Wow, Sony's eBooks software can't get any worse...

[6charlong]

I have a love/hate relationship with the Sony Library. I get most of my books from Sony Connect/Borders and I love the selection. I go there for mainstream books: recent releases and popular books. I've found everything from the latest Stephen King fiction to more obscure stuff like The White Cascade (is recent non-fiction mainstream?). The Sony library software does the store very well and loads BBeB ebooks from other sources easily as well.

On the other hand, I hate to try to read a Sony book on my computer screen. eReader is a great rendering program for reading on the computer. I wish Sony Library was more like that, and I wish Sony or someone would permit me to format books into BBeB format from Word or WordPerfect while preserving the formatting.

I use it because it is simple and it gets part of the job done.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

I have a love/hate relationship with the Sony Library. I get most of my books from Sony Connect/Borders and I love the selection. I go there for mainstream books: recent releases and popular books. I've found everything from the latest Stephen King fiction to more obscure stuff like The White Cascade (is recent non-fiction mainstream?). The Sony library software does the store very well and loads BBeB ebooks from other sources easily as well.

On the other hand, I hate to try to read a Sony book on my computer screen. eReader is a great rendering program for reading on the computer. I wish Sony Library was more like that, and I wish Sony or someone would permit me to format books into BBeB format from Word or WordPerfect while preserving the formatting.

I use it because it is simple and it gets part of the job done.

You just brought up something I was wondering about. My ebookstore also shows "At Borders" since I did buy my unit from them. I wonder if Borders gets any kickbacks for that stuff.

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

You just brought up something I was wondering about. My ebookstore also shows "At Borders" since I did buy my unit from them. I wonder if Borders gets any kickbacks for that stuff.

I went back and looked. Apparently Sony worked out an agreement with Borders. Borders actually operates the Sony store. That makes sense: Sony makes hardware, Borders sells books.

I also took another look at the [latest] release of the Sony Library and discovered that it has improved since I last used it to do anything more than download-and-upload books. I need to correct my criticism of the software in my earlier post. I think the current release is very good. The Sony Library now has a button that puts it in "Full Screen" mode, which presents two pages of the book with a choice of font sizes. The book is easy to read, especially on a laptop, and it now supports note taking (although I couldn't find how you print the notes). It's really a pretty good rendering tool for reading on the PC.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

I went back and looked. Apparently Sony worked out an agreement with Borders. Borders actually operates the Sony store. That makes sense: Sony makes hardware, Borders sells books.

I also took another look at the [latest] release of the Sony Library and discovered that it has improved since I last used it to do anything more than download-and-upload books. I need to correct my criticism of the software in my earlier post. I think the current release is very good. The Sony Library now has a button that puts it in "Full Screen" mode, which presents two pages of the book with a choice of font sizes. The book is easy to read, especially on a laptop, and it now supports note taking (although I couldn't find how you print the notes). It's really a pretty good rendering tool for reading on the PC.

Thanks for finding that out! I confess, it makes me more than a little sad that I hardly shop at Borders anymore since I got my Reader, and since they are in trouble and also were the ones who sold me my Reader I hoped that they would reap some rewards from that.

I do like the full screen mode as well. But I have the earlier version and it had it. Maybe it wasn't as noticable.

[Nate the great]

The full screen mode has always been there.