NEW YORK (AP) — Sony Corp. unveiled a new e-book reader Thursday
with a built-in light and a touch-sensitive display, features that set
it apart from Amazon.com Inc.'s competing Kindle reader.
The
PRS-700 is Sony's third model of the Reader, and will go on sale at the
end of the month for about $400. It represents further experimentation
on the part of manufacturers trying to find the right formula to make
e-book readers more than a niche product. Neither Sony nor Amazon have
revealed sales figures for their readers.
Like the earlier models
and the Kindle, the PRS-700 has a six-inch screen of "electronic ink,"
which presents dark gray text on a light gray background. Unlike the
liquid-crystal displays of laptops and cell-phones, e-ink displays
cannot be lit from behind, but the PRS-700 has light-emitting diodes
that can be turned on to illuminate the screen from the sides.
The
10-ounce device also comes with a stylus, which can be used to
highlight text or make handwritten notes. It can hold 350 books in its
internal memory, and more in a memory card.
The PRS-700 does not
have an equivalent of the Kindle's signature feature: wireless access
to Amazon's e-book store for near-instant book downloads. Instead,
books are loaded on to the device by connecting it to a PC.
Steve
Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division, said the
company aims to have a wireless version, but it would have to work with
multiple book vendors.
While the Kindle downloads books only from
Amazon's store, Sony is differentiating itself by de-emphasizing its
own store and opening up its Readers to e-books from other vendors.
From : http://ap.google.com
