[dpierron]

Originally Posted by davlewis

Hi David,

Hi Dave

Originally Posted by davlewis

Thanks for the information. If I may ask, do you find that you buy your ebooks from the Sony store using either a virtual PC on your Mac or a Windows PC, or Books on Board more than the Sony store (or both equally)? It appears that a Mac can directly purchase from Books on Board with no issue, correct?

I always buy my books at Fictionwise and Baen, and have credit store at BoB (long story short, I bought an unreadable PDF and they kindly refunded me).

The only books I got from the Sony Store were the free books they sometimes offer, and I downloaded them on my work PC (but I'm pretty sure it'd have worked from a VmWare virtual machine).

Every computer with internet access can buy Mobi, eReader and Microsoft Reader books at these internet stores, the DRM are stored in the files you download and deciphered on the devices themselves. If you buy DRM'd ePub files (at BoB for example) you'll have to use a computer on which you have installed Adobe Digital Editions, because the store itself will only provide an application link that ADE only can translate into a working file, containing the encrypted book. I think (but I'm not sure) that the Mac version of ADE can manage it, but anyway, it's always possible to run the Windows ADE in a VmWare or Parallels virtual machine...

Originally Posted by davlewis

If I understand correctly, any ebooks you have you have imported into Calibre and then you use that to manage getting the ebooks to your PRS-505 from your Mac, correct?

You understood correctly : almost all my eBooks were downloaded at Fictionwise, a few at Baen or other sources. They were all stripped of DRM (evil me) and stored naked (mmmmm) in Calibre, which manages the connection to my PRS.

Originally Posted by davlewis

I just compared pricing between a Kindle 2 plus the Amazon leather cover (since the Kindle 2 does not include any cover) versus the current Costco pricing for the PRS-505 (with normal included cover) PLUS the AC adapter.

Kindle 2 plus leather cover = $388.99

Costco PRS-505 plus AC adapter = $269.99

$120 cheaper for the PRS-505. You could buy at least 8 books from the Sony ebook store (assuming a $14 cost for newer titles) with the difference. Or put another way, is the built in dictionary and search feature of the Kindle 2 worth $120? (I live in Seattle, WA so I will pay sales tax regardless of whether I buy the PRS-505 from Costco locally or order the Kindle 2 from Amazon, and in fact I'd pay more sales tax for the Kindle 2 given its higher price.)

Well, from what I read the K2 is superior to the PRS-505 ; it's more expensive, bigger and heavier too, IIRC.

Where I live (Metz, France) the only available reader was the Sony...

Originally Posted by davlewis

If Calibre and purchasing ebooks directly from Books on Board make using the PRS-505 on the Mac relatively seamless, given the price savings over the Kindle 2 I sure am tempted to go with the Sony over the Kindle 2. The only apparent disadvantage to the Costco PRS-505 offer is that it appears that only the silver version is available for $269. I was leaning towards the dark blue, but for the price (including not only the standard Sony cover but the AC power supply as well) I can try to learn to like the silver version.

I'd advise a different color than silver (which is the color of my reader) because it makes reading in the sun more difficult... But the price is really interesting (not that you'd need this AC supply, or can't buy a used PSP power brick at any pawn store).

Originally Posted by davlewis

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Dave...

You're welcome !
Cheers,
David.