You’ve been waiting for it. You’ve been talking about it. You’ve sent long, rambling letters to Jodie Foster about it. You’ve been calling your local Congresswoman about it: It’s the Sony Daily Edition e-reader with built-in wireless.
Erick Schonfeld is on the scene live and we’ll be reporting once the doors open at 10:30am EDT.
Refresh this page for updates.
10:14 – We’re keeping an eye on Sony’s eReader product page, WordsMoveMe. They even have a lame Twitter clone! For words!
10:17 – Erick saw an FCC logo on the back of the new reader. FCC logo = wireless.
10:20 – Erick is probably enjoying a complementary Danish right now.
10:30 – OK. Rolling. The president of the NYPL is announcing a partnership. “The free content of this great library is going to be available to those who have sony readers.” This points to NYPL’s ebook support. You could download ebooks from the library to your PC. Now you can do it to the eReader.
Over 40K titles that are downloadable and will be downloadable on Sony readers
10:32 – One of the 5 founders of the Google of online library project is scanning 1M of its books in public domain. Those will be available as well. “Free distribution of the collection means everything to us.”
10:34 – Sony’s Steve Haber babbling about ebooks: “Similar to paradigm shift from records to CDs then we went from film to digital imaging, started up slow, built up momentum then ban mass market, same thing CD to MP3s.”
“I see the same experience going from stone to paper and now to digital.”
“How to make this happen? It is all about access.” Access from: libraries, PDFs, Google Books, and our ebook store.
10:36 – Announcing over 8500 retail outlets in the US carrying Sony reader this holiday season. “Access to content, experience, affordability.”
10:37 – Three kinds – Pocket Edition for FUN! Take it anywhere. Touch Edition with touchscreen.
10:38 – New ebook library software for Mac and Windows. You can print out your notes.
10:39 – Accessories! An Itty Bitty book light! A leather case!
10:40 – Launching library finder, type in zipcode and takes you to local library where you can begin checking out books once you have a library book and transfer them to Sony Reader
There will be ebook stores that let you download in ePub and Adobe DRM.
10:42 – Touch is $299, Pocket is $199.
10:43 – One more thing: The reader Daily Edition, first 3G wireless reader. 7-inch display. $399. Available in December. Can sync wirelessly. 3G is through AT&T. Touchscreen.
10:45 – WordsMoveMe. Share literary moments.
10:51 – That’s it, folks. Welcome to 2007, Sony!
$399. Available in December. Can sync wirelessly. 3G is through AT&T. Touchscreen.
10:51 – That’s it, folks. Welcome to 2007, Sony!
Yesterday, I heard that by the end of this year Sony will make its ereader and ebooks available on all Sony devices. Can you confirm this? I just bought the Sony Walkman X Series which has built-in wifi. I want to know if I can use the ereader on this device. I sure hope so!
We discussed their eReader pocket edition at the start of the month here: http://crenk.com/sony-e-reader-pocket-edition-and-reader-touch-are-official/
yeah, all this stuff is as old as china.
Doesn’t Wordpress have a spellcheck function?
i look forward to reading your live, up to the minute coverage of the sony ereader event. Link?
Hey, I’m good at my job…too much to ask for you to be good at yours eh?
Jody Foster? LOL !!!!
“3G is through AT&T”
Great, another device on the ultimate crap network.
How does this work? Do we now pay a monthly fee to AT&T or is it included like Amazon whispernet? If it is 3g does that mean there is some sort of browser involved? I don’t think books take that long to download. Do we just like saying 3g?
Google’s library of free books is indeed impressive. But if you want to read the NY Times best seller list Kindle has better pricing.
I seriously looked at the Sony reader, and really liked the original device. However, $10 books on Amazon was more compelling for me. Amazon just needs to bring down the pricing of the Kindle before Xmas.
I was VERY disappointed in the original Kindle. Not because the device fell short, but because I made the daft mistake of stashing it in my bag without putting it its black leather case. The screen cracked. Apparently its a common complaint. They don’t hold up too well, so you have to be very careful with the screens and keep them in their leather case. I then picked up a regular Kindle and a Kindle DX. I love the Kindle DX, but the regular Kindle is nice for quick reading and mobility as well. Battery life is strong. The book downloading is super convenient. But how about support for the UK. I gave one to my nephew as well, and the Kindle doesn’t work there. Which is fine, but copying books over a PC connection is not as simple as it should be.
Cheaper books on Amazon, but will you get to keep those books or are you just renting them? :-)
Sony books are $10 also.
@Mark B
That’s what “cracks me up” about the Kindle DX, and Amazon’s aspirations to make it a textbook reader. Can you see that large plate of glass in a student’s backpack? Yikes!!
The Plastic Logic device is another story. They show demos of that being hit with a shoe heel….
What about Wi Fi in the Light model?
I like my kindle better, and you can too, you can follow this link to get one just like I did: http://www.computersncs.com/rd_p?p=191614=9544&a=27619-kindlecrunchgear=27619
Really? That is amazing. I love following links.
What I do like is that they are starting to be able to work with selected library material. This feature, when it comes to maturity, is going to really help these devices.
Sony lowered the best seller pricing on its store to $9.99 a few weeks ago — so same price as Amazon store.
Kindle Rules? With no backlight and which requires an external reading light? Nah. I’ll stick with my iPod Touch until the perfect reader (for access, cross platform, downloadability, ease of reading, etc.) comes out.
hmm istill use notebook to redaer pdf
I hate reading off a screen as I am a real book lover. But would still love to have it :-)
While it is great that Sony will have wireless readers, they still have a ways to go to compete with Amazon in terms of their Web storefront and the way that people browse and shop for titles. See my comments in my strominator.com blog posted this week.
Leroy,
The wireless downloads won’t cost you extra, but the only place you will be able to go will be to the Sony store.
Unlike Amazon’s Kindle, it has no web browser and no direct access to the rest of the Net.
At the Sony store, you can do a search for your local library and be able to borrow e-books from it and these loaned e-books are downloadable to your computer and THEN transferred to the Sony.
– Andrys
kindleworld.blogspot.com
Let’s hope the Sony is better than the Kindle. For starters the Kindle is so fragile it really should only be sold in a padded cover with velcro to hold the Kindle intact. It should also have a wrist strap. I’m waiting for Apple to come out with their version. For sure they’ll do it properly.