Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Sony Reader


While I was in Japan I ordered a Sony Reader from the US (they don't have them in Japan or anywhere else except for the US, Canada and just recently the UK) and it arrived today. And it's great.

Just a couple of problems (more annoyances really):
  • It doesn't strip line breaks from text files, so things can look a little screwed up sometimes. I had to write a little exe file that strips them out. This adds an extra step to the upload process but it looks ok now.
  • It came with a program called "ebook library" which is supposed to manage ebooks and upload them to the reader, in an itunes sort of way. Problem is: it's a bit buggy. Strips out and ignores any meta data from the text files and thinks that all word files are still open. So it will copy text files over but leaves out the Author details. Found an XML file on the reader where this information is kept, and have to edit that after uploading with file manager.
Anyway this device is great for anyone with a short attention span. You can read 5 books at once (time multiplexed in 10 minute bites) this seems such a natural thing to do, I bet that once these things become popular enough someone will come up with a special word for it.

4 comments:

Tim said...

I'm so jealous!

Jen said...

I want!
(PS the red carpet makes it look ultra plush. Makes the carpet an even better choice ;) )

caf said...

Is it really good on your eyes like it's meant to be so you can read for as long as you can with an actual book?

Yay for fast delivery!

Neb said...

I want one too!

(Though I won't be giving up the dead tree variety *just* yet...)