If you could change some things on the 505, what would it be?

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Imagine tomorrow a Sony engineer would come to you, and ask you this question.

"If you could change one or two things on the PRS-505, what would it be?"

What would you answer? Some new feat? Some new software?

Of course we all want a bigger screen or higher resolution. so apart from that.

Heh, well apart from that, I would like

1) For the reader to be able to handle whatever number of books can be stored on it. If it's 1000000e12, so be it.

2) More storage slots? Could probably fit a couple more.

3) Option to disable file sync after usb disconnect.

That's it for now.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by bmwvan

I will add my wishes for folders and a clock. That's gotta be doable!

You are aware that the 'custom' firmware adds a clock at least, aren't you?

[dhbailey]

I would like folders and the ability to have the device read and index the books on a memory card as easily as it does the books stored in internal memory.

Clock -- I have a clock on my wrist and one on my phone and one on my pda. If they build one in, I'd be fine with it. I'm not comfortable with all the "custom firmware" stuff, so until one comes from Sony with the clock on it, I'll use the other devices I keep with me.

I'd like a really easy to use, full-featured mp3 player with always-available controls or the total removal of that potential and put the space to use with more internal memory.

[astra]

Originally Posted by sealbeater

2) More storage slots? Could probably fit a couple more.

I am sorry, I know it is a wish list....but more storage slots? Do you mean that 8G+2G of what you have in 505 is not enough for you?

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by astra

I am sorry, I know it is a wish list....but more storage slots? Do you mean that 8G+2G of what you have in 505 is not enough for you?

Along with the wish for more storage slots would be a wish for the operating system to actually be able to index them as easily and quickly as it does the internal memory, and that using the memory slots wouldn't slow down the device the way it does on my PRS500.

I am with sealbeater on the wish to be able to carry a whole library in my pocket and have it all available -- I can do it on my notebook computer, why not on the PRS?

[astra]

I believe that the reader is not powerful enough to do it?
It was not designed for that. I think they could make it as powerful as your notebook, but then reader's battery life would be 5-6 hours instead of 2 weeks?

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by astra

I believe that the reader is not powerful enough to do it?
It was not designed for that. I think they could make it as powerful as your notebook, but then reader's battery life would be 5-6 hours instead of 2 weeks?

What they could do is support folders, and then when you insert an SD card with 4GB of books, all in different folders, it would index the folders when you open them (and not recursively). So, you have a large ebooks folder, and in it hundreds of folders, each one for a different author. You open an author folder, the Reader detects there are files in it and not just other folders, and then it indexes those files/books.

What I'm suggesting is a sort of indexing-by-need. This would support as huge a library as you want on current Reader hardware.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by astra

I believe that the reader is not powerful enough to do it?
It was not designed for that. I think they could make it as powerful as your notebook, but then reader's battery life would be 5-6 hours instead of 2 weeks?

If it was not designed for that, then why did they design expansion slots into the thing?

[astra]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

If it was not designed for that, then why did they design expansion slots into the thing?

It was designed for 2 slots max?

The additional storage slots were designed to provide support for big PDF files?
for MP3s?

[ProDigit]

I agree 2 slots already is a bit much; many readers do with only one single SD card slot.
By the way, if you have the money, try buying a 16GB or 32GB (costs around 180 for the 32GB) SD card and see if it works in the reader!
I've read online SDHC cards have a theoretical limit of 2TB, but due to cost and probably marketing has limited it to 32GB.

The only reason the reader has 2 cardslots is because Sony was probably hoping it could push new life into it's dying multi media cards.
I still have a 128mb mmc card laying around from my psp, so I can test which one works the fastest (SD or MMC)!

I'd not really go for extra cardslots, but just keep it with 1 SD cardslot, and perhaps a bigger internal SSD drive. I mean, prices of SSD drives have fallen about half the price for a 4GB drive since 1,5 years ago, so equipping the reader with a faster 4 to 8GB drive would do no harm. And also support for greater than 8GB SD cards!
For books it wouldn't make much sense, but sony gave it an audio player.
If sony would remove the indexing process when inserting an SD card in the slot, I think many people would be happy with that and just 1 SD slot. Then it's just replugging an SD card, and there you go! an additional 8GB of data (that'd be around 10.000 books, or 1.600 mp3 files!, calculating books to be around 800kb per ebook, or 5 minutes per song, 144kbits MP3 or 1MB/minute)

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Valloric

What they could do is support folders, and then when you insert an SD card with 4GB of books, all in different folders, it would index the folders when you open them (and not recursively). So, you have a large ebooks folder, and in it hundreds of folders, each one for a different author. You open an author folder, the Reader detects there are files in it and not just other folders, and then it indexes those files/books.

What I'm suggesting is a sort of indexing-by-need. This would support as huge a library as you want on current Reader hardware.

All it needs it better programming. The rate of time taken to scan an increasing number of books points purely to poor coding. This could be fixed by a firmware upgrade, if they felt it was worth spending the time on.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

All it needs it better programming. The rate of time taken to scan an increasing number of books points purely to poor coding. This could be fixed by a firmware upgrade, if they felt it was worth spending the time on.

While I would agree with you that that is probably true, I am not entirely ready to proclaim that they're "bad programmers" not knowing anything about the specific problems they encountered or the solutions they implemented. We only get to see the end result, and there could be a lot of factors involved. The method I suggested could use the programming solutions they already have. It would be a matter of merely modifying a small bit of code so the function that indexes a single file gets called only on the opened folder (non-recursively), and not on the whole filesystem.

[ProDigit]

In folder view you could see every textbook filename per filename.
I think what Sony wanted to do is scan those books for icons to display in the list, like a front cover or so? (I might be wrong here though)

I wouldn't mind seeing only filenames, and let some page loading happen as I get into a specific directory, or just see no icons (previews of front cover) at all.
The looks might be less nice, but at least the indexing process will happen a lot faster that way; or no indexing process at all.... Just the loading of filenames the moment you open the folder might even be the fastest solution.

Preloading stuff (just like Vista, come to think of it) is mostly only taxing the system, and only gives good results if the content isn't changing at all.

Can anyone test on their 505 to see if you re-insert an SD card into the slot, if the indexingprocess repeats itself? (even if there's no change in documents on the card)?

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I agree 2 slots already is a bit much; many readers do with only one single SD card slot.
By the way, if you have the money, try buying a 16GB or 32GB (costs around 180 for the 32GB) SD card and see if it works in the reader!
I've read online SDHC cards have a theoretical limit of 2TB, but due to cost and probably marketing has limited it to 32GB.

I have 2 8GB cards, I've heard that a 16GB worked, but the real problem is the software not being able to handle the storage space. I definately would not want only 1 expansion slot, that's one of the things that turned me off of the Kindle. More expansion is always a good thing.

Originally Posted by ProDigit

The only reason the reader has 2 cardslots is because Sony was probably hoping it could push new life into it's dying multi media cards.
I still have a 128mb mmc card laying around from my psp, so I can test which one works the fastest (SD or MMC)!

I'd not really go for extra cardslots, but just keep it with 1 SD cardslot, and perhaps a bigger internal SSD drive. I mean, prices of SSD drives have fallen about half the price for a 4GB drive since 1,5 years ago, so equipping the reader with a faster 4 to 8GB drive would do no harm. And also support for greater than 8GB SD cards!
For books it wouldn't make much sense, but sony gave it an audio player.
If sony would remove the indexing process when inserting an SD card in the slot, I think many people would be happy with that and just 1 SD slot. Then it's just replugging an SD card, and there you go! an additional 8GB of data (that'd be around 10.000 books, or 1.600 mp3 files!, calculating books to be around 800kb per ebook, or 5 minutes per song, 144kbits MP3 or 1MB/minute)

I have an ipod, which plays mp3s quite nicely. I don't use my ipod to read books, nor do I wish to use my book reader to play audio. Give me the books!!

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by astra

I believe that the reader is not powerful enough to do it?
It was not designed for that. I think they could make it as powerful as your notebook, but then reader's battery life would be 5-6 hours instead of 2 weeks?

Oh it's powerful enough. It's a software issue, not a hardware one. I recently posted about how I managed to get several thousand to load and my battery life hasn't been affected at all.