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By David Rothman

Sony Reader -- photo by Gerry ManacsaSony Reader: Mammal or Dinosaur? is the intriguing headline over a mixed review from Gerry Manacsa, senior designer, at Wowio, the ad-supported e-book provider.

Like me, Gerry likes the Reader‘s small size, light weight and the nice, leathery cover. But he considers the joystick at the bottom right to be “uncomfortably sharp-edged.” The original Rocket eBook and the Gemstar successors that followed might still be the usability champs after all these years. A long, Rocket eBook-style doodad to turn the page on the Sony Reader would help, as I see it—something big along the left side.

“Absolutely requires good light”

About the E Ink display Gerry says that the view “feels more comfortable” than on an LCD, but that the Reader “absolutely requires good light.” Even more than with a p-book, as I see it, that’s a requirement for comfortable reading with the Reader—and the stronger the light, the better. With just monochrome, the current Reader and other E Ink machines of the current generation will indeed seem like dinos in the next few years. Color will be all the better for display of ads, which hopefully will be restrained.

Meanwhile I’m looking forward to Gerry’s future thoughts on the Reader, especially on its display of Wowio books–complete with illustrations. I myself hope Wowio will release Reader-optimized versions of books with larger and ideally bolder type than at present.

In other news…

Later today or tomorrow, the TeleBlog will run tips from Alan Wallcraft and me on button customization for FBReader, but meanwhile here are other items of interest:

–Yes, the Mobipocket server is still down, and I have yet to get a reply from the company. My faxes failed to go through, but I suspect that at least one email did. E-reader companies, especially those that want readers to trust its DRM, need to be responsive. An understandably frustrated Alex over at MobileRead has run a Mobi item with an “Eliminate DRM” image from Defectivebydesign. See earlier TeleBlog coverage of Mobi’s problem if you haven’t already. Many books apparently won’t be available from independent stores until Mobi gets back on line—which supposedly will happen later today or tomorrow. Compared to Mobi, Skype seems to have been more communicative about its own woes.

–The $199 Asus laptop is still on track to ship next month, according to Digitimes and Ars Technica.

–Tech Dirt is running an item headlined Is It A DMCA Violation To Tell People To Delete Some Files From Their Hard Drive? It does not mention e-books but the same concepts apply, alas, here in the U.S.—the reason the TeleBlog does not point to the sites of conversion programs that can take a DRMed Microsoft file and blessedly rid it of “protection” so you can do backups. The DMCA remains a threat even to well-meaning, law-abiding e-bookers who simply want to make backups or enjoy their purchases on a variety of machines. Circumvention for private use should be legal, especially since it’s no big deal to scan paper books. The DRM would at least serve as a strong indication of the content-provider’s intentions–but that’s all. Best solution is either social DRM or, better, no “protection.”

Related: Earlier TeleBlog item on ETI’s plans for a E Ink machine. People involved with ETI worked on the Gemstar machines,

 
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