This review of the Sony LIBRIé e-Book reader sounds typical of what I’ve heard — thumbs up the new E Ink screen, interface could be improved but isn’t bad, and as usual the content side of the Sony house is willing to make the whole package next-to-useless by throwing enough DRM on the device to insure no one will want it. I can see the advertisements now:
Read for hundreds of hours without changing batteries — just like paperbacks!
Great resolution — just like paperbacks!
Magically disappears after 60 days — just like paperbacks!
Didn’t they learn anything from minidisc?
Of course, this time their system is Linux-based, and Sony is making at least some of their software available online, so people might be able to write their own content for what sounds like decent and certainly interesting hardware technology. Wonder if that’ll happen fast enough for the LIBRIé to get its legs before Phillips & others make a version that will actually play eBooks already out there?