Another PRS-500 mini review

[allovertheglobe]

BACKGROUND

As computer usage goes, I would consider myself an enlightened amateur. I don't write software, and avoid scripting or unnecessarily complicated software if I can, but IF I can see a practical benefit, I'm up to the challenge of figuring some fairly complex problems out (like LRF creation, ha)

I have used dedicated reading devices since the Gemstar days (circa 1998) and struggled with getting my content on them while avoiding DRM-crippled content like the pest since then. I never thought that I would using my REB1100 and its successor for as long as I did, figuring that much improved devices (both in hardware and software) would be just around the corner for all those years. Boy was I wrong.

THE READER

Now we have one step forward in display technology, eInk, and two steps back, no search/dictionary and no backlight... The reader itself is nice, solid hardware, like the Sony products of yore that built their reputation. So the screen is really dark gray on light gray, but it doesn't bother me much. The lack of a backlight does.

My LightWedges (small and large) really don't work well at all, it's very clunky holding them , and since they can't touch the display surface, the illumination just isn't adequate.

What's with the tiny, blister-inducing page turn buttons?? Even my 1998 REB1100 got that right (and to a lesser extent the Iliad with its bar) The disc-shaped one at the bottom is not at a convenient position either.

The usability is OK, but a lot of button-presses to get back and forth between menu levels, which could have been reduced by intelligent use of the 10 keys at the bottom of the screen. Not that they don't get used all the time. Is there actually anybody who goes through the painfully slow practice of scrolling up and down the righthand arrow to select anything? And of course no touch screen either, again technology used in 1998. Speaking of slow, PDF (at least the included one) is noticeably slower than BBeB content, but I guess that's a price worth paying to be able to embed fonts.

Thankfully reading on the eInk display is nice, especially outside. And since it's a reading device that goes a long way towards making it palatable. As far as catching up on other 1998 features goes, I guess we'll have to wait another 8 years?

THE SOFTWARE & CONNECT STORE

The store is very poor in features AND performance: it's faster to navigate in my web-browser than in the Connect software on the same computer!! It is simply inexcusable to fail to provide an OS X version given the primitive feature set and the delays of this piece of s..oftware (I cannot find the article relaying the sad history of its inception right now)

The search functionality is pathetic (what's with all the titles that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with the search terms??), the limited sorting options make it a pain to browse, like looking for low-cost content. I stumbled across one actually free book (unlike the early accidentally "free" books, as per Google search of this forum) but gave up looking for more. If anybody knows of others, let us know here!

The ebook in question is a sampler: "Full-Blooded Fantasy". Funnily, the samples included do not imply actual availability:

Available at the Connect store:
- Sea of Trolls ($13.59)
- Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer ($7.16) (sadly, a search for "fairy" won't even list it)
- The Farsala Trilogy 1: Fall of a Kingdom ($3.99)
- Pendragon 6: The Rivers of Zadaa ($7.99) (What about Books 1-5???)

NOT available:
- Dark Reflections 1: The Water Mirror
- May Bird and the Ever After
- The Spiderwick Chronicles 1: The Field Guide
- The Conch Bearer (a search for it lists first "The Sword of Shannara", huh???)

I guess that ain't half bad... oh wait it is precisely.

ON A FINAL NOTE:

Content formatting seems to be an issue too, one book I recently got didn't even have chapter breaks, the text just noodled along from beginning to end. If that was someone's free conversion of a Gutenberg text, OK, but a commercial pay-to-read eBook...

Speaking of paying: under the circumstances, and based on my experience so far with the software, store, and the content, I don't see myself purchasing any further content beyond my free store credit. I'll just continue spending (wasting?) time to get content on there formatted the way ~I~ like it...

Regarding The Spiderwick Chronicles: They are available in a nice boxed set including all 5 illustrated books. I really like the series, and have recommended them to friends and family with great success. I also own them, and interestingly, they are almost -exactly- the same size as the PRS500. So you would think they could use the exact same layout, illustrations and all. Wrong. The illustrations are sometimes not even remotely in the same location, which is worse since they often relate to the text. And don't get me started on the quality of the images. The hardware is clearly capable of better. Then again it's only a sampler, and they didn't bother to release the actual books. Maybe it's better that way.

To end on a slightly more positive note, their "Temeraire" bundle is very nicely priced ($11.99 for all 3 books) and properly formatted too (even though the default font is tiny). I read the first book in paperback (which was ~7$ by itself) and it's a ripping good Fantasy yarn with the first original take on dragons in a while. Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings movies, is said to work on a movie adaptation (the right man for the job, for sure), after he finishes his work on the "The Lovely Bones", also an excellent, if completely different kind of story.

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by allovertheglobe

The ebook in question is a sampler: "Full-Blooded Fantasy".

Interesting... I dont remember that being one of my samplers. Am interested to know what the included books were on your Sony Reader (or was that a different kind of sampler?)

Nice review!

[allovertheglobe]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

Interesting... I dont remember that being one of my samplers. Am interested to know what the included books were on your Sony Reader (or was that a different kind of sampler?)

That one's from the Connect store, sorry for not being clearer.

Nice review!

Thanks!