MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - If you could change some things on the 505, what would it be?

Xenophon · 10-17-2008, 10:50 PM

My desires come in three distinct areas:

For the display itself, I want higher contrast and MUCH higher pixel density. 4x improvement in dot pitch would be lovely (from ~180 DPI to ~720 DPI). I'm far less concerned about number of gray-scale levels, and don't give a darn about color. Of course, this is really out of Sony's hands; they depend on the various e-Paper companies for the screens themselves.

For the device, I want drastically improved physical ergonomics. Heck, I'd be happy with the button layout of the REB-1100 along with its ability to choose which of the four edges is the top of the screen (thus supporting both left and right-handed use in both portrait and landscape mode). The REB-1100 was too heavy and too thick, but Sony doesn't seem to have a problem in that area -- just in button placement, size, and function. Rumor has it that the new 700 has improvements in this area. If so, I'll probably buy one.

For the software, my primary desire is for usable support for large numbers of books. There's absolutely no excuse for the fact that it takes minutes to find and identify a few hundred books -- Calibre does it way faster, even with super-slow USB-1.1 sitting between it and the reader... And less excuse than that for the HALF HOUR(!!) it takes when I have 1500 or so books on an SD card (note: these are PRS-500 times, but I hear tell that the 505 ain't much better). And I won't even start on the totally lame FLAT LIST of books, with no support for any kind of hierarchy other than collections. A rather more minor issue would be official support for user-installable fonts. Especially if it understood font families correctly so as to use real italics and boldface instead of lamely-synthesized versions. It would be nice to be able to choose my own font.

Xenophon

10-17-2008, 10:50 PM	#12
Xenophon curmudgeon Posts: 1,487 Karma: 5748190 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Redwood City, CA USA Device: Kobo Aura HD, (ex)nook, (ex)PRS-700, (ex)PRS-500	My desires come in three distinct areas: For the display itself, I want higher contrast and MUCH higher pixel density. 4x improvement in dot pitch would be lovely (from ~180 DPI to ~720 DPI). I'm far less concerned about number of gray-scale levels, and don't give a darn about color. Of course, this is really out of Sony's hands; they depend on the various e-Paper companies for the screens themselves. For the device, I want drastically improved physical ergonomics. Heck, I'd be happy with the button layout of the REB-1100 along with its ability to choose which of the four edges is the top of the screen (thus supporting both left and right-handed use in both portrait and landscape mode). The REB-1100 was too heavy and too thick, but Sony doesn't seem to have a problem in that area -- just in button placement, size, and function. Rumor has it that the new 700 has improvements in this area. If so, I'll probably buy one. For the software, my primary desire is for usable support for large numbers of books. There's absolutely no excuse for the fact that it takes minutes to find and identify a few hundred books -- Calibre does it way faster, even with super-slow USB-1.1 sitting between it and the reader... And less excuse than that for the HALF HOUR(!!) it takes when I have 1500 or so books on an SD card (note: these are PRS-500 times, but I hear tell that the 505 ain't much better). And I won't even start on the totally lame FLAT LIST of books, with no support for any kind of hierarchy other than collections. A rather more minor issue would be official support for user-installable fonts. Especially if it understood font families correctly so as to use real italics and boldface instead of lamely-synthesized versions. It would be nice to be able to choose my own font. Xenophon