Archive for the ‘new’ tag
Sony unveils new ereader no comments
Sony officially released the details of its newest ereader today. The Sony Reader Wi-Fi (PRS-T1) will feature a 6-inch Pearl display and will weigh in at under 6 ounces. The new Sony ereader will feature a touchscreen — one on which pinch to zoom has been enabled. A stylus is supplied, but is not necessary to use the touchscreen.
The PRS-T1 will allow users to use the Wi-Fi connection to connect directly to public libraries in the US and Canada via a dedicated icon. eBooks can be checked out from the device itself rather than having to be sideloaded.
Sony also confirms earlier rumors that it would be bundling the Harry Potter ebooks with its new ereader, although the release does not specifically say whether the Potter books will come to the new Sony Reader before going on sale to the general public. The PRS-T1 will come with a voucher for the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, to be downloaded from Pottermore “when it becomes available.”
The PRS-T1 will come with two English (British and American) and 10 translation dictionaries on board. Other features include 2GB memory, headphone jack (the PRS-T1 can play back music), six font styles with eight font sizes and user changeable screensavers. Sony claims a battery life of over a month or 3 weeks with the Wi-Fi turned on.
The PRS-T1 is expected to be available in October (this is according to the release from Sony — at the Sony Style site it says mid-September) and will be priced at $149. Three colors will be available — Red, White or Black.
It is good to see that Sony got the Wi-Fi in there this time around. The pricing is much more competitive as well. Looks like the lower pricing and the very light weight come at the cost of the metal case that previous generations of Sony ereaders have had. This is necessary in order for Sony to be at all competitive, but one thing I like about my PRS-650 is the metal case, which makes it feel more durable and solid than the plastic cases of other ereaders.
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Next gen Sony ereaders to get Harry Potter ebook bundle? no comments
The Register is reporting that the new Sony ereaders which are expected to be unveiled soon may come bundled with the Harry Potter ebooks. Other ereaders will most likely have to wait until next year for digital versions of the Potter books, which will be sold exclusively through the Pottermore website. Pottermore just went into beta yesterday and is expected to open in October.
This has apparently not been confirmed by Sony, but it sounds more than plausible as Sony is a partner in the Pottermore site. I’m guessing that Sony’s unveiling of its new ereaders will be tied to the public launch of Pottermore.
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New Sony ereaders on the way? no comments
Bloomberg is reporting that Sony plans to refresh its line of ereaders, with new models possibly arriving on store shelves in August. Sony also has a couple of tablets on the way.
I have to say that I’ve had the feeling of late that Sony is abandoning the ereader market in the US. The company’s ereaders have fallen behind the Nook and Kindle ereaders in terms of marketshare.
My take — To get back in the race Sony will need to achieve more competitive pricing and include expected features like Wi-Fi. To do this it will need to put more emphasis on selling content than it currently does. The competition makes relatively little on the ereader devices themselves, which are subsidized by the sale of ebooks. This seems to be a concept that Sony has so far been unwilling to grasp.
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Barnes & Noble unveils its new Nook ereader no comments
As promised, Barnes & Noble has unveiled its new Nook ereader today. 
B&N is calling this latest addition to its ereader lineup the ‘All-New Nook, The Simple Touch Reader’ — which I’ll shorten here to Nook Touch, which sounds much more simple to me.
The new Nook Touch features a touchscreen, Pearl e-ink display (same as the Kindle 3) and boasts a battery life of up to 2 months. Gone is the LCD strip that gave the original Nook its unique and sexy look, but added to the cost of the device and also did not always perform as well as could be wished. The new Nook Touch looks much more basic, but also looks like it is more dedicated to reading. Priced at $139 it is also much more competitive with the Kindle 3 and Kobo’s latest ereader.
Some of the Nook Touch features:
- 6-inch Pearl display from E Ink Holdings; 16 grayscales; resolution 800 x 600.
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n); micro USB.
- Battery life up to 2 months (sans Wi-Fi); charges over USB or with included AC charger, charging takes 3 hours with AC adaptor.
- Memory: 2GB internal; microSD card slot (up to 32GB).
- Supported file types: ePub, PDF, JPG,GIF,PNG,BMP.
- 7 font sizes.
- Dimensions: 6.5 x 5 x .47 inches; weighs 7.48 ounces.
It appears that the Nook Touch will not be able to play music files, if that is important to you. There is mention of different font styles, but not of how many choices there are.
The Nook Touch is priced at $139 and is now available for pre-order. It will begin shipping on June 10.
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Kobo unveils new ereader (Updated) no comments
Kobo has unveiled a new ereader at Book Expo America. 
The latest Kobo eReader will feature a touchscreen, Pearl e-ink display and a faster processor from Freescale. Engadget has video and pictures.
Engadget also mentions that the touchscreen is IR-based. This probably means that it is the same technology from Neonode that the current generation of Sony ereaders use, which is quit good.
The price of the new ereader is said to be $129, and it is expected to start shipping next month. Looks like Kobo is trying to steal a little of Barnes & Noble’s thunder by announcing the new ereader a day before B&N has said they will announce theirs.
Update: The Kobo eReader Touch Edition is now available for pre-order at Bordersand Indigo/Chapters. It is priced at $129.99 ($139 from Indigo) and comes with the quilted back available in four colors: Lilac, Silver, Blue and Black.
The specs of the new Kobo Touch ereader:
- Freescale iMX508 processor
- Storage: 1GB internal; Micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
- Supports ePub and PDF
- 6-inch Pearl e-ink display; IR based touchscreen
- Wi-Fi
- Micro USB port
- Dimensions: 165 x 114 mm x 10 mm (6.5 x 4.5 x .4 inches)
- Weight: 221g (8 ounces)
- Battery Life: Up to 2 weeks or 10,000 page turns
- Warranty is one year Factory Defect Warranty
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Barnes & Noble to unveil new Nook ereader this month no comments
According to a document filed by Barnes & Noble with the SEC, the company told investor analysts in a meeting yesterday that it plans to announce a new ereader on May 24.
My guess is that we will see a thinner and faster Nook 2 ereader with a Pearl e-ink display. The new Nook may also lose the LCD strip so that it can be sold for less. Then again, when B&N settled its lawsuit with Spring Design it gained access to that company’s IP portfolio, so maybe the Nook 2 will go the other way and include an LCD panel that is much better integrated with the e-ink display. Not sure if that makes sense in the current market, especially since B&N has the Nook Color.
B&N could also follow Amazon’s lead and release a new, lower priced ereader that is subsidized by ads.
(via WSJ)
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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.
£149.00
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