Well, my new, favorite gadget is the Sony Reader, digital book. I have always been an avid reader, especially in the last 10 years, especially since my time in Iraq started. My first year in Baghdad I read 130 novels, typically reading an average of 3 to 5 at one time. Buying books can be very expensive and cumbersome, especially here in Baghdad. I typically read my books and pass them on to soldiers or the MWR (recreation center), or if I wish to keep the book I will ship it home. Anyway, this little gadget will save me the room, money and need to ship books back and forth to work. It weighs a whopping 9 ouncesand is about 6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3" so it takes up very little room which works well for me.
Right off the bat I downloaded a few Star Wars Novels I have wanted to read, The Dark Tide Novels. I also purchased the Charlaine Harris "Dead" Series, the basis for "True Blood" on HBO. My first chance to use my new reader was on the plane to Heathrow, it was very comfortable in my hand and had two features I enjoyed very much. First, no fumbling with page turning, a convenient little button does that for you, both forward and backward. Second, no bending the corner page to mark your progress, you can continue reading no matter where you stop, it automatically picks up where you left off.
I am interested to see how it reads in different levels and types of light, of course Wikipedia has a pag eon it so here a short blurb and the link....
The Sony Reader is an e-book reader. It uses an electronic paper display developed by E-Ink Corporation that has 166 dpi resolution, four levels of grayscale, is viewable in direct sunlight, requires no power to maintain a static image, and is usable in portrait or landscape orientation. The reader uses an iTunes store-like interface to purchase books from Sony Connect eBook store. It also can display Adobe PDFs, Pub format, personal documents, blogs, RSS newsfeeds, JPEGs, and Sony's proprietary BBeB("BroadBand eBook") format. The Reader can play unencrypted MP3 and AAC audio files
I have the PRS-505 version, here are the specs and a few pictures:
Right off the bat I downloaded a few Star Wars Novels I have wanted to read, The Dark Tide Novels. I also purchased the Charlaine Harris "Dead" Series, the basis for "True Blood" on HBO. My first chance to use my new reader was on the plane to Heathrow, it was very comfortable in my hand and had two features I enjoyed very much. First, no fumbling with page turning, a convenient little button does that for you, both forward and backward. Second, no bending the corner page to mark your progress, you can continue reading no matter where you stop, it automatically picks up where you left off.
I am interested to see how it reads in different levels and types of light, of course Wikipedia has a pag eon it so here a short blurb and the link....
The Sony Reader is an e-book reader. It uses an electronic paper display developed by E-Ink Corporation that has 166 dpi resolution, four levels of grayscale, is viewable in direct sunlight, requires no power to maintain a static image, and is usable in portrait or landscape orientation. The reader uses an iTunes store-like interface to purchase books from Sony Connect eBook store. It also can display Adobe PDFs, Pub format, personal documents, blogs, RSS newsfeeds, JPEGs, and Sony's proprietary BBeB("BroadBand eBook") format. The Reader can play unencrypted MP3 and AAC audio files
I have the PRS-505 version, here are the specs and a few pictures:
WALL-E showing off the new PRS-505 Reader by Sony
PRS-505 specifications
- Size: 175 x 122 x 8 mm (6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3")
- Weight: 250 g (9 oz)
- Display:
- size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
- resolution: 170 dpi, 8-level gray scale
- portrait: 90.6 x 122.4 mm (3.57" x 4.82"), 600 x 800 pixels effective 88.2 x 115.4 mm (3.47 x 4.54 in), 584 x 754 pixels
- minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended
- Memory: 256 MB standard (200 MB Accessible), Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8 GB, SD Card up to 2 GB (some non-SDHC 4GB cards may work), or up to 32 GB with SDHC cards and version 1.1 firmware
Lithium Ion Battery, up to 7500 "page turns" per charge
- PC interface: USB Port 2.0
- Available case colors:
- PRS505/LC: Dark Blue
- PRS505/SC: Silver
- PRS505SC/JP: Custom Skin (James Patterson Special Edition)
- PRS505/RC: Sangria Red (introduced in August 2008)
Definetly a worthwhile addition to your gadget collection!
I will add a few pictures as soon as I can! For now check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader
