Greetings & first post

[MTR]

Hi folks,
As a fresh ebook convert, I thought I'd register on mobileread.com right away.

Just picked up the Sony 505 while in London. Since I don't need a touchscreen and @£149 I couldn't resist.
I've done some reading on the site already and I guess I'll be using Calibre instead of the Sony software to organize & transfer my ebooks.

One question I do have is concering the (latest) firmware: how can I check if my device is up to date? I Couldn't find any info on Sony's site.

Oh, and another one straight away: what is the easiest/cleanest way of editing existing ebook files (lit, lrf & epub). I already have some classics to try, but I''d like to cleean them up a little before uploading them to the 505 (like removing pictures, fixing typo's and correcting special characters). I don't mind a learning curve, but I do prefer a simlpe 'open-edit-save' kind of method.

Thanks for any insight (I hope I'll be able to return in kind soon)

PS...just read the sticky, sorry for including questions straight away

[zelda_pinwheel]

hi mtr, welcome ! you'll find a lot of sony lovers here, it's really a great device. congratulations on joining the ebook-lovers horde !

i can't help you with the firmware but take a look in the sony forum, you might find the answer to your question there, if you don't, please feel free to start a new thread to ask about it !

as for editing your books, for epub books i recommend you take a look at the excellent, open source, FREE epub editor called sigil which is developped by one of our very own genius developpers, Valloric. it has its own dedicated forum here where you can find hints and tips. it's still in alpha stage but already up to the third version and quite brilliant. for the moment, it's biggest shortcoming is that search and replace is not yet implemented ; personally, to get around this, i open an epub in sigil, copy the entire code window (ctrl A, ctrl C) then paste (ctrl V) into notepad or any text editor, do all my search / replace there, then copy the whole thing back into sigil.

it's a lot easier if you know a bit of html / css code and syntax but that's easy enough to learn, and sigil does have a wysiwyg view which is helpful if you're not too familiar with the code yet.

lit is probably best fixed by converting it to epub first (try calibre, another great free app for library management and conversion, also developped by a local hero, it's got its own forum too, or else use convertLit to "explode" it into html and then import those files into sigil). lrf is a lot harder to edit, i recommend you stick to epub if you can at all.

take a look around the forum and don't hesitate to join in the discussion, you'll find people here are friendly and helpful (and very passionate about ebooks !).

[cardjj]

the Astak reader looks just like the bebook, my Question is can you flash the bebook firmware on the Astak?
what I like about bebook site is the different forums they have to help you with tips, tricks etc, that is why I like bebook. But if I cannot get the bebook in the usa, then can Astak do the something that bebook do.
sorry if this did not come out right this is my first time writing in a forum

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by cardjj

the Astak reader looks just like the bebook, my Question is can you flash the bebook firmware on the Astak?
what I like about bebook site is the different forums they have to help you with tips, tricks etc, that is why I like bebook. But if I cannot get the bebook in the usa, then can Astak do the something that bebook do.
sorry if this did not come out right this is my first time writing in a forum

hi cardjj, the astak and the bebook readers are clones, both of them are Hanlin devices. the hardware is identical (except for the logo, since they're rebranded for the resellers) so you can easily flash any of the available firmwares to them. that said, if you want a bebook, it might be easier to get it directly ; i believe they will ship to the US.

feel free to ask any more questions. i recommend you start your own thread in the appropriate forum, that way they'll be more visible. and welcome to the forum !

[MTR]

@Zelda, merci
Found Sigil and will try it out. If it's as good as Calibre I'm a happy camper.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by MTR

@Zelda, merci
Found Sigil and will try it out. If it's as good as Calibre I'm a happy camper.

glad to hear it ! please let us know if you have any questions, you'll find plenty of answers here.

it's difficult to compare sigil and calibre, since they're not really the same sort of beast ; calibre is a library management app which does conversions, whereas sigil is an epub editor. but they do share a hard-working, generous developper to start with, and community-sourced improvements, so they do have some things in common. sigil does promise to become the best epub editor available (especially for free !) and it's already well on its way.

[kazbates]

Welcome to MobileRead, MTR and cardjj!

MTR, I doubt that there has been a firmware update for your 505. We have been hoping for a firmware update for a while now but things have been pretty quiet from Sony on that front.

Happy Reading!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Welcome to MR!

[MickeyC]

Hi MTRand welcome to MobileRead. I've had a Sony 505 since Jan 08 and really like it.