Adios, Sony!

[slayda]

Originally Posted by suineg

Making analogies is like using carbon dating for things that happened yesterday.

That's right, someone will always find a hole in it and it just won't work. Drop the analogies and you might actually get your point across.

Hey, some people think by analogy. For others it just confuses the issue with irrelevant data.

[BlackVoid]

Originally Posted by BettyE

Well, Sony just made my decision for me as to whether or not I keep my new Kindle.

I have a PRS 500 and, one option, was to get the PRS 505 instead of the Kindle. Now, I see that Sony has abandoned the early adopters who bought the PRS 500 less than 2 years ago. No way to upgrade, even paying a fee to add memory.... They must have known about the memory issue for future upgrades even when they launched the PRS 500. When will they abandon the PRS 505?

Betty

WHAT MEMORY ISSUE? The PRS-500 has plenty of memory for books. If you want MP3, expansion cards are CHEAP. Standalone MP3 players are cheap as well. I do not understand your problem. (Sorry I did not read all the replies to this thread, just the starting post).
As for a rebate: just sell your PRS 500. I did just that when I got my 505.

[seajewel]

I have read the thread, but point taken. The main beef I have with people who post in this thread is the frustration about the new firmware upgrade and being abandoned or being screwed by Sony because the firmware upgrade only applies to 505. And there has been a lot of that.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by seajewel

I have read the thread, but point taken. The main beef I have with people who post in this thread is the frustration about the new firmware upgrade and being abandoned or being screwed by Sony because the firmware upgrade only applies to 505. And there has been a lot of that.

You missed the point. It matters not that the 505 is being upgraded. What matters is that the 500 is not ever going to be upgraded.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by slayda

You missed the point. It matters not that the 505 is being upgraded. What matters is that the 500 is not ever going to be upgraded.

You keep saying this, and I have to keep replying "so what?" I've been using PDAs of various descriptions for some 20-odd years and I can't remember a single instance where any Pocket PC or Palm device has received a significant upgrade after being released. When something better comes out, you sell your old device and buy a new one. This isn't something "shocking and new" - it's the way the electronics industry works. Get over it!

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by seajewel

I have read the thread, but point taken. The main beef I have with people who post in this thread is the frustration about the new firmware upgrade and being abandoned or being screwed by Sony because the firmware upgrade only applies to 505. And there has been a lot of that.

And I feel for them. To be honest, I should probably stay well out of threads that even mention Sony. Since I don't purchase Sony goods anymore and I'm not replacing or repairing those of my Sony electronics that go South on me, quite soon I expect I will have exactly zero first hand knowledge about anything Sony ... just a lot of really bad memories. And those are boring to me, much less to others.

[grimo1re]

Ricky, out of curiosity, which brand does work for you both in the support and obsolesce issues? I'm not easily disappointed because I don't expect much I suppose...but that's a tad sad when you think about it. Products, of course, shouldn't just become obsolete after a couple of years, but that discussion is much wider than Sony.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by grimo1re

Ricky, out of curiosity, which brand does work for you both in the support and obsolesce issues? I'm not easily disappointed because I don't expect much I suppose...but that's a tad sad when you think about it. Products, of course, shouldn't just become obsolete after a couple of years, but that discussion is much wider than Sony.

For the most part, with desktop computers, I build my own now so that I can upgrade in parts. I have had very good luck with the various support teams of the parts and software manufacturers ... with the exception of nVidia -- they are godawful.

With laptops, I have found Toshiba to be much more responsive to support and repair than Sony ever was.

With televisions, I know I switched brands ... but I can't for the life of my tell you what the last two purchases were.

My monitors are all still Sony at the moment, but that will change as those start to fail. When one goes, they will all be tossed and replaced with four new monitors of some other manufacturer.

[pilotbob]

I just can't believe it... I just found out that I can't play all my VHS movies on my new DVD player. Panasonic says there is nothing that I can do but buy all my movies on DVD format. This is ludicrous. I think that Panasonic should swap all my movies out from VHS to these new DVD disk things. I'm never going to buy a Panasonic device again.

Ok, I've been screwed again... LG said that I would have to rebuy all my DVD movies in Blu-Ray format in order to get HD pictures from them. They refuse to play my current DVD's as HD and won't swap them out for me for free or at least a nice low price. I am SO done with LG products!!!

I must be the most unlucky person. I just found out that my 2001 Toyota Camry will not be able to run on Ethanol or Biodesel or Electric. This is incredibally short sited. Toyota must have known back in 2001 that the demand for oil would sore which would cause prices to rise on all kinds of petroleum products. The should have designed the ability to use alternative fuels into my Camry when they designed it.

Now, in this thread I find out I can't upgrade my PRS-500 to support these new eBook formats! I'm going to explode.

Why do these companies do these things? They don't care about customers and are just screwing us all to make money. That's all they seem to care about, making money and building shareholder value.

BOb

[slayda]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I just can't believe it... I just found out that I can't play all my VHS movies on my new DVD player. Panasonic says there is nothing that I can do but buy all my movies on DVD format. This is ludicrous. I think that Panasonic should swap all my movies out from VHS to these new DVD disk things. I'm never going to buy a Panasonic device again.

Ok, I've been screwed again... LG said that I would have to rebuy all my DVD movies in Blu-Ray format in order to get HD pictures from them. They refuse to play my current DVD's as HD and won't swap them out for me for free or at least a nice low price. I am SO done with LG products!!!

I must be the most unlucky person. I just found out that my 2001 Toyota Camry will not be able to run on Ethanol or Biodesel or Electric. This is incredibly short sited. Toyota must have known back in 2001 that the demand for oil would sore which would cause prices to rise on all kinds of petroleum products. The should have designed the ability to use alternative fuels into my Camry when they designed it.

Now, in this thread I find out I can't upgrade my PRS-500 to support these new eBook formats! I'm going to explode.

Why do these companies do these things? They don't care about customers and are just screwing us all to make money. That's all they seem to care about, making money and building shareholder value.

BOb

Bob, this is the type of ridicule I mention in previous posts. You are mixing HW and SW. I am not. I'm speaking of SW upgrades only - not HW upgrades, no shipping, no retooling.

I bet if your DVD player was advertised to play DVD-RW and it only played DVDs that were commercially pressed, you would be upset, especially if that factored strongly in why you purchased it. That is exactly the type of process that Sony did with the 500. They said it would play RTF files but they did not said, "But hey, it will not show TOC or images in the RTF." or "But it is crippled and won't have all the functionality of RTF." That is a SW upgrade that they should make to just get their reader to where they advertised it to be. I AM NOT asking to have it be upgraded to completely different HW.

Now please stop making ridiculous HW comparisons. HW is NOT the issue. I just want them to make the things they advertised work correctly with their SW.

[MerLock]

Perhaps we should just go back to the days without internet where there were no patches/sw updates to anything. You pretty much buy the item and continue to use it or just return it if you are unsatisfied with it.

I know there was some news about Apple charging customers for the new Itouch firmware upgrade. I don't know if it was true or if it was implemented but if you really look a it, does the purchase of a piece of hardware also include the right to get firmware updates? I hope companies don't start charging for updates but I think they could.

Look at anti virus software. Does the purchase of it include unlimited subscription updates the virus detection? Without those virus updates, the software over time becomes useless.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I just can't believe it... I just found out that I can't play all my VHS movies on my new DVD player. Panasonic says there is nothing that I can do but buy all my movies on DVD format. This is ludicrous. I think that Panasonic should swap all my movies out from VHS to these new DVD disk things. I'm never going to buy a Panasonic device again.

Ok, I've been screwed again... LG said that I would have to rebuy all my DVD movies in Blu-Ray format in order to get HD pictures from them. They refuse to play my current DVD's as HD and won't swap them out for me for free or at least a nice low price. I am SO done with LG products!!!

I must be the most unlucky person. I just found out that my 2001 Toyota Camry will not be able to run on Ethanol or Biodesel or Electric. This is incredibally short sited. Toyota must have known back in 2001 that the demand for oil would sore which would cause prices to rise on all kinds of patroleum products. The should have designed the ability to use alternative fuels into my Camry when they designed it.

Now, in this thread I find out I can upgrade my PRS-500 to support these new eBook formats! I'm going to explode.

Why do these companies do these things? They don't care about customers and are just screwing us all to make money. That's all they seem to care about, making money and building shareholder value.

BOb

Nah .... you can easily convert your VHS to DVD ... and you can even convert your Camry to run on biodiesel. In fact, it's pretty easy to make biodeisel.

And, of course, you would have every right to be upset if the VHS maker advertised that the player would also play DVDs and the folks at Toyota advertised that the Camry would run on biodeisel. Sony tends to do a lot of puffery about their products ...

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by MerLock

Perhaps we should just go back to the days without internet where there were no patches/sw updates to anything. You pretty much buy the item and continue to use it or just return it if you are unsatisfied with it.

I know there was some news about Apple charging customers for the new Itouch firmware upgrade. I don't know if it was true or if it was implemented but if you really look a it, does the purchase of a piece of hardware also include the right to get firmware updates? I hope companies don't start charging for updates but I think they could.

Look at anti virus software. Does the purchase of it include unlimited subscription updates the virus detection? Without those virus updates, the software over time becomes useless.

To me, it's a warranty issue. If they are going to warranty an item for a particular period, then that warranty should include firmware upgrades. When you purchase the virus program, it generally states clearly on the box that it only includes free updates for one year. As long as they spell out to the consumer what they will or will not get, then I have no problem when they follow through accordingly.

But, as Slayda noted, if Sony stated that the 500 could read RTF, and if that statement was untrue or limited so severely as to be impractical, then they should (IMO) provide upgrades until the reality comports with what was advertised.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Nah .... you can easily convert your VHS to DVD ... and you can even convert your Camry to run on biodiesel. In fact, it's pretty easy to make biodeisel.

Please send directions? I assume I would need to swap my engine for a diesel one?

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

And, of course, you would have every right to be upset if the VHS maker advertised that the player would also play DVDs and the folks at Toyota advertised that the Camry would run on biodeisel. Sony tends to do a lot of puffery about their products ...

Oh... I see. But, I don't remember Sony advertising that the PRS-500 would support digital editions, ePub format, or Adobe DRM?

BOb

[slayda]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Please send directions? I assume I would need to swap my engine for a diesel one?



Oh... I see. But, I don't remember Sony advertising that the PRS-500 would support digital editions, ePub format, or Adobe DRM?

BOb

And that is not what I'm asking in an upgrade!