Sony book reader

Ars Technica has a review of the Sony PRS-505 electronic book reader. Very strange. $300. It can read books, and play audio (badly). No downloadable software. So if this isn't exactly what you need, then that's it. Move on.

The screen is grey scale. 8 greys. It has alot of dots - 800x600. The screen does not consume power when displaying - just when you turn pages. But, it takes 2 seconds to turn a page. If there's no backlight, then it's game over for me, however. What i really like to do is read in the dark. The batteries last a long time, unless you play audio. There's a memory stick - and, yes, it's Sony's proprietary format. It syncs to Windows computers only. I don't run Windows.

I've read tons of books on my 2002 vintage Palm OS Visor Platinum. It's 8 MB RAM holds tons of books. At one point, i had the entire Bible, and several other books on it. There are at least half a dozen free book readers (software) to pick from for it. One of the book readers was pretty slow turning pages. Not as slow as two seconds, just not very fast. Fortunately, other readers are quicker. The Visor Platinum has an LCD screen, which works fine in bright sunlight, and has a backlight for reading in the dark. If you aren't using the backlight, the batteries last for days. And, since the batteries are just AAA's, you can always bring spares, or stop in at 7/11.

OK, so my new Nokia 770's color screen is nicer. Even very tiny text is very sharp. However, the rechargable battery only lasts 4 or 5 hours. It handles text and PDF's and web pages. FBReader is totally awesome on the Nokia. It's better than the best of the Palm readers. For reading in the dark, i like to set the page to black, and the text to a dark red. Very nice. No screaming white light around the edges - just red text. The Nokia was $150 (on sale). The770 uses an MMC memory card. Can't get it at your local store, but it is an industry standard, available on the net.