PRS500 and ePub -- a tidbit of news from Sony

[NatCh]

With Sony's recent announcement that they are going to go all ePub in their store, those of us (like me) who still use our beloved PRS500s may be feeling a bit left out.

Sony has said that they're working on an "update solution" for our venerable 500s, but no details thus far have been forthcoming.

I've got kind of a detail for you ... maybe half a detail. No, I still have no word on whether they've figured out a firmware fix or are planing a trade in, but I do have news about timing. Word is that they plan to have the "update solution" ready by the end of the year, when they switch the store over to all ePub.

There is a channel available to get notified when the mysterious "update solution" is ready: send an e-mail to feedback@ebookstore.sony.com with “500” in the subject line -- that is supposed to add you to a list to be notified.

I've already sent my own request.

Who's with me?

[RWood]

I'm there a few places behind you in line NatCh. I too have kept my 500. If it is a firmware update, I hope we do not lose LRF capability or even LRX capability for those past books from the Sony store.

[NatCh]

I hear you, but I'm less concerned about the LRX -- if I can re-download as ePub, I probably wouldn't be too concerned.

However, I imagine that the LRX and LRF are pretty closely intertwined, more likely the same display engine, so I'd expect it to be neither or both, and I'd really rather not have neither.

[Bob Russell]

Personally, I would love to have an inexpensive upgrade offer to a more recent device. But as I expect they won't be able to get the price under $100 to do that, I'm much better off if it's a firmware update.

I also have some really nice e-books from the MobileRead library that I'd like to continue to be able to read on the device, so I'd like to keep lrf support as well. But that's just a manner of inconvenience - I could also go download another format from MR to replace them.

What about a third option nobody has mentioned?... They might provide a book conversion utility. The 500 still reads lrf, but any new ePub book you buy can be run through the newly provided utility as part of the library software to convert it to an lrf, and then you can read it on your 500. This would clearly be a frustrating answer, but would seem to fall within the language we've seen as an "upgrade" path.

[Andanzas]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Word is that they plan to have the "update solution" ready by the end of the year, when they switch the store over to all ePub.

Hey, thanks for the news.

In that case, I don't expect a trade-in. Why would they wait until the end of the year to announce that?

By the way, I sent my request too.

[Gravitas]

just saw the news that sony was going ePub only on the BBC website just now...I love my PRS 500 (imported it from the US not long after it was released). I hope this upgrade path will take those of us not in the US into account.

[JSWolf]

The problem witht he 500 is that if Sony does decide to do a firmware update, you will lose LRF/LRX as the ROM in the 500 is not large enough to handle both. it would have to be a one or the other solution.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

Why would they wait until the end of the year to announce [a trade in]?

I'm not really arguing one way or the other, but I will point out that Sony seems to like to build anticipation about stuff.

The end of year timing is presumably because they want to coincide it with the store's switchover to ePub, it wouldn't be the first time they'd announced that "something" was coming way early and then the "something" turned out to not be all that earth-shaking.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem witht he 500 is that if Sony does decide to do a firmware update, you will lose LRF/LRX as the ROM in the 500 is not large enough to handle both. it would have to be a one or the other solution.

You may well be right, Jon. I suppose it's possible that they've had some breakthrough that allows them to cram it into a smaller space, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

I suppose it's also possible that they might do something like "we can give you ePub support, but it'll take up 60% of your 'user' RAM if you want to add it ...."

[sminarovich]

Okay, seems likely and fair that sony will allow 500 owners to redownload epub, but I assume that isn't the library, but only sony books, not fictionwise..thus will fictiowise allow me to redownload my lrf for epub a second time.

[RWood]

The memory space of the 500 is dynamic between the system code and the books/music/photos. This was established at one of the early firmware updates when we had a different user space available after the upgrade. If it takes too much of the main memory we may just have to use the memory stick/SD card reader for book storage.

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem witht he 500 is that if Sony does decide to do a firmware update, you will lose LRF/LRX as the ROM in the 500 is not large enough to handle both. it would have to be a one or the other solution.

Will you stop saying that? There is NO evidence for your claim.

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by RWood

The memory space of the 500 is dynamic between the system code and the books/music/photos. This was established at one of the early firmware updates when we had a different user space available after the upgrade. If it takes too much of the main memory we may just have to use the memory stick/SD card reader for book storage.

I don't know how this works, so I'll take your word for it. But I would gladly give up main storage to get ePub capability - I store all my books on an SD card anyway!

[Timoleon]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Will you stop saying that? There is NO evidence for your claim.

To extend on what Igorsk says --- an earlier post on another thread claims that the display routines for LRF/LRX and EPUB in the Sony ROM together would take up only a tenth to a fifth of the resources available --- more than enough ROM left over for Sony to work their magic!

Here's hoping!

[RWood]

The more I think about it, the more I tend to remember that the code itself for ADE/ePub is not too big, what is large is the working storage required to decode and display ePub.

I would see the easiest way for them to implement a hardware/firmware solution would be to modify the existing firmware to check for a card and see if there is code on the card, if there is then execute it, otherwise revert to being the reader it is today. On a card you can have the additional code and a reserved working space. When we would look at it it would just seem like one large file that was not a book/music/photo. Just a thought.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by RWood

Just a thought.

Yet a very interesting thought, RWood.