Quote:
Originally Posted by kacir
Regular visitors on this forum know that I do not like the Sony Company.
Yet, after months of careful reading of this forum and months of deliberation I have decided to buy (and import) Sony reader PRS500. That was almost a year ago. And I am a very, very happy owner.
I tell you why there are no firmware updates. The reason is simple. Very simple. The Reader JUST WORKS (Tm).
I know, I know ...
We (the geeks, the power users, the ebook fanatics) want directory support, mobi reader, SW for reading Kindle books, user uploadable font preferences, artificial intelligence that would understand PDF book (A4 or Letter format) and will miraculously reflow it regardless of fancy graphics, multiple text columns and complicated formulas. This kind of firmware update ain't gona happen. There will be no support for those things.
We (the geeks, etc... ) have the "hack builder" for reprogramming of buttons, deleting and copying files, direct page number input and other wonderful things our resident hackers managed to put together. There is even DICTIONARY. Go ahead and check the thread about the dictionary support for Reader. You would think that such a sought-after feature will be discussed in a hundred posts. This is, very surprisingly not the case here.
Sony reader does *everything* the average (non-geek) reader needs or wants.
Period.
- It has got 6" e-ink display
- One charge lasts many thousand pages or at least 14 days (after a YEAR of everyday use!)
- You can continue reading about two seconds after hitting the "power ON" button
- it does not freeze, it does not crash randomly
- it even displays page numbers correctly (unlike some devices (that I shall not name here, ;-) ) featuring Mobi pocket reader)
Try to compare the Sony Reder with other e-ink devices out there.
Compare it to the Iliad, that despite numerous updates drains battery in one day and takes ages to start. Compare it to the Cybook that can not even display page numbers correctly and does not start at the page you were reading when you switched it off.
I know that Iliad and Cybook Gen 3 have many wonderful features but we are talking about the maturity of the [soft|firm]ware. Perhaps Amazon Kindle is comparable to Sony Reader software maturity wise. And Kindle users are not holding their breath for the firmware update either.
Yes.
I am too waiting for the firmware update for PRS 505. Not that I have one, but the update will give our hackers essential information needed for various ingenious hacks for 505. And perhaps that is the reason that there is no update yet.
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100% agree with all your comments.