So what e-reader do you use now you've given up on Sony?

[carpetmojo]

I've never felt the need to "give up" on Sony, frankly.
I like the heft of the various readers in different ways, (and I've got 'em all from the 3/650 gen on, T3 coming) and although I prefer the ally X50s - a superb bit of engineering of looks, function and feel - the later plastic jobs are great machines. I much prefer them to the KW I got as an experiment - I do like the lit screen in some situations, but would prefer it as an on/off option.
And naturally I do not speak of the software, which is just too much hassle to bother with !
I'm a Calibre and Alf user, and will ever be thus, so I have no restrictions on source etc.... and am not fussed about wifi - I never have the desperate need/desire to get a book IMMEDIATELY.
I just park 'em in me Calibre bookshelves and get round to them eventually.


Mind you, I won't be able to do anything about them giving up on me, I s'pose .....

[goldilocks]

I am still using my original PRS-505 (since Dec 08). The battery doesn't hold a charge as long as it used to so I bought a few spare 505's off eBay. At least one of them was hardly used and the battery functions like new.

I also purchased the lighted covered specifically for the 505 which has a piece of plastic? that fits right over the screen to light the entire screen. I don't care for clip-on type lights since you have to move them a lot. No problem with pinpoint light spots or funny colored screens either. Of course I do have to change the light batteries occasionally and sometimes there seems to be a shadow on the screen.

I also have a Pandigital Novel which doesn't keep a charge very long. But I do like the colored covers.

Gave my son a Aluratek Libre Pro but he never uses it. The screen is kind of small for me and I am not crazy about the button setup either.

Then I purchased a Story HD. Opened the box and looked at. Then set it aside. I couldn't get past the keyboard at the bottom. But I may try it again.

All in all, I still like the Sony PRS-505. I like the buttons. I am not a touch screen type person. Sometimes I like to follow the words on the screen with my finger and that wouldn't work too well with a touch screen. The 505 is very durable also. I have dropped mine (on cement floors) several times and it still keeps working. It has the audio function which newer readers do not have.

I have followed many threads on MobileRead when new eReaders are introduced and some sound interesting but I am just not ready to give up my 505. I have no hope that Sony will produce a new improved 505 though. I believe they have given up on eReaders thinking tablets are what everyone wants.

So, for now, I am not really in the market for another eReader. I like Sony and will keep watch for what they do, but if someone else produces what I want then I will give up on Sony.

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

But it still has the home screen that looks like a chimp tried to arrange kids' blocks and failed miserably. It's the most awful looking mess to me and I'll never update even if the rest of it ever becomes stable.

I much preferred when the home screen has the 5 books on it only, the 1 I'm reading and my next 4 selections. Simple and perfectly functional for reading.

Personally I love the Home screen of the current Kobo FW as I have direct access to so many things. I hated the Home screen of my PW1, only 3 items showing was a complete waste of space - I chose not to register or ever switch wifi on - and I don't even want to think about the disastrous mess a Kindle makes of collections. The PW1 was both my first and last Kindle ever as I don't expect Amazon to allow collection management via Calibre (as do both Sony and Kobo) and they seem to be actively discouraging people keeping their own libraries and encouraging them to use the cloud where, at the end of the day, they have no real control. I prefer to take responsibility for the safe storage of my own books, exactly as I do with my computer and phone backups.

[thomasn75]

I agree i think Kobo home screen is great. I like how it adapts to what you do with quick links.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Re: the PW2, what about side-loading books? Does it nag you to upload them to the cloud multiple times?

Nope--no nagging when side-loading books. I think the nagging may occur if you have the new firmware (5.4.2) on your Kindle AND try to use collections with your side-loaded books. Amazon wants you to turn wi-fi on to upload the collection information to the cloud. Since I don't use collections and haven't yet updated my firmware I haven't run into this at all. I admit if I was using collections on my PW2, this would be very irritating. I've said before in other threads I do wish collections were more Calibre friendly, but since I them pretty much unusable with my side-loaded books. I now use metdata plugboards in Calibre to add series information to my book titles on the PaperWhite and is an acceptable work around for me.

And as far as ads go on the Kindle--I paid the extra $20 to have them turned off, so don't see them. I also turned off Amazon recommendations, so they don't appear on my home page.

I very rarely have wi-fi turned on--just briefly when I want to download a book from Amazon. So far, I haven't had it on long enough for my PW to update its firmware--but as I said earlier I don't use collections on my PW, so if even if the firmware does happen to get updated I don't think I'll see much of a difference.

[cybmole]

that nag that most annoyed me, with the kindle I sold, was " now that you've finished the book, would you like to post to facebook / twitter so that whole world knows about your great achievement
does that still appear at the end of each sideloaded book ?

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by cybmole

that nag that most annoyed me, with the kindle I sold, was " now that you've finished the book, would you like to post to facebook / twitter so that whole world knows about your great achievement
does that still appear at the end of each sideloaded book ?

Something like that, not sure because I just close the book. I can see where someone wouldn't like it, but I wouldn't call it intrusive. Sort of like the "rinse and repeat" directions on a shampoo bottle.

Thank you, but no.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by cybmole

that nag that most annoyed me, with the kindle I sold, was " now that you've finished the book, would you like to post to facebook / twitter so that whole world knows about your great achievement
does that still appear at the end of each sideloaded book ?

I would find that really irritating. They should make it possible to disable that "feature" if you are never going to use it.

[jabalong]

Seems like a lot of people talking about Kobo here. Just curious, is that just because Kobo is popular generally now (sorry, I'm not up to speed on latest in ereaders) or are there particular commonalities or whatnot that make past/current Sony owners want to look at Kobo?

[Ripplinger]

For myself, the Kobo Glo has the front lit screen, which I really wanted. And the common factors are that Kobo reads epubs like the Sonys; and the Glo (and I believe all models except the newest 6" Aura) also use infrared for the touch screen like the Sonys. The newest 6" Aura uses capacitive touch, which is also on the Kindles (not sure what Nook has been using, pretty sure IR though), but capacitive screens never play nice with my skin so I avoid those when possible (you should see me trying to press an elevator button that uses it in certain weather... but I am stuck with it on my phone). I also hate the idea of requiring special gloves if I want to read in colder weather with a capacitive screen as well.

Nook had the lowest resolution screen of them all at the time I bought mine, not sure if the newest Nook Glows are still behind the rest in that regard, but I think so.

So that's why Kobo was the best option for me. And I was able to find a local store that stocked them in case I hated it, it would be an easy return.

[eschwartz]

@lyn2012, @dordale:

You can let calibre manage collections on your Kindle, if you jailbreak it. Amazon removed the ability post-K3 (I think because someone managed to FUBAR their book index, so they couldn't find their books, by messing with it) but all that means is the controlling files were moved off the USB drive section. Use the Kindle Collections plugin, the modified version found here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...18#post2263518.

You may also want the K5 collections hack - I haven't used either, but I think the plugin may depend on communicating with the hack -- here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186305. It's not compatible with firmware v5.4.2, but you can downgrade if needed.

[Rizla]

This is what I mean by intrusive and hard-sell with kindles. It forces firmware upgrade which then nags to upload side-loaded content to the cloud. Then it asks you to add twitter or something comments when you finish a book. I find that highly intrusive. I like Sonys because they are not intrusive.

[Ripplinger]

I should add to my above post that the Kobo is not intrusive at all, at least not on the firmware I'm sticking with. When you sign up, you need a Kobo account, but I have one setup with fake info and no credit card attached to it. Homescreen shows small print at the bottom "Your Wishlist is Empty", under Library "Previews" is also empty should I bring it up (there were 2 items there which I deleted and since I rarely sync, never return and never nag me to read previews). When I complete a book, it just closes and removes itself from the homescreen as being read... no nag about anything at all.

There is a Facebook award, but you are not forced to use Facebook at all, you just don't get the award if you don't post there. If you need to do a factory reset on the device, you lose your awards earned anyway, so they're pretty pointless to try and achieve.

I'm with Rizla on that, I'd hate for even a brief pop-up to happen after completing a book about posting a "woohoo I finished a book!" on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere. I rarely connect the wi-fi though, I'll always prefer to purchase all my books from various sources to one place only, and that's directly to my PC to sort there. But there's zero nagging from the Kobo Glo for me.

[FacebookVirus]

Originally Posted by Rizla

This is what I mean by intrusive and hard-sell with kindles. It forces firmware upgrade which then nags to upload side-loaded content to the cloud. Then it asks you to add twitter or something comments when you finish a book. I find that highly intrusive. I like Sonys because they are not intrusive.

This morning I finished a book I purchased at Amazon.

At the end of the book, there is one "Before you go..." window where you can rate the book and which shows a list of similar books purchased by other customers.

That's it. You close the window and close the book. One screen tap to close the window. No social media was mentioned.

If you don't want to use a Kindle for whatever reason, fair enough, but here thou doth protest too much.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Rizla

This is what I mean by intrusive and hard-sell with kindles. It forces firmware upgrade which then nags to upload side-loaded content to the cloud. Then it asks you to add twitter or something comments when you finish a book. I find that highly intrusive. I like Sonys because they are not intrusive.

The KPW2 does NOT nag you to upload your side-loaded content to the cloud--even with the new firmware. If you are creating collections on your KPW2 with your side-loaded content (or I believe even content downloaded from Amazon), with your wifi off, then you'll get nagged to connect so that your collection information can get uploaded to the cloud. The implementation of "cloud collections" wasn't very well thought out by Amazon--as you can tell from numerous posts here--so hopefully this behavior will be changed in a future firmware release.

But, as long as you don't create collections on the KPW2, there are no nags to connect to upload cloud information.