Sony Introduces Hand-Held System for Data Retrieval
Want some background on the Hanseatic League? How about an English-language guide to Paris? Or a recipe for lemon chicken?
Sony Corp. of America introduced an electronic book player Thursday that is designed to provide users with just such information--all at the flip of a hand-held screen.
The portable Data Discman, an information retrieval system, will be available in November for a suggested list price of $550, Sony announced. It will include the machine itself and three software titles, making up two encyclopedias and a multilanguage guide for travel.
Sony also introduced 20 separate titles for sale, including a cookbook and wine and travel guides. It said it will add 10 titles in January and continue to add new “books” monthly.
Mike Vitelli, president of personal audio products at Sony’s U.S. subsidiary, said the Data Discman “is going to spearhead the revolution in personal communications.”
By pushing the requisite keys, users will be able to call up and read the information they want on a 3.5-inch screen without having to seek out a library or lug about unwieldy reference books.
Sony said, for example, that the entire 26-volume set of Compton’s Concise Encyclopedia fits on a single, 3.2-inch optical disk.
That should dig up information on the Hanseatic League, a medieval trading alliance of northern European cities. It will also provide a map.
Other “books” ready for Discman use include the Bible, Roger Ebert’s “Movie Home Companion,” Frommer’s “A Guide to America’s Most Traveled Cities” and 1,800 recipes from the Silver Palate’s series of three cookbooks.
Sony introduced a similar Discman product in Japan last year, but has changed the U.S. version giving it a 70% larger screen and adding graphics capabilities. Sony executives at the launch in New York also hinted that recording capabilities may be part of future plans.
Several companies have begun selling small calculator-sized devices that serve as anything from dictionaries and calendars to tiny personal computers capable of spreadsheet calculations.
