Sep. 2--THE (EXTRA! EXTRA!) GIZMO: SONY'S READER DAILY EDITION.

The cost to acquire an electronic book (aka e-book) reading device is $200 to $400. But might you bite if you could download lots of free stuff to its tablet-sized screen, even best-sellers, as well as paid content?

If answering in the affirmative, start saving for a Sony Reader, ideally the newly announced, top-of-the-line ($399) Daily Edition model that's coming in December for gifting and getting.

Sony has been into the electronic- book biz longer than most -- including Amazon with its much touted Kindle. But the Daily Edition is the first Sony-made device that comes with 3G wireless (via AT&T) connectivity for downloading books, newspapers, magazines and more through the airwaves, previously the special marvel of the Kindle.

With a wireless linkup, you can order a book on the device, press a button and literally a minute later it's loaded and readable on the screen.

In redrawing the lines of competition, much has also been made over the Reader Daily Edition providing a bigger "page" in roughly the same-sized tablet as the Kindle. The Sony will offer a 7-inch, touch-sensitive screen that can be rotated to show two, side-by-side columns, like a book. With the standard-grade, now $299 Kindle, you get a 6-inch screen with separate hard-button keyboard located below. Amazon folks argue that touch-screen technology softens the clarity of the text and graphics. We'll see.

THE STUFF THAT BINDS: By my book (sorry), the real breakthrough here is the "open standard" software that Sony has decided to use in all Readers, also including the smaller, more affordable ($199) 5-inch Pocket Edition model now in stores.

Developed by Adobe and called ePub, this open software enables devices to accept downloads from a variety of sources, not just the Sony eBook store. (Kindle only loads paid content from Amazon.com.)

And a lot of this ePub stuff will be free. For starters, think about the millions of public-domain and out-of-print books that Google is digitizing. And for more contemporary tastes, imagine the thousands of free e-book titles that public libraries across the country -- including the huge New York City and Chicago systems -- are making available to library cardholders and e-reader devices through a distribution service called OverDrive.

The Free Library of Philadelphia offers book downloads, too, though not from a source participating with Sony on this project.