This gadget has me so intrigued! I love to read but the only chance I get is when I’m travelling or on holiday. The problem is I never know which books to take with me. I usually like to take a few, but they take up too much space in my luggage. Also I never know what type of book to take. I love Robert Ludlum, but sometimes I like to struggle with an Umberto Eco novel, or David Beckham’s classic, “Both Feet on the Ground”. Well with the Sony Reader you can take an entire catalogue of your favourite authors and not worry about the weight or luggage space.

At 7 x 5 x 0.5 inches, it’s about the same size a large paperback, but the Reader has 64 MB of internal memory, which is roughly equivalent to 100 novels, but there’s a slot for an external flash disk, should you need more storage space.

The screen comes in 800 x 600 SVGA resolution and can display all the popular text formats, including Adobe PDF. You can even display jpeg images.

The device seems to need very little power and reportedly can display up to 75,000 pages before you will need to re-charge or plug in the mains adaptor.

I think the Sony Reader could change the way books are sold, like the iPod has already changed the way we buy music. I can well imagine that Amazon will soon start offering books in PDF format so that you can download your favourite titles direct to your Reader. It’ll be more convenient and cheaper than buying a paperback, and environmentally friendly too.

The cost is around $300 to $400, but the Sony Reader won’t be available until the summer; just in time for when I start my holidays!

Found via newlaunches.