Sony has officially launched their new PRS-T2 e-Reader today and marks the first major release of 2012. The new e-reader is currently being sold online on Sony’s website and other major retail partners.
The new Sony PRS-T2 features a six inch pearl display with IR touchscreen technology. The resolution is 600×800 with 16 levels of gray scale and 1.3 GB of internal memory. If this is not enough to hold your books, you can expand it up to 32 GB via the Micro SD Card. There is 6 built in dictionaries to look up words or translate a specific word or phrase into English, French or Spanish.
This new model comes with a stylus for you to interact with the device, allowing you to easily highlight or take notes within a book. Speaking of eBooks, you can borrow them directly from Overdrive or purchase them from the Sony online website. If you decide to buy a book from Sony via your internet browser, it will automatically be pushed to your reader, making the whole process a bit easier.
When you purchase the new Sony PRS-T2 in Black, White or Red you get a free Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone eBook. Finally, there is Evernote integration, so you can share your favorite passages and word with the service and Facebook.
We intend on reviewing this new model today, so stay tuned for our hands on review! Do you intend on buying this? Do you think its a step up from the original T1?
[showhide type=’pressrelease’] Sony’s New eReader Provides Book Lovers with More Freedom to Read Anytime and Anywhere
Sony introduced today Reader™ (PRS-T2), a light and thin 6″ eReader with an enhanced, intuitive touch screen optimized for long-term reading and the most natural, immersive reading experience. Available in three colors – white, red or matte black – Reader offers new social features and a simplified and intuitively designed home screen.
The most natural, intuitive eReading experience
The glare-free, E-Ink® Pearl V220 touch screen has been enhanced for optimal long-term reading. It now features intuitive touch, more paper-like page turns, improved continuous page turns and a smoother zoom in and out. The new device features an improved default book layout and makes it easier to organize and find books. The device has two English language and four translation dictionaries built-in and provides up to two months battery life(with wireless off) and 2GB of storage. Readers can swipe a finger to turn a page, zoom in and out by pinching fingers together or apart or write notes on the page or highlight text with a finger or the supplied stylus. Users can also choose from eight font sizes and seven font styles.
Share content wherever you are
The device includes new Facebook® and Evernote® features. Consumers now have the ability to post a short passage from books purchased from Reader™ Store to Facebook directly from the device along with the book cover, author and title.
For the first time, Reader is combining features from Evernote to allow users to save their favorite web content to enjoy any time. Evernote’s Web Clipper allows saving content with a click, and pages saved with Evernote Clearly are optimized for Reader’s crisp E-Ink display. Favorite passages can also be annotated on Reader and saved back to Evernote for viewing later on any smartphone, tablet or PC.
Books at your fingertips from Reader Store and Public Library System
With built-in Wi-Fi®, Reader PRS-T2 offers consumers more access to books anytime and anywhere. Sony continues to offer its popular and critically-acclaimed public library lending feature by offering patrons with a valid library card the ability to easily and conveniently borrow free e-books wirelessly from over 15,000 public libraries in the US via an intuitive, simple-to-use dedicated icon on the device.
Beyond borrowing free books from public libraries, book lovers can also continue to access and download thousands of e-books, newspapers and magazines from Reader™ Store directly to the device using a Wi-Fi connection. Reader Store now offers a web-based Store, giving consumers more freedom to read the content they love, anytime and anywhere. Reader Store accounts are now accessible from most web browsers, and sign-in and purchase can be done without having to install any software to a computer. The web store officially supports the latest browsers on Windows® and Mac® operating systems, including Internet Explorer®, Safari®, Chrome™ and Firefox®. Any book purchased via web browser will be waiting in the user’s Reader library, ready to be read.
As part of Sony’s collaboration with Pottermore and the Pottermore Shop (the exclusive home of the Harry Potter eBooks), Sony will offer a voucher to redeem against the first eBook in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, for free. The voucher can be redeemed at the Pottermore Shop following purchase of the matte black Reader PRS-T2.
Reader PRS-T2 is available for order now for about $129 at Sony Stores and online at http://store.sony.com and other authorized retailers nationwide. Accessories for Reader include a Cover and a Cover with light, for about $35 and $50 respectively.[/showhide]
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
