More bells and whistles for Sony readers

[SeaBookGuy]

I barely notice the page number on the right side, and go by the bold number(s) at the bottom, which I find very helpful.

Since it seems both PRS-350 and PRS-650 have inherited the GUI of PRS-900, my guess is that new Sony Readers have solved the problems of justification and being able to use both PDF and Epub library books at the same time.
This is my understanding that none of the problems mentioned above exist in PRS-900.

Originally Posted by yts06mgr

Since it seems both PRS-350 and PRS-650 have inherited the GUI of PRS-900, my guess is that new Sony Readers have solved the problems of justification and being able to use both PDF and Epub library books at the same time.

Exactly what FACTS are you basing this on? There is still no official word from Sony. At least 90% or more of the rumors can be traced to the Sony Insider and are not verifiable. Since the original rumors started a lot of speculation has been taken as factual, but it is still RUMOR. And the only photos I've seen of supposed new models were blurry and showed left justified text. Until Sony actually fills in the blanks, everything is RUMOR.

Sony sure does not seem to be in any hurry to announce these supposed new readers. And I can remember at least one occasion when everyone eagerly awaited Sony to announce new products within a now extinct category (the Clie line of PDAs) just to hear Sony say that they were quitting that line of products. They effectively abandoned a very loyal set of customers with absolutely no warning or remorse.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Until Sony actually fills in the blanks, everything is RUMOR.

It is a fact that the PRS-900 fixes these problems. I agree that it is possible that Sony will continue to use a buggy 2 year old version of mobile ADE in the 350 and 650, however even Sony's lackadaisical software development team should be able to port the 900's mobile ADE to the 350 and 650 in nine months.

Some ePubs force left justification, so we won't know for sure until hands on reports come in.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by 46jimbo

This is good to know. I was thinking of using my nose!

Hey, whatever works! If I ever see someone have to use their nose to turn pages on the TTC, I'll be sure to let them have my seat.

Back on topic. I do imagine that Sony would use the improved epub support that the PRS-900 had on it's new units. I can't wait to see them.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

It is a fact that the PRS-900 fixes these problems. ...
Some ePubs force left justification, so we won't know for sure until hands on reports come in.

Does the 900 allow the choice of justification? Because if they just switch over to full justification, then the new ones lose my interest.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Does the 900 allow the choice of justification? Because if they just switch over to full justification, then the new ones lose my interest.

The fact that wallcraft says some epubs force left justification seems to mean the device allows the book to at least override to left justification.

I too wouldn't be interested in a device that left justification was not an option. Before I switched to epub I had used a hack on my 505 to change all LRF to left justification. Only time will tell.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The typical two glaring problems people have complained about forever is the fact that Sony's ADE implementation doesn't allow a choice of full or left justification and there is no way to turn off the page numbers in the right margin.

The right side page numbers are there on MOST ADE implementations. Not just Sony. And Sony did remove them and allows full justification with ADE for the PRS-900. So there is hope that at least that version of ADE will be used with the new models. The only way we will find out is to wait and see.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The fact that wallcraft says some epubs force left justification seems to mean the device allows the book to at least override to left justification.

I too wouldn't be interested in a device that left justification was not an option. Before I switched to epub I had used a hack on my 505 to change all LRF to left justification. Only time will tell.

With a version of ADE that allows full justification, the justification of the ePub is based on what's in the CSS. So if the CSS says to be left justified, the ePub will be left justified. If the CSS says to be full justified, it will be full justified.

To fix that on DRMed ePub, you will have to strip the DRM and fix the CSS to make it left justified.

The problem with ADE and full justification is that ADE does not seems to very the size of the spaces. So if you have a left justified ePub with say a short line due to a long word not fitting and make it full justified, that short line will not vary the space of a space to maybe fit that long word. It will just add space to the spaces to fully justify the line. And I'm not sure I'd want to have all that excess spacing after being so used to left justified and no large spacing between words.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And I'm not sure I'd want to have all that excess spacing after being so used to left justified and no large spacing between words.

I'm with you on this point. I use larger fonts so the odd spacing is more frequent and interrupts the flow of reading more. But with large fonts I rarely notice the numbers in the right margin.

Thanks for the clarification of info.

[crc]

Originally Posted by kartu

Now I could accept enabling justification in epub's as a fix, but other than that, what else could you complain about?

The long startup time for reindexing after a reboot or adding books. This is one of the reasons I purchased a PB360 instead of the PRS-300 recently. It's nice to carry around a thousand or so books and not be stuck waiting forever when adding new books.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by crc

The long startup time for reindexing after a reboot or adding books. This is one of the reasons I purchased a PB360 instead of the PRS-300 recently. It's nice to carry around a thousand or so books and not be stuck waiting forever when adding new books.

Which is why PRS505 users are very lucky... use PRS+ (see Sony Dev in forum here) and the sky's the limit... I carry 25K books at the moment

[crc]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Which is why PRS505 users are very lucky... use PRS+ (see Sony Dev in forum here) and the sky's the limit... I carry 25K books at the moment

I use PRS+ too, but it's still more awkward than the PB360's handling of files.

[harrynewman]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater;

Does the 900 allow the choice of justification? Because if they just switch over to full justification, then the new ones lose my interest.

I just don't get it. These things are supposed to represent a book as closely as possible. When was the last time you picked up a paperback that wasn't fully justified? Your Sony is broken, and should have been fixed.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by harrynewman

I just don't get it. These things are supposed to represent a book as closely as possible. When was the last time you picked up a paperback that wasn't fully justified? Your Sony is broken, and should have been fixed.

On the other hand, when was the last time you picked up a paperback that had many lines that had lots of space between words? ADE does not have hyphenation and it does not adjust the spacing of spaces when it fully justifies. So you do get lots of lines that have noticeably large spaces between words. Paperbacks do not have that either.

I have had a look at ADE justified and not justified and there's no difference with the words on a line. So that proves that ADE doesn't adjust the spaces and short lines can look awful.