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By Nico Vreeland, on August 25th, 2009 UPDATE: The 3.0 version of Sony’s eBook Library, including a Mac version, is live here. A word of warning: if you use Camino, right-click and select “Download Link Target.” When I clicked the download link directly, it tried to open the .dmg file in a browser window and crashed Camino. Twice. So far my hopes are not high for this software. Original post follows.
 The 7-inch Sony Reader "Daily Edition" TeleRead has great coverage of today’s big Sony announcement, including
the full press release and a minute-by-minute account of the announcement itself.
The big news from Sony’s end was their $399 “Daily Edition” wireless-capable ereader, due in December (just in time to get upstaged by the Plastic Logic device, due early next year).
Personally, I’m not that excited about the Daily Edition, mostly because it has a touchscreen, and Sony Reader touchscreen have been notoriously glare-prone and low-contrast, because the touchscreen layer sits on top of the E-Ink screen. The widescreen design also looks a little weird (although it seems designed for the 2-page view, pictured), and Sony might have shot themselves in the foot with the price point. On the plus side, it’s a first competitor to the Kindle’s wireless, which is great for ebook consumers. We’ll see about all that in December.
Meantime, the best news of all is this tidbit, from Paul Biba’s report of the announcement: “Launching 3.0 library software today, including a Mac edition.” I believe that means that Sony’s releasing their eBook Library 3.0 software today, which will finally have a Mac version. It’s not live yet, though (here’s the link to the download page).
Other than that, there seems to be a lot of hype and a lot of misdirection. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on July 31st, 2009  I’m a book reader. I read some news on the web, the odd magazine, but mostly I’m a book reader. As such, the Kindle’s Whispernet has never really kicked me in the envy glands. I don’t need daily content updates, so I only connect my Sony Reader to my computer about once a month to stock up on ebooks.
For me, the Sony’s ability to borrow library ebooks far outweighs the Kindle’s wireless connectivity. (Almost every other non-Amazon ereader can borrow library ebooks, too. Check out our ereader comparison for more quick details on ereaders.)
But there’s one Kindle feature that I have envied: first chapter previews. There are many ebooks I would never have bought or borrowed if I could’ve read the first chapter beforehand, but until now there have only been a few feeble attempts from non-Amazon ebookstores to duplicate this feature.
The Barnes & Noble eReader, though, didn’t copy it—they just stole it, and that might have been the best decision their eReader team made.
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By Nico Vreeland, on July 27th, 2009  Nicholson Baker has a harsh story on the Kindle in this week’s New Yorker, in which he doggedly eviscerates Amazon for their overinflated marketing, the garbled layout of many of their ebooks, and the Kindle’s lackluster build quality. He includes a little bit of Kindle history, a lot of his own underwhelming personal experience with the device, the odd anecdote, and a few other tidbits.
Some of those tidbits are quite odd. There’s a reference to a YouTube video (awkwardly detailed by name). There’s a long verbal unboxing. There are many quotes from reviewers and Kindle users. (In many parts, it feels like the piece would be better suited to a website where it could have links and pictures and other embedded media.)
If you passably keep up with ereading tech, there’s not much new information in this piece. However, for the rest of The New Yorker‘s audience, this is nothing short of anti-Kindle agitprop. I’d be hard-pressed to find one thing Baker says about the Kindle that isn’t stingingly negative. For example:
The Kindle DX ($489) doesn’t save newspapers; it diminishes and undercuts them—it kills their joy.
Baker wraps up with a strong warning to buy an iPod instead of a Kindle, and the distinct sense that the one (half a) book he read on Amazon’s device will be his last.
All this means that we could see a little bit of a brouhaha about the article, which should be fun to watch. It certainly comes at an inopportune time for Amazon.
Aside from a potential kerfuffle, the most entertaining part of this piece is the insight into Baker’s reading habits. Dragon fantasies and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Erotic Romance” go hand in hand with Calvino and Kipling. Weird.
Read the full article online here.
UPDATE: Here are the two best responses to the Baker piece: a technical response from TeleRead, and a temperamental response from Edward Champion.
By Nico Vreeland, on July 7th, 2009  The PRS-505: no frills, but very solid UPDATE: Sony has just announced that Readers will soon be compatible with Macs , beginning as soon as the end of the summer. Original post follows.
I started using my Sony Reader about six months ago, and a lot’s happened in the world of ereaders since then. I figured it was about time for an update. If you’re thinking about getting a Sony, or you’ve got one and want a few tips, read on.
Sony Reader v. Kindle: Library books still take the prize
When I was first shopping for an ereader, I kind of assumed I would get a Kindle. But since the Kindle was forever back-ordered, I started shopping around and eventually decided that a Sony Reader suited me better.
I didn’t like the idea of being locked into Amazon’s proprietary, DRMed format, and I wanted to borrow library ebooks, which the Kindle can’t do.
 The Kindle 2.0 Since that initial decision, the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX have come out, but neither allows library ebooks, and neither has made real strides toward a game-changing ereader. The Kindle franchise still seems to be trying to do things (like highlighting and textbook support) that E-Ink technology is simply not yet advanced enough to do satisfactorily.
As for Kindle’s Whispernet, it seems like a cool idea, but I generally stock up on books about once a month, so it’s not that much of a hassle to plug the Reader into my computer. I don’t think it’s worth it to be lashed to Amazon ebooks (and pay an extra $100 up front) for a minor convenience.
 The Kindle DX While the Sony Reader works very well for me, there are two caveats: I use Windows, and I primarily read casual novels (i.e., no enewspapers, no emagazines, and no ebooks for class). If you’re a Mac user, or you burn through a lot of newspapers, the Kindle’s abilities in those departments outweigh the format lock.
Sony Reader tip: Get one of these PSP chargers. They work with the Reader, and let you charge it at an outlet (and while reading) for less than half the price of the Reader’s dedicated charger. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on April 24th, 2009
 Whatever happened to this screen happened while it was inside a standard soft ereader case Ever since my first Sony Reader took a powder, I’ve been looking for a case that delivered more protection than aesthetics. I wanted something that would absorb a sharp blow, a case tough enough that I won’t worry about my ereader when I sling my bookbag around.
Unfortunately, nobody seems to want to make a case like this. My PRS-505 and BeBook both came with covers, but neither are rigid. My first Sony, the PRS-700, broke inside just such a soft cover, inside my backpack.
So I decided to repurpose some other kind of case, which turned out to be a whole lot more trouble than I thought it would be.
Here are three DIY options for hard cases that will give your ereader enough protection to survive anything short of being run over. Complete picture gallery at the bottom of this post. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 23rd, 2009  As you might have heard from one of many sources, Google Books has partnered with Sony’s eBook Store to make half a million out-of-copyright books available as non-DRMed ePubs.
This is unquestionably a step forward for the world of ereading, but for people who want to pick up one of these books right now, there are some caveats.
Here’s what going on with this partnership, and what it means for readers. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 13th, 2009  The Brother SV-100B has a 9.7" screen In the past few weeks, several companies have announced sheet-of-paper-sized ereaders, a trend which no doubt reflects a growing desire to crack into the lucrative business/student ebook market. The problem is that, while bigger screens are necessary for students and businesspeople, bigger screens alone will not make for a suitable device.
The fragility of the screens, the still nascent state of E-Ink, and the inadequacy of all current content interaction systems are just a few flaw that ereaders need to address before these devices become a commonplace sight on college campuses. Simply enlarging the display (and the price) won’t by itself create a perfect ereader for students and business users.
That said, though, I think this trend toward big ereaders could spell great news down the line for the state of ereading.
Here’s what’s happening, why it won’t be mind-blowing in the short-term, and how it could finally take ereaders mainstream. …
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By Nico Vreeland, on March 10th, 2009  That's an American hand MobileRead’s been keeping track of the Sony Reader’s European march: the PRS-505 debuts in Germany tomorrow, and in Switzerland in early April (still no sighting of the 700).
Just in time, it appears, as new data suggests a whole bunch of Germans want to buy ebooks, over two million (Germans, that is), more than even generous estimates of Kindle sales.
It seems like more and more of a missed opportunity for Amazon. The Kindle has never been available outside the U.S., ostensibly because the whispernet isn’t set up yet. Despite tiny indications that Amazon’s working on this, I’m siding with the camp that says this isn’t changing any time soon.
The two million estimate is way high, as the analysis grants, but still, with the addition of the Sony Reader, that makes only three Kindle competitors (the other two are BeBook and CyBook) available in large swaths of the world. So why isn’t Kindle trying to spread its tentacles across the globe? …
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 23rd, 2009 UPDATE: See end of post.
I’ve come to the conclusion that ereaders are not ready for serious books. They’re simply not good enough for students or anyone who wants to interact with what they’re reading: highlighting, taking notes, none of that is truly functional yet.
So, if you’re in the market for an ereader with which to casually read books and newspapers—one that doesn’t have any kind of keyboard—two stand out from the crowd: the Sony PRS-505, and the BeBook from Endless Ideas BV. (The CyBook was close, but it’s $50 more expensive than the BeBook including a cover, it doesn’t support as many formats as the BeBook, and doesn’t display page numbers or have number buttons, which is simply too little functionality, even for a casual ereader.)
I decided to get both a 505 and a BeBook and see for myself which was better. Here’s a side-by-side comparison.
Note: Sony Readers are not currently compatible with Mac or Linux. They still work with Calibre, but you won’t be able to buy or borrow any DRMed books (which means any current books). If you use one of those systems, get a BeBook.
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 13th, 2009  With the new iRex 1000S, you can take digital notes as if writing on paper. The catch? It's enormous, far from perfect, and nearly $900. When my writing class started discussing ereaders last week, I mentioned that I actually had one, and the professor said something along the lines of, “But you don’t use it for serious books, right?”
When my Sony Reader PRS-700 bit the dust, and I decided to switch brands because of Sony’s lackluster warranty service, I found myself asking this question all over again. …
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