Sony Librie EBR-1000EP

The Sony LIBRIé EBR-1000EP is an ebook display device.

Features

The 1000EP possesses the following specifications.

* 6-inch diagonal low-powered display using E Ink's electronic paper technology produced by Philips
* 600 pixel by 800 pixel display resolution
* 170 dots per inch
* 300 grams (10.6 oz) with case and batteries (190 grams / 6.7 oz without)
* 126 millimeters (5 in) by 190 millimeters (7.5 in) by 13 millimeters (0.5 in)
* Motorola DragonBall central processing unit
* Sony Linux OS
* 10MB storage
* Memory Stick slot (Memory Stick Pro compatible)
* USB 2.0 port
* Headphones jack
* Monaural speaker
* 4 x AAA batteries
* 5.2 V external power supply

The unit was designed to be about the same weight as the average book on the Japanese market. The E Ink technology is a monochrome (4 level greyscale) electrophoretic display device which changes reflectivity by moving microscopic black and white particles held within spherical microcapsules.

There is a tiny qwerty keyboard at the bottom of the display, permitting a limited form of marginalia, as well as a small roller wheel. Content will be available on a subscription basis only, and the price of the unit is comparable to that of some PDAs. Battery life is also comparable to that of many PDAs because while the electronic ink display does not require any power once it is set to show a specific page, the Motorola Dragonball CPU requires constant power, and read and write operations between the storage and the memory stick also require power.

The LIBRIé displays content in the Broad Band eBook (BBeB) format. The primary BBeB content provider is Publishing Link, a joint venture between Sony and a number of large Japanese publishers and printers. Using the digital rights management functions of BBeB and the LIBRIé, content from Publishing Link is set to expire and be unreadable after 60 days.

The LIBRIé is available new from Sony or from retailers (online globally, or locally in Japan) as a Japanese-language version, and through the used marketplace.

Localization

There have been quite a few successful attempts to convert Librié's interface into English language. Using numerous files available on the Internet and a USB cable, which comes with the device, a computer-savvy person can perform such a conversion in a matter of minutes. Moreover, a variety of text and graphics file formats can be converted and uploaded into a LIBRIé (unlike purchased e-books, such contents would not expire), therefore making it a usable device for non-Japanese users around the world.

ee also

* Sony announced the Sony Reader PRS-500 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5, 2006. This is a LIBRIé for the U.S. market. It is somewhat smaller (no keyboard) and features a dual Memory Stick PRO Duo/SD slot to augment the "under 100MB" memory built in.
*Dedicated e-book devices - other similar devices

External links

* [http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/LIBRIE/ Sony LIBRIé home page] , in Japanese
* [http://developer.berlios.de/projects/librietrans/ LIBRIé Firmware Translation Project]
* [http://www.sven.de/librie/Main/HomePage A wiki dedicated to the LIBRIé]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/librie/ Yahoo! LIBRIé group]