enter a page number, or there is a slider you can use to quickly skim through the ebook. To create or delete a bookmark you simply double tap the upper right corner of the screen.
To define a word requires but a simple double tap on it. This is much easier and faster than moving the cursor with the 5-way around the page on the Kindle. By the way, the dictionary function on the new Sony ereaders is very robust. There are 12 dictionaries built-in: the Oxford English and American dictionaries plus 10 translation dictionaries. You can switch between them on the fly while you have the definition of a word open. If you come across a word in your reading that is in Italian, French, German or Spanish you can easily and quickly get a translation. The dictionary also keeps a log of the 100 last looked-up words for you to review.
Other functions, such as “Back” are less well handled. The Kindle 3 integrates a Back button in the keyboard, so this frequently used function is quickly done on the Kindle 3. On the new Sony Touch, however, you need to first click the Options button and then tap “Go To” and then “Previous View” on the touchscreen.
This may seem a minor thing, but for functions that you use a lot it can become somewhat annoying and frustrating. I think that one way Sony could have solved this is by putting icons on the status bar at the bottom of the screen that could be tapped to instantly access commonly used functions such as Back, note taking and highlighting, zoom, screen orientation, etc.
Sony has implemented a lot of zooming options. If you hit the size button you can enlarge a quarter or a sixth of the page to full screen size. This is in addition to the zoom mode where you have a sliding scale to adjust the magnification level. The zoom level can now be locked, so you don’t have to redo it with every page turn. Panning around a magnified page also works much more smoothly now with the faster hardware.
One really cool feature is that if you double tap a picture or other graphic while in zoom mode it will automagically be enlarged to fit the screen.
Sony has also given you the ability to adjust screen contrast and background brightness. This may help in some cases to make a scanned document more readable.
The Touch ereader has six font sizes for your ereading pleasure, but does not offer different font styles to choose from. To me the font looks just a tad lighter than the default text on the Kindle 3, but I’m not complaining — it looks good and is very readable. For that matter, the epaper background on the Sony sometimes seems just slightly whiter than the Kindle 3 to me, although it didn’t come out that way in the picture below. The Sony is on the left and the Kindle 3 on the right. The text sizes don’t exactly match on the two ereaders.
Library management on the PRS-650 is good. You can sort through your ebooks by date added, title, author, file name or latest read. You can organize your books in collections. You can create new collections or delete collections you no longer want without deleting the ebooks in them. You can also delete ebooks from the device, rather than having to connect to your computer to do so.
When it comes to Sony’s ereaders, another major area of complaint for me has always been Sony’s ebook store — it just will not do. Of the four biggest names in ebook stores — Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony Reader Store — the Sony Reader Store is my least favorite. There are fewer titles and in many cases (presumably fewer cases after the agency model took affect) the prices are higher. When announcing the new line of Sony ereaders Sony announced in passing that it would also be working on the Reader Store, so hopefully we may see some improvements. In any case, you should also be able to buy ebooks from Kobo on the Sony Touch.
Sony, for some reason unfathomable to mere mortals such as myself, elected to only include a wireless connection in the Daily Edition, which has both Wi-Fi and 3G. The other two new Sony ereaders, the PRS-350 and PRS-650, like their predecessors, do not even have a Wi-Fi connection.
The new line of Sony ereaders is already priced higher than the main competition in the US — the Kindle 3 and NOOK. Including Wi-Fi would have cost Sony something more per unit to build the ereaders, but I don’t think it would have cost much.
So if not because of cost issues, then why leave out the Wi-Fi? The only reason I can come up with is that it is purely a marketing strategy.
The new Pocket Edition is $179.99, the Touch Edition is $229.99 and the Daily Edition will probably be $299. Perhaps the boys and girls in the marketing department felt that a 1-inch larger screen size was not enough in itself to drive sales to the Daily Edition, which is Sony’s top-of-the-line model. Perhaps they felt more was needed to differentiate the Daily Edition and make you want to buy it instead of the Touch or Pocket.
Rather than adding more features to differentiate the Daily Edition, I’m guessing that Sony elected to leave out important features from the lesser models in a misguided effort to make the Daily Edition more desirable and to drive more sales to it.
If you have a different explanation that makes more sense (and hopefully is less cynical), please enlighten me.
I think leaving out a wireless connection was a big goof on Sony’s part. Now, in order to buy a book you have to install the sometimes clunky desktop software and authorize your ereader. Then you have to buy the ebook, download it to your computer and then transfer it to your ereader.
OK, that’s not so bad, but the thing is, if you have a wireless connection it is so easy to just click on a book and buy it. If you are on your computer and have a Kindle, you can have the ebook sent to your Kindle with one click. Or you can buy directly from your ereader. This leads to a lot of ebooks sold as impulse buys. Sony is missing out on selling a lot of content by eliminating impulse buying from their equation.
It seems to me that Sony thinks this business is still about selling razors, while everyone else is busy selling razor blades.
Sony PRS-650 Touch vs Kindle 3 vs NOOK; My Take
First of all, I think Sony deserves lots of kudos for listening to their customers’ complaints and releasing a new set of ereaders that fix some of the problems of and are a major improvement over the last generation.
So did Sony hit a home run? Well, no. And that is frustrating because I think that they came pretty close. If, for example, Sony had seen fit to include a Wi-Fi connection and price the Touch at the same level as the Kindle 3 & NOOK Wi-Fi + 3G models then they might well have come close to hitting one out of the park.
It also has to be said, however, that no matter how good the Sony Touch hardware is, the Sony ebook store is not even in the same league as the Kindle Store. An ebook reader is, after all, only as good as the ebooks that are available for it.
Before I compare the PRS-650 to the Kindle 3 and Nook let’s list a few of the more obvious pros and cons:
Sony Touch pros and cons
Pros
- Attractive and seems solidly built.
- Very nice touch screen.
- Well done note taking, annotations and other features.
- Pearl e-ink display plus faster chips.
- Can borrow ebooks from public libraries.
Cons
- No 3G or Wi-Fi. Books must be downloaded to PC and then transferred to ereader.
- Sony’s ebook store is not the best.
- Expensive.
- Sony Customer Service — this is what Sony overoptimistically calls the department you’ll be dealing with when something blows up.
- No Text-to-Speech (TTS).
First, I’ll get the NOOK ereader out of the way. Buy the Sony instead. The Sony Touch is more expensive, yes, but it also offers much better construction and is fully functional. The Touch also has a better e-ink display and is faster.
Of course Sony PRS-650 Touch vs Barnes & Noble NOOK is not really a fair comparison at the moment because the PRS-650 is newer tech and is made from better and shinier things. I fully expect B&N to introduce a new version of the NOOK ereader in the coming weeks and Sony may find this a harder comparison after that happens.
When it comes to Sony Touch vs Kindle 3 there is more to consider. First is price. The Touch costs $229 vs the Kindle 3’s price tag of $139 for Wi-Fi or $189 for Wi-Fi plus 3G. Then there is the Kindle Store, which is the best because it has way more titles and prices are usually lower when not set by publishers. Amazon’s customer service will also be better to deal with than Sony’s if something goes wrong.
Both the Kindle 3 and the Sony PRS-650 ereaders use the Pearl e-ink display and faster hardware than the last generation, and in these respects are pretty equal. So, other than the above, it comes down to which feature is more important to you — wireless or a touchscreen.
Personally, I prefer the Kindle and the Kindle Store. But I do like the Sony PRS-650 and will be keeping mine, though I suspect that I will be using my Touch mostly for library ebooks and non-DRMed ePubs. For paid ebooks I will most likely be using my Kindle ereaders.
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IFA 2010 Videos no comments
A roundup of a few of the video reviews from IFA 2010 in Berlin.
Sony PRS-650 Touch Edition eReader
Charbax from ARMdevices.net has done an excellent video of the Sony PRS-650 ereader. The IR-based touchscreen is a major improvement from Sony, though they really should have included Wi-Fi.
Samsung Galaxy Tab
The Samsung Galaxy Tab looks like one of the nicest 7-inch tablets out there. It’s quite fast and responsive. This video is from CNETTV.
Toshiba Folio 100 Tablet
Toshiba’s Folio 100 tablet comes with a 10.1 inch touchscreen. It is powered by Android 2.2 and comes with Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset. This video is from Netbooknews.com.
ViewSonic Viewpad 7
Viewsonic’s 7-inch tablet runs on Android 2.2. The Viewpad 7 has cameras both front and back, and with its 3G connection could be used for video conferencing. The display resolution is 800 x 480, which is lower than the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This video is from Shinymedia. ViewSonic’s booth at IFA is very noisy.
iRiver Cover Story eReader
Another video from Charbax, this one of iRiver’s Cover Story ereader, which has a touchscreen. Not sure how well this one is going to do against the Kindle and the new Sony ereaders.
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More Thoughts on the New Sony eReaders 1 comment
The more I ponder Sony’s newly announced ereaders the more bizarre I think it is that Sony chose not to include a wireless connection in the PRS-350 and PRS-650. The only way I can explain this omission to myself is that Sony persists in looking at the ereader market primarily from the point of view of a hardware manufacturer with little regard for the market from the perspective of a content provider.
The new Sony Touch Edition is priced higher than the primary competition, no doubt in large part to the shiny new touchscreen that Sony has implemented. This in itself may not be such a problem, as in addition to a lot of hardcore Sony fans out there, many users will also value a touchscreen and the freehand note taking feature.
How much would it have cost Sony to include a Wi-Fi connection? $10 more per unit? $20? I’m not sure, but I think it should have been included at the announced price. A wireless connection is now perceived as being a standard ereader feature, and the Sony Touch and Pocket Editions will be seen as being somewhat crippled without it.
With a wireless connection Sony would be able to sell more of its ereaders, and more ereaders in the hands of users would mean more sales from the Sony Reader Store. Also, a wireless connection makes it almost too easy to buy ebooks. If you don’t develop some self control it is very easy to end up with a large backlog of purchased books waiting for your time to get them read. With a Wi-Fi connection in its ereaders Sony would surely sell more content from its Reader Store.
It feels to me (admittedly without actually yet having seen and worked with the new ereaders) as though Sony has taken a couple of steps forward and another step back, and quite possibly tripped over its own feet in the process.
Its sad really. Yes, I am a Kindle fan. That would be because I feel that the Kindle is the best ereader out there for the money at the present time. One reason is that it just works. Kindlers are not waiting around for the next patch to fix broken features or to finally add promised but still missing capabilities. Yes, there is still the occasional problem, and there will always be more features that we want, but Amazon has had the time to get most of the bugs worked out. The Kindle is the most mature platform. The Kindle Store also has more content, and to my thinking the Amazon shopping experience is better than the competition.
That being said, one of the reasons that the Kindle is more advanced is the competition presented by the NOOK, Kobo and all of the other announced ereaders that were waiting to jump into the market. Competition is generally good for consumers, and the ereader market is no different. I would like to see Sony introduce a really good ereader, Barnes & Noble to keep improving the NOOK, Kobo to introduce a better ereader with more advanced features, etc.
The new Sony ereaders do look like a a big improvement and I imagine that they will do quite well internationally, but I think that the absence of wireless connectivity will impair their chance to be a real contender in the US market.
If you want to have a look at the manuals for the PRS-350 and PRS-650 I have posted the links to them on the ereader manuals page.
Below are a couple of videos of the new Sony ereaders from YouTube. The first is a promotional video from SonyLearnTV, while the second is from SSRoss99 who was at the unveiling of the ereaders at NYC today. The other ereader in the second video is the jetBook Mini. The new touchscreen is obviously much better than that on the older models.
