Impressed with Sony Connect

angelyne · 09-30-2007, 04:09 PM

Now there is something you don't hear often

but I am getting impressed with Sony Connect. Not the software itself; that is still one the clunkiest, saddest piece of modern software I've had the misfortune to use. However the online store selection is getting decent. There was a book that just came out, called Good Calories Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes and it hit the online book store at the same time as the paper version. And what is more, the price is right! Impressive!

Sony : $14.36
Amazon.com : $18.45

And after doing a little bit of comparison shopping between the different e-stores, I find that Sony is usually priced right. Just today I was perusing a e-store offering and was horrified by the completely inflated prices. One ebook, an old, old, mass paperback Pip and Flinx adventure was selling for around $17.00

I'm still not buying anything from them, because 1) I'm Canadian and I don't feel like jumping through hoops to buy a book and 2) I boycott DRM'ed books or at least DRM I can't work around. I might make an exception for a throw-away paperback novel, but not a book I intend to keep for reference (like Gary Taube's)

Still, I'm glad to see they are going in the right direction. instead of the wrong direction. The more attractive their store is, the more chances their reader will catch on.

vivaldirules · 10-07-2007, 12:07 PM

Sony has also been working to add titles to the Connect store lately. Just two weeks ago, they had about 16,000 titles. Since then, they have added just enough to break 20,000. Most of the new titles are history, science, and education and reference. Unfortunately, most of these new titles are rather obscure pieces with a surprising number of them costing well over $50 each. I'm guessing that with their release of the new 505 reader, they were somewhat desperate to live up to their "over 20,000 titles available" advertising so they scoured their available publishers looking for anything they could possible offer as ebooks. Now that they've done that, I expect the release of new titles to continue to be slow until, hopefully, this technology really takes off.

angelyne · 10-12-2007, 01:36 PM

You are probably right. Their choice of books might also be due to having problems getting books in electronic format. Not every book is released that way. More often than not, when I try to find a specific book in ebook form, it simply doesn't exist.

09-30-2007, 04:09 PM	#1
angelyne Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 50 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	Impressed with Sony Connect Now there is something you don't hear often but I am getting impressed with Sony Connect. Not the software itself; that is still one the clunkiest, saddest piece of modern software I've had the misfortune to use. However the online store selection is getting decent. There was a book that just came out, called Good Calories Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes and it hit the online book store at the same time as the paper version. And what is more, the price is right! Impressive! Sony : $14.36 Amazon.com : $18.45 And after doing a little bit of comparison shopping between the different e-stores, I find that Sony is usually priced right. Just today I was perusing a e-store offering and was horrified by the completely inflated prices. One ebook, an old, old, mass paperback Pip and Flinx adventure was selling for around $17.00 I'm still not buying anything from them, because 1) I'm Canadian and I don't feel like jumping through hoops to buy a book and 2) I boycott DRM'ed books or at least DRM I can't work around. I might make an exception for a throw-away paperback novel, but not a book I intend to keep for reference (like Gary Taube's) Still, I'm glad to see they are going in the right direction. instead of the wrong direction. The more attractive their store is, the more chances their reader will catch on.

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10-07-2007, 12:07 PM	#2
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Sony has also been working to add titles to the Connect store lately. Just two weeks ago, they had about 16,000 titles. Since then, they have added just enough to break 20,000. Most of the new titles are history, science, and education and reference. Unfortunately, most of these new titles are rather obscure pieces with a surprising number of them costing well over $50 each. I'm guessing that with their release of the new 505 reader, they were somewhat desperate to live up to their "over 20,000 titles available" advertising so they scoured their available publishers looking for anything they could possible offer as ebooks. Now that they've done that, I expect the release of new titles to continue to be slow until, hopefully, this technology really takes off.

10-12-2007, 01:36 PM	#3
angelyne Connoisseur Posts: 57 Karma: 50 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: Sony Reader PRS-500	You are probably right. Their choice of books might also be due to having problems getting books in electronic format. Not every book is released that way. More often than not, when I try to find a specific book in ebook form, it simply doesn't exist.

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