New Sony Readers to take on Amazon Kindle

[rob]

Sony is coming out with two new readers, the PRS-300 at US$199 (5-inch screen), and the PRS-600 at US$299 (6-inch touch screen) -- the same price as Kindle 2. They will both be able to display PDFs (on their 800x600 screens), but of course do not have access to the Amazon store. The PRS-600 will also have slots for memory stick and SD. No wireless, although Sony claims that they will announce one within the next month.

http://hothardware.com/News/Sony-Takes- ... ns-Kindle/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10303031-1.html

[daniel_reetz]

Honestly, after my PRS-500, (and the years and thousands of dollars I've put into the MiniDisc format), I'll never buy Sony again unless I *have* to. And these announcements make me wonder, why? What's the point of these products when the Plastic Logic reader is looking so good at $299:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/07/irex ... ival-snag/
(not to mention that iRex will be making a wireless reader)

And there are going to be swarms of these cheapy readers coming soon:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/07/asta ... -a-run-fo/

[spamsickle]

I agree with the guy who said he'll wait until non-wireless 8.5" x 11" readers drop to $200. At that point, the battery life of a black & white ebook reader will make it more useful than my color notebook computer in enough situations that it will be worth that much to me to have it in addition to the notebook.

I don't think pocket-sized readers will prompt me to open my wallet until they drop below $50.

[StevePoling]

I own both the SONY PRS-505 and the Amazon Kindle DX. I find that most books that I want to read are not offered by either of these vendors. What's maddening is that I've found half of Dorothy Sayers' murder mysteries available free, and also for sale by Amazon, but the other half (those which were written after the advent of Mickey Mouse, see http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/17/micky-mouse-vs-micke.html) and under copyright are not available in any electronic format. Of course, a book need not be old to be unavailable as i discovered with The Yiddish Policemen's Union this week.

The real value of ebook readers will be when readers have a book scanner and can make ebooks from paper books they already own. I hope to buy copyrighted books from flea markets, scan them, then read them electronically. The SONY is useless for PDFs, but the Kindle DX handles them well enough. In a more perfect world, we'd all be able to sign up for time on a DIY book scanner at a neighborhood co-op or something.

[Plautus]

I myself am hoping to use my bookscanner in tandem with the upcoming Plastic Logic reader, assuming it's going to be good. It's mostly for my adademic work in medieval theology, both in range of items (I'm not anticipating several Syriac and Arabic works I'm working with to make it into the Kindle Store anytime soon) and in portability: I just love the idea of being able to carry with me a manuscript version of a vulgate bible with glossa ordinaria and a Leonine edition of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae. I assume I'll have to carry memory cards along with whatever reader I get, for the amount of stuff I like to keep handy (I have a big heavy bag atm).

[StevePoling]

I myself am hoping to use my bookscanner in tandem with the upcoming Plastic Logic reader, assuming it's going to be good. It's mostly for my academic work in medieval theology...

Are you aware of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org)? It's hosted by Calvin College, across the street from my employer. And one of my daughter's friends used to work there. I've snagged a few Reformation era ebooks there. I've talked to a guy who's written XSLT to convert their ThML (theological markup language) to ePub. But I haven't followed up and actually converted any of their texts to epub yet. I just checked and they've got Thomas Aquinas and what few medieval heavy hitters I know of.

Conversely, if your interest is in non-Christian medieval theology, ccel.org won't be as useful.

[daniel_reetz]

In a more perfect world, we'd all be able to sign up for time on a DIY book scanner at a neighborhood co-op or something.

Yes! I have often thought of this as a possibility -- community, dormitory, or rental units available. My only question here is... how to you disavow any liability with respect to copyright? I mean, I don't really respect copyright. but I'd like to find some kind of model where these things could be rented or community-built that wouldn't bring the law upon the owner.

[Plautus]

I myself am hoping to use my bookscanner in tandem with the upcoming Plastic Logic reader, assuming it's going to be good. It's mostly for my academic work in medieval theology...

Are you aware of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org)? It's hosted by Calvin College, across the street from my employer. And one of my daughter's friends used to work there. I've snagged a few Reformation era ebooks there. I've talked to a guy who's written XSLT to convert their ThML (theological markup language) to ePub. But I haven't followed up and actually converted any of their texts to epub yet. I just checked and they've got Thomas Aquinas and what few medieval heavy hitters I know of.

Conversely, if your interest is in non-Christian medieval theology, ccel.org won't be as useful.

I like ccel, and actually did a hack-job conversion of one of their Early Christian Fathers volumes for my kindle to study for my qualifying exams, so the ThML conversion template sounds pretty appealing. But even for the non-specialist their medieval offerings are pretty sparse. Their focus is elsewhere.

[StevePoling]

In a more perfect world, we'd all be able to sign up for time on a DIY book scanner at a neighborhood co-op or something.

Yes! I have often thought of this as a possibility -- community, dormitory, or rental units available. My only question here is... how to you disavow any liability with respect to copyright? I mean, I don't really respect copyright. but I'd like to find some kind of model where these things could be rented or community-built that wouldn't bring the law upon the owner.

I had an intriguing conversation at BarCampGR this last weekend with a lawyer who was attending. We talked about "fair use" in copyright law. Happily, she has a case she's been researching about fair use and so was familiar with it. I asked specifically about a co-op/non-profit (much like BarCamp) and whether it could be regarded as fair use. She responded favorably, but I didn't pay her to research my specific question. So I didn't push her for an official legal opinion. I'll have to ask her how much research would cost.

Nevertheless, I got the impression from her that provided some reasonable precautions were taken, one can stay within the realm of fair use. I think that if one keeps a low profile and a non-commercial focus, one doesn't present a big litigation target. (Though the Supreme Court thought that it fair use for you to record Charlie's Angels off the air and then hand a copy of the Betamax to your neighbor, but that was before Disney bought the DMCA.)

Keep in mind that any action brought against someone operating a shared book scanner will have to overcome the fact that Xerox machines now operate legally in public libraries. And they legally charge patrons for the service.

[univurshul]

I'm claiming the corporate pressure to get libraries onboard with e-readers and commercial scanning rigs is heating up. These guys are licking their chops just waiting for contracts to implant coin-operated scanning rigs and "rent-a-ereader" in public institutions.

Samsung has recently invested buku dinero into the camera market with recent M&A. Sony watch out...again.