MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Got a Reader Today

Rimbaud · 10-29-2006, 09:02 PM

I purchased a new Sony Reader today at the Mission Valley Borders store in San Diego. There were three in the case and when I asked to buy one, it took them awhile to find someone who had a key. In the meantime a salesman came up to me and scowled, and said, "Don't buy that. It will be the biggest mistake of your entire life." I was a bit dumbfounded but after a few seconds, he broke into a grin and said he was just kidding and that he really didn't know much about them. I told him he had an interesting sales technique! He was actually a really nice guy and we chatted a bit about ebook readers.

In the meantime, one of the sales people made an interesting comment. She turned to another sales person (the Sony Readers are next to the info desk), and said, "Wow, I can't believe how fast these are selling!" I took that as a good sign.

Here's my little mini-review. By way of background, I've owned ebook readers before; the Rocketbook, and an iLiad (which I still have and rather lovingly think of as my $800 paper weight.) Right out of the box, the Sony Reader is just great. I've had it for about 4 hours now and I already love it.

I was a bit hesitant to purchase one because I was worried that it might be a bit small. But comparing it to my iLiad, I actually prefer the size of the Reader, which surprised me a bit. It's a perfect combination of portability and readability. The fit and finish of the device was also a pleasant surprise. I like the stylishness of it a lot.

Installing the software and connecting to the Sony Connect site was painless and within a short time I was able to purchase some books (which were free due to the $50 promotion.) I also converted one of my books to an RTF file and it worked fine. Reading books on the Reader is great, as everyone must know by now. The screen is fantastic and it seems to have a bit better contrast than the iLiad (although my memory may be a bit faulty, I'll have to compare later.)

In short, I thought I would enjoy the Reader but I'm just blown away by how MUCH I love it after only a few hours. I also find it to be a very intuitive device.

And now to the one negative (I'm sure you knew there would be at least one!) This has nothing to do with the Reader itself, but to the books purchased from the Sony site. The first book I've started to read is so poorly converted that it's almost driving me crazy. The format is fine, but who does their quality control? I'm 100 screens into the book and on literally 95% of the pages there are errors in the form of words strung together without spaces. So, for instance, in a sentence that should read, "He said he would have to look into it," it reads, "Hesaid he would haveto look into it." While I love the Reader itself, these errors are like nails on a chalkboard to me. And they're on almost every single page, and sometimes multiple instances on a page. I would think that after converting, a simple spell check on Sony's part would have caught all of these. Well that's my one disappointment, but again, it has nothing to do with the Reader itself.

All in all I'm very excited and pleased with the Reader! Thanks for reading.

10-29-2006, 09:02 PM	#1
Rimbaud Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: Kindle Touch, Sony Reader	Got a Reader Today - Some Thoughts I purchased a new Sony Reader today at the Mission Valley Borders store in San Diego. There were three in the case and when I asked to buy one, it took them awhile to find someone who had a key. In the meantime a salesman came up to me and scowled, and said, "Don't buy that. It will be the biggest mistake of your entire life." I was a bit dumbfounded but after a few seconds, he broke into a grin and said he was just kidding and that he really didn't know much about them. I told him he had an interesting sales technique! He was actually a really nice guy and we chatted a bit about ebook readers. In the meantime, one of the sales people made an interesting comment. She turned to another sales person (the Sony Readers are next to the info desk), and said, "Wow, I can't believe how fast these are selling!" I took that as a good sign. Here's my little mini-review. By way of background, I've owned ebook readers before; the Rocketbook, and an iLiad (which I still have and rather lovingly think of as my $800 paper weight.) Right out of the box, the Sony Reader is just great. I've had it for about 4 hours now and I already love it. I was a bit hesitant to purchase one because I was worried that it might be a bit small. But comparing it to my iLiad, I actually prefer the size of the Reader, which surprised me a bit. It's a perfect combination of portability and readability. The fit and finish of the device was also a pleasant surprise. I like the stylishness of it a lot. Installing the software and connecting to the Sony Connect site was painless and within a short time I was able to purchase some books (which were free due to the $50 promotion.) I also converted one of my books to an RTF file and it worked fine. Reading books on the Reader is great, as everyone must know by now. The screen is fantastic and it seems to have a bit better contrast than the iLiad (although my memory may be a bit faulty, I'll have to compare later.) In short, I thought I would enjoy the Reader but I'm just blown away by how MUCH I love it after only a few hours. I also find it to be a very intuitive device. And now to the one negative (I'm sure you knew there would be at least one!) This has nothing to do with the Reader itself, but to the books purchased from the Sony site. The first book I've started to read is so poorly converted that it's almost driving me crazy. The format is fine, but who does their quality control? I'm 100 screens into the book and on literally 95% of the pages there are errors in the form of words strung together without spaces. So, for instance, in a sentence that should read, "He said he would have to look into it," it reads, "Hesaid he would haveto look into it." While I love the Reader itself, these errors are like nails on a chalkboard to me. And they're on almost every single page, and sometimes multiple instances on a page. I would think that after converting, a simple spell check on Sony's part would have caught all of these. Well that's my one disappointment, but again, it has nothing to do with the Reader itself. All in all I'm very excited and pleased with the Reader! Thanks for reading.