RSSNew Sony Reader includes touch, but no wireless
By Tim Conneally | Published October 3, 2008, 6:19 PM
Yesterday evening, Sony officially announced its third generation Reader e-book, equipping the over two-year-old product design with an upgrade that includes tactile sensitivity.
Competition in the e-reader market is getting exciting as we approach 2009. One by one, companies are rolling out their latest offerings, each incrementally building the list of standard features in the devices.
Sony has added the PRS-700 to the top end of its Reader product line, the first of the company's e-ink display products to include finger- and stylus touch capability. As if leafing through a book, readers can swipe their finger across the screen to turn pages, or to pull up an onscreen keyboard for annotation and search.
Still without a backlight, this reader comes equipped with its own LED reading lights that shine on the front of the screen. Unfortunately, the Reader still lacks wireless connectivity, considered the "must-have" feature of the Amazon Kindle, but content can be imported via USB or placed on Memory Stick Duo or SD removable media. Sony says the PRS-700 will be available in November for around $400.
Dutch e-reader maker iRex announced its own touchscreen e-paper readers last week (PDF available here), called the iRex 1000 series. While these devices offer touch capacity as well as wireless connectivity, they also come in at the top of the pricing scale at $650 to $750.
Plastic Logic opened the first factory dedicated strictly to the commercial production of e-paper products. Its touchscreen e-reader (which presently lacks a name) is expected to hit the market in early 2009.
Evidence has yet to be confirmed that the Amazon Kindle -- considered the gold standard for e-paper devices, as it has greatly hastened their adoption -- will see an updated version before the holidays, despite the rumors.
It's the same price as a netbook and not as useful.
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Even the DS has WiFi ..........
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"Still without a backlight?" Of course it lacks a backlight. E-ink displays don't transmit light. The "pixels" are little spheres, light on one side, dark on the other, that swivel around to create varying levels of gray. You HAVE to illuminate them from the front.
My biggest problem with them is that the contrast still doesn't match that of real paper. Until it's at least close, it will continue to be a novelty display. (I have the first and second generation models of the Sony eReader. I almost never use them.)
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I agree, its not as good as 'good' paper, but it is better than some of the paper back books I have seen, so its better than 'bad' paper :) . My better half has one and she loves it, reads it most days.
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Dont get it, its junk. I had the PRS-500 it broke twice in 3 months and sony wouldnt honor the warrenty. I filled a complaint with the BBB but Sony has been dodging them too. I will never get another Sony product again especially after this.
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ditto, but it took a little thing like loading rootkits on media for me to seek out competitors to sony and support them with a passion.
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