[Asis-l] Extra ! Extra ! > Sony Announces Reader Daily Edition: 3G Wireless, Plus Free Library Content

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

 Hot Off The Press ! / Watch Out Kindle ...

 /Gerry

 During an event at the main branch of the New York Public Library
this morning, Sony unveiled the newest version of its eBook Reader,
the Daily Edition ... which will have built-in free wireless
capability via AT&T's 3G mobile broadband network.

The new Reader, to sell for $399, will be available by December, just
in time for the holidays, at SonyStyle stores and via sonystyle.com.
The Daily Edition will feature a 7-inch touchscreen, and a high
contrast ratio with 16 levels of grayscale; you can read in either
portrait or landscape orientation. It will have enough onboard memory
to hold over 1,000 standard ebooks and is also expandable via Memory
Stick / Duo and SD card slots.

[snip]

 Sony also announced its Library Finder app, developed in partnership
with Overdrive.com. Users of Sony's eBook Store will be able to easily
locate their local libraries online, and using their library cards,
download free ebook content. When the lending period is up, the
content simply expires.[snip]

Dr. Paul LeClerc, president and CEO of the NYPL, ... detailed Sony's
partnership with libraries to provide free digital contentto all
versions of the Sony Reader. Currently, he said, the library offers
over 40,000 downloadable titles and is in partnership with Google's
book-scanning initiative, with the goal of digitizing over 1 million
titles. "We believe it must be delivered free," he stressed.

Steven Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reader Business Division,
... emphasized the importance of access, content, and affordability
for ebook readers. He mentioned that Sony is moving from a proprietary
ebook format to ePub's format, which will streamline the publishing
process immensely.

 Links To Source / Photos / Press Release / Etc Available At

 [ http://preview.tinyurl.com/ljdedr  ]

 EnJOY!

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu

There Are No Answers, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed /
Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace