New Sony owner

[Elsi]

After using a Kindle for 5 months, I decided to purchase a Sony PRS 505 -- not as a replacement for the Kindle, but as an additional eBook reader. My reasons:
1. I ventured into creating books from Gutenberg source files and really wanted to see the .lrf versions in action.
2. I wanted to be able to honestly compare the experience of reading on the two devices
3. With the most recent firmware upgrade, I wanted to experiment with ePub format books -- particularly since it looks like this standard allow much nicer styling than either the native .lrf or .mobi formats.
4. I wanted to be able to compare shopping for current release books -- price, quality, etc.

I've had my Kindle since February and I love it. While I'm sure that I'm going to like and enjoy my Sony Reader, there's one aspect of the Kindle that looks like it wins out in my personal comparison. My sister and niece also have Kindles -- all on the same Amazon account with my Kindle, which allows us to share all the purchased books. So -- in those situations where I have to buy a book with DRM protection, Amazon's deal that allows you to have up to 6 Kindles registered to the same account and to share content on all the devices make it a winner.

I'm going to investigate the "multiple device" situation for the Sony Reader. Maybe the same policy exists at the Sony store and other sellers of Sony DRMed content. We'll see.

[Elsi]

The FedEx guy rang my doorbell around 11 am and left a package containing a Sony PRS 505 on the doorstep. I purchased this Reader from manchuia here on MobileRead.

I had to laugh at how it was so securely packed with extra FedEx bubble envelopes to double wrap the reader and then put yet another bubble envelope inside as additional padding. That's mighty clever use of free packing materials!

Removing all the packing materials, I'm sitting there holding a silver Reader in a tan cover, USB cable & CD, LCD booklight, and power adapter. I looked & looked for some way to turn on the Reader, then went to the Sony support web site and downloaded the Quick Start Guide, which directed me to the power switch on the top edge of the Reader. Turned it on & explored just a bit before plugging it in with the power adapter so I could make sure it had a full charge before this week's business trip. Now I just have to get me some of the type of books I'm interested in -- probably one or more of the Baen books -- onto the Reader.

I do have Calibre installed on my laptop so I should be able to format shift any of the non-DRM books that I have. I'm only going to install the Sony Connect program on the desktop machine that is primarily used by my hubby. I believe that will avoid any problems that others have reported with conflicts between Sony Connect and Calibre, and yet allow me to purchase the occasional book from the Sony store.

My other mission today is to find out how to get the firmware upgrade downloaded and installed so that I can read some ePub books on the device. I really liked the look of Feedbooks ePub template, so I'm definitely going to go get a couple of books over there once the upgrade has been installed.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by Elsi

After using a Kindle for 5 months, I decided to purchase a Sony PRS 505 -- not as a replacement for the Kindle, but as an additional eBook reader. My reasons:
1. I ventured into creating books from Gutenberg source files and really wanted to see the .lrf versions in action.

While the experience is not identical. The SONY Connect emulator is petty darn accurate. There is only one instance where I see discrepancy from the emulator to the Reader. That is when I'm using PDFLRF some how the images on the emulator do not look as good as they do on the device.

Originally Posted by Elsi

2. I wanted to be able to honestly compare the experience of reading on the two devices

I'd be interested in hearing your experience. I read technical books, non-fiction, fiction. Where I heavily annotate on the former. I'd be interested to hear your usage of the device

Originally Posted by Elsi

3. With the most recent firmware upgrade, I wanted to experiment with ePub format books -- particularly since it looks like this standard allow much nicer styling than either the native .lrf or .mobi formats.

ePub has the potential, but unless you read technical books I'm not sure if you will experience it's full benefit.
Also check out this epub version it is quite nice
http://www.hindawi.com/epub/sample.2.2008.07.28.epub

Originally Posted by Elsi

4. I wanted to be able to compare shopping for current release books -- price, quality, etc.

Here is were you will be disappointed with the SONY Reader/Bookstore. The kindle just seems to continually have the best prices. I've seen rare cases where FictionWise or BoB have better prices but those cases are rare. (Well excluding FictionWise 100% rebate)

Originally Posted by Elsi

My sister and niece also have Kindles -- all on the same Amazon account with my Kindle, which allows us to share all the purchased books. So -- in those situations where I have to buy a book with DRM protection, Amazon's deal that allows you to have up to 6 Kindles registered to the same account and to share content on all the devices make it a winner.

I'm going to investigate the "multiple device" situation for the Sony Reader. Maybe the same policy exists at the Sony store and other sellers of Sony DRMed content. We'll see.

Yes SONY does support "multiple device" for their eBook store so you may share books if the devices are registered to the same account. I don't recall the limit it's either 3 or 6.
Its been a while since I've used their and software account, I only bought one book from them.

[kezza]

Originally Posted by =X=

Yes SONY does support "multiple device" for their eBook store so you may share books if the devices are registered to the same account. I don't recall the limit it's either 3 or 6.
Its been a while since I've used their and software account, I only bought one book from them.

I believe the Sony device limit is 6, but it includes computers that have the Connect software installed and authorized. So, if you want to have a laptop and a desktop with Connect, you'll only be able to have an additional 4 Readers.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by Elsi

My other mission today is to find out how to get the firmware upgrade downloaded and installed so that I can read some ePub books on the device.

The standalone Sony Firmware Updater is here, although attatching the device to the PC while running the Sony eBook Library & choosing the "Check for Update" menu item might also trigger the update process.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Elsi

After using a Kindle for 5 months, I decided to purchase a Sony PRS 505 -- not as a replacement for the Kindle, but as an additional eBook reader.

Hmm... I was actually considering doing the same thing for the same reason. Actually, if the DE firmware had been released prior to me getting my Kindle I probably would have got the 505 instead.

Just a few things which may have already been said...

1. Yes, you can attach multiple devices to your Sony account... 6 I think... but computers count too.

2. Calibre will not conflict with eBook Lib as long as you don't install the calibre driver, which is the default install. With this setup and the 505 both calibre and eBook Lib will be able to put books on your device.

BOb

[=X=]

Originally Posted by kezza

I believe the Sony device limit is 6, but it includes computers that have the Connect software installed and authorized.

Ah okay thanks.

With regards to using Connect and Calibre
I've used the SONY Software and Calibre simultaneously for about 6 mo and have had only two instances of the catch.xml getting corrupted. (Both times it was my SD card). I don't know what caused the corruption but since both write to that file, but chances are that using both applications simultaneously would be the most likely candidate.

The first time it cause my Sony to go into an infinite reboot cycle and the 2nd time the books did not show up. Both times I had to delete my catch.xml and reload the eBooks.

=X=

[dordale]

Elsi--

I'll be very interested in your experiences/comparisons.

I love my PRS505 but, I know there are things about a Kindle I'd like as well. Curious to see how an actual user thinks they stack up.

dordale

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by =X=

While the experience is not identical. The SONY Connect emulator is petty darn accurate. There is only one instance where I see discrepancy from the emulator to the Reader. That is when I'm using PDFLRF some how the images on the emulator do not look as good as they do on the device.

I did not have the Sony Connect software installed since I thought it was only available by buying a Sony Reader. Calibre (which I had downloaded and installed) also has a viewer/emulator and I noticed that some of the books I had built with BookDesigner didn't look very nice in the Calibre viewer.

Originally Posted by kezza

I believe the Sony device limit is 6, but it includes computers that have the Connect software installed and authorized. So, if you want to have a laptop and a desktop with Connect, you'll only be able to have an additional 4 Readers.

Hmmm... so with me in Texas, my sister in Richmond, and my niece in North Carolina, each of us would have to have the Sony Connect software installed on our computers, so only 3 Readers would be supported. And we'd be SOL if another family member wanted to join the group.

I suppose that the Connect software could be installed on only one computer and one person would purchase whatever anyone in the group wanted and distribute. And, I suppose that there's some way to load a DRMed .lrf file onto the Reader without using Connect.

Even so, by counting the computer, a limit of 6 says that you could only have a maximum of 5 hand-held devices instead of the 6 that Amazon allows. I'm not sure that's enough of a difference for me or even for the majority of owners.

Originally Posted by dordale

I'll be very interested in your experiences/comparisons.

I love my PRS505 but, I know there are things about a Kindle I'd like as well. Curious to see how an actual user thinks they stack up

I bought my Kindle before I was aware of the Sony Reader, and I'd had the Kindle for about 3 weeks before I saw a Reader in a Borders bookstore. I did realize that I could be content with the Sony Reader, but did not regret my Kindle purchase at all. I plan to be fair and I expect that the reading experience will be favorable. I think that there are still going to be some issue with content availability and that alone will bias me toward the Kindle when it comes time to buy certain books.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I suppose that the Connect software could be installed on only one computer and one person would purchase whatever anyone in the group wanted and distribute. And, I suppose that there's some way to load a DRMed .lrf file onto the Reader without using Connect.

Yes... actually they would be .lrx files. But, you can connect the reader via USB and it mounts as a drive just like the Kindle. Then you can copy the file using drag-n-drop or the command line, or whatever you use to move your files around on your PC.

BOb

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I did not have the Sony Connect software installed since I thought it was only available by buying a Sony Reader.

It's a free download either from Sony Support site or from the eBook Store.

[jerryleejr]

So where is the Comparo????

JJ