Comments on: Hands on: Sony’s superb Reader Touch

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:09:23 +0000

Only if it had an email client and wireless reciever embedded or had the option to develop apps for yourself it would have great.

By: PatL

PatL — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:54:01 +0000

And before anyone asks, it’s the books and not the authors you can feel and smell.

By: PatL

PatL — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:51:52 +0000

I was lent a PRS505 to try out on an expedition to Svalbard in the Arctic recently. Lugging tent, clothes, food, fuel etc. around under your own steam using just ski power, makes you are very mindful of the weight of every item you are carrying. Yet you need to entertain yourself for long periods sometimes. Everyone else brought one or two books, and swapped them between them. I had two or three on the go at any one time so could swap around to change my mood – Free downloads from the Gutenberg Project including Scott, Cherry-Garrard, Amundsen, Sherlock Holmes, Last of the Mohicans and of course Robert Service poems to remind me that -25C wasn’t that bad. Charging the battery with a portable solar panel worked well and teh all-in weght was still comparable with one ortwo normal books. The only downside being that the screen goes sluggush below about -15C and needs warming up in the sleeping bag for ten minutes every now and then. The other only downside, ahem, was that I couldn’t lend the individual books to the others. Once there’s a touch screen version that zooms and shows PDFs better I’ll buy one. At home, I read our collection of proper books, the original first editions that give you a tangible physical link back to the original times of the authors that you can feel and smell. Different tools for different jobs.

By: hello?

hello? — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:00:59 +0000

I don’t know that much about ebook reader’s first hand, but if there could be a synonym/antonym book as well as a thesaurus/dictionary on it that i can use to check and reference words etc, and then go back to my original reading material then i’d love it.

If i could send emails to it that have long attachments that i usually end up printing out to read, i’d love it.

If i could get RSS feeds, then i’d be able to catch up with my outstanding stuff to read, i’d love it.

If it was hard-wearing (not necessarily to a child proof level), and if i could transfer books and magazine’s i already own and am reading on there, i’d love it.

All of this is another way of saying i’m looking forward to the review!

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Hands on: Sony's superb Reader Touch | PC Pro blog [pcpro.co.uk] on Topsy.com

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:22:47 +0000

[...] Hands on: Sony’s superb Reader Touch | PC Pro blog http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/08/26/hands-on-sony-reader-touch – view page – cached Stuart Turton plays with the latest edition to Sony’s eBook range — From the page [...]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:04:08 +0000

I am a rampant library user but I think I would use an eBook reader for academic things – journals, reports, whatever. I think it’s a great thing that Sony is putting together a bookshop but I will mainly want it to display my own files. It can do this so yay.

I’m holding out for a proper 210×297mm A4 ebook, it’ll cost me dearly but it’ll show a whole page of text at once.

By: Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:24:01 +0000

@ Stardada
PDFs are one of the test formats, so if it screws up, we’ll know.

By: Mark Cowling

Mark Cowling — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:04:56 +0000

I really like my older Sony e-book. If you, like me, read 19th century novels as a leisure pursuit, once you have made the initial investment you can download enormous quantities of them for free from the Gutenberg project. It sounds as though the new version will be very helpful for making notes on work reading. Will it be possible to set it up to allow me to read a novel in French and tap on a word to get an English translation?

By: Stardada

Stardada — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:03:36 +0000

Thanks for your assurance on the Sony Touch, it’s basically what I have been waiting for, but have read horror stories of A4 formatted Pdf files being rearranged and therefore making them unreadable or pictorial details lost in a haze. Currently I read numerous Government & British Standard Guides & periodicals in Pdf, so this may take the biscuit. If it works, then I cant fault the mobile library for 250 quid. Appreciate a detailed pdf display review (Pls)

By: Stuart Turton

Stuart Turton — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:10:28 +0000

@ GM Incognitii

I had a play with the PRS 300 yesterday also. The only significant differences I could see from the 505 were an increased page turn speed – about the same as the Cool-er now – and double the RAM. Otherwise the menu layout and feature set are identical to the PRS 505. It may also be a little lighter, too. Hard to tell. Again, we’re getting one in for review so I’ll know more then.

Actually, I should also mention they come with version three of the desktop software, which now supports Macs and is all round shinier. It’ll install directly off the reader, rather than an accompanying CD, which should make life easier.