Sony has updated its Reader app for Google Android today, which brings new functionality for ePub 3 and the ability to display multimedia content. You can download the new app from Google Play or the Good e-Reader App Store.
There is a few things you need to know about the new Sony Reader app, if you intend on reading ePub 3 ebooks, you will also need to download the Reader Extension software as well. The extension basically acts as a plugin that will allow you to read-along with auto page turn, enable audio and video playback, find interactive content support, and zoom with finger gestures. Obviously, if you have a number of kids books or other content reliant on the new ePub 3 standard, you will need this. You can download it from either Google Play or the Good e-Reader App Store.
The Sony Store right now does not have a dedicated enhanced ebook section to take advantage of these new features. Hopefully, the company is working on making these sort of titles easier to find for customers. As it stands, you can sideload in your books, since the reader can import anything on your SD Card to the device’s main memory.
Since Sony seems to be updating its suite of apps to support ePub 3, could this be a prelude for a new Sony e-Reader? The company in the last two years has only been releasing one new model a year and has since focused on producing a myriad of new tablets. The company has a trend of releasing new readers every August or September for the last four years.
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.
