Palm TX or the PRS-505 ?

[Rixx]

I read tons of books on the Palm TX (320x480 screen, using mobipocket free reader).

I already have all my ebooks in txt and rtf format, so the DRM issues with Sony are not a problem.

I am wondering how annoying the screen flash is on the PRS-505?

With the 700 coming out in less than 4 weeks I am torn between waiting on the 700 or getting the thinner 505.

Thanks!

Rixx

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Rixx

I am wondering how annoying the screen flash is on the PRS-505?

This is very subjective... But, it doesn't bother me at all. And that is on the 500, the 505 is supposed to be faster and the 700 faster still.

BOb

[NatCh]

Most folks find they stop noticing the flashing within a few minutes of use, there are a rare few who simply find it intolerable. I'd suggest that you arrange to see one in person, but your best bet is, unfortunately, a drive to Dallas.

I can tell you, as a former Palm reader myself, there's simply no comparison for reading quality and experience. The Palm does have greater portability, so you're more likely to have it with you all the time if that's important, but in every other aspect (readability, battery life, etc.), I consider e-Ink to be a markedly superior experience.

[shighfield]

I used various Palm devices starting with the IIIe and ending with my Treo 755p to read on. The Ebookwise 1150 suited me best for a dedicated reader as it had the backlight which I am used to using to read in bed most of the night.

I find it's much easier on my eyes as the screen is larger, though the quality of the text is not as sharp as the Palm (or eink).

[John Bailey]

I've used a Palm M130, A Tungsten T3, and a Nokia N800. All very usable, but not for extended periods. An hour here and there is fine, but if like me, you like to curl up with a good book for 3-4 hours at a time, then not so good. The battery life is not really long enough for long term reading, and the screen even on the N800 is still quite small.

I got a Cybook reader last week, and I'm delighted with it. Only had to recharge once after a week of heavy reading, and the screen quality has to be seen to be believed. And best of all, no watering eyes after staring at a little backlit screen.

The Cybook is my first and only experience of the eink technology, but if the Sony and others are the same, then the difference justifies buying a dedicated reader.

Things like searching and better PDF support are on my wish-list, but by the time I'm ready for my next reader, they might be commonplace.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by John Bailey

The Cybook is my first and only experience of the eink technology, but if the Sony and others are the same, then the difference justifies buying a dedicated reader.

All the 6" devices (Gen3, Sony, Kindle, BeBook, etc) use the same screen, which is made by a company called PVI in Taiwan.

[ProDigit]

the flashing of the screen is really necessary to erase the 'ghosting-effect' (this is where you still see the previous page(s) faintly).
All e-ink based readers should have this, and those whom you can set it off probably will have some ghosting effect after a couple of pages.

The reason why it takes so long is because most TFT monitors have a latency of between 1,2 and 5ms. The e-ink devices have a latency of around 0.8 seconds (that's 800ms), so basically what you see is one frame to erase. Imuch would have preferred the page to display white instead of black too.

Between the 505 and the 700, I don't think the 700 justifies the $100 increase in price.
That's 30% of a price increase,for touchscreen and leds. There's no wifi/3g, no real vast improvement over the 505. The design also is near button-less,all happens on touch screen.

That's where my con starts. I dislike clicking a knob to switch a page. Iliad has so far the best sollution in switching the page; but if you consider an iliad you might as well go with the 700. The iliads cost twice the price of Sony. This will probably be the reason of switching for me! I actually love the Iliad, but not it's price.

So, like said I dislike clicking the button to switch pages, but I dislike swiping even more!
It's like you can get Wii-tis from continuously doing the same movement with your hand.
Plus,I'm fairly sure that touchscreens get damaged over time. Sony uses a soft touch touchscreen which basically is a plastic coated film over the screen.
The more you use it, slowly the more scratches it will start to have.
I know because I owned a touchscreen laptop,and mp3 device.

All of them started to have scratches on the surface making the image a bit more blurry.
The thing is: on a backlit TFT screen you see the scratches less. I bet on a non-backlit it's much harder to ignore them!

I wished they would bring down the price of the Iliad a couple of hundred bucks. That would be the device for me due to it's larger screen,is a 'perfect' pdf viewer!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Between the 505 and the 700, I don't think the 700 justifies the $100 increase in price.
That's 30% of a price increase,for touchscreen and leds.

The internal memory has also doubled. If you would have bought the illuminated cover for the 505, then the 700 is good value for money, since it costs not much more than the 505 + cover. If the lighting is of no interest, then I agree, it's perhaps not worth the extra expense.

[bill_mchale]

Rixx,
Just curious, are you interested in the Sony because of eInk or because of the increased screen size? Since it seems like you are comfortable converting your books from ebook formats to txt or rtf, there are other options. If you are really worried about the ghosting, the ebookwise 1150 and the Jetbook are two options. The screens are a bit smaller, but still a fair bit bigger than a PDA screen; since they use LCD's, there is no ghosting. I ultimately decided to get a Jetbook because of the fact that it doesn't support any DRM'd formats (at least not yet). Once I get it, I will be happy to write a review.

--
Bill

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

I ultimately decided to get a Jetbook because of the fact that it doesn't support any DRM'd formats (at least not yet).

Sorry, Bill, you bought it because it doesn't support any DRM formats??? I don't follow your logic there - why do you want a device which doesn't support commercial eBook formats?

[bill_mchale]

Well Harry, its simple. I am voting with my money. I think DRM is an unnecessary burden around digital media of any sort. I might be willing to accept device independent DRM like eReader, but I will not use any sort of DRM that requires me to register a device; nor will I buy any works in that DRM'd format. Hopefully in time, if enough other people do the same, the publishers that utilize DRM will realize that it hurts their sales.

Mind you, I have no problem with support for commercial formats; ereader, epub, .lit and even .mobi are all fine as long as they are not DRM'd. I do plan on buying commercial works and then converting them into .fb2 or .pdfs (resized for the size of the device), I just don't plan on doing it with any DRM'd books (both because it is illegal and because it sends the wrong message to the publishers).

DRM either forces a user into a Ghetto defined by the DRM'd format (by limiting the devices a user can access their media on) or it forces them to become a criminal by stripping the DRM from the work should they want to use it on another type of device.
Either way, I am going to do my best to make sure that I don't support it.

--
Bill

[ProDigit]

you can still upload and read non-drm content to your sony!

I don't mind DRM being present, it only adds like 5-10$ on the price. However, I do not like when I would not be able to see anything but DRM encoded files.

Most compatible DRM encoded files you can playback/read with the sony. You can not do that with a player not supporting DRM.

So in real fact it's a nice addition to the player.

However also I prefer no DRM to be present at all;but I guess this is what we get when as a response to the multitude of piracy out there...

Correct me if I'm wrong about the drm...

[bill_mchale]

ProDigit,
DRM does little to nothing to inhibit the pirates who do the real damage to the bottom line; those pirates either will break the DRM (If you do a quick search on here, you will find that there are several programs out there to break DRM on several of the major formats), or if worse comes to worse, they will retype the book themselves.

Yes, you do get access to material that is otherwise unavailable, but ultimately its a devil's bargain, particularly since Kindle and Sony's DRM effectively ties you to their devices. This is particularly overt with Kindle since they don't offer any software for reading kindle books on a PC, despite the fact that Kindle books are simply mobi books with a different DRM server.

--
Bill

[ProDigit]

Sony has always done that,starting with their first electronic devices with which they equipped them with non-standard batteries;and even to today Sony stays with the 'sony-clan'.

you should have seen the war they had over the Sony PSP when the homebrew guys managed to install another OS (even windows 95) on the device!

I'm surprised they actually allowed normal.pdf and .doc on the reader!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

Well Harry, its simple. I am voting with my money. I think DRM is an unnecessary burden around digital media of any sort. I might be willing to accept device independent DRM like eReader, but I will not use any sort of DRM that requires me to register a device; nor will I buy any works in that DRM'd format. Hopefully in time, if enough other people do the same, the publishers that utilize DRM will realize that it hurts their sales.

Mind you, I have no problem with support for commercial formats; ereader, epub, .lit and even .mobi are all fine as long as they are not DRM'd. I do plan on buying commercial works and then converting them into .fb2 or .pdfs (resized for the size of the device), I just don't plan on doing it with any DRM'd books (both because it is illegal and because it sends the wrong message to the publishers).

DRM either forces a user into a Ghetto defined by the DRM'd format (by limiting the devices a user can access their media on) or it forces them to become a criminal by stripping the DRM from the work should they want to use it on another type of device.
Either way, I am going to do my best to make sure that I don't support it.

--
Bill

It's your choice, of course, but I do think that what you're doing is a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face", as the saying goes.

Suppose you buy a device with MobiPocket support. Yes, MobiPocket books can have DRM, but there are also numerous DRM-free MobiPocket books around, and reading those is a much more rewarding experience than reading text or PDF-format files, which is what you're stuck with on the JetBook (as I understand it).

Having a device with DRM support doesn't force one to buy books which have DRM.