Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
The reason the Sony lets you sort by arbitrary tags is that they use a separate database application and its associated datastore to manage the ebook files rather than the actual device/flash card file system. This database stores a master index table listing all your ebooks and where they are stored along with the associated tags.
The pro: is improved sorting, saves space in storage with no need for multiple copies of a book
The cons: are lack of folder support (they use a flat-file database rather than a relational one), slower performance when adding lots of ebooks (its my understanding that adding ebooks to Sony ereaders should be done a handful at a time, not hundreds at once), slower boot times, and slower launch times. It takes time to create the global index, it takes time to load a large index file, it takes time to find data in it. On a PB360 this would mean dealing with an index of up to 32GB worth of ebooks. On a device with 64MB of working RAM and a 400MHz CPU.
In the meantime, have you considered that the built-in search feature might make tags unnecesary? Tags are for indexing lists which are generally used in the absence of a search function.
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There is really no need for folders on the Sony. Collections give you everything you could need in folders and more. Anything you want in a "folder" just needs to be tagged with the folder name.
Search isn't really helpful. If I know what I want to read, I can find it without a problem. My issue is I have over 500 books to read. When trying to decide what to read I would browse the author-title list or the collections and see if something caught my fancy. With the PB360 I only see author folders, and have to enter each folder to see what titles I have and haven't read yet. Worse is everytime I back out of an author folder I am dumped back at the last folder, instead of where I was in the browsing. When you have 37 pages of author folders that is a big hassle.
-Marcy