The Sony Reader: eInk Has Arrived

Slide 1: Michael Sauers Technology Innovation Librarian Nebraska Library Commission NE Library Association / NE Educational Media Association 2007 Fall Conference 1

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Slide 3: Sony CEO Howard Stringer introduces the Reader at CES 2006 3 http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilpho/164291155/

Slide 4:  eBooks are heavy  eBooks can’t store much  No room for expansion  eBook battery life sucks  Backlit displays  They don’t support multiple formats  You can’t read them at an angle  eBooks aren’t books  Books as physical objects are works of art and should be cherished! 4

Slide 5:  Long battery life  Light-weight  Expandable storage  Supports multiple text formats  Text zooming  Read from almost any angle 5

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Slide 7:  6.9\" x 4.9\" x 0.5\"  8.8oz  In comparison: Rocket eBook Pro  5\" x 7.5\" x 1.5\"  22oz 7

Slide 8:  Display  eInk / non-backlit  800x600 resolution  Rotatable  4-level grayscale  Three text sizes  64MB built in storage  SD/Memory Stick card slot  USB data transfer  Approximately 7,500 page turns per charge 8

Slide 9:  Content is not drawn, but “charged”  170 Pixels Per Inch (PPI)  Newspaper quality  Does not need power to hold a display, only to change it. 9

Slide 10: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spirit635/479810101/ 10

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Slide 14:  USB Type-B mini  DC in 5.2v  8mm headphone jack  SD/Memory Stick slot 14

Slide 15:  On/off sliding switch  Page forward/back (two sets) Size (3 available settings)  10 numbered keys (1-0)  Bookmark  Menu  Small joystick/enter  Volume control  15

Slide 16:  Continue Reading  Books  By Author  By Date  Collections  All Bookmarks  Now Playing  Audio  Pictures  Settings 16

Slide 17:  Default list is alphabetical by title 17

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Slide 20:  Continue Reading  Begin  End  Bookmarks  Table of Contents  History  Info  Utilities 20

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Slide 31: 31 http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilpho/164288637/

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Slide 34:  Orientation  Screen Lock  Slideshow  About  Restore Defaults 34

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Slide 43:  RSS limited to built-in feeds & do not auto-update  Native-format titles must be purchased via Sony ® eConnect (no third-party vendors) Not all PDFs display well (need to be reformatted for  smaller display) Audio playback severely impacts battery life  Non-color display  Pricey  No indexes  Can’t read during takeoff and landing  Using in the tub is a bad idea  43

Slide 44:  Speed up page turns  Reduce instances of ghosting  Whiter background  Allow for sale of eBook by other vendors  Full-text searching  Improved battery life when using storage cards (The first two can be solved immediately but only by reducing battery life.) 44

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Slide 47:  Rearranged controls  Faster refresh rate  8-level grayscale (from  Less ghosting 4)  192MB RAM  Added ProDuo card slot  .3” thick (-.2”)  +20% contrast improvement 47

Slide 48:  I’m paying 80% of list price of a book but not getting a physical object.  In other words, I’m paying for the “right to read” a title.  If I just wanted to read a title yet not own the book, I’d get it from the library for free? 48

Slide 49: 49 http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/1240167805

Slide 50: Michael Sauers msauers@nlc.state.ne.us http://travelinlibrarian.info/ http://del.icio.us/travelinlibrarian/sonyreader 50