Sony Reader video review at CNET.com

[diabloNL]

What does he mean with "There is a little bit of residu"?

Does that mean that there a are going to be black orphan pixels all over the screen?

Anyway enjoy the video!

CLICK HERE

[TadW]

Ah so it got an SD card slot as well? Somehow I always thought they'd only support the memory stick.

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by TadW

Ah so it got an SD card slot as well? Somehow I always thought they'd only support the memory stick.

Check out this comparison. SD card is indeed supported.

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by TadW

Ah so it got an SD card slot as well? Somehow I always thought they'd only support the memory stick.

It is a big step for them but I think there finally starting to learn from their mistakes.

[ath]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

What does he mean with "There is a little bit of residu"?

Is that not just a reference to the ghosting?

[diabloNL]

Originally Posted by ath

Is that not just a reference to the ghosting?

I hope so because I wouldn't like to see pixels that stay behind after a flash.

[NatCh]

It must be a reference to the ghosting, there's never been any indication that e-ink had that kind of failing. Even the Librie' didn't leave random pixels the wrong state, and these displays are a generation newer....

I'm increasingly satified that Sony has learned to play better with others; the SD card support, the TXT/RTF/PDF suport, mp3 & AAC file support ... it's pretty apparent that they're just not trying to lock this rascal down like they did the Librie'.

A very good thing that is for us.

[branko]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

It is a big step for them but I think there finally starting to learn from their mistakes.

I am going to wait a decade or two before I draw that conclusion. No more Sony for me for a while. I don't often do boycotts, mostly because I simply forget whom I was supposed to boycott in the first place, but whenever I see those four letters SONY nowadays I read ROOTKIT instead.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by branko

...whenever I see those four letters SONY nowadays I read ROOTKIT instead.

Can't fault you for that, branko -- I used to hold a similar view. On the other hand, they've really been burned for the root-kit thing (as they should have been), so I think they've learned that lesson, at least -- I think every government office that has any wit at all has pretty well banned all Sony hardware and software for that episode.

Honestly, though, don't you think that the SD support (not to mention TXT, RTF, PDF, mp3, AAC, etc.) could be a sign that they might be capable of learning from past mistakes?

I'm not asking you to change your position, mind you. I'm just if you can consider that they might be showing signs of learning.

Personally, I'm increasingly satisfied that they have, indeed, learned from their errors, possibly more than we appreciate (they are a big company, after all, learning would necessarily be a slow process )

Whether you trust them or not is rightfully your decision, I'm just exploring the "could they change" question.

[branko]

Originally Posted by NatCh

they've really been burned for the root-kit thing

They have? Must have missed that. How long will they have to stay in prison? (I am assuming you are talking incarceration. That is what I would get if I'd installed a rootkit on thousands of computers. Anything else I can hardly call "burned".)

Originally Posted by NatCh

I'm not asking you to change your position, mind you. I'm just if you can consider that they might be showing signs of learning.

Sure. As I said, in a decade or two.

They showed signs of learning before, you know.

[ath]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Honestly, though, don't you think that the SD support (not to mention TXT, RTF, PDF, mp3, AAC, etc.) could be a sign that they might be capable of learning from past mistakes?

SD support includes SD CPRM, doesn't it? there could easily be DRM pitfalls in support of SD card: SD CPRM may even be the reason for including SD support. Until a device has been tested critically and carefully, there's no way of knowing what the presence of a SD reader really means to the user.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by branko

They have? Must have missed that. How long will they have to stay in prison? (I am assuming you are talking incarceration. That is what I would get if I'd installed a rootkit on thousands of computers. Anything else I can hardly call "burned".)

They probably got out of that because it was buried in their license agreement somewhere. You'd avoid prison too if you had documentation that the users of those PC's agreed (kinda-sorta) to being rootkitted. What I meant was that they lost a lot of customers over the episode. I'm not saying they shouldn't feel some enduring pain for that, nor even that they've necessarily felt enough, only that they are feeling some, and that pain is strong motivator.

Originally Posted by branko

Sure. As I said, in a decade or two.

They showed signs of learning before, you know.

Fair enough, it's good to keep an open mind about such things.

Originally Posted by ath

SD support includes SD CPRM, doesn't it? there could easily be DRM pitfalls in support of SD card: SD CPRM may even be the reason for including SD support. Until a device has been tested critically and carefully, there's no way of knowing what the presence of a SD reader really means to the user.

It includes the hardware support, presumably, but the software wouldn't necessarily be implemented. If it were, I believe they'd be the first commercial device to do so -- I don't know of another, at least.

As I see it, the most "practical terms" applicaion of the SD slot is to allow you to not use Memory Sticks for your expandable memory.

In any case, they're selling "their" content online, whatever DRM they put on their content isn't likely to require any memory card to function.

In any case, I think SD CPRM is potentially the fairest of the DRM options -- you could create an e-text that could be lent, sold, bought and read anywhere on any plaform. Basically, you could do anything with it that you can do with a p-book, but still they could prevent you from copying it other than page by page with a scanner. Gee, doesn't that describe what most of us have been saying we want DRM to not interfere with?

I'm not saying SD CPRM couldn't be done badly, or even that it wouldn't be done badly -- I'm sure it could and would. But any driver can act like a fool and kill folks, that doesn't make cars inherently bad, does it?

Just some thoughts. (my brother would quip here: "just barely" )

[NatCh]

Here's some more info on the MS & SD card security:

I don't know how well known this is (I didn't know it, but neither had I looked ) -- the Sony Memory Stick Pro supports card based security similar to the SD card (not the same security, but rather the same general concept). Sony uses something called MagicGate according to this article.

Note that the Sony Reader uses Memory Stick and SD cards, not Memory Stick Pro and SD cards (the security isn't available in the non-Pro MS). This indicates that Sony hasn't implimented the the card based security for their own memory type, so I think we can safely conclude that they didn't implement it for the SD cards either -- why do somebody else's if you're not going to do your own?



As an aside, if I'm interpreting this correctly, Sony has actually "opened" the MagicGate standard for use by others.

[diabloNL]

What I would like to now is why they implemented the MS instead of their MS Pro Duo. Could it be they have a huge stock somewhere that they need to get rid of? :P

[Laurens]

Originally Posted by diabloNL

What I would like to now is why they implemented the MS instead of their MS Pro Duo. Could it be they have a huge stock somewhere that they need to get rid of? :P

Sony is spreading the different MS types across their devices to force you to keep buying new sticks. The new k790i phone uses the MS "micro" format, so the (rather expensive) 1Gb Pro Duo that I'm using for my k750i is useless if I wish to upgrade. Anyway, the Reader supports SD, so that's what I'll be going for. A 1Gb SD card can be had for 25 euro or less nowadays.