Sony Wishlist

[jamadams]

Originally Posted by colinsky

Incidentally, has anyone directly contacted Sony and asked for an updated ADE firmware, or are we just assuming that they know we want this?

I emailed Sony about this today:

I have a Sony Reader, which I love; however the firmware for the device does not understand full text justification in the EPUB format.

EPUB documents downloaded to the reader lack justification on the right hand side, making the document look messy.

Newer devices from other manufacturers do support this feature, which greatly improves the readability of text.

Can a Sony representative confirm whether a fix to this bug is being worked on, and if so, offer a timescale to implementation.

I'll let you know if I get a reply.

[Laurentiu]

Originally Posted by jamadams

I'll let you know if I get a reply.

Good luck with that one! I would not hold my breath, though... I e-mailed them two weeks ago and, up to now, not even an automated message to let me know that the message was received!
I own several Sony products, I am pretty happy with my reader (aside from the 'usual' problems mentioned here, but I think that my next reader won't be a Sony anymore!

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by jamadams

I emailed Sony about this today:



I'll let you know if I get a reply.

Don't hold your breath, like laurentiu, I've emailed them a couple of times with suggestions and never received a reply.

I'm sure though that they are reading this forum and taking everything we say and putting on some big white board somewhere


Ok, maybe not

[dsvick]

Just in case though....

To add to my earlier wish about more info displayed in the book info, I'd also like to see:

• original published date - it is neat with a lot of books to be able to look at the date it was published to get some idea of the frame of reference the author was working in.
• number of pages in the book
• a way to view the cover easily while reading the book.

[SimonSays]

Maybe they have it now on a reader other than what I have, I don't know but I would love COLOR in pictures


And I SO agree with sub folders. I really wish I could have it set up where I could put my books in one folder and then in those folder group by genre and then have another folder for books I read to my son

[Mike_73]

I doubt that any fw update will bring any new functions rather than bugfixes. They have the cropping on the 900 but there's no "cropping update" for the 600, allthough I'm pretty sure that the programming would pretty similar. So they know how to do it but still don't improve any allready sold hardware. Or am I just being to negative here???

[Laurentiu]

Originally Posted by Mike_73

So they know how to do it but still don't improve any allready sold hardware. Or am I just being to negative here???

Well, they should do it, and that's what I pointed in my e-mail. Firstly, because the 600 is still in production, so, an updated version would make the customers buying it, and secondly, because the competition is harsh - iPad is coming pretty soon and I'm afraid that Sony and others will loose some customers if they don't react quick enough. (now, this being said, let's not start another discossion here about Apple and whether or not the iPad is a good product!)

[Mike_73]

Laurentiu, I fully agree with you. Though I still doubt that there'll be an update rather than a PRS-606 or so.

[jamadams]

I received the following reply today:

Thank you for your recent e-mail received on 23/02/2010 06.45 PM.

I am pleased to learn that you are the owner of a Sony PRS-600 but am sorry to learn of the issue you have encountered.

As the EPUB format is an open format, it is possible that different files will behave and display in different manners, it is possible that you may find that EPUB documents from another source will be displayed with justification on the Reader.

If you have downloaded EPUB documents from various sources and the issue occurs on all files, if you have any non DRM protected EPUB files e.g. ones that where free to download, I would be grateful if you could attach one or two of these in order that we may investigate further.

Can anyone help me word a response? Am I right in saying that this issue affects ALL epub documents from ALL publishers? I don't have much experience with epub.

[Laurentiu]

...it is possible that you may find that EPUB documents from another source will be displayed with justification on the Reader.

Well, if I were you, I would ask them to send me ONE book in EPUB format that is displayed justified on the PRS. Just one excerpt from a book would suffice!
As usual, the person who reads and answers the e-mails has no clue whatsoever about the technical capabilities.
Anyway, it's good to hear that you received a reply (how long did it take?) At least we know there is somebody at the other end of the line!

[omk3]

Un-be-lievable! They manage to sound so knowledgeable when in fact they have no idea!
I think the prs-900 does support full justification, so they might just be confused....
Why don't you send them an epub from right here on mobileread, one with full justification already specified in its code? (anyone can recommend one?) Let them find out for themselves.
Good thing that they at least took the trouble to answer though...

[jamadams]

Originally Posted by Laurentiu

Anyway, it's good to hear that you received a reply (how long did it take?) At least we know there is somebody at the other end of the line!

Only a couple of days.

I sent this reply today:

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

I can confirm that the device does this with ALL epub format documents, however I have attached one anyway. This is a considerable problem, since all ebooks on the Sony Store, Waterstones etc are published in this format.

Whilst the document shows fully justified in the Sony Reader desktop software, it does not on the reader itself. Specifically, it is the right hand side of the document that is not justified.

I can confirm that both the PRS-600 & PRS-300 do the same.

There is some strength of feeling about this problem within the ereader community. You will find more information in the mobileread.com forums.

We'll see what they say.

[s3ntient]

I sent a mail to sony support about a month ago asking whether a firmware update was in the works to support full justification on the 600, they replied:

I'm glad to provide the information regarding the justification support for the PRS-600. At this point of time, there is no Firmware update to support justification for PRS-600. However, you can increase or decrease the font size to adjust the lines of the books.

...

[jamadams]

We'll you don't need to be a Sony rep to realise that there is not an update at this point of time

I sometimes wonder about these people on the phones / behind emails. Surely there must be a way, as a consumer, to pass on a message to actual developers about their product.

[Laurentiu]

At this point of time, there is no Firmware update to support justification for PRS-600.

OK, that's bad news, but somehow expected!

However, you can increase or decrease the font size to adjust the
lines of the books.

Now, what did we ask, and what did they answer... Can someone explain me (or Sony), how is the font adjustment supposed to help the user who is annoyed by the lack of justification?

On the other side, I can live with the lack of justification in exchange of supplemental dictionaries! But, something tells me this is another dead issue! Still can't figure why do we need two English dictionaries? (Yes, I know that a 'lorry' in UK is a 'truck' in US, but I can live with those differences).

At least now I know that my next reader won't be from Sony!