[zelda_pinwheel]

i have a 700, not a 505, but i can answer some of your questions, if i may, and add my personal vote for readers supporting epub (this is not exclusive to the sony devices, but they were the first ones to add it).

Originally Posted by Rique

What about ease of conversion from other formats? I get the impression that Calibre can pretty much do the job. Or is conversion a hurdle? Is lack of mobi support an issue at all?

for non-drm (or drm-removed) books, conversion using calibre is fast and intuitive with generally good results. if you convert to epub the books can easily be edited to correct any formatting / editing errors you find.

I've read that there are only three fonts. Can fonts be added or changed?

see this thread for a very easy way to add whatever custom fonts you want to your 505, using a bit of css added to your epub file to tell it to use fonts installed in the memory. practically unlimited font possibilities...

I know there is no official support from Sony, but - how well does it work with a Mac? Does the reader show up as a USB drive when plugged into the computer? I assume I can simply use the Mac version of Calibre?

yes to both of those questions.

Any plans for dictionary support in the future (this is a "want" for me, not a "need")?

there is an active campaign to get adobe to integrate dictionary support to their epub rendering engine. hopefully they'll take notice, in which case sony could add that via a firmware update.

Are alternative firmwares available? Or even third party hacks or patches to add functionality not included with the standard f/w?

see the 505 forum for user hacks and firmware updates.

Will it remember where I left off with all books in progress? Even if there are several in progress at the same time? How is the bookmarking?

the sony bookmarking function is very good, and the 505 has a dedicated bookmark button that will add / remove them or, via a long press, display all bookmarks on the device (good for people who like to read a lot of books at the same time, or bookmark pages for future reference).

And how readable is it in bright sunlight, really? I like to read on my deck.

all the e-ink screens are excellent in bright sunlight ; in fact that's really where they are at their best, in direct contrast to backlit lcd screens which are generally unreadable in those conditions.

Finally, some have mentioned there are problems with large libraries. How large is large? And what are the nature of the problems? How can I avoid the problems?

personally, i use calibre to create "collections" (virtual folders) by adding tags and series info, and that makes a big difference for navigating through bit libraries (i currently have about 400 books on mine, but between the collections and the bookmarks i get around them just fine).