Book, your days are numbered…
Dec 29th, 2006 by jeffmcneill
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p>I’ve been waiting for this since the late 1990s when the early reader hardware was coming out. And while it is not the full package of what I have been envisioning, it is a significant step forward.
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p>Sony Reader PRS-500, $350
http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/
The lowdown
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p>1) Small, light, power lasts a long time
2) Reading screen uses e-ink, readable in broad daylight
3) 80 ebook capacity, with CF card and Sony memory stick expandible
4) Can use ebook, plus following formats: TXT, RTF, PDF (Unencrypted), BBeB (Encrypted and Unencrypted), JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, MP3 (Unencrypted), AAC (Unencrypted).
5) Yes, that’s right, it can play MP3s!
6) Bookmarks
7) Rotate screen
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p>More info
Sony responds to MAKE reader questions
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/sony_responds_to_our_sony_read.html
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p>On ebay
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=PRS-500&submitSearch=Search
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p>So what does this mean? It means it is time to begin converting all books into pdf and ebook formats. This is a natural progression, since this summer I converted all (~280) my CDs into MP3s, and gave them away, freeing myself from about 20 pounds of plastic (and the leather case). Itunes + Ipod is a great friend.
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p>Future e-reader functionality needed: annotation, underlining, search, copy, edit. But for now what has become available is quite significant, and provides the ability to take my entire library with me.
Book, your days are numbered…
Over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, an article discusses why the e-books are not yet ready for the library. While it is difficult to understand the headline from the content of the article (many users praise its functionality), everyone seems to overlook what the e-book does (and how it might fit into the library) as opposed to what the e-book does not do. Oh, it doesn’t have much of a selection of ebooks, it cannot copy or highlight words or phrases, nor can it allow for annotation. Yes, yes, all true. But what about library books? Um, they don’t allow for any of that either..! Book, your days are numbered, meet Book 2.0.