While Sony’s been backing off from PDAs in the States, it’s actually moving ahead with ultra-portable computers, some of which could be great e-book machines. They come with sharp screens–and without the horrendous DRM hassles that Sony is imposing on the Librie e-book reader being tested in Japan. No E Ink, but perhaps that’ll eventually be available. Check out Sony U-70 review-is that a PC in your pocket? in the jkOnTheRun blog. A few details there:
The Sony comes in two flavors, the U-50 & U-70. There are three differences between the two models which are otherwise identical. The U-50 comes with a Celeron 900 MHZ processor, 256 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Home Edition. The more powerful U-70 comes with a Pentium M processor running at 1 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Pro Edition. Of the three differences noted above the amount of RAM is probably the most significant, as anyone running Windows will certainly attest to. The different processors might exhibit different battery consumption too, but I don’t have two devices to compare.
Hmm. You don’t suppose that Sony could quietly do a more powerful Librie and call it a “computer” rather than an “e-book reader”–a term that so often seems to mean: “Just think, suckers: You get Draconian DRM at no extra charge!”
