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Sony Reader

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Sony Reader (PRS505)
ManufacturerSony
PredecessorSony PRS500, Sony LIBRIé
Form factorSlate
Dimensions6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3".6 (175 x 122 x 8mm
Weight9oz
Operating systemMontaVista Linux
Memory200MB Accessible
Removable storageMemory Stick Duo Up to 8GB, SD Up to 2GB
BatteryLithium-ion
Display600×800 px,
170 ppi resolution,
6" diagonal,
8-level grayscale
E Ink Electronic paper
ConnectivityUSB 2.0
Data inputsDirectional

The Sony PRS-500 Reader is an e-book reader available in the United States since September 2006 and in Canada since April 2008. It uses an electronic paper display developed by E Ink Corporation, that has 166 dpi resolution, four levels of grayscale, is viewable in direct sunlight, requires no power to maintain the image, and is usable in portrait or landscape orientation. Like real paper, it may be difficult to read from in low-light conditions, as the unit has no backlight. The reader uses an iTunes Store-like interface to purchase books from Sony's Connect eBook store. It also can display Adobe PDFs, personal documents, blogs, RSS newsfeeds, JPEGs, and Sony's proprietary BBeB ("BroadBand eBook") format.

The Reader can play unencrypted MP3 and AAC audio files. Unlike its close cousin, the LIBRIé, the Sony Reader offers no way for the user to annotate a digital book due to lack of a keyboard.

The digital rights management rules of the Reader allow any purchased eBook to be read on up to six devices (at least one of those 6 must be a PC). Although you cannot totally share purchased eBooks on other people’s devices and accounts, you will have the opportunity to register five Readers to your account and share your books accordingly. At this time Sony has no plans to introduce time-expiring books in the U.S.

The Reader was announced in January 2006. By September 2006, it was available for order from the Sony online store. It competes with other e-paper devices— the Amazon Kindle, iRex iLiad, the Jinke Hanlin eReader, and CyBook by Bookeen.

Since 1 November 2006, Readers have been on display and for sale at Borders bookstores throughout the US, according to posts at MobileRead.com. Borders had an exclusive contract for the Reader until the end of 2006. From April 2007, Sony Reader has been sold in the US by multiple merchants, including Fry's, Costco, Borders and Best Buy. The eBook Store from Sony is only available to U.S. or Canadian residents or to customers who purchased a U.S.-model reader with bundled eBook Store credit.

PRS-505

On October 2, 2007, Sony announced the PRS-505, an updated version of the Reader. The '505 keeps the 6" SVGA display of the original Reader, but uses an improved version of E Ink's imaging film with faster refresh time, brighter white state, and 8-level grayscale.

PRS-505 is thinner than its predecessor (8 mm vs. 13 mm) and comes with more internal memory (256 MB vs. 64 MB).

Other new product features include auto-synchronization to a folder on a host PC, support for the USB Mass Storage Device profile, and full USB charging capability (the PRS-500 could only be recharged via USB if the battery was not fully drained, and if the Sony Connect Reader software was installed on the host PC). Also adding books to "Collections" (a feature to organize and group book titles) is now possible on the storage card, unlike the PRS-500 model.

Specifications

PRS500

  • Size: 175.6 x 123.6 x 13.8mm (6.9" x 4.9" x 0.5")
  • Weight: 250 g (9 oz)
  • Display:
    • size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
    • resolution: 170 dpi, 4-level gray scale
    • portrait: 90.6 x 122.4 mm (3.57" x 4.82"), 600 x 800 pixels | effective 115.4 x 88.2 mm (4.54 x 3.47 in), 754 x 584 pixels
    • minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended
  • Memory: 64 MB standard, Memory Stick (Pro Duo High Speed not supported. Normal memory sticks are only supported up to 4GB, despite Sony compatibility claims 1) or SD card expansion up to 2 GB (some non-SDHC 4GB cards may work)
  • Lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 "page turns" per charge
  • PC interface: USB port

PRS505

  • Size: 175 x 122 x 8mm(6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3")
  • Weight: 250 g (9 oz)
  • Display:
    • size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
    • resolution: 170 dpi, 8-level gray scale
    • portrait: 90.6 x 122.4 mm (3.57" x 4.82"), 600 x 800 pixels | effective 115.4 x 88.2 mm (4.54 x 3.47 in), 754 x 584 pixels
    • minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended
  • Memory: 256MB standard (200MB Accessible), Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8GB, SD card expansion up to 2 GB (some non-SDHC 4GB cards may work)
  • Lithium-ion battery, up to 7500 "page turns" per charge
  • PC interface: USB port 2.0
  • Available case colors:
    • PRS505/LC: Dark blue
    • PRS505/SC: Silver
    • PRS505SC/JP: Custom Skin

Formats supported

DRM-free Text: BBeB Book (LRF), PDF, TXT, RTF. Typefaces in PDF files formatted for 216 x 280 mm (8.5 x 11 inch) pages may be too small to read comfortably. Such files can be reformatted for the Reader screen size with Adobe Acrobat Professional, but not by Adobe Reader software. The Reader does not directly support Microsoft Word DOC format. The 'CONNECT Reader' application uses Word to convert the .DOC files to RTF before sending them to the Reader.

DRM Text: BBeB Book (LRX); Titles from major publishers and most small publishers can ONLY be read in Sony's proprietary format (BBeB); For example, copy-protected books in secure Adobe editions, in Mobipocket format, in eReader format, and in Microsoft Reader format cannot be read on the Sony device as of 11 June 2008

DRM-free Audio: MP3 and AAC

Image: JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (Loading an animated GIF will freeze the Reader)

RSS: Limited to 20 featured blogs such as Engadget and Wired, no ability to add others and no auto-update (as of December 1, 2006)

The Reader supports TXT and RTF documents with Latin character set only. Other character sets (such as Cyrillic, for example) are not displayed correctly, but Cyrillic-patches are available for russian users (see the site www.the-ebook.org). Sony customer support confirmed that units sold in US only work with Latin characters (as of March 2, 2007). (An unofficial fix exists allowing the reader to properly show Cyrillic characters PRS 500. PRS 505)

Operating systems

Windows

Sony Reader comes bundled with Sony's proprietary software called Connect, Sony Connect is similar to iTunes and requires Windows XP or later, an 800MHz Processor, 128Mb of RAM, and 20Mb of Hard disk space.

Mac OS X and Linux

Sony Connect is not officially supported on Mac OS X or Linux based systems, although when the device is connected it grants access to its internal flash memory as though it were a USB Mass Storage device (on the 505 only) allowing the user to transfer files directly.

Several third-party tools exist for the Sony Reader. For example, Docudesk PRS Browser for Mac OS X which allows Macintosh users to manage content on the Sony Reader. Users can also use the free software library and utility calibre (formerly known as libprs500) written by Kovid Goyal to communicate with the Reader and manage their digital library. This utility has both a command line and graphical interface, and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Internal OS

An examination of the operating manual reveals that the operating system for the Reader is MontaVista Linux Professional Edition.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sony Reader.

Official

Content

Forums

Third Party/Tools

Reviews/Press

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