[hermes]

>Here is some info to help you get started with your 350 -

And thank you all forum members who are volunteering their time. If I ever have anything useful to post I will do the same.

>The Sony appears as a standard USB storage device, just like a memory stick or thumb-drive, so YES you CAN 'drag-and-drop' books onto the 350 with your mac, or ANY PC, as long as they are in a DRM free compatible format.

If you want to try this, download some free titles in EPUB format from the [URL="http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain"]public domain section of feedbooks.com[/UR

Indeed I have done so from Guteneberg.

>You can buy books from the Sony Ebook Store, Google Books, or even Kobo. The reason that you need to use a U.S. address to buy books is because they are restricted to the U.S. market by their publishers (so if you want to rant at someone, blame them NOT Sony, Kobo, etc.)

AAh yes, the old marketing realties matter of publishing jurisdictional licenses. Which is why second-hand bookstores buyers travel to India and buy from the world's second (?) largest English-language publishing industry and then resell these grey-market books in Thailand. I suppose technically they are book smugglers but the Thai authorities have more important contraband to look out for. "Hmmm, amphetemines or Peyiar Purana - where we will focus?" Actually, importing suitcases of great books might be legal. I suppose it is the EXPORT that publishers in India might object to.

>You can also blame the publishers for REQUIRING that their ebook titles, whether sold by Amazon, Sony, Google, Kobo or anyone else, be protected by some form of DRM (Digital Rights Management Copy Protection).

I didn't realize this very important point. Perhaps there is an alternative that both pays the writers and publishers properly and isn't so geeky. But as I am not (at the moment anyway) in the publishing business - this is not up to me, so I must adapt. Ugh. "Me Dinosaur, no like adapt."


>Were it not for DRM, you would be able to simply drag and drop purchased books as simply as the free feedbook titles above. Because of DRM, you will indeed need special software to buy and transfer books to your PRS-350. With a PC you can use either Adobe Digital Editions (ADE is free from Adobe) or use the 'Sony Reader Library' software that came with your Sony. With a Mac, you will probably want to use the 'Sony Reader Library' because the Adobe ADE software reportedly has trouble with not recognizing the Sony Readers on Macs.

I was not aware that ADE could be problematic with Macs. Good to know.

>- You can't have a non-wireless device, and still expect books to just magically appear on the device, so obviously you need a computer of some sort,

Obviously.

>and unfortunately, BOTH Adobe ADE and the Sony software is registered to a specific PC during installation,

This is VERY bad news.

>so you can't just wander willy-nilly around the planet

And indeed I do.

>installing copies wherever you need them. You will eventually run out of allowable authorizations (Adobe allows only Six computers or reader devices to be authorized at one time, with your PRS-350 counting as one of them).

uh-oh. Sounds like a major problem.

>There is a way to de-register a computer when you are done using it, so you can retain unused authorizations, but it requires a lot of that geeky garbage that you don't seem to like very much.

Might have to learn.

>Even if you like to travel lite, you will find things a lot easier all around, if you at least consider investing in an inexpensive Netbook PC.

I don't need to download books *that* often. I can keep a small computer at a home base stash for in between rovings. The challenge will be once I am in say Nepal and discover that some bookstore there has digital editions and I want to make an impulse purchase... but perhaps we haven't gotten there yet. Hmm, come to think of it I don't see any independent bookstores even in the first world metroplises with ebooks. I suppose that will change.

[snip re: cheapo netbooks]

>In an ideal world, all our apps would be perfectly portable between devices, and would sync data perfectly from the web, but until we reach that utopian point, having a portable device that meets all my needs, and that is portable enough to travel with me is a not a luxury, it's a necessity.[/QUOTE]

Indeed