Portable Readers

One idea from the Star Trek universe I always found quite useful were the portable readers they carried around. They could download duty rosters, reports, or pleasure reading into these tablets and take the devices with them wherever they went. Over the last five years, manufacturers have started to make our first real-world models of these devices with varying amounts of success.

 

Sony has a beautiful new portable reader available, the PRS-500. I think this is a fabulous idea, as portable readers would allow me to take many of my favorite or new novels with me when I travel in one small, lightweight, and convenient location, rather than, as I did at Christmastime, stuffing multiple different sized and weighted books into my carry-on.

 

In addition, Sony has improved aspects in this portable reader that other PRSes have not, as yet; this PRS will display multiple PRS formats (BBeB Book, PDF, RTF, TXT, DOC), pictures (JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF), and music files (AAC7, MP3). Also, it has an easily expandable memory system (using either the Memory Stick or SD memory cards).

 

This PRS device allows you to scale the text bigger and smaller-- no need for a magnifying glass or reading glasses. It also has limited scan functions for flipping around in the book, in case you forget where you were or want to refer to something specific but don't remember exactly where it was.

 

While these are great steps forward for the PRS idea in general, there are a few reasons that keep me from investing in this (or another) portable reading device.

 

Compatibility

Manufacturers of these devices are not aggressive in making sure that they are compatible with the majority of eBook formats. While this Sony design is better than most I've seen, a quick look at some of the largest eBook retailers showed me that I still could not download and read (virtually) any eBook out there. Nothing on the Sony technical page indicates I could install eReader, for example, or view any document in the .PRB or .PRS formats, all of which are strong competitors in the marketplace.

 

Availability

On each of the eBook sites I ventured to, I did a quick search for some of my favorite authors. I was unable to find all but the most recent books of theirs, and many authors were not available at all. Some authors are only found at specific eBook sites, which forces you to get their reader software or PRS in order to view eBooks for them. Others are not available at all. And, out of the hundreds and thousands of books available at a library, book store, or online, those found in eBook formats are relatively few. For example, for one of my all-time favorite authors, Stephen R. Donaldson, I was only able to find his most recent novel on any of the eBook sites I searched through; what about his other award-winning novels?

 

Affordability

This is a two-fold complaint; first, if the products are going to primarily be book readers, then spending $350 for the Sony PRS-500 seems a bit steep. Especially when you consider that it cannot be used to read many other popular formats and that, in order to save or "convert" my library to electronic copies, I have to spend more money on memory sticks.

 

Secondly, while many eBook titles are slightly cheaper than their paper counterparts, the difference is often negligible. If I do not have to pay for the paper, the shipping and handling, or the physical store location, the costs for these versions of the books should be significantly cheaper than the actual book-- not slightly cheaper. I saw a few popular novels selling for $12-15 on eBook sites; that is nearly the same cost as the hardback copies of the novels, let alone the softback!

 

Adaptability

Now, since these devices tend to be a good size for these types of things, I would think $350 was a decent price if I could play my UMD movies on them (the screen on the PRS-500 is about twice the size of that found on the PSP). If I could use a stylus and write my own notes or highlight passages of interest for downloading to my PC for research papers, quotes, and other uses, it sure would be convenient. What about having wireless capabilities, so I could browse the Internet to buy, download, and view or listen to new books, movies, and music? Or the ability to hook into online, streaming radio stations and play music? How about a clock, calendar, and some simple games? What about a "share" function, so I can share my favorite novels with friends and try to get them hooked on a great work or author, so they will buy stuff too ("shares" would have a timed function, like 48 hours or so, in which the recipient could experience the product before needing to purchase a license to keep it)? What about a toned-down version of Word for simple document creation? What about a module for speed-reading courses-- an electronic device might be a very good way to allow someone to practice these techniques and have the device "stream" the content on the page in a way to improve a reader's speed and accuracy. What about a simple speech recognition mode and a microphone? How about an auditory text reader for blind users?

 

I realize that, at this point, I am strongly moving the purpose of this device away from its intended use. However, the size of the device and the incredibly nice LCD screens we have now make these ideas strong candidates for a device of this sort. When I first got my PSP as a gift, I wondered if I could install and use eBooks on it-- the screen is a bit small, but I figured the software would allow me to scale the text to make it better, easier to read. It is only a matter of time before something like the PSP and its multitude of functionality is merged with a portable reading device.

 

I see the Portable Reader System as a viable concept. However, manufacturers have not reached a cost point or a functionality point at which I think the current price and feature set is worthwhile. I have outlined strong ideas for steps they could take to make the current price seem like a bargain. My hope is that, over the next few years, these devices will continue to evolve into the multipurpose, useful tools they can and should be.