With Sony announcing today that its Reader Digital Book will be able to read electronic books published using the .epub format -- the same that many of the largest book publishers are using -- ring in a new age for e-books?Until now, Sony's e-book reader could only read books available from the Sony e-book store, PDF documents and digital rights management (DRM)-free text.
Starting next month, the new PRS-505 Sony Reader will be able to access secure DRM- and non-DRM-protected content in the .epub format, formerly called the Open eBook format.
The Sony Reader Digital Book is the first e-book reading device to support the .epub format, which is the XML-based standard format proposed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. It allows publishers to convert books to different formats, protect the copy using DRM and adds the ability to resize PDF e-books and other text to better fit the reader's screen size.
Such publishers as Harper Collins, Random House, Simon & Schuster and Penguin are offering texts in the .epub format.
CNet has more on this development here.
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Before purchasing any Sony ereader I would suggest you research their technical support. I purchased my Sony 500 spring 2007 and it has frozen twice. They replaced it while under warranty but now have offered only to send me a refurbished unit if i pay them $266. I am not sure who else has problems with the Sony freezing but it has occurred too often for me. Their technical support is overseas and is inadequate. Buy a Kindle and you will find that support is better. I enjoyed using both models as the Sony is a more user friendly model. However the wireless purchasing of the Kindle is very positive. Too bad Sony is not a better vendor.
I also had problems with Sony freezing, but now it has just disappeared. After reading some forums I see it is quite typical issue of this model. I never had this with Kindle or other devices (e.g. BeBook, iLiad).