It's a project I kinda wanted to do myself but then it occurred to me that I hadn't written a line of code in 10 years and never written one on the Mac. So in the spirit of "If at first you don't succeed, pay some one else to do it". I'm offering a bounty for an application to mimic the Sony Connect software for Windows.

Definition:

Primary Goals:

Should be able to manage a sizable library of titles in differing formats.
Should be able to sync to the reader

Secondary wish list:

Import option to allow conversion to either BBeB or RTF of non-supported file types such as HTML or .lit


Would be nice to have:

Cover art browser like iTunes or delicious library.

My initial bounty offering is not huge but hopefully other Mac users out there will be willing to join in my request and up the ante.


So I'm offering £100 in the currency of your choice ( as long as paypal works in it. ) for a working product.

Thanks,

What about using Parallels or Virtual PC?

Parallels reportedly works with the connect software, bootcamp definitely does. TBH I'd rather have a native app. I so rarely boot Windows that it's barely worth me having the partition, if it wasn't for my Harmony remote control and the Reader I would in all likelihood not bother with it.

I'm offering a bounty for an application to mimic the Sony Connect software for Windows.


You have to have a usb driver for Reader. Maybe it is simple by just looking at the exported functions, maybe it needs disassembling i.e. criminal activity in this case.

Bounty... pirates... Maybe.

Maybe Sony will publish the needed information.

£100 is huge for a bounty by a single person.

Perhaps we should set something up where everyone interested (i.e. us Mac users...) can contribute something to the bounty.

gseryakov is right, this could lead to legal problems. But would it really? Sure you may have to disassmble the code and run it through IDA, but at least in some countries it's allowed to disassemble binaries. And I don't see how Sony would be harmed by someone writing a universal USB code for the Reader.

The import/ library management functionality is of far more use to me than the syncing. Sure it'd be nice to sync to the reader but it doesn't need to be the primary focus. Importing from a variety of un-encrypted sources to BBeB or RTF with correct formatting would be a huge thing on it's own.

The applescript utility in the other thread is very good but I really want a GUI with options and library management. As iTunes like as possible listing details like when I last read something my rating etc.

Syncing can always be added on later. Until then there is always SD card transfer. Have the App recognise a Reader Ready SD card like iPhoto does with a camera card. The presence of a Sony Reader folder on the card should trigger the app to start.

£100 is a fair bit to put up but considering the work that needs to take place on a project like this I can't help feeling it's not really enough.

The applescript utility in the other thread is very good but I really want a GUI with options and library management. As iTunes like as possible listing details like when I last read something my rating etc.


You know that iTunes can sync PDFs to USB Drives (I'm guessing the Sony Reader shows up as one...?) and SD cards...?

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8151&highlight=itunes

I had no idea that itunes was capable of that.

The reader doesn't show up at all in OSX it doesn't conform to USB mass storage.

The people at Mark/Space, who make The Missing Sync for many devices, would be my best bet for having the skillset to make such a utility.

As for USB properties, when I look in the Apple System Profiler, it lists the Sony Reader as "Sony Portable Reader System" with a product ID of 667. So, the Mac can talk to it over USB, and recognize it, but nothing else.

When I plug in my Librie, I get similar results: it comes up as "Sony E-book Reader", with a product ID of 344, but no USB mass storage.

I think the internal memory of both readers (as well as any installed memory sticks) are not connected to the USB port. The readers are computers, so they probably have to be running to talk to the internal storage.

-William

But you could write to an SD card using an SD card reader and not have to connect directly to the Sony reader at all. It looks like the data catalog is an xml file.

I put a few documents onto an SD card using the Connect Software connected to the reader, then popped the card out and plugged it into a card reader. The files and directory structure are pretty straight-forward, and the xml structure of the catalog only has a few weird elements in it.

See http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8360

I've been following your work on the usb protocol with some interest. I'm intrigued to see if anyone wants to take on my bounty challenge or whether I can learn Objective-C and Cocoa programming and write an app before someone beats me to it.

I'm thinking about pursuing that line of thought, but coding in Java instead of Objective-C because a) I already know some Java, and b) it would then be portable to Linux and Windows as well. I've been looking around for an excuse to play with Eclipse anyway.

Well I should be done with the reverse engineering in a couple of weeks (work permitting). There are tons of opensource apps that do library management (An example I use http://periapsis.org/tellico/). As for import from formats, the only major format for which there is no good import mechanism is pdf. Frankly I dont think there will ever be one. The remaining task is simply combining these apps into one for the GUI inclined.

If anyone writes a Unix command-line app that does what's needed, I'd be willing to create a GUI wrapper for it in OS X. I did that with MakeLRF last year, so I'm familiar with the process.

It's a project I kinda wanted to do myself but then it occurred to me that I hadn't written a line of code in 10 years and never written one on the Mac. So in the spirit of "If at first you don't succeed, pay some one else to do it". I'm offering a bounty for an application to mimic the Sony Connect software for Windows.

Definition:

Primary Goals:

Should be able to manage a sizable library of titles in differing formats.
Should be able to sync to the reader

Secondary wish list:

Import option to allow conversion to either BBeB or RTF of non-supported file types such as HTML or .lit


Would be nice to have:

Cover art browser like iTunes or delicious library.

My initial bounty offering is not huge but hopefully other Mac users out there will be willing to join in my request and up the ante.


So I'm offering £100 in the currency of your choice ( as long as paypal works in it. ) for a working product.

Thanks,

Kovidgoyal's libprs500 is just a hair short of your wish list. The main problems between its current state and a solid version are:

Lack of a standard Mac installer.
Some GUI issues that have to be debugged on an OS X Mac.


The problem is that kovid doesn't have a Mac, and doesn't have easy access to one. That leads me to a suggestion:

How 'bout we Mac users that want a solution for using the Reader with our systems kick in the $$$ (and pounds, and whatever) to buy a used Mac for kovid. $300-$400 buys a used Mac Mini on eBay, including shipping.

I'll start the ball rolling, with a pledge of $75. Anyone else?

If we get anywhere near enough pledges, we can figure out the logistics of collecting money and purchasing something.

Xenophon

P.S. I haven't discussed this idea with Kovid at all. I have no relation to him except as an (almost) satisfied user. I'm just way impressed with his responsiveness to the many bug reports I've filed, and have great hopes for the future of libprs500.

How 'bout we Mac users that want a solution for using the Reader with our systems kick in the $$$ (and pounds, and whatever) to buy a used Mac for kovid. $300-$400 buys a used Mac Mini on eBay, including shipping.

...and $579 buys a new one.

Well if you do manage to collect enough, I'll be happy to create a Mac installer and debug OSX specific problems. It'll be especially handy as I'm in the process of rewriting the GUI now.