1 comments

Initial Sony Librie thoughts: It's a very, very nice piece of technology. Tech Specs Here

Last week I ordered a Sony LIBRIe?????? digital eBook reader from Japan-Direct. To my knowledge, it is the most scientifically advanced piece of consumer electronics currently on the market.

• There is zero English language support provided by Sony. I manually loaded an English firmware in a few minutes; it was easy. Now I have finally figured out a "process" to get my English text files (books) onto the device that involves no less than four separate community-created software applications before even touching Sony's USB transfer utility. So it's not a "Drag and Drop" eBook, but it only takes about 45 seconds to get on-line text into this off-line reader once you figure out a routine that works for you. Big thanks to the Librie Yahoo! group that is making this all happen... but major thanks go out to a user named nano who did the English translation of the Sony Librie operating system.
• The screen is as good as you've read: Amazingly cool. I don't want to ruin it for you, but try taking a Librie outside and compare its performance in the sun to any laptop. I have a Thinkpad A30 and a Sony Vaio widescreen laptop with the special XBrite technology, and there's just no comparison. It is like there is a small laser printer inside of the Librie, printing a new piece of future paper each time I turn the page.
  And, really, that's what it is.... If you read more about E-Ink you'll see that it's quite a remarkable technology.
• This feels like when I owned a Newton MessagePad 100 in the 8th grade. CUTTING EDGE!
• As an excuse to play with this at work, I loaded up a few aviation approach charts. It was easier to make a 10-page eBook composed of 10 unique 600x800 150dpi GIF images in a 4-color black and white palette than it was to type this sentence. And they look great. It was the "hot" talk of the office.
• I have also loaded up some text to read tonight last night and will see how it takes a 30- or 45-minute reading test. (It handled great!)
• I want the Librie to change how I read the bigger portions of my off-line text. I am starting with Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway stockholder's letters... Printing them out on my home laser printer was really taking its toll on convenience.
• The Librie is very, very thin. Beautiful design. Nice white.

So, I am now the proud owner of a Sony LIBRIe??????, shipped for me for $419 + $55 overnight from Japan-Direct.com. I hope it will be a new weapon in my gadget arsenal.

Addendum- Zach just asked me, "Is it easy to read for lengths of time?" And to that I would say, Is a piece of paper that you printed on your laser printer easy to read for lengths of time? Yes.