PRS-600 Just purchased...now what??

[3peas]

I went ahead and bought a PRS600. I'm so excited...and a little scared! This may sound silly but now I'm a little confused about what exactly it is that I should do.

1.) I've heard so many horror stories about the Sony software, but then again you need it to get the free e-books from Sony, correct?

2.) Really stupid question, but what exactly does the ADE program do once I install it on my laptop?

I guess I'm really looking for some kind soul to give me a step-by-step tutorial of what to do next.

Anyone, anyone??

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by 3peas

1.) I've heard so many horror stories about the Sony software, but then again you need it to get the free e-books from Sony, correct?

It depends. If you mean the free public domain books that actually come from google books... no... not any more. Just go to books.google.com... search for what you want and you can d/l them in ePub format which will work on your Sony.

Originally Posted by 3peas

2.) Really stupid question, but what exactly does the ADE program do once I install it on my laptop?

ADE does several things.

1. It creates a library of ebooks that you can organize.

2. It allows you to view/read your ebooks on your PC.

3. It provides the ability for your to d/l Adobe DRM protected eBooks. This is done through a file association the ADE creates with an .ascm file. When you buy a book from a web site that supports Adobe DRM like BooksOnBoard.com or kobobooks.com what you download is actually not the ebook... when you d/l it ADE will kick in in the background and send your Adobe ID to the ebook store. The ebook store will the encrypt the ebook so it can only be read on devices authorized to your Adobe ID.

4. It allows you to authorize your Sony reader to your Adobe ID. In addition it provides a method for you to move ebooks from your ADE library to your Sony reader. The latter function you can do just fine with Windows explorer also of course.

BOb



I guess I'm really looking for some kind soul to give me a step-by-step tutorial of what to do next.

Anyone, anyone??[/QUOTE]

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by 3peas

I went ahead and bought a PRS600. I'm so excited...and a little scared! This may sound silly but now I'm a little confused about what exactly it is that I should do.

I've had mine for a couple weeks now and am so glad I got it!

1.) I've heard so many horror stories about the Sony software, but then again you need it to get the free e-books from Sony, correct?

There are tons of free e-books available from the Gutenberg Project or through Manybooks.net I've heard all the horror stories about the Sony software - but you do need it if you want to buy books through the Sony store. That is, however, about all you need it for, and I generally buy my books using just the software (without connecting the Reader) and then transfer them to Calibre.

2.) Really stupid question, but what exactly does the ADE program do once I install it on my laptop?

As far as I can tell, it's automatically installed when you install the Sony store software. The ADE software handles the DRM protection on the e-book files. Haven't yet tried buying a book from an on-line shop that requires the ADE but not the Sony software, so I can't tell you how that works.

I guess I'm really looking for some kind soul to give me a step-by-step tutorial of what to do next.

Absolute first step is to download Calibre. (They've got a section here on Mobile Read, too.) If you're primarily interested in free books (out of copyright classics, for instance) you won't even need the Sony software.

[Mike_73]

You probably need the Sony-software to get the books that sony puts on 0$ for a limited time, if that is what you meant with free books. If you meant free books like project guttenberg, you don't need Sonys software. You don't even need calibre if you sort your files with e.g. win explorer on your pc.

But, I think the software is not as bad as its reputation. I mean I just use it to create collections, but it looks ok to me. Remember back to mp3s and tagging files with album art. I still couldn't find a software and player combination that didn't mess things up on some files from time to time. So I would expect the same to happen to books. After all, Sonys software and calibre are only database programs that help you organise your data.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Mike_73

But, I think the software is not as bad as its reputation. I mean I just use it to create collections, but it looks ok to me.

Bottom line is, it does what it does. It is very sparse feature wise.

A lot of the bad rep I think comes from how brittle the app is. Many times it doesn't work after you install it or a working copy will stop working. There is no logging to help you troubleshoot... I expect it has very little instrumentation. It doesn't handle errors very well either.

Also, the first few versions were VERY SLOW when browsing the store. I think a lot of this was the web site side... but it still affects the end user experience.

BOb

[Mike_73]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Bottom line is, it does what it does.

Well said.
I didn't run into any errors so far, but for what I use it, it works. Despite the collections, I also use it to eject my reader from the pc. If I do this manually, I have to eject multiple drives (the reader and the installer partition at least, adding the card slots if used)