HuguesJohnson.com: Sony Electronic Book Player

In 2006 Sony announced a new electronic book reader that promised to make paperbacks obsolete. It's a PDA looking device that displays electronic books and plays mp3s. Of course you can already read electronic books on a PDA or laptop but few actually do. No matter how hi-high/environmentally-friendly it is, I doubt many consumers will make the switch. Sony should already know this though; in the early 90s they tried a similar project with disappointing results.

Long ago I worked at an Electronics Boutique (now EBGames/GameStop) that was an outlet location for the company. One day we received several Sony Data Discman Electronic Book Player DD-1EXs that we were supposed to clear out. The original sticker price was in the $200-$250 range but they were marked down to 10% of that. Largely out of curiosity I picked one up along with whatever software we had for it (also at a massive discount). I can't say I've used it for more than an hour. It's a very nice device that serves no practical or entertainment function whatsoever. See for yourself..

Disclaimer: I don't have a particularly great digital camera and I suck at taking pictures.

Sony didn't nickel-and-dime consumers on accessories here. The package came with: the reader (duh), AC adaptor, rechargeable battery, and another battery pack that holds AAs.

The reader itself is fairly nice looking. It feels like a miniature laptop. It's a tad on the heavy side but also feels extremely durable. Looking at all the buttons and size of the screen makes me think this had a lot of potential beyond just electronic books. However, it lacks any mechanism to save data. In the early 90s it's not like SD-RAM cards were available. Miniature hard drive? Forget it. It has 90% of what it needs to be a PDA but the technology just wasn't there to get the last 10% in.

There's a QWERTY keyboard because all of the books are searchable. The directional pad is there to navigate through menus. Looking at it again just makes me irritated that I don't have any games for this (of course I doubt any were made). This would make a cool little text adventure player.

The front controls are your basic CD controls. There's also a volume wheel and headphone jack (not pictured). Although I don't know this for a fact, I assume this must have some audio playback feature. There's no other purpose for these controls (other than using the play & stop buttons as on/off switches).

The electronic books are 3.5" CDs in a caddy. The player opens up to insert them.

I picked up every electronic book we had in stock, no idea if more were available. The player has an output jack than can be connected to anything with an A/V input (well, just the "V" part is needed). These screenshots are from the A/V out.

The splash screen reminding you that this is for private use only. I guess I'm technically violating that, whatever.

Although I don't know the exact date this electronic book reader was produced, the bundled encyclopedia gives some hints. It still lists U.S.S.R. as a country so it had to be authored prior to Christmas day 1991. My memory is kinda fuzzy but I believe we received these at Electronics Boutique in 1993, maybe late 1992.

According to the career encyclopedia I'm horribly overpaid.

Thinking of traveling the world? Well, this handy translator is all you need. Someone once told me that if you ever got lost in a strange foreign country you should claim to be a Swedish citizen. Something about Sweden having an embassy in every country and nobody holding a grudge against them. I couldn't find a translation for "I'm a Swedish citizen please don't turn me over to the secret police" in this guide. Guess that trip to Pyongyang is off.

The least useful book (to me at least) is the crossword dictionary. You can search for word endings or a list of complete words but that's it.

The wellness encyclopedia is the perfect gift for a hypochondriac.

Since I won't pay more than $3.99 for a bottle of wine I found this guide relatively useless. Speaking of which, I think I'll wrap this up now..

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