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By Nico Vreeland, on February 6th, 2009  The PRS-700's home screen UPDATE PREFACE: If you’re thinking of getting a Sony Reader, you should know that if you get a lemon, you’re in for a headache. Original review follows.
I’ve had my Sony Reader PRS-700 for two weeks now, and it has essentially fulfilled the expectations I had when I bought it. It’s not perfect by any means, but for a certain kind of reader, i.e. me, it gets the job done while we wait for the Great eReader Adoption.
So, here’s my experience with and review of the Sony Reader PRS-700.
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 5th, 2009  Kindle 2.0: Featuring Amazon's patented UglyBrick design (photo credit BoyGeniusReport.com) Kindle 2.0 will most likely be announced during a press conference on Monday.
I really hope Amazon has pulled off some revolutionary design advances, but I’m not holding my breath. So far, no manufacturer has come up with a game-changing, has-it-all ereader design, and I don’t think that’ll change Monday.
Without further ado, here are my predictions for the new features Kindle 2.0 will (and won’t) have.
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 4th, 2009  Don't be frightened by the perfectReader's awesomeness. It is a force for good. It’s the runup to the Kindle 2.0′s announcement (I hope) during the big press conference next Monday. Over the next week, I’ll be doing a series of posts about the new Kindle and how its reality stacks up to the potential of ereaders.
Today: my vision of a perfect ereader. Tomorrow, my predictions for Kindle 2.0. Next week, I’ll compare the real new Kindle to what I hope for, and what I expect.
Today’s criteria for the perfect ereader are not realistic, mostly because intercorporate feuding is hampering the development of these potentially phenomenal devices. But also because it takes time and money to develop technology.
This list assumes an unlimited budget and unlimited time frame, with the lone goal of creating the best, most useful ereader possible for ebook readers. A tall order, but the benefits are not just a great ereader but a genuine candidate to replace paper the way Plastic Logic looks to be attempting. (In fact, the Plastic Logic reader could well be the device that outshines the Reader and Kindle, except that it’s not slated for aggressive release for another year.)
Let’s get on with it! The perfect ereader….
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 4th, 2009
 Foxit's eSlick (credit Wired.com) From Wired:
Despite its ugly appearance, Foxit’s upcoming eSleek [sic] Reader will get a close look because of two key things: Its $230 price makes it attractive against the more expensive Kindle and Sony Readers and because, according to rumors coming out today, it might be the first large hardware eInk device to play eReader files.
eReader formatting is used for mobile devices like smartphones and PDAs. It’s a pretty common format, ubiquitous at Fictionwise, and this is quite a feat for the underdog eSlick.
I’m still not tempted to get one, because of the eSlick’s limited functionality (no searching, highlighting or bookmarking = no go for me), but the more devices available (especially ones that nudge us toward that universal ebook format), the quicker the Great eReader Adoption begins.
Another few interesting tidbits from this article:
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By Nico Vreeland, on February 3rd, 2009 Not long ago, I wrote about OverDrive Media Console for Macs, and how Sony Reader users still couldn’t borrow library ebooks on their Macs.
I’ve since borrowed a Mac to see if I could circumvent the eBook Library system: no such luck.
It was possible to install Digital Editions on the Mac, and downloading library ebooks was easy. The trouble came when I plugged in my Reader: Adobe simply couldn’t recognize it. I guess Digital Editions needs eBook Library to introduce the Reader to it, and eBook Library won’t work on Macs.
Yet another shame, and another thing that will have to change before the Great eReader Adoption can begin. Mobipocket ereaders like the BeBook work fine on Macs, and you can still get almost all the same library books in Mobi as you can in PDF. Just don’t buy a Sony.
The good news is that Calibre works on Macs, and talks to the Reader with no trouble. You can even transfer the (non-DRM) books already on your Reader onto different hard drives with Calibre. So you can at least use non-DRM ebooks with the Reader on a Mac. Small consolation.
By Nico Vreeland, on February 2nd, 2009  Where is the "read books how I want to" button? Here’s an abbrievated list of ebook formats: PDF, Kindle, Sony Reader, PalmDOC, Mobipocket, Rocketbook, eReader, Plucker, txt, rtf.
It seems like every device that peddles book functionality now gets its own format. Add to those the formats of the dedicated readers, like Kindle and Sony Reader, and the formats that were here before ebooks, like txt and rtf, and you have a messy bucket of corporate crap that necessitates sorting ebookstores by compatibility first (more on that in an upcoming post). And all that’s even without mentioning our terrible DRM troubles.
So where is the mp3 of ebooks? Where’s the format that most sellers will sell and most devices will read? Here’s what’s happening in ebook formatting, and why it’s bad for readers of ebooks.
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By Nico Vreeland, on January 29th, 2009 [UPDATE: The ebook version is now $14, the same price as the paperback, and the links take you to the The Enchantress of Florence at those various ebookstores. So consider this an account of how silly things used to be. They're still quite silly, but maybe not this silly.]
 The book goes for $14. But how much are they charging for the paper, and how much for the words? Here’s something odd. On the Random House website, you can buy several different versions of The Enchantress of Florence, the most recent novel by Salman Rushdie, which I’m currently reading (review out soon). You can buy the trade paperback for $14, you can buy the hardcover for $26, or, on either version’s page you can find a link to the ebook version.
The odd part? Both the hardcover and the paperback pages link to the same ebook, which is priced at $26, the full hardcover price. Now this is obviously a ludicrous, and frankly insulting, pricing system, but that’s far from the only silly thing they’re doing.
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By Nico Vreeland, on January 29th, 2009  credit guardian.co.uk So everybody’s getting excited over the Kindle 2.0, and it hasn’t even been announced yet, let alone released. Even the Guardian is now reporting that Amazon will probably introduce a new Kindle during a special press conference a week from Monday.
A couple of things caught my eye about this article. One was:
Some observers say they expect a thinner and more robust body and more user-friendly approach – but it remains unclear whether the gadget will ever be available to buy in Europe.
What? Not available in Europe? Turns out that yes, Kindles are not available in Europe, and the whispernet doesn’t work there. Sony Reader is available in England (though just the old model), and is in the midst of rolling out Readers in France and Germany, according to reputable sources.
This sounds like yet another case of the two major ereader producers battling to see who can suck the least. Sony barely even seems to be trying, but Amazon continues to waste buzz best, just like they did when Oprah plugged the Kindle, and then they embarrassingly ran out of stock. For 3 months.
But wait! There’s more! …
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By Nico Vreeland, on January 29th, 2009
From Boing Boing: a writer or entity called MCM has released a new edition of an anti-DRM kids’ book called “The Pig and the Box.” PDF downloads are available, non-DRMed of course, for both $2.99 and $0.00. I suppose this is one possible future for kids’ books.
This comes through Cory Doctorow, who does a lot of great work with copyfight and Creative Commons, and the struggle against DRM. He releases all his books as free downloads when they’re published, and he’s widely admired (including by me) as a pioneer in the field of ebooks. But…
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