Sony revamps e-book Reader with reading lamp
Manuscripts illuminated
Having just released its second-generation e-book reader in the UK, Sony has now introduced the third version in the States.
Sony PRS-700 Reader: it was a .doc and stormy night...
The PRS-700 won't go on sale until next month, but when it does it will sport a 6in E Ink display and enough memory for 350 e-books - up from the PRS-505's 160-book capacity.
But the PRS-700's key new feature is an integrated LED reading light - handy for all those folk who like to read in bed without disturbing their partner.
That's probably not what makes the 700 heavier than its predecessor - 280g to 260g - that'll be the expanded battery, which offers a life of "7500 page turns", up from the 505's 6800.
Time to learn to read without using your finger as a guide?
The 700 can take MemoryStick Duo and SD memory cards, as before, and supports a range of e-book formats, including PDF, MS Word, BBeB, EPUB and text files. It's compatible with Adobe Digital Editions software, Sony said.
The new Reader will cost around $400 (£240/€290).
Sony PRS-505 Review
Sony PRS-700 Photo Gallery
Next page: Sony PRS-700 Reader Photo Gallery
COMMENTS
Calibre - 500 and 505 content converter
The best tool I've found for my Sony Reader is the free and open source Calibre app (http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/). It converts a whole bunch of formats and RSS feeds, newspapers, etc to your Sony. Does good PDF too. Really useful.
PDF Support
These things need good PDF support. As soon as they have this I will get one.
I travel around the world a lot and often need to refer to technical manuals for various languages / operating systems. I can't take all of my books with me each time I go away and I hate reading from a downloaded pdf manual on my regular screen (even though I have dual screens in both of my offices), it just isn't the same as glancing at a book when doing something.
In time this will replace thumbing through tech manuals for me.
PDF Support
New firmware for the 505 allowed 3 levels of zoom on pdf instead of the original two , so you just have to update. The 700 lists as having 5 different zoom levels.
I will be updating my 505 to a 700 primarily for the new search ability as this is a lifesaver when going through my tech book archive.
Screen flicker
Screen flicker put me off too, when I tested one out in Borders while in the US. If they can avoid that, the readability impressed me. I could see myself using one, if it was slim with a very minimal bezel and fast refresh rate.
OK, NOW I'm tempted
If start saving my NZ "money" now, then thanks to the effects of compound interest, I should just about be able to buy one of these the day before Ragnarok. Does anybody know if it's Unicode-compatible? If I could load this up with Hindi tuition materials and reading practice, I'd sell a kidney now for one.
