Quote:
Originally Posted by mdbenoit
Hi all,
I'm thinking of asking for a Sony Reader for my birthday (Kindle is not available in Canada) but the more I'm reading on it the more I'm confused.
<snipped!>
It also says that the Reader doesn't support Vista (I have Windows XP but my system is old and I'll soon change it) which could be a problem.
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Hi, M.D.!
I'm afraid I can't answer well about Sony's ability to read PDFs, because I really don't have many. It's not my favorite format, but...
I think some of the Wiki you quoted might be out of date. Sony upgraded the software to work on Vista (although as Lilac_Jive says, some are having problems - but I thought that was pretty common for Vista!
).
When Sony upgraded the software, it also upgraded the firmware for the 505 to read Sony Digital Editions and - I believe - improve the reading of PDFs. (The upgrade was not for the 500, however).
I tried a PDF on my Sony after I upgraded the firmware. It did "reflow" the PDF (only works if the PDF is a text document and not just a series of pages saved as images). However, the person who created the PDF put "line returns" at the end of each line, so the reflow was clumsy, since the Sony's page width is not 11 inches!
Seems I've read that sites like Feedbooks create PDFs in page "images" that are specially sized for the Sony, so if your reading tends toward the older books available for free, you can probably find plenty of reading that will suit the Sony. But if you're talking about PDFs you already own - chances are the view will be less than optimum, but "doable".
As Harry said, there are other ebook hardware choices out there. I wish I could be more help, but "ability to read PDF" was not on my things to look for when I researched buying a reader, so I don't remember which do and which don't.
Bookeen has recently announced the plan to offer Adobe Digital Editions on it's Cybook, which might mean its ability to read PDFs will be approximately on par with Sony (with the added benefit of more font face/size choices).
I'm quite happy with my Sony 505 at this time, although I'll admit I've been watching the threads about the Astek line of ebook readers. My favorite DRM'd eBook format happens to be eReader, and they've been promising a reader that will read it natively...so I've been watching the threads with strong interest!
And, to only confuse things more, there are a couple of readers supposedly in the works with a larger screen. Those may or may not be more suited to PDFs...but since they're not available yet, it's hard to say.
Oh - and about the slow page-turning... I played with the Sony 500 on display at a nearby Borders for almost a year. The page turn flashing to black (negative of the actual page) and back was something I thought would drive me nuts. But when I was able to get a 500 for $50, I couldn't refuse! And I was surprised at how quickly I stopped noticing that flash.
As best as I can explain it, I've learned to anticipate how quickly I will reach the end of the page and click the page-turn button at just the right time that I'm finishing the sentence as the page flashes. My eyes are already shifting back to the top left-hand corner, and I just don't seem to register most of the "flash". (Oh, and I upgraded to 505 because the screen contrast is so much better than a 500!)
Hope this helps!