Sony Reader New eBook Reader For UK Comments

what are the compatible ebook formats for this - does it include mobipocket and/or microsoft reader? Or is it another "Sony proprietary format" special

It's a Sony proprietary format lrf, or at least I don't know anyone else who uses it, but it also read txt, pdf and rtf files so it's not all bad. I use Book Designer to convert from other formats.

"...rather stunning (if ugly) e-book reader.." All I can say is that if this is ugly then the Kindle can only be described as hideous!

I imported one of these & can honestly say it is the best gadget I have bought in the 21st century. In a word; fantastic.

Yes the `paper` could be whiter and the `ink` blacker; yes it would be nice to have colour (for Manga, comics etc); yes it would be nicer with a slightly bigger screen; yes the page turns could be quicker (a second is just not quick enough for some people). All of these complaints I have heard on various blogs/site. Ultimately, however, it does exactly what any avid reader would want; i.e. display eBooks in a readable & convenient format.

Whilst I will probably stick to collecting `real` books for my top 2 or 3 favourite authors (I am a bit of a geek myself) - this is absolutely fantastic for the thousands of free eBooks you can get online (incidentally AFAIK this includes *ALL* the bundled books with the reader & so that part is not, IMHO, the greatest selling point).

For free eBooks see:
http://manybooks.net//
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
among many others (TOR books for example are currently giving away 24 titles).

Also I have found that Calibre is the best tool for both managing & converting your eBooks to sony's lrf format. Its free, frequently updated with fixes & new features and a million times better than the (typically & IMO) cr@ppy bit of Sony software bundled with the reader. See: http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/

Also, a warning for anyone wanting to view standard PDFs directly on this (or just about any) eReader: don't bother. Since standard PDFs scale to the screen size (i.e. do not allow re-pagination) they will, more often than not, become unreadable. You will be fine with PFFs specifically formatted for eReaders (from fictionwise for example) and will usually get decent results if you convert to lrf first (although you may lose some images if they are `locked` into the PDF).

Get one & enjoy!

It is shown as £199 now

Ah I've been following this for a while now, and have been wanting to get my hands on one. It'd bring me one step closer to being a minimalist, which is nice. Though I do love books, they have some setbacks.

One thing I do wonder is whether the Sony book store has all of the books in American English. When I'm buying eBooks, I'd like them to be in English English...

BREAKING NEWS: Goto www.mobileread.com for story re: latest firmware upgrade for PRS-505 (likely to be pre-installed in UK variant, PRS-505s(?)) which includes support for ePub, Digital Editions, and PDF Reflow. Hurrah!

£200 is still too rich for my blood. Waiting for them to hit the £100 barrier.