Sony Digital Paper DPT-S1 Owner's Thread

[PFT]

Originally Posted by Dmirish

I have my unit for about 2 weeks and going well enough, syncing with box.com is a bit clunky as I find I need to start notes from documents and the online folder rather than direct from notes. Otherwise it works ok, but I'd really prefer direct syncing with Evernote.

I've also found that if you send the notes onward some people can't see the annotations or writing on the notes, you may need to repair and flatten the odd before sending them onward which is a bit hit and miss. This may be a box.com issue though I'm not sure.

Has anyone sourced a better case for the unit? I find the sleeve quite flimsy and not suitable for such a costly device (especially getting one to Ireland!)

The annotations not staying with the original document is a real bummer. Sometimes it is necessary to print out several pages and lay them out in front of you to study together. I love my DPT but it fails me if I need to print or e-mail a file.

Does anyone know anything about this?

[FelisNiveus]

Originally Posted by Dmirish

I have my unit for about 2 weeks and going well enough, syncing with box.com is a bit clunky as I find I need to start notes from documents and the online folder rather than direct from notes. Otherwise it works ok, but I'd really prefer direct syncing with Evernote.

I've also found that if you send the notes onward some people can't see the annotations or writing on the notes, you may need to repair and flatten the odd before sending them onward which is a bit hit and miss. This may be a box.com issue though I'm not sure.

Has anyone sourced a better case for the unit? I find the sleeve quite flimsy and not suitable for such a costly device (especially getting one to Ireland!)

I checked lots of cases, but most were too small (sized for 10" tablets) or too long (sized for widescreen laptops). I found one from Case Logic that fits very well. It is their part TS113 and is advertised to fit 13-14" laptops, MacBook Pro, Chromebook, or Ultrabooks. It is tall enough to hold the DPT (including the sleeve and stylus) and yet not so wide that the device slops around. While not rigid, the padding is pretty thick. I like not having to worry about the stylus catching on something else and popping off (again).

[ManDay]

Nate has posted an interesting article which contains surprising information about 13.3" screens - you might want to check it out.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...cs-wholesaler/

[ManDay]

I must be slightly desperate, having actually played with the thought to buy a Sony for myself at that ridiculous price. But there appears to be no way telling when Pocketbook or Netronix will eventually release their devices, if ever. I thus wonder about certain qualities of the Sony:

Could anyone with first hand experience describe their opinion of pen input/annotation. How does the writing feel? Is the pen precise? On the Onyx M92, for example, it's a +-1mm thing and well, it doesn't feel all to natural. Writing in cursive, for example, is quite impossible and will usually end in something completely unreadable. So I have to write letter by letter. Not a big thing, but it's far from "natural". How is that on the Sony? Does it feel good, like on paper?

Does the writing software (where you write a whole new document instead of annotating an existing one) actually deliver? For example, I've heard that in the first version the document was limited to what, nine pages or so. Is it now possible to insert/add/delete arbitrary pages? And is it stable or will it crash frequently? Has anyone made sufficient experience with that?

[rpv]

I played with the Sony Digital Paper at the Stanford Shopping Mall Sony Store yesterday. What an awesome piece of hardware. At $1000 it is still an if for me. If it could read epub also it will be an easy piece of decision for me. With Pocketbook 13.3" also in line, their CS support says it will be available in US too, I am inclined to wait. bit the Sony DPTS1 is a beauty. I took bunch of my pdfs in a microSD card and tried them. Awesome!

I have got the syndrome now and may very well take the plunge as well! The delights of technology.

Manday, i found the pen to be very responsive and quite easy to write even cursive. If you have a Sony retail store nearby try it yourself.

[Alexey.deep]

Major negatives for US version, on my opinion:

1) No sync log for WebDav.
2) No Copy/Paste in Pdf viewer or Browser
3) No International Touch-keyboard layout
4) No special characters display in Pdf viewer. For example Kazakh language
5) I am not sure what is "Solution Server" mean and is there any customisation opportunity
6) No any available support center for device, even on web, where i can ask questions and receive answers.

[rpv]

Originally Posted by Alexey.deep

Major negatives for US version, on my opinion:

1) No sync log for WebDav.
2) No Copy/Paste in Pdf viewer or Browser
3) No International Touch-keyboard layout
4) No special characters display in Pdf viewer. For example Kazakh language
5) I am not sure what is "Solution Server" mean and is there any customisation opportunity
6) No any available support center for device, even on web, where i can ask questions and receive answers.

I was able to load a Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil document with no issues, so I know special character display is supported.

[Alexey.deep]

Originally Posted by rpv

I was able to load a Sanskrit/Hindi/Tamil document with no issues, so I know special character display is supported.

You are right.
Correction: Special character in filenames @ file browser

[setasai]

Just wanted to give my thoughts on this device. I bought the US version a little over a month ago and have been using it daily since.

I use it to read PDFs of medical textbooks mostly. Some books I've used it to view are surgical textbooks, medical textbooks, board review books, medical journals, and question books. PDF's for the most part fit perfectly. Even for the textbooks that are a bit too large and are shrunk to fit, I still find better than my laptop (macbook air 11"). I don't own a high resolution LCD based tablet so it would be difficult to compare but I have a dell venue pro 8 and it's a mediocre reading experience at best.

As for notetaking... it's "okay". You need to write without worrying about how it comes out. Use muscle memory instead of watching the lines. There is such a thing as writing too fast with a device like this and not all the characters come out perfect. Cursive always looked better to me than print. Annotating documents and jotting down small notes is good but taking notes from a blank sheet is disappointing because small handwriting doesnt come out very good. You can zoom in and then write and then zoom out which helps but isnt ideal. The actual writing experience is pretty good. Plastic feels much more natural than writing on glass. It has just enough give to feel like a pad of paper but isnt scratchy. I'd say it feels like a pencil on a smooth cutting board.

Summary: Was it worth the $1000? For me it is because I can take a 2000 page textbook and read it on the go. Table of contents works well, page flipping works well, workspaces make it easy to read one book and flip to another for comparison. For example, I look at a topic from a surgical text, switch to a medical text, then to a pathology text. Jotting down notes, underlining, highlighting works well. There is definitely some lag but nothing that slows me down when I have work to do. Will I pull this out at a meeting to take notes? No, definitely not. It's much faster to grab a piece of paper and start scribbling.

Any questions, feel free to ask. I am a 3rd year medical student so my use is purely academic, although I may consider reading comics on it at a future date.

[David Munch]

Could someone try and post a picture of the eBook displaying a paper from a scientific journal, with a few images of some sort?

[ManDay]

Originally Posted by setasai

As for notetaking... it's "okay". You need to write without worrying about how it comes out. Use muscle memory instead of watching the lines. There is such a thing as writing too fast with a device like this and not all the characters come out perfect. Cursive always looked better to me than print. Annotating documents and jotting down small notes is good but taking notes from a blank sheet is disappointing because small handwriting doesnt come out very good. You can zoom in and then write and then zoom out which helps but isnt ideal. The actual writing experience is pretty good. Plastic feels much more natural than writing on glass. It has just enough give to feel like a pad of paper but isnt scratchy. I'd say it feels like a pencil on a smooth cutting board.

Thank you for this part in particular, it was very helpful for me! So, I guess I'll wait at least for either of the PocketBook or the Netronix to come out and hope that I can find someone who can compare those. One thing that strikes me as notably convenient/well-designed on the Sony is the intuitive multi-tasking/workspace feature which allows you to switch beetween documents and annotations fluently and, on top of that, the ability to embed little "canvases" for notes into a document. Very clever and, even before the Sony came out, I'd always wished for something like that.

So, I'll guess a few more months of wait wont hurt in any case

As for the "feel" of the pen on plastic: If the tip is removable like in Wacom-like digitizers, you can replace it with another material. My Wacom Digitzer came with various tips, all of which have a very different feeling (like a rubber one, a plastic one, an elastic one, etc.)

[fgdas]

Originally Posted by ManDay

"I guess I'll wait at least for either of the PocketBook or the Netronix to come out.

Netronix cannot sell its "knockoff" because the the number of lawsuits it would face.
PocketBook (Russian company) has never shown working device. All you can see (since December 2013) are computer generated ideas. PocketBook took down all the CAD Reader/Flex pictures from their websites.

How long Sony's Digital Paper will be around if Sony is selling all their divisions?

EInk's monopoly is the problem.

[ManDay]

Originally Posted by fgdas

Netronix cannot sell its "knockoff" because the the number of lawsuits it would face.
PocketBook (Russian company) has never shown working device. All you can see (since December 2013) are computer generated ideas. PocketBook took down all the CAD Reader/Flex pictures from their websites.

How long Sony's Digital Paper will be around if Sony is selling all their divisions?

EInk's monopoly is the problem.

Heh, if they're not selling these damn 13.3 readers eventually and even Sony takes theirs off the market, I'm going to hit Kickstarter with the idea. Seriously, someone should have done this long ago (as opposed to the "Earl" -- talk about vapourware -- the 13.3 has all specs ready to go, touchscreen, E-Ink fina, ARM Processor and a bit of memory, all done).

[setasai]

Originally Posted by David Munch

Could someone try and post a picture of the eBook displaying a paper from a scientific journal, with a few images of some sort?

All scientific journals look exactly how it looks printed on a black and white printer. If you have a particular PDF journal article you want me to show you, send it to me and I'll try a couple photos of it.

The only thing is that the eink screen doesnt have that many shades of gray so the detail of photos is significantly lower. Tables show up just fine of course. I wouldnt be using this device to do alot of picture viewing if that is what you are concerned about.

[setasai]

Originally Posted by ManDay

Thank you for this part in particular, it was very helpful for me! So, I guess I'll wait at least for either of the PocketBook or the Netronix to come out and hope that I can find someone who can compare those.

So, I'll guess a few more months of wait wont hurt in any case

As for the "feel" of the pen on plastic: If the tip is removable like in Wacom-like digitizers, you can replace it with another material. My Wacom Digitzer came with various tips, all of which have a very different feeling (like a rubber one, a plastic one, an elastic one, etc.)

I also considered waiting. The problem is you lose out on the time you could be using the Sony device by waiting. Also consider that it may not come out at all. The Sony is a great device. It does one thing and does it well. Read FULLSIZED PDFs and "annotate" those PDFs. If that is all you want to do, then it's a no-brainer in my opinion.

The pen tip feels good. Sure it is replaceable with wacom tips but I havent had the desire to change it yet. I prefer the plastic feel over glass.

Originally Posted by fgdas

How long Sony's Digital Paper will be around if Sony is selling all their divisions?

I too considered what would happen when it gets discontinued because it inevitably will regardless of whether or not sony sells all their divisions. My final thought is, it is designed to read PDFs... even after it gets discontinued, it will STILL read PDFs. As far as a niche product is concerned, it will continue to serve its purpose. If your reason for getting one is the reason it is built, you might as well get one before it gets axed and then becomes unavailable.