New formats and a measure of freedom for Sony Reader

Posted by Rob Beschizza, July 24, 2008 11:26 AM | permalink

Sony's e-book reader — the pretty one that isn't as fancy as the Kindle but which doesn't look like a squashed origami hat — is to support the new EPUB format in a coming firmware update. This will mean, ostensibly, that Reader users will be able to get ebooks from more places.

EPUB is a nonproprietary XML-based format created by the International Digital Publishing Forum, whatever the dickens that is. Also announced was superior PDF support.

Sony Reader adds universal format, gets red model [Electronista]

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Anonymous , July 24, 2008 11:56 AM

I lurv my first gen eReader. The button layout could be much better and the response time a touch better but over-all it made the transition to digital books pretty painless. Does anyone know if the page load times have been improved in this model?

Of course some of my contentedness could stem from the fact that I only paid $50 dollars for it as part of a Sony Visa Card promotion. Anyways, if you are of the pirating persuasion, this pays for itself very quickly.

I will say that the software it comes with is made of ass and seething consumer hatred.

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#2 posted by Sean Eric FAgan , July 24, 2008 12:49 PM

I have a PRS-505 and a Cybook Gen3. I prefer the Sony (it's less buggy, and has a better UI thanks to the buttons). But it's slow loading a book for the first time.

I saw that Tor had a book up in HTML and EPUB formats -- and only those two -- this week. That was my introduction to the format.

Since I use Macs, I have no idea how I'll upgrade the firmware, unfortunately.

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#3 posted by Havanacus , July 24, 2008 2:01 PM

This post and the text that appeared in my RSS feed are slightly different...

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#4 posted by Rob Beschizza

, July 24, 2008 3:51 PM

Havanacus,

We can't preview our posts, so typos, mistakes and other obvious stupidity may appear briefly as we edit live. You feed reader got lucky!

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#5 posted by hohum , July 25, 2008 10:02 PM

Well that's nice. I've always liked the Sony Reader, liked the looks of it, &c... But I don't think their store played too nice with my poor Mac. Regardless of how much prettier the Sony is, I still think I'm going for a Kindle when the time comes, however. It'd be nice if the Kindle redesign rumors were true, and maybe they actually hired an industrial designer this time... I can dream, right?