Two Questions - just got my PRS500

[jotheman]

Hi there,

since Calibre and BookIt make such a great team I recently bought a second-hand PRS500 on ebay in addition to my Hanlin V3. I must say that I am very impressed. Should have bought one much earlier.

I immediately bricked it while trying to get chinese support, though (Firmware update via VMWare XP - bad idea), but sucessfully unbricked it using a friends PC.

Most important Questions:
- is there any way of deleting files on the reader itself? (maybe via a hack or via some option I have missed till now)
- how do I create collections on a Mac?

Help is appreciated! Thanks in advance,

Cheers,


jo.

[jotheman]

OK, I have to excuse myself: "tags" and "series" in calibre = collections.

Great! (But why not just call it what it is?)

Anyway, my most important question remains: can I somehow delete files on the reader itself?
I'd love to read an article (created with BookIt) and then delete it right away.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by jotheman

Anyway, my most important question remains: can I somehow delete files on the reader itself?
I'd love to read an article (created with BookIt) and then delete it right away.

No you can't. You have to connect the Reader to the computer. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

[jotheman]

No hack or anything?

Any hope for a future solution?

My PRS500 is getting clogged up already...

[radius]

If you read books off of a memory stick or sd card instead of putting in the reader's memory, then you can manage them through your mac's finder instead...

[jotheman]

Well, that's kinda obvious. But why can't I delete them on the device right away? Is the Iliad really the only device to allow users to delete files? Why? I don't get it.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Patricia

No you can't. You have to connect the Reader to the computer. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

Yes, you can. You do not have to connect your reader to the computer ;-)

see
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ht=hackbuilder

I am using this hack. I have used it to delete files, copy files from card to memory and vice-versa.
But the most useful feature is page turning by joystick and uniform small font for file names.

[BookishDreamer]

How often do you connect your reader to the computer? I connect mine about every other week to update the contents (add/delete). That works for my reading habits. Do you read so much content between syncs that you have trouble remembering which things to delete?

Dreamer

[jotheman]

Originally Posted by BookishDreamer

How often do you connect your reader to the computer? I connect mine about every other week to update the contents (add/delete). That works for my reading habits. Do you read so much content between syncs that you have trouble remembering which things to delete?

Dreamer

Yes, I do. I read a lot of news articles (created with BookIt for Firefox), calibre-converted RSS feeds and all kinds of other stuff that I've dubbed "read-and-delete" files. So it can be a bit cumbersome to try and remember which files I've already read an which I haven't, as there is no indication on the computer/in the calibre library (e.g. like a playcount in iTunes).

@ kacir
Thanks for the link to that hack, it could be exaxtly what I was looking for.

[jotheman]

@ kacir

Will installing this hack make me loose other functionality that I added before, e.g. like Chinese support?

[BookishDreamer]

[QUOTE=jotheman;207023]Yes, I do. I read a lot of news articles (created with BookIt for Firefox), calibre-converted RSS feeds and all kinds of other stuff that I've dubbed "read-and-delete" files. QUOTE]

I can understand that. I'm that way with magazines - read it cover-to-cover and toss into the recycle bin. I hope the hack works for you.

Dreamer

[jotheman]

I've got a problem: I can't use the Hackbuilder. It seemingly won't run on a virtual Windows XP (I'm on Mac OS and use VMWare). Any way of manually adding the hacks to the correct folder in the SDcardRoot-directory so that they will be installed or does the Hackbuilder have to convert them into something else first?

[kacir]

Originally Posted by jotheman

IAny way of manually adding the hacks to the correct folder in the SDcardRoot-directory so that they will be installed or does the Hackbuilder have to convert them into something else first?

It is my understanding that hackbuilder just adds some xml files to the card connected to the card reader on the computer. I think you can just add files manually. Try searching old threads. Then you insert the card into the reader.
I do not use windows computer at home, I have just used company notebook to run hackbuilder.
I was quite reluctant to ... aehm ... "hack" my reader, because having my reader repaired after bricking would be quite complicated, since I do not live in USA.

I do not know for sure if hack will conflict with your installed chinese support. I do not think it will, but I have no need to add other fonts to my reader so I have not tried.

[jotheman]

The first thing I did after receiving my reader was to brick it. I messed around with the Chinese hack without reading the instructions first, which is not a smart thing to do. But unbricking it wasn't that hard, so no harm done (simply reflashing the firmware using a real Windows PC, not a virutal one!).

My understanding is, that the hacks have to be joined into one file (applicationStart.xml), so I guess I have to get access to a PC again.

Thanks,


jo.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by BookishDreamer

How often do you connect your reader to the computer?

I connect my Reader to the computer very, very seldom. As little as possible.

1. I do not use windows computer at home.
Connect software does not work on FreeBSD or Linux
2. Even if I used windows computer I *strongly* dislike the Sonny Connect software. They have managed to break just about every User Interface rule or standard.
3. I do not trust any software supplied by Sony (the rootkit debacle and so on...)
4. I do not buy books from Sony store.
4.1. I do not like used font (serif), wide margins, formating in general
4.2. I do not like DRM crippled books
4.3. they do not want my money because I am not from USA.

I use a card reader, purchased for cca $10 and I load rtf files created by OpenOffice, various other word processors (like Ted), series of macros written in Vim or even sed.

So the ability to copy book from card to memory and to delete it after reading was very welcome to me.