the sony reader

i could have sworn i posted about this when i first heard they were about to release it, but can't find it now.

anyway, sony has released its electronic book reader, ever so originally called the "sony(r) portable reader system". the price tag is too steep for me as yet at U$350, but this is the first of all the ebook readers that seriously tempts me. and the really good news is that they're backordered already until end of november, so it sounds like interest is higher than expected (or maybe sony is being an ass and trying to hype it by making it harder to get?).

it's still far from ideal, but it's starting to really aim in the right direction:

• large, daylight-readable e-ink display (6" diag, 170 ppi)
• changeable text size
• awesome battery life (7500 page-turns; page display itself uses hardly any charge)
• memory capacity for hundreds of books (64MB internal, can use SD memory and memory stick (tm))
• lightweight (about 9oz), about the size of a paperback
• can read txt, pdf, rtf, word (via conversion), and sony's proprietary ebook format
• graphics support at 4 levels of grayscale (jpg, png, gif, bmp)
• audio support (mp3, aac)

maybe for my birthday...