Sony's Late (Again!)

OK, so when your PlayStation 3 didn't show up in 2005, you thought, "I can live with it." But when it didn't come in the first half of 2006, you thought, "maybe I should have gotten an XBox 360." Then, when you heard that Sony batteries were causing Dell laptops to explode, you thought, "well, they'll nip this in the bud." Months later, with battery recalls and explosions reported from Apple, Fujitsu, and IBM/Lenovo, you thought, "maybe these guys have problems with timeliness." Oh, and let's not even GO to the whole Blu-Ray debacle, whereby you've got discs but no players or burners ... they're just running a little behind, is all.

Now, Sony is delaying the launch of their fancy-pants eBook reader, the catchily-named PRS500. Blogged here and breathlessly anticipated by, well, everybody who wants a grayscale (in 4 lifelike shades!) eBook reader, the PRS500 is now ... wait for it ... delayed.

Originally promised for $350 "on or before October 31st," the unit is now hoping to ship in mid-November, but they're on backorder "due to overwhelming demand." Demand for what?? There's precious little content announced for the device. And people are leery about downloading Sony content on their computers (rootkit!) anyway, so, how "overwhelming" can that demand be? Still, according to Engadget, you'll be lucky if you can get your eBook on in time for the holidays. Oh, well, you can always pass the time watching hi-def movies on your Blu-Ray player. Oh, wait. UMD movies then, on your PSP. Oh, wait. Never mind. Better call the whole thing an early-adopter's curse and just wait the extra month for the Panasonic color job. For the same price. With more formats supported. It will make for a much more immersive reading-- and studying!-- experience.