Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The so-called PDF "problems" are down to the restrictions of the PDF format itself, not the Reader. The fact that there is no good way of reading an A4/Letter sized page on a screen 1/6th the area is not Sony's "fault".
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I agree with you 100% that the technical issues with the reader not displaying PDFs is not Sony's fault but I do think that they need to be more clear on their packaging and PR materials.
I was really curious about what Sony actually put on the packaging about PDF support and I found it under Product Specifications. Let me preface this by saying that Sony was nice enough to put footnotes about caveats in this section and there are 5 of them.
*1 cannot operate while connected with USB.
*2 Actual battery life may vary based on usage patterns.
*3 Available storage capacity of Reader may vary.
*4 "Memory Stick", SD Card not included.
*5 Headphones are not included.
Not too far above these notes does it say that Adobe PDF is a supported format. But note that there is
NOT a caveat listed for this.
I'm sorry Harry but I think it is wrong to point all of this back on the people buying the product. Sony could easily have added a *6 stating that reading standard A4/Letter size PDFs will require additional software and size conversion.
This is obviously a large issue as there are new threads created in this forum every day about PDF support on the reader. In fact if someone were to count I think the percentage of PDF related posts is probably greater than any other subject. Thank goodness these people come to the forum to ask for advice on viewing PDFs on the reader. For every person that does land on this forum inquiring about PDFs how many don't?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood
Most Windows users keep all of their files in "My Documents" so this is just an extension of normal user habits.
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I must say that this argument bothers me a bit as well. I have seen in several threads where a couple of people continuously use this logic. If every piece of software was written for the lowest common denominator there would be very little market for tech gadgets or computers in general. I think this is the reason why companies like Microsoft create low end versions of their software and then higher end versions that more adept users would buy. Some software even has an "Advanced" mode built into it. This all comes down to giving users choice. I like having a choice! So maybe they can create a flat file system for those that want them and a more advanced hierarchical directory structure for others.
I am very happy with the reader. For the most part it fits my needs and I realize that we are early adopters. I just don't think putting down other users for not understanding the misleading information put out by Sony is the right way to go. I see this product for what it is and hope that some of the things that are discussed in these forums will push the innovation for the next revision be it hardware or firmware.