The Reading Edge Podcast

I’m thoroughly impressed with the engineering behind the new Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-350, as you’ll see in this video review.   They managed to create a touch screen which does not cripple the readability of the E Ink screen, and it weighs only 5 3/8 ounces, compared with 7 5/8 ounces for the previous Sony Reader Pocket Edition, PRS-300.  The Kindle 3 weighs 8 1/8 ounces.  But as a competitor to the Kindle 3, the new Sony Pocket fails because of price ($40 more than the $139 Kindle WiFi only) and lack of a wireless connection.
One thing I forgot to mention in the video: turning the pages on the PRS-350 is effortless and very cool – a slight flick of the finger accomplishes the page turn, because of the excellent new touch screen.

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This is the unboxing video for my Sony Reader Daily Edition, which arrived today, with side-by-side comparisons with my Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble nook.  (Don’t worry about the black screen; if you click on it the video will play.)

My wife Darlene and agreed that, on first impression, the Daily Edition’s screen readability is markedly inferior to that of the Kindle and nook.  Of the latter two, we found that the nook’s contrast seems slightly better, because the background to the text is lighter.  See for yourself in the video.

The Daily Edition is gorgeous, but it feels like a different animal in the eBook jungle.  It feels like a machine, a handsomely designed machine, but one better suited for a corporate road warrior than a bookish reader.  For example, I doubt there will be a big market for pretty skins and fancy covers for the Daily Edition, whose official name is PRS-900BC.  It’s just not that sort of device.  Plus, it already comes with a cover that’s attached to it, and I haven’t figured out yet if you can remove it to make way for something that, say, Oberon or M-Edge Accessories might create for it.

That said, I’m looking forward to playing with the Daily Edition. The touch screen seems much more responsive to that of the nook’s lower panel. It failed to find the Sony Reader Store tonight while we were in the dining room.  Just to check the competition, I fired up the Kindle and it found the mothership in seconds.

The Daily Edition isn’t cheap. At $399 it bears a hefty $140 premium over the Kindle and the nook.

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Otis Gates is a Sony Reader product expert for Sony Electronics.  Darlene and I interviewed him on January 9, 2010, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  Is His job is to translate the eReader’s specifications and capabilities into usable form for, say, a Best Buy sales rep demonstrating a Daily Edition to a customer.

Otis’s familiarity with the Daily Edition made him a great person to talk to about this promising new entry into the eBook sector.  Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal has just posted an even-handed review of the Daily Edition, calling it “a big boost for Sony” that “enables them to be in the game in a bigger way than they have been,” mainly because it is Sony’s first wireless eReader.

My own Daily Edition will arrive here in Denver next week, and I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces.  I’m not thrilled that it comes with a stylus that I will probably lose, but the touch screen looks intriguing and I’ll be interested to see how much of an advantage the Daily Edition’s seven-inch diagonal measurement gives it over the six-inch diagonal of the Kindle.

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