PALM READING Sony has unveiled the Data Discman, a palm-size CD player that will display text on a postcard-size screen. Its 3-inch CDs will hold about 100,000 pages, the equivalent of more than 300 paperbacks. The Data Discman should be available in the U.S. within the year, after Sony designs the necessary software and makes licensing agreements with American publishers. Among the books available for the Japanese version, which goes on sale next month, are a hotel guide, a thesaurus, and a professional baseball index. ''Publishers will be able to put whatever kinds of books they want on the discs,'' explained a Sony spokeswoman, but the Discman's small screen will make it most practical for information retrieval — like looking up a word in the dictionary — rather than, say, reading a novel. The Discman will retail for around $380; no word yet on what the discs will cost.
NEW AND IMPROVED North Point Press' translation of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov won't be out until September, but it is already gathering praise in the literary world. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, a husband-and-wife team (he's American, she's Russian), spent five years on the 832-page classic, which many scholars say has never been properly translated into English.
BLOCK THAT KID The New Kids on the Block tried to stop the publication of Rock N' Roll Comics' latest issue, featuring three sassy spoofs on the group: ''New Kids on the Rag,'' a satirical look at the group's origin; ''The History of Teenybopper Stars,'' cutting caricatures of pop idols; and ''New Kids on the Block,'' an unauthorized biography. The Kids won a temporary restraining order, but then San Francisco Federal Judge John Rhoades ruled against them. Both biography and satire are protected by the First Amendment, Rhoades said in his ruling, and ''it is equally clear that parody is a form of artistic expression, protected by the First Amendment.'' However, the New Kids and their merchandiser, Winterland Concessions, have led a trademark- infringement suit against Revolutionary Comics, Rock N' Roll's publisher. ''It seems to be a matter of harassment,'' says Todd Loren of Revolutionary Comics. ''The legal costs could be enough to put us out of business.''
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