My 505 came yesterday. Charged it up and I absolutely love it!

The screen is great, very easy on the eyes.

The software is pretty poor - it looks like something a first year programmer would put together. I am going to give Calibre a try. I assume it can handle both files I have on my PC already, as well as anything I purchase from Sony Connect.

I do have a BIG problem though..only one device and at least 3 of us who want to use it! I have a feeling that Santa is going to have to bring a couple more and slap them under our tree this Christmas!

Welcome to MobileRead!

Are you sure they can wait until Christmas? I mean, somebody might get a little impatient and upset that you're having so much fun with your Reader. Maybe you'll end up locked in a closet while the others curl up on the sofa and read. Hopefully they'll remember to slip you a sandwich. How do you feel about giving Halloween gifts? :daisy:

Dreamer

Welcome to the wonderful world of e-reading!

And no, there is no way you can hold off until x-mas, now go order 2 more 505's at ONCE! :)

My 505 came yesterday. Charged it up and I absolutely love it!

The screen is great, very easy on the eyes.

The software is pretty poor - it looks like something a first year programmer would put together. I am going to give Calibre a try. I assume it can handle both files I have on my PC already, as well as anything I purchase from Sony Connect.

I do have a BIG problem though..only one device and at least 3 of us who want to use it! I have a feeling that Santa is going to have to bring a couple more and slap them under our tree this Christmas!



If you paid for it, it's your device. :)

If you're married, you better think twice. :(


Don

I am going to give Calibre a try. I assume it can handle both files I have on my PC already, as well as anything I purchase from Sony Connect.

No, calibre will not handle any DRMed eBook formats. Although I've never tired it. Perhaps it will add it but you'll have to supply all the metadata. But, "it doesn't support it" is the standard calibre line.

BOb

Glad you like the 505. I've had one since January and really like it

No, calibre will not handle any DRMed eBook formats. Although I've never tired it. Perhaps it will add it but you'll have to supply all the metadata. But, "it doesn't support it" is the standard calibre line.

BOb

What about books I purchase from Sony (ie the 100 free "classics" or others?)

I assume I can just add the files to calibre and it will happily sync 'em to my device.

Hockeynut--It's my understanding that Calibre won't be able to transfer anything you bought from the Sony store. (I've never tried it, so I'm not 100% sure about this.)

But, I use both Calibre and the Sony Software to transfer books to my 505. So you would be able to only use the Sony Software to transfer the books you've purchased from Sony Connect and Calibre for everything else.

dordale :)

Hockeynut--It's my understanding that Calibre won't be able to transfer anything you bought from the Sony store. (I've never tried it, so I'm not 100% sure about this.)

But, I use both Calibre and the Sony Software to transfer books to my 505. So you would be able to only use the Sony Software to transfer the books you've purchased from Sony Connect and Calibre for everything else.

dordale :)

Yup - I tried to use calibre on the secure book and it didn't work. Oh well, they do seem to coexist OK so thats not such a big deal.

Now the BIG deal is this piece of junk they call their bookstore. They give 100 free books - so I've been adding to my cart, and so have my kids. Now we have about 250 books in the cart! And guess what - the only way to clean out your shopping cart is ONE BY ONE...and it takes about 30 seconds EACH to delete! That means about 2 hours of clicking "X" to delete ONE BY ONE! Insane!

I am on the phone with customer service and they are completely useless. It doesn't help that they are obviously in India and are giving me names like Tony and Charlie :( C'mon people, we aren't that dumb...

What about books I purchase from Sony (ie the 100 free "classics" or others?)

I assume I can just add the files to calibre and it will happily sync 'em to my device.

Nope, they are DRMed too. I assume they are .LRX files?

However, you could probably replace most of them with nonDRMed versions right from the ebooks d/l section here on MR. If not, check feedbooks.com and manybooks.net.

BOb

I originally downloaded about 20 of the free classics from Sony then I discovered this site. You can find just about any classic offered by Sony on this site (sometimes with pretty illustrations).

I tried reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' that was downloaded from Sony and was appalled to discover the text had been modernized. I've read the p-book version twice previously and enjoyed the translation using 18th century english. Whoever translated the version for Sony had modernized the language. Some may like it better but I did not. I much prefer the versions of classics found on mobileread.

I tried reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' that was downloaded from Sony and was appalled to discover the text had been modernized. I've read the p-book version twice previously and enjoyed the translation using 18th century english. Whoever translated the version for Sony had modernized the language. Some may like it better but I did not. I much prefer the versions of classics found on mobileread.

Most English translations of "The Count of Monte Cristo" (which was originally published in French, of course, in 1844) use an anonymous translation first published in England by Chapman and Hall in 1846; this is the translation you'll find both on this site and in the "Oxford World Classics" series, for example.

It sounds as if you came across the 1996 translation by Robin Buss, originally done for Penguin. Although, as you say, it's done in "modern English", it's more "complete" than the Chapman and Hall version in that it restores material relating to Eugénie being a lesbian which was omitted by Chapman and Hall due to the social conventions of Victorian England.

Same with Beowulf which has been translated into modern language from the old english - great for normal readers, more than a bit dull for old english graduates like me ;)

I have to say, it would be nice to have two editions but I guess that's just me being a bit snotty ^^

Welcome to the wonderful world of e-reading!

And no, there is no way you can hold off until x-mas, now go order 2 more 505's at ONCE! :)

Damn you!

Hit Target yesterday and picked up 2, one for each kid. Mom wasn't terribly pleased to see the bill, but given that they are for educational use I think I rationalized pretty well.

Now I get mine back - woo hoo! :thumbsup:

Hockeynut .... can I be your Kid? Oh if only I were a kid again I would have saved $299.