CrunchGear » Sony Reader

Buy a W Series laptop or Rose Sony Reader and help support breast cancer awareness

John Biggs — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:04:50 +0000

This is nice. Sony is donating $110,000 to breast cancer research in conjunction with sales of their Pink W Series notebook or their pink Reader Pocket Edition.

Both items are pink and pretty.

Sony is holding special sales at SonyStyle stores all over the world on October 20 excepting the Sony Style COMCAST center in Philly, for whatever reason. Maybe because it’s closed.

Hacking the Sony Reader

John Biggs — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:08:30 +0000

The Register has a nice piece on hacking the Sony Reader, allowing you to install all sorts of goodies onto the Linux-powered e-reader. I’ve never been a big fan for the Sony Reader but clearly hackers prefer this device over the closed Kindle.

Some is simple customisation: you can change the fonts, icons and logos, or add your name and contact details to the About screen, for example. Buttons can be reassigned, or disabled too, so if you prefer to shut the Reader down rather then send it to sleep, then you can add that function to an easily accessible key, instead of having to work through a few menus to find it.

It’s actually possible to go a lot further than that. The reader is controlled using JavaScript and XML, and there are even applications such as dictionaries and Sudoku that can be run from an SD card.

Interestingly the device can run programs right off of an SD card, ensuring you don’t totally hose your device. You can add new firmware with a program called Universal Flasher, a program that sounds like something that happens when Dad gets drunk and then goes on the Shrek ride.

I just wonder if they’ll ever be able to crack into the Kindle. I suspect since it’s not very European right now there’s really no impetus to play around.

Sony Reader: Ian Fleming Edition

Devin Coldewey — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:30:42 +0000

Although I don’t get the feeling that Ian Fleming would have been a big e-book fan (he was a paperback kind of guy), that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be awesome to have a 007-themed Sony Reader. Unfortunately the Reader itself is standard issue — but the cover for it is embossed leather, and the Reader comes with two free Bond books.

If I’m honest, it’s not much of a deal, but if you’re going to have a Reader, you may as well get the most awesome of the bunch.

[via Pocket Lint and Gearlog]

Foxit takes eBooks to a new low with the eSlick

Matt Burns — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:12:10 +0000

So far eBook devices chief sticking point is the high price. The $300+ range of the Kindle and Sony Reader turns off all but the most avid gadgetphile, book proprietor. Maybe the $259 eSlick by Foxit will find more success even though it opts for a lower price rather than fancy connectivity or e-ink backlighting. It’s still slim at .4-inches thick and ships with 128MB of internal memory along with a 2GB SD card. The unit can even function as a MP3 player. So wanna-be eBook owner, is the $259 price right? Or does it still need to drop a bit more?

Foxit via PC World

Little Red Sony Reader spotted in the wild

Matt Burns — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:45:01 +0000

Some Sony Reader fanboy might, just might get excited to see a red Sony Reader pics in the vast spans that is the Internet. They say the red looks great thanks to its metallic, matte finish, but it’s kind of hard to tell thanks to amazingly bad photos. So until clear photos come from someone that actually knows how to use a digital camera appear, I’m pull the “pics or it didn’t happen” card.

Mike Cane via Gear Diary

RIYL: Hatin’ On Sony’s Reader

Josh Goldman — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:18:49 +0000

yesterday is dead in the water. Oh, wait, maybe it does. Or at least so says David Rothman over at TeleRead as he compared it to the Edsel, an automobile failure beyond compare in 1958. His key arguments are certainly not offbase – monochrome screen, general suckiness of DRM, only 10,000 or so titles, no backlight, and a relatively high cost for a very limited product. However, all this aside, after having played with one last night I can’t help wanting one. I was in a very dark room and could read the display easily and without strain. It was simple enough to operate and the magnification of the print was nice, and would be handy for the nearly blind. But do I think it will fail? And how! I really hope it doesn’t fail completely though, because I do want to see the next generation of it.
Will the Sony Reader Be The Edsel Of E-Ink? [TeleRead]