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Old 11-21-2007, 05:42 PM   #1
Ozric
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Just bought a PRS-505

Hi.

On Monday after hearing that Amazon released a new ebook reader, I started checking it out online, which lead to checking out other eInk readers, which resulted in my purchase of a Sony PRS-505 instead. The biggest reason I went with the Sony was because I'm impulsive and wanted it right away...I would've had to wait on both a Kindle and a Cybook. The Cybook was a close second because it appears that I can use it to read DRM Mobipocket books that I already own. Apart from the waiting period, I think the Kindle is expensive and looks kinda goofy, but I'd like it if it helped propel ebooks into the mainstream. Maybe later on I'll get one, particularly if there's a hardware revision that I find more pleasing.

Sony Connect and the ebooks offered elsewhere at places www.baen.com looked like enough to keep me busy for a while, so I ordered one and it arrived today. I really like the design and feel of the device and I'm looking forward to reading some books on it. It's going to be hard to finish the paper book I'm currently reading with a shiny new toy taunting me from across the room.

Anyway, I hope in the long-term it turns out I made a good choice. Hopefully some competition between Sony and Amazon will benefit everyone who likes ebooks =)
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Old 11-21-2007, 06:30 PM   #2
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Congrats on your purchase. I have a Sony Reader 500 and a Kindle. I love them both. I am preferring the Kindle right now, but I think you'll be totally happy with your choice. Our selection of free book downloads here and Baen should keep you plenty happy.

I have more books than I will ever be able to read, and it's great!
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Old 11-22-2007, 02:49 PM   #3
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Thanks!

I've used the 505 for a few hours now and I really like it. I like the way it's designed, it's easy to hold and use, and the cover is fairly nice, making it quasi-feel like I'm holding an actual book. This is my first eInk reader and it's quite an improvement over the PDA's I've used over the years. The grey background takes a little getting used to (I wonder if they'll ever be able to make it white?), but the crisp text makes for a more pleasurable reading experience.

My only concern is that I plan on buying a number of things from Sony Connect, and with Amazon poised to potentially become a juggernaut in the digital book field, it seems possible Sony might one day decide it's not worth the effort and pull the plug on the whole thing. I suppose that's a chance one takes with any device that uses DRM, including the Kindle.

But there's enough stuff out there to read that I'm sure I'll get my money's worth out of the 505, and maybe eventually Sony will open it up to more formats. Hopefully they stick with it...it's a great device.
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Old 11-23-2007, 04:41 PM   #4
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I'm sure we'll find a way to get Kindle content onto the PRS
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Old 11-23-2007, 04:42 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozric View Post
Thanks!
My only concern is that I plan on buying a number of things from Sony Connect, and with Amazon poised to potentially become a juggernaut in the digital book field, it seems possible Sony might one day decide it's not worth the effort and pull the plug on the whole thing. I suppose that's a chance one takes with any device that uses DRM, including the Kindle.
I think it's more likely that, in the short term at least, Connect gets a boost in both hardware and book sales, as sort of splashback from Kindle fever. The number of titles at the Connect store will probably also increase considerably as publishers begin to distribute their Kindle offerings elsewhere (it would appear the most publishers do not have an exclusive deal with Amazon for the expanded ebook selection).
If, at some point in the future, Sony decides to just pack up and leave, the hacker community will probably really dig into cracking their DRM, so the books can be read elsewhere.
If you're very concerned about not being able to read your books on another device down the road, consider buying books in Microsoft's .lit format, then converting to lrf for use on the Reader. Google "convert lit" and "libprs500" to get more details (the legality of these things is sketchy at best, so it's not really kosher to give out explicit instructions on how to crack DRMed books 'round these parts).
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Old 11-23-2007, 05:52 PM   #6
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Yeah, it does seem possible that the Kindle could put eBooks more into the mainstream to the benefit of other device manufacturers and eBook sellers.

I think for the time being I'm going to buy stuff from Sony Connect without worrying about what the future will bring. I'm going to be buying a lot of the non-DRM stuff from Baen and Fictionwise anyway, so at least some of my purchases should be relatively future-proof. Considering the amount of material currently available that the 505 can read, and I expect there will be more, I think I made a good purchase for my first eInk reader. I love it

Any idea if Sony might one day make other DRM formats available to it? Maybe not Mobipocket, since I understand that Amazon owns it, but what about Palm Reader or Microsoft Reader (though I'm aware these can be converted)?
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Old 11-23-2007, 06:24 PM   #7
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What I've read and heard about the Kindle is that you need to buy special Kindle-format Mobi books (different DRM from the other mobi readers) so I'm not sure if you can automatically get new versions of the mobi books you've already bought or not. I would hope that you could, but in this "you can't have that drm book, it's MINE MINE MINE" attitude of the ebook distributors and publishers, I suspect that you might have to buy a new copy of that mobi book, just as you need to buy different versions of the books you've bought for the Sony if you want to read them on the Kindle.

As for Sony not using mobipocket's format since Amazon owns it, I don't see why that would stop anybody -- the sole purpose of selling hardware is to sell content, so it shouldn't matter to Amazon what reader their mobipocket books end up on, they'll still make some money on each sale.

I forgot to add that Sony would also make money on each sale, so everybody would win, since the mobipocket encoding would be for a specific Sony device. That's what's supposedly going to happen with the mobi files -- you can't take a Palm mobipocket file and simply copy it to the Kindle, the ones you buy for the Kindle will have to be encoded with DRM allowing that specific Kindle (or however many you have activated on your Amazon/Kindle account) to be able to read that mobibook. You won't be able to hand them to friends to read on their Kindles any more than we can hand Sony files around to each other if they're the DRM files of current books.

Last edited by dhbailey; 11-23-2007 at 06:27 PM. Reason: forgot to add something
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Old 11-24-2007, 01:52 AM   #8
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It'll be interesting to see what happens in the near future. It seems like the Kindle could popularize the ebook, and I hope it does. Hopefully some sort of universal DRM standard or something will emerge so I don't have to worry about what might happen to my ebooks in the future. One good thing about reading on PDA's is that whenever I got a new one, all I had to do was install the appropriate reader software, and maybe authorize a new device, and I could still use Mobipocket and Ereader books that I've bought in the past.

But now that I've used an eInk reader for a bit, I don't think I could go back to a PDA for reading
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Old 11-24-2007, 10:39 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozric View Post
But now that I've used an eInk reader for a bit, I don't think I could go back to a PDA for reading
I hear that. I wasn't planning on getting a dedicated reader until I could use eReader on it, since I own dozens of their books. My eyes, however, decided otherwise and now I've got the Sony.
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Old 11-24-2007, 01:38 PM   #10
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Yeah, most of my ebooks are eReader. It'd be great if I could read them on the 505
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Old 11-24-2007, 02:33 PM   #11
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Exclamation Uploading own pdfs or rtfs

Hey,

I am considering the PRS 505 as well, but am still in doubt about that stupid DRM system. Does that mean, that I can NOT upload any of MY own (or my professors) PDFs onto the device?

What about non-DRM PDFs?

What about PDF created from Handwriting on a tablet pc. (I could provide such a file for someone to try with the 505)

-Cheers
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Old 11-24-2007, 02:50 PM   #12
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I don't know about DRM-PDFs, but otherwise, there are several tools available here that let you easily convert pdf to the sony reader format. But it can be quite difficult to read pdfs documents if they are intended for A4 (due to the smaller size of the screen).
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Old 11-25-2007, 06:58 AM   #13
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Problem with font

Hi
I have a question about sony 505. I'm going to buy it but, here is a big question for me.
I'm from Iran and my language is Persian (Farsi). I want to know, this device will support Persian font or Unicode (UTF-8) or Arabic?
I really appriciate it if sompeone answer me.
thanx.
Mohammad.E
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Old 11-25-2007, 09:13 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mohamad_e View Post
Hi
I have a question about sony 505. I'm going to buy it but, here is a big question for me.
I'm from Iran and my language is Persian (Farsi). I want to know, this device will support Persian font or Unicode (UTF-8) or Arabic?
I really appriciate it if sompeone answer me.
thanx.
Mohammad.E
The only real way to handle this would be to generate PDF files with the appropriate font embedded in the document - the Reader handles those fine.
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Old 11-25-2007, 09:19 AM   #15
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How we can understand this? M ycomputer can read all of them (I mean regular pdf's I download from net). Another question is the above question just about Word files.
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