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There are some changes in the 505's menus and functions that are worthy of note. While it is still a flat file system (the Sony Rep specifically pointed out that their thinking is that the flat file approach is much more straightforward for less technically minded users), there are some new options for finding books that are very interesting. First of all, there is the ability to sort by date (presumably date added) and alphabetically by author. Also, for those with a lot of books, it scans the list and presents an alphabetical list of books in chunks, i.e. A-C, D-F, and so on. These categories are then directly available with the number keys, which will speed jumping through the book listings considerably. Add these user interface improvements to the display contrast and refresh time improvements, and it should make for a marked improvement in the overall usability of the device.
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I should point out that 'By Date' and 'By Author' are already available on the 500. They just get you to the same bloody-inconvenient 10-per-screen list of your 1000 books, just sorted differently.
There're some other sorting things that are issues:
- Will they support the "reading as" meta-data in that sorting (or whatever the heck its real name is)? It's there in the spec of the lrf files. The PRS500 accepts it, but doesn't use it to affect the sorting. It'd be truly super if the new firmware honored the field.
- Also, for those of us who are English speakers and are sorting titles/authors of books in English, it would be super if they implemented the Mc/Mac alphabetization rule. Check it out in your library card catalog (paper or online) or look at the books on the shelf... Author last names starting with 'Mc' or 'Mac' or 'Mc ' or Mac ' all sort as though that prefix was a letter that comes after L and before M. Thus 'Angus McThud' and 'Angus Mac Thud' sort identically. They also come before that well known author 'Angus M'.
Of course if the new firmware supported
both the "reading as" meta-data
and the Mc/Mac rule, I could also have the name
display as 'Angus McThud' but
sort as 'McThud, Angus', which would get things working the way they really should.
Is there any chance that the MobileRead guys can ask the Sony folks whether they have any plans to support/fix these things?
Xenophon
P.S.
Of course, I wouldn't want any of you to think that I'm overly pedantic, or anal or anything. But... Can any of you tell me... Is anal-retentive spelled with or without a hyphen?
