It isn’t that often that a gadget comes along that makes you stop and think – and I really mean that, not just an instant ‘I want one’ of the latest iPod but something that looks like it could be a taste of the future. The Sony E-Reader is just such a gadget.

I was concerned initially that my weaker right eye would be my undoing when using one of these, but the paper-like screen technology really is very good indeed. On top of that, this newer model is slimmer and has been redesigned since the last version – making it look very good indeed.

More compact than many paperbacks, it weighs about 9 ounces (without cover), is 1/3″ thin, and holds up to 160 eBooks. You can easily hold it in one hand, and with its rechargeable battery, you can turn up to 7,500 continuous pages on a single charge.

The Reader Digital Book is a new way to read some of your literature, whether you’re into classics or modern stuff. The 6 inch display uses ‘E Ink’ technology, a fancy way of saying that Sony has replicated paper and ink in their display, or as near as you can get. I’d say that I’d like to compliment their work as it is a very natural looking display. You can also set it up for high contrast and resolution should you prefer, or magnify the copy if you are sight impaired.

With a compact and lightweight design you can take the Reader Digital Book almost anywhere. And with plenty of internal memory, and a slot for optional removable memory cards, you can take hundreds of titles, user-selected Web content, or other supported documents for reading on the go. It will hold approximately 160 averaged sized eBooks in internal memory and hundreds more with optional removable memory cards.

The Reader Digital Book allows you to search, browse, discover, and buy thousands of new releases, classics and popular eBook titles from the Integrated eBook Store and other participating websites. You can even go to other sites that have unsecured eBooks in file formats that the Reader supports. This translates into an incredible amount of content suitable for the Reader. Simply transfer your own documents too for viewing on the move.

So, is it going to be a real reading revolution that this gadget provides? Well, it is extremely neat. However, with so many ultra portable machines now coming out, you do have to wonder how a gadget will do that only does one single thing – albeit doing that single thing very well.

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