First Sony Reader Update Available!

[jæd]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Who would have thought that the company spent half a year working on fighting back hackers or guerrilla developers who were working on making their device more usable than it was (why would Sony even do it, to make the device less attractive to prospective buyers?) and not on fixing bugs and listening to the people who asked for improvements...

You've never used the PSP...? This was one of my decision factors when considering the Reader... I have a PSP and so had a good idea of how firmware updates would progress...

[astra]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

I agree that improving the reading software should be their primary goal. Now, I heard "through the grapevine" that the Sony tech guys are working hard on improving the way the Reader handles PDF. I hope we will see some improvement here in one of the future firmware updates.

Could not agree more.

I think the reader is a superb gadget for what it is supposed to be - BOOK. Trying to fill it with additional things that start with a clock and finish with OS, would turn it into palm or whatever other handheld small computers are out there, however it is not a purpose of the reader. Its solely purpose is to make an electronic gadget as comfortable to read as any conventional book, period. I believe the Reader is very good at this, the only downside so far, is that it cannot really handle PDFs. Hopefully they can solve the problem sooner or later.

P.S. I hate reading from PC screens. When I was doing cisco, ccna, I had to read their course materials from LCDs for 2 years and I absolutely hated it! Never read fantasy books from screen, always buy them hardcovers, however Sony Reader with its special screen has changed my perception of ebook for 180 degrees. Come on guys, after reading it for hours your eyes are as much strained as from reading a paper book. Could you imagine it would be possible one day? I didn't.

[negorv]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

Could not agree more.

I think the reader is a superb gadget for what it is supposed to be - BOOK. Trying to fill it with additional things that start with a cloak and finish with OS, would turn it into palm or whatever other handheld small computers are out there, however it is not a purpose of the reader.

I'm hardly disappointed by Sony and their so-called "update".
I've found actually no improvements, no features which is MUST have (available for most of existing ebook reading software) - stuff I've get used to while using different devices:
- still no multi-language unicode text support (instead of adding option of user-uploadable font files, developers actually disabled this ability in new firmware, forcing reader to latin encoding )
- still no text input and text search - now it is virtually impossible to find book on loaded 2 gb flash card (with 7,000 books loaded). I'm not even talking about full text search - just about text search by title and author. No attempt made to add any kind of joystick-based screen keyboard; no way to add named bookmarks; no way to organize books into folders;
- no useful ZOOM for PDF files. It's still ureadable.
- no way do develop external plugins for other e-book formats e.e. prc, fb2, tcr
- no support for even BASIC text formatting features e.g. inline pictures, soft hypenation symbols etc ...
And it gets now even worse...

[astra]

Originally Posted by negorv

I've found actually no improvements, no features which is MUST have (available for most of existing ebook reading software)

OK. I see your point. I would like to ask you a question: Why did you buy it? Why didn't you buy another reader that has all the numerous things that are on your MUST list?

From my point of view. You don't even need the SD card.
64M, well in my case it has 96M, is more than enough to accomodate many books. Do you read more than 1 book at time? When you go somewhere, do you bring with yourself 1/10 of the 7000 books you have got on SD? I usually have only 1 book with me. If I am going to be away for a long time and I know I might finish my book before I return home, I take 1 more. Let's say I am a slow reader. multiply 2 books by 10 - 20 books. That's it. This is a eBook. If you need it to be more than just ebook you need a different gadget.
Don't you think so?

[Stingo]

The thing is that what a good e-book means to you may not be what a good e-book means to someone else and you can both be right. An e-book is a consumer device. It will either satisfy consumer desires or be replaced by another device. The reason he/she did not buy another device is probably because there are few if any other devices that match the Reader in the marketplace. This will hopefully change soon.

I love my reader and have truly enjoyed using it. I take it with me everywhere. However, if Sony does not improve the file system and the PDF handling, as soon as a better device hits the market I will seriously consider switching. Ad a search feature and some kind of built in lighting and I wont even have to consider the issue.

[negorv]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

OK. I see your point. I would like to ask you a question: Why did you buy it? Why didn't you buy another reader that has all the numerous things that are on your MUST list?

(1). I'm geologist, working abroad, spending typically 3-4 months in the bush. I just wanted light-weight device for reading outdoor which doesn't take much space in my backpack and doesn't need to be connected to pc for a long period of time. Plus I simply doesn't want to recharge battery every day as in case of n770. And yes, I do have ~7,000 articles and papers (additional to ~300 fiction books) which I need to access in nearly random order.
(2) And do you really believe that text search, file search, named bookmarks and multilanguage text support are absolutely unneccessary?
(3) And what was the point for Sony to support 2GB+ flash card if there is no way to access contents by scrolling through hundreds of pages?

[astra]

Originally Posted by Stingo

The thing is that what a good e-book means to you may not be what a good e-book means to someone else and you can both be right. An e-book is a consumer device. It will either satisfy consumer desires or be replaced by another device. The reason he/she did not buy another device is probably because there are few if any other devices that match the Reader in the marketplace. This will hopefully change soon.

I love my reader and have truly enjoyed using it. I take it with me everywhere. However, if Sony does not improve the file system and the PDF handling, as soon as a better device hits the market I will seriously consider switching. Ad a search feature and some kind of built in lighting and I wont even have to consider the issue.

I slightly disagree with you. I understand that people have different requirements, however, eBook which is being advertised as eBook with a new type of screen which is identical to a real paper which can replace ordinary paper books, has only one meaning and it is a Book in a different format. If you need more than that, Sony Reader is not an option. It is like requiring from hardback editions to have a clock and built in dictionary in comparison to paperback.

As for features. Built-in lighting? Do you think it is possible with this particular type of screen? The whole idea of this screen is not to tax your eyes. Any other type os screen that features backlight would have some sort of refresh rate and completely different type of screen, or it is possible? Honestly, I dunno. Plus it will eat most of battery power which is fantastic atm. (againt fantastic to read books only).

[astra]

Originally Posted by negorv

(2) And do you really believe that text search, file search, named bookmarks and multilanguage text support are absolutely unneccessary?

1. text search - would be very nice. Really. However, my normal books do not have this feature as well. I have to flip through them in order to find what I need.

2. file search - well, in your case it is absolutely neccessary but I don't need it as I use it to read books only.

3. named bookmarks - unfortunatelly, I don't know what is it.

4. multilanguage text support - it would be very nice My first language is Russian, although I read mostly in English, it would be a very nice (official)feature if sometimes I could read in Russian as well.


I still believe my arguments stand for what they are. IMHO Sony Reader is not suitable for your needs. It is incapable of handling it. So, you need to find another gadget But it was not designed for it from the beginning. You cannot request a car to fly if it is only a car.
What I am trying to say is that what Sony designed this particular gadged for is being performed by the reader very very good (apart from pdf support and multilanguage support).


P.S. SD 2G - I don't know but I guess that some PDF files might be huge, 100M and more.

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

I think the reader is a superb gadget for what it is supposed to be - BOOK. Trying to fill it with additional things that start with a clock and finish with OS, would turn it into palm or whatever other handheld small computers are out there, however it is not a purpose of the reader.

You're getting carried away a bit there...
The reader already is a handheld computer and already has an OS. Quite a complete one, at that too. Pretending it's a dumb, non-upgradeable appliance (or, somehow, a direct equivalent to a lowly paperback) makes absolutely no sense at all.

There's quite a lot of space for improvement in both it's functionality and user interface without ever getting out of the predefined feature set (e-book reading, that is). Noone ever mentioned PIM or handheld functionality.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Who would have thought that the company spent half a year working on fighting back hackers or guerrilla developers who were working on making their device more usable than it was (why would Sony even do it, to make the device less attractive to prospective buyers?) and not on fixing bugs and listening to the people who asked for improvements...

Sorry, I'm not with you. In what way has this firmware update made the machine "less attractive to potential buyers"?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by negorv

(2) And do you really believe that text search, file search, named bookmarks and multilanguage text support are absolutely unneccessary?
(3) And what was the point for Sony to support 2GB+ flash card if there is no way to access contents by scrolling through hundreds of pages?

(2) Text search would be useful - in fact extremely useful for reference books, but is largely irrelevent for reading fiction.

(3) One use which immediately springs to mind is MP3 files. Remember that the Reader is an MP3 player.

[astra]

Originally Posted by orcinus

You're getting carried away a bit there...
The reader already is a handheld computer and already has an OS. Quite a complete one, at that too. Pretending it's a dumb, non-upgradeable appliance (or, somehow, a direct equivalent to a lowly paperback) makes absolutely no sense at all.

There's quite a lot of space for improvement in both it's functionality and user interface without ever getting out of the predefined feature set (e-book reading, that is). Noone ever mentioned PIM or handheld functionality.

Disagree.
When I travel I want to have a few books with me. Books, even paperbacks are bulky when you have more than 1. Sony said that if I buy their device I will not need to travel with 4-5 hardbacks in my suitcase and my eyes will not get any additional strain when using it in comparison with reading normal books.
In the end, the reader fullfills their promise except 2 drawbacks I mentioned before (PDFs and multilanguage support, especially PDF - they say: it should work but it doesn't, so they must fix it).

I mean I don't care how the device is made. It has OS, a few batteries, diods etc. I am end user. Like I don't know how TV is made. As long as it does what it is supposed to do I don't care. Hell, I don't know how normal books are printed so cannot suggest any improvments as well. So, the reader might have OS, it might be very smart and might to do everything my laptop can do. However, it is not being advertised. When you go to shop to buy the reader you buy the reader which is essencially just a normal book, only 1-10-100 in one

P.S. about eye strain in bold letters - I believe it is the most significant feature of this device, this is the only reason I bought it. Otherwise I could buy palm or another type of "ebook".

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by HarryT

(2) Text search would be useful - in fact extremely useful for reference books, but is largely irrelevent for reading fiction.

(3) One use which immediately springs to mind is MP3 files. Remember that the Reader is an MP3 player.

Agreed. The reader is meant to cater to Sony Connect books. I don't think you'll find too many reference manuals there.

[ultim8fury]

The reader is very novel oriented. It's not designed around your complete reference library. It's for cover to cover reading not back and forth searching and cross referencing.

This has been clear from the start. All reviews mention this. The form factor itself suggests it and so if you bought the device expecting more then I have little sympathy.

That's not to say there aren't major improvements required. Not in the least would be support for folders and graphics in RTF documents.

[orcinus]

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

In the end, the reader fullfills their promise except 2 drawbacks I mentioned before (PDFs and multilanguage support, especially PDF - they say: it should work but it doesn't, so they must fix it).

Originally Posted by myself

There's quite a lot of space for improvement in both it's functionality and user interface without ever getting out of the predefined feature set (e-book reading, that is).

QED