Review of Sony Reader
When looking into using e-books for something productive there are some criteria that must be met to make a satisfying reading experience. The hardware and software must include the following for optimal performance:
- You must be able to easily flip pages back and forth.
- It must be pleasant to read on the device.
- You should be able to enlarge text.
- You should be able to highlight material.
- Battery life must be reasonably long.
In addition, for use in an educational (distance learning) environment the device should:
- Have pages numbered similarly to the paper copy.
- There should be a sharing feature so readers can share notes.
- Ability to cut and paste to word processor such as MS Word.
Given the above criteria the Sony Reader PRS-505 fails. I cannot fathom reading an entire book on this medium nor would I require students to do so. Here’s my breakdown of how this device fails:
- While it’s true you can somewhat easily flip pages back and forth the screen refreshes itself at every flip in a very annoying manner by turning the usually white pages entirely black for a split second and then back to white again. This is so glaring I find myself growing distressed by page 3 or 4.
- Given what I just said it is not pleasant reading on this device; although assuming that error didn’t exist I still am not sure I like the lighting.
- You can enlarge text several times.
- You cannot as far as I can tell HIGHLIGHT material but you can bookmark items which I suppose is almost as good.
- Battery life is not great.
- I very much doubt the pages are numbered the same as text copies as the reader starts on the first page of actual content and numbers till the last page of actual content (ex. 1 of 699).
- No sharing features that I could see.
- No ability to cut and paste or use anything done on the device with anything else as far as I could tell.
Would like to someday take a look at a Kindle and compare. Although given my experience with the Sony Reader I have doubts I will be impressed.
Northwest Missouri State University is offering e-books for rental to their students, instead of selling them books. They seem to have had mixed results. They soon plan to be offering larger versions of the Kindle with textbooks in mind.
Google is supposedly going to soon be offering an online e-book store.
The Kindle makes the black-screen flash too, which really annoyed me for a while but once I’d read for a while I don’t even see it anymore. But overall about the only thing that I like about the Kindle is: it’s small and a lot lighter than carrying books when traveling, and even the primitive search capabilities are incredibly useful.
The sweet spot for me is for reference works and “work” kinds of books, which I don’t necessarily even care to own in the physical form and in which the search is useful. If/when the search becomes more sophisticated (including proximity searching and regular expression– or the like– searching, for example) then it could also be useful for literary research.
Vernor Vinge’s idea in _Rainbows End_ that there would be a brief time when there was enough digitized material available that there would be a spate of new discoveries possible, to the point that whoever controlled the access could sell temporary rights to such information claims, feels very real to me. Imagine having the bulk of contemporary fiction digitized and available… what power there would be to discover new connections and parallels, and get such an improved view of the big picture which is impossible at this point even for those with a prodigious or even eidetic memory…
The search is probably my favorite feature of these tools so far – that’s a huge advantage over books, obviously. And as you said it IS a lot lighter than carrying around even just 2-3 textbooks. Imagine how cool it would be to take your entire book collection with you when you move and it’s just a Kindle or Sony Reader – that’s WAY easier than moving 18 boxes of books! SO yes I agree portability is another great feature.
I am optimistic about the future of these instruments which didn’t exactly come through in my post. I do agree there is a lot of potential there especially with, as you noted, the possibility of making connections and seeing the larger picture in fiction (and I would even venture to say nonfiction). I would like to have a digital archive of all my favorite world war II books and see what kinds of conclusions that aren’t obvious that perhaps the technology could help me make.
Having said all that the Sony Reader still sucks, haha.