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Originally Posted by Rique
a little hesitant about the design of the 505 (buttons on the side).
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I really didn't like the 1-0 buttons along the side of the screen when I was looking at readers either. I thought they were completely incongruous. After using it though, they entirely disappear until you need them, and while you never actually 'need' them, they are faster and more useful when zipping around links or menus on the 505 than using the directional pad on the bottom right.
As for the page turn buttons the right hand side, I wish they were a bit bigger. I would use them more if they were.
Quote:
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?
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Calibre is very easy to use, and pretty much does the job. I wish it would convert some other formats as well as strip DRM, but there are of course legal reasons why those options won't happen.
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Originally Posted by Rique
I've read that there are only three fonts. Can fonts be added or changed?
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I believe there's hacks for that in the 505 Developers forum on here. Which I guess also answers your question about hacks. Truthfully, I don't have any problems with only 3 fonts. What I do wish it had was more than 3 font sizes. Sometimes the Medium isn't much bigger than the small, and Large is way too big. 5 sizes would be good.
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Originally Posted by Rique
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?
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Yep, it remembers. When you go back to a book it has the option to continue from the last page you read or start at the beginning. Bookmarks are very easy, you just press a button and it's marked. If you want to get rid of it, just press the button on the bookmarked page and it's removed. I find the best way to keep tracks of multiple books is to bookmark them. I have hundreds of items on the 505, so instead of sorting through and finding one of the books I'm reading, I can just go to the page that shows all the books I have bookmarked, and start where I left off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rique
And how readable is it in bright sunlight, really? I like to read on my deck.  |
As easy as any other book. Sometimes there is glare, but the screen is flat instead of glossy so it diffuses light. If there's any glare, all it takes is a very slightly different angle to get rid of it. The contrast is very readable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rique
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?
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I have around 1100 books on my reader. I used to use a cheap 2gb SD card and I had loads of problems. The reader would take 15-20 mins to index after I unplugged it from my computer, if it didn't crash that is. The Sony software would crash routinely. It sucked.
I bought a good quality, high speed 4gb memory stick and tossed the SD card. Everything else being equal as that was the only change, the reader indexes in 2-3 minutes when I unplug it, hasn't crashed yet, and neither has the Sony software (although I now mainly use calibre). 1100 books only takes up about 1gb of space. I bought the 4gb stick instead of a smaller one because it was on sale and cheaper than the smaller sticks and cards.
I don't think that most people need that many books, and if you're going to have less than 100 the internal memory will do fine. Using just the internal memory you shouldn't run into any problems at all.
And yes, I think all 505 owners are zealots and fanatics, too. You'll find no end to answers and comments here. Sony needs to put most of us on their sales payroll, I think. I've sold 2 readers to friends in the past 3 weeks, I'm sure others here have done the same.
To answer your original post:
I love that the 505 is simple and intuitive to use. I love that it's an ebook reader first and anything else (like MP3 player) second. I bought it to read books, and it does that extremely well. I don't care about any of it's other features, I'd rather have a specialized device that does its job extremely well, than a general device that does several things okay.
I don't hate anything about it, but do wish there were more options for font sizes, had bigger page turn buttons on the right side and didn't make me so handsome and witty when I use it (I've got the blue one).*
*If you don't get that last part, read the threads here on color choices.
