PRS-650 New Owner - A few questions.

[Fortissimo]

Hello everybody.
I'm a proud owner of a brand new, black PRS 650 Now I have some preliminary questions for you veterans.

1. Which is the best case for the reader? I've narrowed my search down to either the leather case from Proporta or the Sony Standard cover available at waterstones. I'm inclined to go for the Sony because, well, it's Sony!
They should know what's best for their products.

2. The recommended operating temperature has a higher limit of about 35 degrees celsius. I live in the tropics were temperatures routinely rise above 30 degrees. Is there any risk of damage to the reader? Especially as it is black.

3. Do you good people have any tips or advice on how to maximise my reader and keep it in good working condition for as long as possible?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as time goes on. Thanks everybody.

[Tessie6]

If you're looking at the same screen I am, there is a Tips, Tricks and etc which has many good information on it. I have browsed it several times when I had a question. And I've found that the Sony standard cover is not the best.

I just purchased this one from ebay, received it in 10 days. Very sturdy and looks to be well made.

Item number: 180620944637
Item location: Bridgend, United Kingdom
Ships to: Worldwide
Payments: PayPal

[Penforhire]

1. I think "best" is highly subjective. What I like may not be what you like. I'm good with the Sony lighted case but I wish there was an M-Edge Exec model for it.

2. Recommended temperature range is always inclusive, so up to 35 degrees C has been approved by Sony. Could 30 C have an effect versus 25 C? Certainly on your battery but that's not unique to an e-reader. I wouldn't worry about it beyond not leaving it on a car dashboard in the sun.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Fortissimo

Hello everybody.
I'm a proud owner of a brand new, black PRS 650 Now I have some preliminary questions for you veterans.

1. Which is the best case for the reader? I've narrowed my search down to either the leather case from Proporta or the Sony Standard cover available at waterstones. I'm inclined to go for the Sony because, well, it's Sony!
They should know what's best for their products.

2. The recommended operating temperature has a higher limit of about 35 degrees celsius. I live in the tropics were temperatures routinely rise above 30 degrees. Is there any risk of damage to the reader? Especially as it is black.

3. Do you good people have any tips or advice on how to maximise my reader and keep it in good working condition for as long as possible?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as time goes on. Thanks everybody.

1. I have this Proporta cover it is NOT real leather but some kind of 'leatherette'. I paid just over 20 dollars for it a few months back on amazon, and consider it a reasonably good value at that price. Given the same choice today, I would probably go with one of the Sony products though, given that the price on the Proporta cover has increased to nearly 35 dollars U.S. I have a family member that has the official Sony lighted cover and she loves it. Both the Sony cover and the Proporta cover are well made, but to me it looks like the clip that attaches the reader to the cover might be a little more secure on the official Sony product. Currently BOTH the Sony and Proporta products are overpriced for what you get, so you might want to consider a slip in leather cover like the one previously reccomended - no need to pay 29 dollars for one though as they are available on amazon for about half that price.

2. The upper limit on the operating temperature range is almost certainly due to concerns about the service life of the E-Ink display and the L-Ion battery, both of which can take much higher temperatures SHORT TERM (50C) but with reduced operating lifetimes. The E-Ink panel has nano-capsule e-ink particles suspended in micro thin layer of a fluid medium. I suspect that higher operating temperatures will cause this layer to dry out more quickly reducing the service life. It's also well documented that higher operating temperatures reduce both the capacity and the service life of batteries. So it's not so much that operation above 30C will instantly destroy your PRS-650, Sony is just trying to be conservative to insure a long service life, because when either the e-ink display or the batteries wear out, the high cost of repair or replacement may not be worthwhile. Since you mentioned that your unit is black, I would definitely be very careful though about leaving your PRS-650 out under the tropical sun, even shut down, since the temperature under those conditions could quickly rise to exceed even the non-operating limits.

3. To Maximize life on you batteries and display, try to avoid elevated temperatures as much as is possible in your climate. Also since lithium batteries do no like deep discharge, and since high temperatures cause an increase in the self discharge rate on batteries, be sure to fully charge the unit, and do a complete power-down, if it will not be used for several weeks. This is particularly important in tropical climates because lithium cell batteries can be destroyed by excessively deep discharge, and heat increases the self discharge rate. The PRS-650 has an auto-shutdown which is designed to do a hard-power-down in case you try to run the battery down too far, but in tropical climates because of heat induced self discharge, the battery could continue to discharge below the safe minimum voltage if stored for weeks or months in this fully discharged state.

Other than that, as has already been suggested, just check out the "tips and tricks" section of this forum.

[Fortissimo]

Thanks so much, everyone. I guess my reader is going to need extra care. I hope the case isn't going to add to my over-heating worries.

[pete_1967]

I got the lighted cover and it's good if you don't carry your reader all the time, imho it doesn't protect the reader well enough. I purchased i-Nique's Tuff-Luv case (http://www.i-nique.com/detail.asp/cn...=5055205287294) and am more than happy with it. They have quite extensive range of covers (http://www.i-nique.com/model.asp/cn=4/c=561) and Tuff-Luvs are also sold via Amazon and other retailers.

[Rizla]

I have the standard non-light case. Very snug. I like it. I use a mightybright travelflex light with it. You might be best getting the lighted case if your choice for lights is limited. IMO a light is a must. Obviously the lighted case is more bulky, which is why I decided against it.

[Sweetpea]

I rather like my Sony cover. It looks really nice.

About the temperature, I think you should be fine, as long as you don't leave your device in the sun. And if it has become hot, don't cool it down too fast, as that will cause the moisture to dew up. And that will probably kill your reader...

[mediax]

I have the Sony lighted cover - love the light, hate the cover (on purely aesthetic grounds). Trouble is, I haven't found any integrated alternative - which leaves getting a standard cover and a separate clip-on light. I do 90% of my (e-)reading in the dark, so that option doesn't appeal much.

[Fortissimo]

Originally Posted by Tessie6

If you're looking at the same screen I am, there is a Tips, Tricks and etc which has many good information on it. I have browsed it several times when I had a question. And I've found that the Sony standard cover is not the best.

I just purchased this one from ebay, received it in 10 days. Very sturdy and looks to be well made.

Item number: 180620944637
Item location: Bridgend, United Kingdom
Ships to: Worldwide
Payments: PayPal

I glanced through the tips and tricks section but most of the info seems to be for the earlier models.

What is the ideal number of books to load up on the reader at a go? I think I read somewhere that if you try to load to many at once, it may cause problems.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Fortissimo

I glanced through the tips and tricks section but most of the info seems to be for the earlier models.

What is the ideal number of books to load up on the reader at a go? I think I read somewhere that if you try to load to many at once, it may cause problems.

I downloaded over 1200 free titles from www.feedbooks.com's free public domain section, onto a SD card, and just powered down the reader inserted the card, and was back in business in about 2 minutes flat.

There was a one-time delay of about a minute or two while the Sony Indexed everything, but after that things pretty much went back to normal.

Files open instantly, page turns are just as fast, searches within books, and searches within the title list take only a few seconds.

Short answer - The PRS-650 is the most flexible powerful reader on the market, and it happily puts up with HUGE numbers of titles that would choke other readers.

One small word of caution . . .

Right now, due to the complexity of the EPUB spec, it's pretty hard to make an absolutely bullet proof EPUB indexer/reader.

So EVERY electronic reader can be frozen by a badly formatted or badly corrupted file.

The simple math is that the more files you jam on there from the net at one time, then the greater the chance that you will hit a messed up EPUB and possibly have to reset your reader.

Easy to reset the Sony though if this does happen, just press the reset button for a couple seconds, then after releasing the reset button, slide the power switch over to "on" for a few seconds (remember that a reset shuts things down, and in this state the power switch must be 'on' for a few seconds to power up the Sony).

With over 1250 titles now on my reader, I have only had one file that was messed up badly enough to freeze the reader, and that one was one where I took out the USB to quickly and messed up the transfer leaving a broken file.

Once I reset the PRS-650, deleted the bad file, and sent it to the Sony a second time a little more carefully, then everything was fine.

The advantage of sending smaller groups of files is that if you do get a bad one, it makes it quicker to zero in on the problem

So don't worry, with a little care, you can have THOUSANDS of books on your PRS-650!

[SeaBookGuy]

Congrats, Fort!

Even the most ardent Sony boosters agree that small can be too small and medium can be too large ... with no size in between, however, often using the "margin cut" feature on small helps with that issue - you'll need to re-apply it each time you re-open the book (though not if you don't actually exit it).

The rest of us experience an issue that isn't likely to affect you: the metal casing becomes cold to the touch rather easily.

[Fortissimo]

Thanks Sea! This device is simply breathtaking. Pls forgive me if this sounds foolish (I'm not very techy), but I thought the unit doesn't come with any memory cards but I can see two grey cards sticking out of two slots which I assume are for memory cards.
Also, I'm planning to use my blackberry charger for it (haven't charged it yet, though). The general consensus seems to be, charging it from the wall is better than using the PC to charge it.

Some preliminary thoughts/observations
The device is simply breathtaking. So beautiful.
The black flashes were really strange. I've never experienced anything like that. It being a black and white reader really aggravates it for me. But I'm sure I'll get used to it.
Opening books seemed a bit slow. I expected it to be instantaneous.
The touch screen technology is pretty decent. Honestly, with my prior experience with touch screens, usually phones, i never felt I could like a touch screen. It's never as easy as it looks. However, the sony's touch screen is quite nice and comfortable. Sometimes needs a double tap.

Please bear in mind the device has been on for less than 5minutes. I want to charge it properly before I start using it.
Another question, do I have to fully charge the device before using it for the first time? Is it detrimental to the reader not to?

Thanks a lot guys.

[Fortissimo]

Originally Posted by delphin

1. amazon for about half that price.

I've just gotten someone to order it for me. However, doesn't the reader slip out the top? Is that safe?

Thanks.

[SeaBookGuy]

Fort,

Those grey plastic pieces are dummy cards to secure the two memory slots in place of "real" ones. The left one is for proprietary Sony ones, and the right for SD cards (or micro SD ones with adapter piece).

I don't think you need to fully charge it right away, as long as there's some power to use it for a day or so. However, I'd urge you to charge it overnight as soon as possible. Unless you're going to be listening to a lot of audio, or loading and unloading quite a bit of material at once, a full charge should last you quite a while.

As for slow opening, I find that, too, but assumed it was because I keep 100 books on an SD card instead of the main memory?

Have you set up your stand-by image(s) yet? There's a tool around here somewhere to default to the cover of your most-recently-opened book for that as well.

I didn't think I'd use the dictionary feature as much as I do, but it really has been quite handy!

Sea