Ebook readers - a challenge to average users

[JeffASonyReader]

This is only the beginning. The PRS-505 Sony Reader is still very new. The new model (505) came out in October, a little over two months ago. I already put the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and the CNN articles, full text, on it with only 1 hour of invested time. It will take 30 to 40 minutes during my breakfast to keep it daily fresh. This was user supported effort, so imagine what 1 year will bring as the Kindle brings new competition, Sony's offerings continue to grow from their very weak state, user contribution continues to grow, and awareness of e-ink and offline reading expands.

I hate negativity.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Pretty much every DVD player can be "region unlocked" these days. Region coding is pretty much of a "non-problem".

I know it is relatively easy to do in Europe since we have had this tradition of wanting a player region free almost from the beginning. But as I understand it that is or was not the case in the US so it is much harder there.

And I still think it is a problem. For player my parents bought recently you have to have a special remote control to make region free and they have to take the player somewhere to do it so it has not been done. So the few times per year they want to see a region 1 movie it is not possible.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

DRM supporters are immoral because they are willing to throw our society away for a few bucks.

By that reckoning, so are 99% of the "legitimate" businesses worldwide. We get that you don't like DRM, any more than we do, but you don't have to over-exaggerate.

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

Selling products you know will not work part of the time, due to your deliberately inserted code, and then refusing refunds is immoral.

That's why "Buyer Beware" is such a well-known axiom. I'm not saying they were justified, just that business is cutthroat (another well-known axiom), and that a lot of people take risks and end up victims just like you (and me). Immoral? Well, yeah. Watch your back.

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

Let me repeat your words..."the SW maker simply can't anticipate every system and contingency"

As time goes on, it will be more difficult to anticipate the changes. Eventually, it is impossible.

Yes, if things aren't designed well from the get-go. Eventually, entropy will get us all. (I can feel it's pull from here...)

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

Therefore, to limit products to only run in their approved circumstances with deliberate software locks that are illegal to bypass under the DMCA is to prevent their products from being useful.

To you... not to those who use it as it was intended.

Originally Posted by recycledelectron

Someone like you or Zahi Hawass will tell a cop (like the one that destroyed my library years ago at a traffic stop) to trash my library - it might contain an unauthorized picture of the great pyramid in a history book from 1893. It might be on recordable media. I might not need all those files. There might be something in there that I don't need to be reading. Maybe my time could be better spent elsewhere.

You're putting words in my mouth. Now just relax... lie back on the sofa... and, in your own words, tell me about this unfortunate traffic incident... Did this policeman have any resemblance to... your father?...

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by JeffASonyReader

I hate negativity.

Negativity aside... 30 to 40 minutes? That seems a bit... extended to me...

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by tompe

I know it is relatively easy to do in Europe since we have had this tradition of wanting a player region free almost from the beginning. But as I understand it that is or was not the case in the US so it is much harder there.

I've been told that, in most U.S. stores, you can request a "region-free" version of almost and DVD player you want, and they will give it to you, no extra charge. But I have yet to test this information, and I confess I doubt it's that simple (I have little confidence in the average electronics store salesperson to either know or care about the difference, and wouldn't trust them to give me a region-free box just because I asked for it).

[AnemicOak]

Region free players are quite easy to get in the US & have been for years. It simply doesn't matter to most people.

[JeffASonyReader]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Negativity aside... 30 to 40 minutes? That seems a bit... extended to me...

I would think so too. I did it today and the 3 feeds (WSJ, Economist, CNN) took 40 minutes combined. Agony. WSJ was the Mother load, 21 minutes.

But it formatted nicely and reads fine on the reader.

Seems I can increase the speed for the formatting if I format it on the PC, before putting it on the PRS-505, and Sony said SD cards read much faster than the internal memory, and faster than memory sticks.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by JeffASonyReader

Seems I can increase the speed for the formatting if I format it on the PC, before putting it on the PRS-505, and Sony said SD cards read much faster than the internal memory, and faster than memory sticks.

I'd expect formatting to happen faster on a PC than on the reader itself, so no surprise. No surprise, either, that is reads SD cards faster than memory sticks. I'm not sure why Sony even included support for the memory stick, unless it's a case of Sony invented it in the first place, and can't admit the format never caught on and has been supplanted by SD even in thier own devices. But reading from SD cards faster than internal memory is a surprise, and makes me wonder just what they did.
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Dennis

[JeffASonyReader]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'd expect formatting to happen faster on a PC than on the reader itself, so no surprise. But reading from SD cards faster than internal memory is a surprise, and makes me wonder just what they did.
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Dennis

I did a test this morning by formatting the WSJ feed (which took 16 minutes versus 21 minutes the previous day to download) on my PC (by clicking "view" in libprs500) before putting on my PRS-505. No good news. It still took the PRS-505 a long time to "formatting" the articles before I could read from them. 3.50 minutes actually. So, I'm forecasting a 24 minute time to download the feed, 5 minutes to wait for the reader to format them, and another 59 hours to actually read the articles.

Haven't tried the SD card though. I'm surprised the SD is faster than the internal memory, seems reverse to me.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by JeffASonyReader

I did a test this morning by formatting the WSJ feed (which took 16 minutes versus 21 minutes the previous day to download) on my PC (by clicking "view" in libprs500) before putting on my PRS-505. No good news. It still took the PRS-505 a long time to "formatting" the articles before I could read from them. 3.50 minutes actually. So, I'm forecasting a 24 minute time to download the feed, 5 minutes to wait for the reader to format them, and another 59 hours to actually read the articles.

Sounds like a good opportunity to do other things. Make coffee, take a shower...

Haven't tried the SD card though. I'm surprised the SD is faster than the internal memory, seems reverse to me.

I agree, which is why I'm confused.

I keep all documents I read on my device (a Palm OS PDA) live on an SD card. RAM is finite. I don't notice a huge lag as documents are opened.

But internal memory should be a lot faster than a card, so Sony did something really strange, or gave you the wrong information.
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Dennis

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by JeffASonyReader

I did a test this morning by formatting the WSJ feed (which took 16 minutes versus 21 minutes the previous day to download) on my PC (by clicking "view" in libprs500) before putting on my PRS-505. No good news. It still took the PRS-505 a long time to "formatting" the articles before I could read from them. 3.50 minutes actually. So, I'm forecasting a 24 minute time to download the feed, 5 minutes to wait for the reader to format them, and another 59 hours to actually read the articles.

With those kind of times, I'd want to automate the process to be done before I wake up!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

With those kind of times, I'd want to automate the process to be done before I wake up!

Automating the 59 hours of reading the articles is the challenge...
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Dennis

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

With those kind of times, I'd want to automate the process to be done before I wake up!

Yep. If Sony really wants to give Amazon a run for the money, they'll do it for you. I wouldn't find 30-40min/day acceptable. Heck, I'm a woman that actually wears makeup and all that stuff and I don't spend that long total getting ready in the morning. If you give most people who are interested in periodical content a choice between spending 30-40 minutes a day (or learn to code, or pray some nice geek does it for you and you can understand how to use their software) or have it automatically waiting for you I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume most will go for the latter. Even if Sony does make a nice automated package for that, it'll still be a bit more effort than the Amazon solution but there are more offerings and it's free. That's competitive.

[shousa]

My view is as follows on a number of the issues raised on this thread.
- I started being very negative about DRM but this became a non-issue for me because of the ability to convert DRMed .lit files with convertlit and then lit2lrf to Sony Reader files without DRM (once you have done it once it is an easy process that takes very little time)
- I was negative on the range of books initially but I built up a library from public domain sources first, found a surprising range of .lit (Microsoft Reader) format files from a number of book stores. I have over 60 really good books to read (includes some substantial webpage text). The cost was much much cheaper than buying paperbacks and for favourites I had to have $5 was nothing compared to scanning the books (if you love an older book what is $5, if it is too much then do you really love it?)
- can manage my book collection with libprs500 (free - on this forum)
- can convert many formats to .lrf with book designer (free - on this forum)
- having a shower (as mentioned above) while getting the news feeds seems no issue to me.
- I admit to focusing initially on what I thought it could not do rather than what it could and in the end I am finding I can actually get (one way or another) most of what I want on the reader plus a lot more eg public domain, webpages.

So I find my initial arguments invalidated completely - a whole world of ebook reading awaits - awesome!

I would encourage anyone who likes the idea but has not taken the plunge to read this thread from the beginning and I urge you to have an open mind and you may end up like me: I bought a Sony 505!

Thanks to all again.

[cmbs]

shousa, I'm very glad you found the usefulness of the readers