Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The PRS-505 is a very nice machine, but MobiPocket is THE dominant format which every make of eInk device EXCEPT Sony supports. There's a lot to be said for getting a device with MobiPocket support. I have the CyBook Gen3, which currently offers the best support for this format (and also, unlike the Sony, has a world-wide warranty).
Yes, one can certainly shift format, but why bother, when getting Mobi books is so easy? Lots of different retailers, and none of that "go away if you aren't in the USA" nonsense.
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I must admit the CyBook does have some appealing features - dictionary lookup, 12 font sizes & customisable fonts, MobiPocket support, it's lighter, I can pick it up from a store instead of waiting for international delivery, the warranty support and it also seems to have a faster page refresh? On the other hand, its user interface appears to be significantly poorer. The fact that it doesn't remember your place in the book, for instance, is a big one. And I'm unclear on how its bookmarking works, other than the fact that Register Hardware found it to be
a bit of a hassle. Finally, of course, there's the question of price - the CyBook is $599, plus $49.95 if I want the case. The Sony Reader, by comparison, is $512 delivered, with case, at the current exchange rate, and the way the dollar's currently moving it will hopefully be below $500 in a few days.
However, most of the
reviews I've read are quite old - about a year, for the most part, and most of the issues they have are ones that may have subsequently been fixed with firmware updates. So I was wondering if these issues had been addressed:
1. Does the CyBook now remember where you were up to if you close the book?
2. Has the sorting/filtering of books been improved? Is there support for folders yet?
3. Do books display page numbers now? Is page-number based navigation possible?
4. Does it display the battery level while you are reading a book?
I guess what I'm wondering is; given that it costs an extra $150, and if it still has what seem to be some fundamental issues, is native MobiPocket support and a warranty (which in my experience, are rarely of much use - with the exception of iPods) really worth it?