I knew that the Sony Reader had to be mine when I first saw it. I mean, it involves technology and reading plus a dash of E Ink.
The only sliver of doubt I had about the whole thing was that it is a Sony product. Sony isn’t known for embracing open standards and I don’t want to spend $400 on a eBook reader that only reads some archaic Sony format that no one (other than Sony) uses. Plus I figured the only way to add memory to this mofo was with Memory sticks and the seed of doubt was planted.
Now, I had heard rumblings that my doubts were unfounded. I watched video review and once again I have my credit card at the ready. Not only will the Sony Reader accept SD Cards (of which I have a few laying about) it will also read PDF’s. Sweet. The only problem? It probably won’t be out until October.
3 responses to “Sony Reader Video Review by PC Magazine”
…but… what do you do with it?
Let’s compare devices:
iPod: Before the iPod came out, I already had craploads of MP3 files just waiting to be played on some sort of portable player. My only hesitation for buying one was price point.
Sony Reader Well, I’ve got pdf files sitting around… but nothing I have any pressing need to look at. I don’t forsee getting one, and price point has very little to do with it. (I mean, sure, for $20 it might be an interesting thing to have, but it won’t cost $20.)
So, what’s the market for this thing? I don’t really understand the appeal, or who (other than Scottycakes) is going to buy it.
Something I didn’t mention is that the Sony Reader plays MP3’s (though I doubt it’ll replace my iPod) and that there is talk of it downloading content from the net. So if I could subscribe to some RSS feeds and have that text delivered to the Reader that would be awesome.
The RSS component is interesting, to be sure. But, you can’t comment back on the blogs. Bring a pile of yellow sticky notes with you, because you’ll need them to write down “reply to X-post on Y-blog about Z-topic” so you remember to do it later.
For that purpose, you might be better off getting a good RSS client for your Q PDA phone thingy, carry only your phone, and save at least $300 (according to the review) in the process.
Looks like they’ll be doing an online bookstore component (sPages Bookstore?) so they’re at least following the Apple model on that part of it. That’s definitely smart.