Promising paper-like legibility, the Sony Reader e-book device is the size of a paperback, viewing proprietary and Adobe Acrobat formats in 4 grey scales on its 6-inch display.
Tailing the recent introduction of the iRex iLiad e-book reader, Sony today introduced its bid for the fledgling e-book market at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Dubbed the Sony Reader, the product is a modified version of the company's Librie device, which has already been available for some time in Japan and met with limited success.
Relying on E Ink technology similar to that of the iRex iLiad, the Sony Reader is equipped with a 4-greyscale, 6-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels which shows content stored in the proprietary BBeB Book format as well as the widely used Adobe Acrobat. Also on the slate is support for JPEG files and MP3 content, with Sony also claiming the ability for the Reader to access blog and news feed content from the Internet.
Measuring in at 176 x 124 x 14 mm and weighing 250 g, the Reader holds up to 80 average-sized books in its onboard memory, also offering Memory Stick and SD/MMC card expansion slots for extending its library to several hundred titles. Courtesy of the technology applied for its display, the device claims a battery life of approximately 7,500 page turns, and is also capable of recharging via its bundled USB cable as wel as by way of AC power.
Offering fully adjustable text size, the Sony Reader will also tie into the Sony Connect store to enable the purchase and download of e-books. Several major publishing houses have already entered into partnerships with Sony, among them Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin-Putnam, Simon & Schuster and the Time Warner Book Group.
According to Sony, a number of independent and specialty publishers will also have e-book titles available for purchase and download to the Reader such as Manga comics and graphic novels.
The Sony Reader will be available in the US this spring; unfortunately, further information concerning expected pricing was not available at the time of press for neither the device itself nor any of its upcoming titles.
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