Quote:
Originally Posted by Abisha
I wanted to post a small update after my first hours using the device. Specifically I wanted to report about "Connectivity" which seems to be a hot button issue for many.
So what I've found, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed, is that a feature that I perhaps wrongly understood to be included in the 3G service - was access to "Google Books". I had thought that because Google Books was fully integrated into the Sony EbookStore that I would be able to download books directly to the reader. Sadly this is not the case. When you enter the Sony Bookstore using the 3G connection, a link near the top of the page changes to "Bundles". When you enter the Sony Bookstore using a WIFI connection the link near the top of the page changes to "Google Books".
Bottomline, as far as I can tell, the device is completely locked down to fetch ONLY Sony DRM'd Ebooks. I suspect perhaps to Adobe's Content servers. You MUST use WIFI if you wish to download any of the Public Domain titles from Google Books.
As for the WIFI connection itself. Well, the implementation is not very robust at all. I arrived on campus this morning, opened the web browser awaiting my Universities login page to load up. It was a complete disaster. Nothing but battery draining agony as I watched the device fail time and time again to connect to an open and unsecured 802.11g network.
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I've found the wifi to be very good, but the setup is a little less than automatic and maybe a little confusing. After selecting an access point I kept hitting "done" thinking that would start a connection without paying attention to the button for "connecting". My experience with Google Books has been the same, it doesn't appear it is accessible via 3g.