Sony Reader
I’ve been drooling over the Sony eInk devices since the original Librie was released in Japan. Finally last year the PRS500 was released in America but was retailing for $350, way above my toy budget.
Then a month ago I noticed a deal where if you registered for a Sony Chase Visa you can purchase the reader for $50 plus $50 credit and their eBook store. Score!
I’ve been playing with some free software to convert html files to the native Sony format and have read one full book.
The form-factor is great, small and light yet the display is large enough to read. The eInk display is very crisp, but has a bit of bleed over from the previous screen. The refresh time is slow, but usable. I imagine future generations of this technology will improve on that. Since the display only requires power during transitions, the battery life is on the order of weeks. Also there are plenty of conversion tools so I can grab free books from Project Gutenberg and read them on the device with a bit of tweaking. Reading was pretty pleasant once I got used to the controls, after a few chapters I was ignoring the reader and focusing on the story.
There are a few downsides; it’s a bit underpowered, it only supports SD cards up to 2GB and doesn’t allow you to tag or categorize books on the SD card. Also the desktop software to manage the device and buy eBooks works but is awful. Yet another set of widgets that look nothing like native windows’ controls. A touch screen and wireless access would really enhance the device.
It was definitely worth $50 and I’ll be using it in between real books or while out and about. I still don’t know if I’d spend $350 for it, not unless I had big pile of cash I was just waiting to spend.
