eReader part IV - First Book

My Sony eReader has arrived! Without much fanfare I opened the very small package and immediately was impressed. The device was enclosed with a small tan faux-leather case which the reader snapped into with ease. First impressions? It is a very sleek and appealing device. It has nice lines and is slim and lightweight. Much thinner than many cell phones and total weight would be about three times the size of your normal PDA/Blackberry. Weight is clearly a great advantage for the eReader. Short of actually weighing each device (which I may do at a later time) it feels about the same as a mass market paperback, a little lighter than a trade paperback, but significantly lighter than a new hardcover. Aside from the reader and it's case there is not much in the box. One USB cable, a CD for your PC, and a very small manual. Sadly the desktop software which is necessary for using the eReader is only compatible with PCs. I find this a bummer as I predominantly use a Mac laptop at home. Luckily we have one very old PC laptop that we use solely for logging into our store accounting program. I loaded the software in moments, plugged in the eReader and we were up and running in about 10 minutes total. Very easy set-up! The eReader comes with some free classic novels and a few new novel excerpts. The text is not quite like paper - but pretty damn close. A bit scary - but nice. I quickly opened the software and accessed the Sony software. Very similar to Apple iTunes - not quite as slick or easy - but a pretty good copy. I selected The Story of Edgar Sawtelle to download, plugged in my debit card, and for a discounted price had this large and recent bestseller on my computer and on the eReader in about 10 minutes. We'll get into the reading experience in the next post - but ease of use out-of-the-box is a winner for Sony. All but your technology Luddites will have no problem with the speed and ease of downloading a book and getting it on your screen. Looking forward to reading and fooling around with the user interface in the days to come - not to mention reviewing Edgar Sawtelle.