Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

2014-2015: Best tablet specs for ebook reading

<< < (6/13) > >>

Innuendo:
Nice find Nod5, that Sony Digital Paper looks very close to ideal for reading academic pdfs.. Too bad the price is so insane ($1000).
-mouser (March 15, 2015, 07:45 AM)
--- End quote ---

It's even more insane than that. If you read the comments, most Sony resellers will only sell to corporations after a lengthy interview process. There's only one vendor who is selling to individuals and they've marked the price up to $1499.

I see the potential, but the techie part of my mind is shaking its head at only 1600x1200 resolution and PDF-only support. No MOBI, EPUB, DOC or TXT file support at all.

mouser:
No MOBI, EPUB, DOC or TXT file support at all.
--- End quote ---
yeah that's just plain stupid.

sounds to me like the device must be more of a publicity/prototype than a real product.

Nod5:
Nice find Nod5, that Sony Digital Paper looks very close to ideal for reading academic pdfs.. Too bad the price is so insane ($1000).
-mouser (March 15, 2015, 07:45 AM)
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I think they target corporate markets. I haven't seen the Sony Paper in real life but it looks to beat all other eink devices out there. But while probably great to simply read on one drawback that it shares with other einks on the market is that it AFAICT also has its own special format for highlights, annotation and so on. I suspect it'd be a hassle to move files back and forth to Windows and access and modify the highlights/annotations there. That is what I like with using a Windows machine for active reading: you can seamlessly copy and paste bits from the pdf viewer into a word processor or note tool, link the file to some reference manager, do advanced online lookups quickly while reading and archive and search the file with the best tools for the job. The bookshelf type catalog apps on the eink devices I've tried (Kindle, Nook) get messy fast when the number of files grow I think.

What I'd really like to see is a big, light eink screen like the Sony Paper (ideally even thinner) that only act like a stupid wireless (bluetooth) extra screen for a host Windows computer or when on the go an Android smartphone. It would send touch/pen inputs back to the host which then updates the image. All files are stored and processed on the host. These prototypes show something like that, though far from finished and with a few somewhat gimmicky features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81iiGWdsJgg

xtabber:
Sony has been selling the Digital Paper directly to consumers in the U.S. since last summer through their online store, but I'm not sure they are still making the device.  It's currently listed as "back-ordered" on the site.

Sony pulled out of the e-book market late last year and said they would not be making readers any more.  Whether that includes the Digital Paper is an open question.

Nod5:
Sony seem to want to distinguish ebook readers and the ebook market strongly from the Digital Paper, pitched as a pdf reader tool for organizations. But the price is insane. I wonder what the material production cost is for the bare screen.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page