tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804246.post-40145956677896683362007-11-05T11:55:00.000-05:002008-08-06T09:16:58.496-04:00<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/anotherchancetosee/SonyReaderPRS505"><img src="http://lh5.google.com/anotherchancetosee/RyCbvCHYyxI/AAAAAAAAAdo/kv1UNHNrbQk/s288/DSC00723.JPG" align="left" style="padding-right:5px;" border="0" /></a>I'm <span style="font-style:italic;">thoroughly</span> enjoying my latest toy, the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WPXQ2M?ie=UTF8&tag=anotherchan04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000WPXQ2M">Sony Reader PRS-505</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=anotherchan04-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000WPXQ2M" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. It's been a very enjoyable experience, and I've already read three books on it. Surprisingly, the short "flash" between page-flips has not been any distraction at all, and I'm finding that I actually engage <span style="font-style:italic;">MORE </span>with the Reader's text than I do with a regular paper book. Once I get comfortable, I never need to move, save for a thumb-blip on the page turn button every few seconds.<br /><br />The beautiful electronic-ink screen is truly marvellous, and because there is no back-light there's no eye strain at all. When I'm tired at the end of the day, I sometimes boost the font-size up to "Large", so every book can be a big print book. It's a shame that the older generation who would most benefit from such a feature, are the least likely to be interested in such a device, but every "more mature" person I've shown it to really likes it. You'll still need a book-light if you want to read in the dark, but that's not something I do anyway. <br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=anotherchan04-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000WPXQ2M&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=FFFFFF&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;padding-left:5px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" align="right"></iframe>It's a great device, solid of construction, but nice and light. It will be perfect for my trip back to the UK in November, and my carry-on luggage will be considerably lighter than it would be normally. I won't need to carry three or four bulging books with me, instead I'll have the three new e-books I bought from the Sony Connect store (Stephen Fry's "Revenge", Alan Alda's memoirs and Ewan McGregor's "Long Way Round"), plus a dozen of the "100 free classics", Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin etc. In addition, there's also 2000+ public domain books available on <a href="http://www.mobileread.com/">MobileRead.com</a>, where I picked up some of the less well known Jules Verne stories. <br /><br />I also converted <a href="http://stephenfry.com/blog/">Stephen Fry's blog</a> posts for the Reader by copying and pasting the contents to a Word Doc and then dragging them across to the Reader via USB. Stephen Fry's "blessays" are the longest and most entertaining blog posts on the web, and with a little jiggery-pokery they became almost like book chapters on the Reader. Very worthwhile train reading. The good folks at <a href="http://www.mobileread.com/">MobileRead.com</a> have lots of other tools that can be used to convert or make content for the Reader.<br /><br />Below you'll find a quick slideshow of my Reader in action, as well as the home-brew "softcase" I made from a $0.50 clearance item at Staples.<div align="center"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fanotherchancetosee%2Falbumid%2F5125266732098308817%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></div>There's no doubt that this technology is still in its infancy, but over the next few years these screens will get bigger and more usable for student text-books. <i>Right now</i> they are a perfect replacement for reading novels on the go, and considerably lighter! I won't be carrying any more hefty hardbacks around in my backpack if I can avoid it.<br /><br />The Reader is available for purchase at <a href="http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644523779">SonyStyle.com</a>, Borders and Best Buy stores, and online in various places. Purchasing from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WPXQ2M?ie=UTF8&tag=anotherchan04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000WPXQ2M">Amazon.com</a> will help me with the up-keep of this site, and some other projects I'm working on.<div class="blogger-post-footer">--- Originally published at http://www.anotherchancetosee.com</div>Garethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01016456671468216397noreply@blogger.com