Curling Up With An eBook?

Engadget reports:

Well, it's not really any huge surprise that Sony's Reader (PRS-500) has a price and has shown up on Sony's SonyStyle store site, now is it? We mean, it was indeed expected any time now for spring 2006 launch between $300 and $400 US, so if you've got the $350 cash in hand that they want for one of these, head on over friends, and get some serious book wormin' done up.

Very exciting to a PhD student who is always reading articles for school and always carring dealing with a ton of papers. How cool would it be to be able to carry them around in a small format like this? I'll be curious to see how readable they'd be in this size and how bad Sony's software is for managing digital content. (Sony has been horrible with this in the past with their music players.)

Some have speculated that this could be the iPod for digital books.

It also looks like Sony's not the only company entering into this market. James Kendrick reports:

The interesting ebook reader Iliad from Philips I mentioned a while back should hit retail stores in April. The Iliad has an XGA screen (1024x768) and utilizes a stylus for writing notes on the screen. The device can handle CF and SD cards and can read material in PDF XHTML, TXT, and MP3 formats.

Some of the coolest things about both of these is that they can store thousands of pages of text and run for weeks between charges. Getting either one of these and an iPod may help turn my commutes on the DC subway into a real joy.

Can't wait to see these devices enter into the marketplace. They both look like they have the potential to be great and are only a glimpse of things to come...