E-Paper hits the big time -- Sony ships a product using it!

Just when you thought e-book readers were dead...here comes the Sony Librie e-book reader. It's the first consumer device I've seen that uses Electronic Paper technology. 170 pixels per inch, and no power except when CHANGING the display. Woohoo!

Here's Sony's Librie site, too [in Japanese] and a Librie discussion thread on ClieSource [thanks for the heads-up on this ClieSource!.

While e-books on my old Newton MessagePad PDAs were pretty good due to the large screen, e-books didn't hit their stride until the various e-book readers for the Palm and PocketPC platform were released and e-book stores became available. My last four PDAs (HandEra 330, HP Jornada 540, Sony Clie NX70V and NX80V) were chosen in large part because their screen allowed the input area to be hidden so you could use the full screen for reading e-books. I rarely read paper books any longer. I also picked up a RCA REB-1100 e-book reader on the cheap from an Office supply place. Larger, but feels good in the hand and the battery life and backlight last for ages between charges (lots more room for batteries in the REB-1100 versus the NX80V).

Rock on Sony! When does it ship in the US of A?

UPDATE: The BBC Website, excellent as usual, has some good details (although the weight, number of batts and # of texts in on board memory seem different from what I've read elsewhere.)