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Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

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Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#61

Post by SixSigma »

mdip wrote: post #29

As I've been reading the coverage of this product throughout the day, the price seems to be the biggest drawback everyone focuses on, and I agree that $1100 is overpriced for what this product is offering. I got the sense from several articles that $1100 would be way overpriced for any e-reader. Because of the huge number of PDF files in larger paper sizes that I have, I'd happily pay $1500 for this if in addition to…

What's your particular Sony beef? I've found their products rock solid, on the whole. Rootkit and Sony Network otoh are the negatives I can think of. I'm typing this on the Xperia Z, I've got a S1 tablet, an Prs -101 e-reader, two mp3 players - and I'd recommend every single one.

My video edit suite was all Sony gear (camera, firmware deck, amp & speakers), never a problem - not so with the Sanyo, Panasonic or Philips stuff I've seen.

$1100 is a crazy price for this, then again I'd probably fall for it once in hand.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#62

Post by dfc »

anigbrowl wrote: post #38
mdip wrote: post #29

As I've been reading the coverage of this product throughout the day, the price seems to be the biggest drawback everyone focuses on, and I agree that $1100 is overpriced for what this product is offering. I got the sense from several articles that $1100 would be way overpriced for any e-reader. Because of the huge number of PDF files in larger paper sizes that I have, I'd happily pay $1500 for this if in addition to…

It's a premium price that's partly for early adopters to show off, but when you can read and write Japanese on it (as shown in the product video) the deal is basically made. Lawyers will flock to this in droves, not least because it will be a deductible business expense. The color will be irrelevant to them and the Sony brand will actually be an asset, because they're less concerned about Sony's cool factor than the…

> when you can read and write Japanese on it the deal is basically made

Why is this the deal maker? I do not read/write japanese so maybe I am missing something obvious.[^1] Is writing/reading japanese with pen/pencil and paper difficult? Is there something that differentiates Japanese reading/writing from Korean? Have there been other tablets that worked with western scripts but not Japanese?

[^1]: I am assuming we are not talking about handwriting recognition.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#64

Post by lugg »

SixSigma wrote: post #61
mdip wrote: post #29

As I've been reading the coverage of this product throughout the day, the price seems to be the biggest drawback everyone focuses on, and I agree that $1100 is overpriced for what this product is offering. I got the sense from several articles that $1100 would be way overpriced for any e-reader. Because of the huge number of PDF files in larger paper sizes that I have, I'd happily pay $1500 for this if in addition to…

What's your particular Sony beef? I've found their products rock solid, on the whole. Rootkit and Sony Network otoh are the negatives I can think of. I'm typing this on the Xperia Z, I've got a S1 tablet, an Prs -101 e-reader, two mp3 players - and I'd recommend every single one. My video edit suite was all Sony gear (camera, firmware deck, amp & speakers), never a problem - not so with the Sanyo, Panasonic or Philip…

Careful opinions follow,

Something to do with suing users who use their owned hardware in a way Sony disagrees with.

Suck fony and all that. Honestly since the geohots case I've pretty much laughed and ridiculed sales people in stores who reccomend Sony products. None of them get it and they all think I'm a little bit crazy but sometimes you just have to stand up for what you believe in. Openness and being able to mod or hack my hardware shouldn't come with the chance of being sued. Its absurd and detrimental to society at large that they can get away with it.

Won't be buying. The over pricing I can deal with. Sony. Not so much.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#65

Post by sho_hn »

dfc wrote: post #62
anigbrowl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a premium price that's partly for early adopters to show off, but when you can read and write Japanese on it (as shown in the product video) the deal is basically made. Lawyers will flock to this in droves, not least because it will be a deductible business expense. The color will be irrelevant to them and the Sony brand will actually be an asset, because they're less concerned about Sony's cool factor than the…

> when you can read and write Japanese on it the deal is basically made Why is this the deal maker? I do not read/write japanese so maybe I am missing something obvious.[^1] Is writing/reading japanese with pen/pencil and paper difficult? Is there something that differentiates Japanese reading/writing from Korean? Have there been other tablets that worked with western scripts but not Japanese? [^1]: I am assuming we…

I have no idea what the GP meant, but fwiw: Korean is written using an alphabet not entirely unlike Latin (for the purpose of this discussion), except that when written, several letters are layed out together in syllabic blocks.

Those blocks appear superficially similar to the characters used to write Chinese languages and much of Japanese. However these are logograms, that is each character represents a whole word (simplfying again - in truth many of these characters can be broken apart into components, but they're not assembled from phonograms like Latin or Korean characters; further, Japanese writing also uses a set of phonograms in addition to and together with the logograms).

Ultimately this means the Korean blocks are much more regular, since they're all composed from the same small repertoire of individual characters, with not even all that much complexity to kerning/ligature-like behavior, though font systems usually work with precomposed blocks instead of doing on the fly character composition anyway. Their shape complexity/stroke density is also lower. And handwriting recognition is massively simpler for all of those reasons.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#67

Post by CountingCode »

guidopallemans wrote: post #22
scarmig wrote: post #19

Attach it to a keyboard. Screen is big enough to code at the beach. Isn't what I wanted Mirasol to be, but looks like a damn fine refinement of e-ink.

sand in the keyboard though...

Silicone keyboard covers.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#68

Post by CountingCode »

rectangletangle wrote: post #49
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #36

It does not matter how much it costs now. Simple facts that it is possible and technology to produce it exists are important. Within a few years economy of scale and technology optimizations will bring flexible e-ink at affordable price.

This, technology always starts out expensive and impractical. Through mass production and refinement, it becomes practical and useful. Now that it's confirmed possible and somewhat practical, more funding and research is likely to be directed toward it.

It's funny, almost every argument against this e-reader I've read here today I also read when sony released it's first e-reader, well in advance of the kindle. I bought it anyway and had no regrets.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#69

Post by mikeash »

Crito wrote: post #42
anigbrowl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a premium price that's partly for early adopters to show off, but when you can read and write Japanese on it (as shown in the product video) the deal is basically made. Lawyers will flock to this in droves, not least because it will be a deductible business expense. The color will be irrelevant to them and the Sony brand will actually be an asset, because they're less concerned about Sony's cool factor than the…

Is flexibility a particularly useful feature for lawyers? I've always kind of thought that flexibility was one of the shortcomings of paper in most situations involving writing, hence clipboards.

Flexibility is a feature. What requires clipboards is a lack of strength. Flexibility is what allows paper to bend and not break when you overcome its strength by flapping it around.

Flexibility ought to allow for lighter devices, as they won't need to be built as strongly to avoid breaking.

Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen

#70

Post by dfc »

dfc wrote: post #62
anigbrowl wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a premium price that's partly for early adopters to show off, but when you can read and write Japanese on it (as shown in the product video) the deal is basically made. Lawyers will flock to this in droves, not least because it will be a deductible business expense. The color will be irrelevant to them and the Sony brand will actually be an asset, because they're less concerned about Sony's cool factor than the…

> when you can read and write Japanese on it the deal is basically made Why is this the deal maker? I do not read/write japanese so maybe I am missing something obvious.[^1] Is writing/reading japanese with pen/pencil and paper difficult? Is there something that differentiates Japanese reading/writing from Korean? Have there been other tablets that worked with western scripts but not Japanese? [^1]: I am assuming we…

Downvoted for asking a legitimate question. Who does that? I could care less about the karma but in light of the pending comments change this is very troublesome.
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