It’s a good move for Sony, who is taking the populist approach here. Not only have they lowered the price on devices that use the easy-on-the-eyes but notoriously expensive E-Ink display, but they are also dropping the price of bestsellers and new-release books from $US12 to $US10 a pop, to get in line with Amazon.

Beyond that, they recently got Google to chip in 1 million public-domain books to their bookstore, available to you for the lovely price of $US0.00, and continue to stress that you can sideload all kinds of stuff to a Sony Reader that you can’t just copy over to most Kindles, such as PDFs and Word docs, not to mention “check out” digital books from libraries via OverDrive.

To top it all off, Sony is adding a Mac client, so that owners can load up purchased content via either computer platform, and the new Readers themselves will load up either software automatically when connected to the computer—no pesky CD-ROM required. (Owners of the PRS-505 and the PRS-700 will be able to download the Mac client and a firmware update at the time of launch, late this month.)

Am I excited? Yes, for a couple of reasons. Not only does the openness, uncharacteristic of Sony in general, show good will, it ensures that the Sony Reader won’t just go down in history as one of Sony’s great but all-too-proprietary ideas. Forget even the Mac software and the free books—real proof of openness is that in addition to Memory Sticks, these readers take SD cards!

The Pocket Edition (PRS-300) will come in pink, silver and blue, and have toggle buttons on the side. Five inches is kinda small for a screen, but presumably it’s good for fans of pulp fiction.

The Touch Edition (PRS-600), is a bigger deal on many levels. You may recall I pretty much loathed the PRS-700, because its touchscreen was plagued with glare, and overly layered. I haven’t seen the new touch model, but I am ensured that this was a chief concern during the development of the PRS-600, and that it’s far easier to read than the PRS-700. The side lighting has been stripped out, so you still need a separate light source, but the side light was such a bad idea, I am happy to hear about this fix.

And as for wireless, I am glad Sony is up front about working on something that would truly rival the Kindle. It will be interesting to see how Sony rolls out an autonomous ebook platform. The word from Sony to us today: “As announced earlier, we will be bringing a wireless product to market. The particulars of ‘when’ and ‘how much’ will come later. Wireless is important and wireless is coming from Sony.”

This isn’t a review—we still need to check out the hardware, and some who have seen the touchscreen PRS-600 mention it’s sluggish and “underwhelming.” Presumably, the software kinks are still being worked out. We’ll let you know the deal when we see final product. [Sony eBooks]

The PRS-300 will be available in red, black and silver and has a five inch display with 440MB of internal storage (no expandable memory card slots). The PRS-600 will also be available in the same colours, but will also have a larger six inch touchscreen display, audio output, and MS/SD card compatibility with 440mb of internal storage. No lighting or wireless is mentioned in either of the service manuals, but we are NOT opting that out as a feature at this time until we get some sort of confirmation.

So we’re not sure if it has the backlighting that Wilson hated so much in the PRS-700, but seeing as the model numbers are lower, we’re guessing that this will hit at somewhere below the $US400 price tag of Sony’s higher model. Especially since the Kindle 2 is now $300. [Sony Insider]

Sure, destroying a US$300 device to save a US$360 device is pretty ridiculous, but there must have been a Frankenstein type of allure to this hack that was too good to ignore. There are instructions on how to do this yourself, but I don’t suggest trying it. Like the original Frankenstein, there are some serious bugs resulting from the operation. I guess the moral of this story is that it is best not to play gizmo god…and to check on the internets for parts before you blow US$300. [Instructables]

Regardless, simultaneous release dates with new hardbacks, availability (eventually) of the entire Penguin back catalog and the planned September launch date of the initiative are all promising for the snow-balling ebook movement. Now, where’s my Apple ebook reader, dammit? [Telegraph]