Sony can now add a feather to their cap; their new e-reader, the Touch Edition (PRS-600), does something Amazon’s Kindle can’t. The Touch’s 6-inch screen can capture handwritten notes, which are exportable and saveable.
Like last year’s PRS-700, the $300 Touch uses a combination of e-ink and resistive touch technology to allow swiping page turns, text highlights, and tap menu navigation--in addition to notes support. When you write on the Touch with a stylus, its resistive touch panel registers the movements, calculates the coordinates of the contact, and then translates it into “ink” which is drawn on the book page—a real pen-on-paper experience.
Sony’s also announced the $200 Pocket Edition, which has a 5-inch screen, enough memory for up to 350 books, and two weeks of battery life.
Both readers will be available at the end of August.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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Now this would be truly great if it came in color. My issues of popsci just wouldn't look right in black and white.
ehhh does it convert your notes into text? My school always offers money if you take good neat notes for a class though mine will never be neat enough..
Sorry, blind6542; notes get saved as images, not text. Little help for those of us with poor penmanship, I'm afraid.