Sony Launches 2G Touchscreen eBook Reader Comments

Now that looks more like it. Hated the cluttered fascia of the first one.

Any information on the screen resolution?

This is good news, though I feel sorry for the people who just bought into the first one.

@Singularity: Identical resolution to the PRS-505 (about 167 dots per inch I think from memory).

See here for load of info: http://news.sel.sony.com/assets/Reader_2008/
(although spec sheet is `coming soon`)

@Darfuria 'I feel sorry for the people who just bought into the first one.' Don't feel sorry for us we are very happy with our purchases & (by the look of it on the mobileread forums) most will probably not upgrade, but will wait a generation (for me that depends on how much quicker the OS is on the PRS-700 with its touted faster processor and whether it turns out to have 16 colour grayscale rather than the 8 of the PRS-505).

Personally I am not bothered about touch screen for reading books (finger prints) - but for those people who like annotating (stoodents and their ilk) this will be a boon. What I really would have liked in the tocuch feely department would be an invisible page turning sensor on the metal case (i.e. caress right for next page, left for previous or whatever) but that's probably just me.

Also with wireless, I am indifferent on what is essentially a posh book (BTW the 2G in the title of this article threw me for a bit - WAP on a Sony Reader anyone?! ;^)) - this is only really useful if you like to buy books on the go. I don't do either; everything I have read on my reader in the last 6 months (apart from a couple of issues of Interzone) has been free and since you can carry 200-odd books on the PRS-505 I have plenty to read whilst I am on the go.

For me the `real` next gen should have; 8" screen, higher res (300 dots per inch would be nice), better contrast and whiter `paper`. Oh and colour! ;^) Next gen after that maybe a rollable display! (like the Readius but better-er). But *all* of those depend on new screens being produced by whoever it is that makes them (I forget) so it will probably be a while off yet (& forget the PlasticLogic offering - it will be aimed at business & cost a small fortune).

I bet we in the UK won't see it until the back-end of 2009. Will I be able to hold out that long or will I cave in and get the PRS-505 (when they are back in stock).

Looks good, but has its handling of pdfs improved?

@piesforyou: It'll be down to whether Adobe has improved the AdobeDE PDF reflow component (which is outside Sony's control)

They messed up on calling the Kindle's wireless connection WiFi (it's really EVDO).