Sony Reader PRS-505 - MobileRead's Conference Call with Sony - Page 5

HarryT · 10-03-2007, 03:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Personally, I would guess that the U.S. is one of few countries that will buy a significant number of the readers at its $300 price point, and this may have some bearing on U.S.-only sales.

I disagree, Steve. Over the last couple of years the US$ has plummeted in value against both the Euro and the British Pound - eg a couple of years ago, £1 bought US$1.60, today it buys US$2.02. That makes US products extremely cheap for us to buy, hence a lot more attractive for us Europeans.

guguy · 10-03-2007, 05:54 AM

Agree with HarryT, euro is incredibly strong against US$, too much actually.
The PRS-505 only costs 210E+VAT=+-245E in most eu countries, sony could
sell many here at this price. But I guess that, as it has always been, when
Readers are sold in europe they will cost 300E...

jasonkchapman · 10-03-2007, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Yes they do. But when you go to the 'By Author' view on the PRS-500 all the books are sorted by the first letter of the author's name. They accept it, but they don't follow it.

They need to have a chat with the folks that worked at Rio/DNNA (their work is also in the Vibez). Their sorting for for music file tags was flawless, including sorting around "the" in various languages ("Rolling Stones" and "The Rolling Stones" sort together) and working with extend character sets. Even artist names with abused umlauts (yes, Motley Crue, I'm looking at you) sort properly.

Alexander Turcic · 10-03-2007, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

Well, judging by the changes in kernel code I expect the new firmware should work on PRS-500 with some coaxing...

Brainiac 5 · 10-03-2007, 02:42 PM

Is there any indication of whether or not the new reader + library software will work on 64-bit Windows?

As you may know from a couple discussions here, the old software does not.

cjschmidt · 10-03-2007, 03:19 PM

I ordered the PRS-505 last night - should be here tomorrow.
My first eink device and I run OSX primarily. I was going to wait for the Kindle, but the added size and (unneeded) EVDO didn't jive with the small, simple ebook reader I was looking for.

I'm excited.

bingle · 10-03-2007, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

They need to have a chat with the folks that worked at Rio/DNNA (their work is also in the Vibez). Their sorting for for music file tags was flawless, including sorting around "the" in various languages ("Rolling Stones" and "The Rolling Stones" sort together) and working with extend character sets. Even artist names with abused umlauts (yes, Motley Crue, I'm looking at you) sort properly.

You just made me sad all over again for the death of my beloved Rio and the cancellation of the Karma line. The best MP3 player out there for *so many* reasons. (Go gapless!)

I'm also curious as to the back-porting of features like the alphabetical breakdown. I'd really love to see that on the 500 - I think it would also be a good indication of how much support Sony intends to offer older models of the Reader. I would think they'd want to do quite a bit of support, seeing as the "typical Reader customer" (or maybe "target Reader customer"), in my mind, isn't a techie buying the latest and greatest model each week...

westsan · 10-04-2007, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

The manual is available in English and French, so I guess they're at least planning to expand into Canada.

Thats exactly what I was thinking.
UK could also be done rather effortlessly... (as would Aus but I doubt they are interested in going that far)

westsan · 10-04-2007, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trenien

Alas, they did make a mistake.

I have a librie and my brother bought himself a prs-500. Although both have the same screen, the dark casing of the later makes it seem much lighter than that of the former.

It really is striking: you have to put them side by side to realize they're really the same.

I have noticed this too!!

westsan · 10-04-2007, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nesagwa

It is kind of disappointing that they probably wont be doing any more firmware updates for the 500. Im sure most of us that just got a reader wont want to go drop another 300 dollars for a new one with minimal upgrades.

I think they just might. Just look at some of the major bugs as listed on this board. I dont think it likely they would not fix any of them.
But, if they are going to implement some of the performance enhancements (of which may really amount to nothing considering the added features in the new PRS-505) is an altogether different question... stay tuned!

westsan · 10-04-2007, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

Well, judging by the changes in kernel code I expect the new firmware should work on PRS-500 with some coaxing... Now the question is, how do we extract it? Hmm...

hmnnn... interesting. THAT would be like a late model pinto tuned to race!!!
That would ultimately make the 500 a better vehicle

wouldnt it?

MikeF74 · 10-04-2007, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brainiac 5

Is there any indication of whether or not the new reader + library software will work on 64-bit Windows?

As you may know from a couple discussions here, the old software does not.

What part of the old software did not work? I assume it was the USB interface (the driver was not certified, and 64-bit windows does not allow uncertified drivers).

Since the PRS-505 is accessed as a Mass Storage Device, the driver shouldn't be a limitation. The only limitation would be whether or not the software will work.

Brainiac 5 · 10-04-2007, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeF74

What part of the old software did not work? I assume it was the USB interface (the driver was not certified, and 64-bit windows does not allow uncertified drivers).

Yes, as far as I know it's just the driver that's a problem (there was no 64-bit driver at all, let alone a certified one).

Quote:

Since the PRS-505 is accessed as a Mass Storage Device, the driver shouldn't be a limitation. The only limitation would be whether or not the software will work.

That's what I'm hoping, but it's possible that the program still talks to the reader with its own protocol in addition to the reader acting as a mass storage device (I had a Palm PDA that did that, for instance).

NatCh · 10-04-2007, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brainiac 5

Is there any indication of whether or not the new reader + library software will work on 64-bit Windows?

As you may know from a couple discussions here, the old software does not.

Did some poking around, looks like the answer is still "no" on that one, sorry, Brainy.

rmowery · 10-08-2007, 01:39 AM

I just got my PRS-505 over the weekend. While I am finding it very nice, I have been unhappy with 2 items. The first is the viewing of PDF files is pretty slow and I have not managed to get them to view in anything but medium zoom.

The second, is not having a back-lit display for reading with low or no lighting is a very bad design choice on the part of Sony. This really should have been a feature of the new device, even if it had to been optionally invoked for when lightening was low or none.

Somethings that would have been nice, would include the ability to highlight and tag sections of a book. The bookmark is fine, but with technical books, it would be nice to allow one to highlight specific areas and then put tags. That of course would me the reader would need to implement a touch screen with a virtual keyboard.

If they could implement a few of the above features, I think they could make a pitch to college students and business folks. Certainly, SONY needs to be smarter on cutting deals with publishers. The e-book cost needs to be 3/4 the price of the printed edition, especially for college text books. Personally, if I were still a student - I would purchase the used textbooks and then scan them into PDF format, just so I would not need to tote around heavy books.

From Sony's perspective - they REALLY should look at how Apple did the iTunes store and push forward to make a mark in this field. They have a VERY nice product with this new reader - albeit some minor improvements. They need to get publishers to push content out at highly discounted prices the way Apple did with music and video. Heck, I would pay $3.00 for some of my old Wrox Technical Books in Sony Format or some other older books. With the big trend on Green and environment, it is a good time to be marketing a technology that can save trees.

So - the short of it, I REALLY do like the reader and highly recommend it.

10-03-2007, 05:54 AM	#62
guguy Groupie Posts: 191 Karma: 15 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Clermont-Ferrand/Paris, France Device: PRS-505	Agree with HarryT, euro is incredibly strong against US$, too much actually. The PRS-505 only costs 210E+VAT=+-245E in most eu countries, sony could sell many here at this price. But I guess that, as it has always been, when Readers are sold in europe they will cost 300E... Last edited by guguy; 10-03-2007 at 06:36 AM.

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10-03-2007, 02:42 PM	#65
Brainiac 5 Member Posts: 21 Karma: 20 Join Date: May 2007 Device: Sony Portable Reader	Is there any indication of whether or not the new reader + library software will work on 64-bit Windows? As you may know from a couple discussions here, the old software does not.

10-03-2007, 03:19 PM	#66
cjschmidt Thyme Lord Posts: 39 Karma: 118 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: PRS-505	I ordered the PRS-505 last night - should be here tomorrow. My first eink device and I run OSX primarily. I was going to wait for the Kindle, but the added size and (unneeded) EVDO didn't jive with the small, simple ebook reader I was looking for. I'm excited.

10-08-2007, 01:39 AM	#75
rmowery Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Sony PRS-505 SC	I just got my PRS-505 over the weekend. While I am finding it very nice, I have been unhappy with 2 items. The first is the viewing of PDF files is pretty slow and I have not managed to get them to view in anything but medium zoom. The second, is not having a back-lit display for reading with low or no lighting is a very bad design choice on the part of Sony. This really should have been a feature of the new device, even if it had to been optionally invoked for when lightening was low or none. Somethings that would have been nice, would include the ability to highlight and tag sections of a book. The bookmark is fine, but with technical books, it would be nice to allow one to highlight specific areas and then put tags. That of course would me the reader would need to implement a touch screen with a virtual keyboard. If they could implement a few of the above features, I think they could make a pitch to college students and business folks. Certainly, SONY needs to be smarter on cutting deals with publishers. The e-book cost needs to be 3/4 the price of the printed edition, especially for college text books. Personally, if I were still a student - I would purchase the used textbooks and then scan them into PDF format, just so I would not need to tote around heavy books. From Sony's perspective - they REALLY should look at how Apple did the iTunes store and push forward to make a mark in this field. They have a VERY nice product with this new reader - albeit some minor improvements. They need to get publishers to push content out at highly discounted prices the way Apple did with music and video. Heck, I would pay $3.00 for some of my old Wrox Technical Books in Sony Format or some other older books. With the big trend on Green and environment, it is a good time to be marketing a technology that can save trees. So - the short of it, I REALLY do like the reader and highly recommend it.

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