[A2k] NYT: Trying Again to Make Books Obsolete

[Manon Ress]

State of the Art
Trying Again to Make Books Obsolete

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By DAVID POGUE
Published: October 12, 2006

=93The market for downloadable books will grow by 400 percent in each
of the next two years, to over $25 billion by 2008,=94 predicted the
keynote speaker at the 2001 Women=92s National Book Association
meeting. =93Within a few years after the end of this decade, e-books
will be the preponderant delivery format for book content.=94

The Sony Reader uses a new technology that renders text on a screen
with more crispness. Its battery is good for 7,500 =93page turns=94 and
the size of the text is adjustable.

Whoops.

The great e-book fantasy burst shortly after that speech, along with
the rest of the dot-com bubble. In 2003, Barnes & Noble shut its e-
book store, Palm sold its e-book business to a Web site and most
people left the whole idea for dead.

Not everybody, however. Some die-hards at Sony still believe that,
properly designed, the e-book has a future. Their solution is the
Sony Reader, a small, sleek, portable screen that will be introduced
this month in some malls, at Borders bookstores and at sonystyle.com
for $350.

E-books may have flopped the first time around, but you can=92t deny
that they offer some intriguing advantages. You can add dozens of
them to your luggage without adding any more weight or bulk. You can
adjust the type size. You can search the whole book in seconds, or
insert an infinite number of bookmarks. No trees are destroyed to
make e-books. And you can read during lunch without having to prop
open your novel with a dangerously full can of soda.

If you=92re sold on the idea, then you=92ll find a lot to like in the
Sony Reader =97 and a few things to dislike.

It=92s a handsome half-inch-thick nine-ounce slab, a bit smaller than 5
inches by 7 inches, =93bound=94 in a protective leatherette cover. You
can turn pages individually, or jump ahead 10 percent of the book at
a time. A =93mark=94 button produces a visual dog-ear on the page corner.

What distinguishes Sony=92s effort from all the failed e-book readers
of years gone by, however, is the screen.

The Reader employs a remarkable new display technology from a company
called E Ink. Sandwiched between layers of plastic film are millions
of transparent, nearly microscopic liquid-filled spheres. White and
black particles float inside them, as though inside the world=92s
tiniest snow globes. Depending on how the electrical charge is
applied to the plastic film, either the black or white particles rise
to the top of the little spheres, forming crisp patterns of black and
white.

The result looks like ink on light gray paper. The =93ink=94 is so close
to the surface of the screen, it looks as if it=92s been printed there.
The reading experience is pleasant, natural and nothing like reading
a computer screen.

There=92s no backlight, however; you can read only by ambient light.
Sony would probably argue that this trait makes the Reader even more
like a traditional book, but it also means that you can=92t read in bed
with the lights off, as you can with a laptop or palmtop.

On the other hand, once those microspheres have formed the image of a
page, they stay put without consuming any power. Amazingly enough,
that means that you don=92t have to turn the Reader off, ever. When
you=92re done for the night, just lay it on your bedside table; the
current page remains on the screen without draining any battery
power. (According to Sony, one prototype Reader in Japan has been
displaying the same page for three years on a single charge.) Every
instinct in your body will scream against leaving your gadget turned
on all the time, but you=92ll get over it.

The only time the Reader uses electricity, in fact, is when you
actually turn a page. One charge is good for 7,500 page turns. That=92s
enough power to get you through =93The Da Vinci Code=94 16 times
(electrical power, anyway). You can recharge the battery either from
its power cord or from a computer=92s U.S.B. jack.

The Reader can also display digital photos =97 they look surprisingly
good, considering they=92re being depicted using only four shades of
gray =97 and play music files (noncopy-protected MP3 or AAC format)
through headphones. With a good deal of preparation, you could even
read along as the same audio book plays.

There are two ways to load up the Reader. You can copy your texts,
photos and music to a memory card (Memory Stick or SD), which goes
into a slot on the left side. That=92s also how you can expand the
Reader=92s built-in storage (64 megabytes, enough for 80 books).

The other option is to import files into a somewhat buggy Windows
program called Sony Connect. It=92s the home base for the Reader in
much the way iTunes is the home base for the iPod, although Sony
Connect requires you to drag files manually; it doesn=92t offer
automatic synchronizing with the Reader.

This software is also the gateway to the Reader=92s online bookstore.
The catalog includes more than 10,000 books from a variety of
publishers. Some, like =93Freakonomics,=94 are priced like hardcover
editions ($16); others, like =93The Devil Wears Prada,=94 are priced like
the paperbacks ($8). If you buy a Reader before the end of the year,
Sony will include a coupon for $50 worth of books.

************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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