(click here to view initial video)
We’re a little late with this summation, but some technical difficulties arose with the video and it was necessary to shop around to find the best way to distribute it without killing our bandwidth. Nonetheless, during Sony’s expo at CES ’06, the new E-Reader was in major focus as well as the new Connect Reader service we covered that will coincide with it when the product rolls out in March. Read further for some new specifications, pictures, and more video.
We have recieved word that the final MSRP of this device, when it debuts in March, will be $349.99USD.(click here to view additional video)
(6 inch SVGA 800×600; approx. 170 Pixels Per Inch; 4 level grey scale)
The PRS-500 is an extremely impressive device that is just the right size and has interesting features with an incredible half inch thick formfactor with only 9 ounces of weight. With the ability to display 7,500 pages on a single battery charge it will be quite revolutionary. How does it have the ability to display so many pages? With the E Ink® Display technology, the battery is only utilized when it changes a page; the unit is actually off when you are viewing content. Those who may have problems reading smallish text can employ up to 200% magnification as well.
You can see here that it features a slot for removeable media, specifically MemoryStick (MS + Pro) and it also surprisingly accepts Standard Digital (SD). Sony was very keen on voicing that 2006 will be a signal to the world that the company is aggressively moving forward to accept open standards to avoid any further alienation with the consumer. Nonetheless, one can store about 80 e-books on the internal memory (which is 64mb). It can facilitate the following standards: BBeB Book, PDF, JPEG and MP3. Yes, we said MP3 and no ATRAC; it’s confusing where Sony is going with this, but when I tested Connect Reader it did have the ability to load music onto the unit. Whether this will be for podcasts via RSS, audiobooks, or something else it is definitely a contradiction with Connect Player, the music management software program for the new Walkmans.
It can charge via USB, which takes approximately 6 hours but a regular AC adapter can do it in 4.
It’s going to be a nice experience; imagine waking up and grabbing your E-Reader from the usb connection via the computer and catching up on the RSS feeds that were automatically updated whilst you sip on morning coffee. There are many possibilities..
