X

Finally, a good electronic book

Rafe Needleman Former Editor at Large
Rafe Needleman reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business.
Rafe Needleman

At D4, Sony CEO Howard Stringer showed off the new Reader, an electronic book that looks like something a real person would actually want. The Reader is very thin, lighter than a real book, and employs a backlight-free high-contrast display technology that makes text easier to read than on any other lightweight device I've seen. I'd line up to buy one if it ships for less than the $300 cost that Stringer mentioned in his interview.

The issue with e-books, of course, is content. Sony is still working out the details of selling books. (Hopefully the electronic versions will cost less than physical ones.) The device will also support PDF files. Personally, I hope it has a good RSS reader so I can use it to catch up on my blog reading during my daily streetcar commute.

See previous coverage on News.com.