Upgrade Sony, or switch to kindle?

[bill_mchale]

But doesn't the remove the advantage of the Kindle? I mean, if you are going to strip DRM, and then set things up in Calibre, then you can essentially read your books on any device that supports one of the formats that Calibre supports (not that I am suggesting you use .txt ).

--
Bill

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

But doesn't the remove the advantage of the Kindle? I mean, if you are going to strip DRM, and then set things up in Calibre, then you can essentially read your books on any device that supports one of the formats that Calibre supports (not that I am suggesting you use .txt ).

--
Bill

Well, conversions are never COMPLETELY bug free...

[dnullify]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Plugboards are an extremely useful feature of Calibre which allows you to modify the title of an eBook automatically, according to a template, when the books is transferred to your reader. I have mine configured so that if a book is in a series, Calibre automatically prefixes the title with the series name, number within the series, and a hyphen. Thus, in my Calibre metadata for Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" I have the series name set to "Poirot", and the number to "1". When I transfer the book to my Kindle, the book title automatically gets changed to:

Poirot 01 - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

This makes the use of collections for series essentially redundant.



As a device, the Kindle and Sony are very similar. What puts the Kindle squarely in front for me are the Amazon bookstore, the ease of buying books, and Amazon's GREAT customer service. Eg, if I buy a book at Amazon, I can return it for any reason within 7 days of purchase. If I buy a book at Sony and find the it has poor formatting then tough - all sales are final.

Oh, I used to do that myself manually, before i figured collections out when i first got my reader...

It got to the point where it took too many page turns to get to the right book. it does work, but i'd rather work the collections. My friend bought a kindle 3, and he had to sit there after importing the whole library for ages manually filing books into collections.

I don't have a kindle to play with, so anyone who uses the collection plugin for calibre - is that a pain?

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by dnullify

Oh, I used to do that myself manually, before i figured collections out when i first got my reader...

It got to the point where it took too many page turns to get to the right book. it does work, but i'd rather work the collections. My friend bought a kindle 3, and he had to sit there after importing the whole library for ages manually filing books into collections.

I don't have a kindle to play with, so anyone who uses the collection plugin for calibre - is that a pain?

It's a pain to tag or edit the metadata for all the books in the first place so you can use the Collections Plugin to make the collections. Actually using the plugin is easy. NOTE: The calibre Collections Plugin does NOT work with the Kindle Touch.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by dnullify

I don't have a kindle to play with, so anyone who uses the collection plugin for calibre - is that a pain?

It's only a small pain the first time you set it up, and even then that's because it's so flexible. For me, at least, it's not so much that the plugin is complicated as it is the thought process of choosing exactly how I wanted my collections. One thing that's very helpful is that it has a preview feature that will create a report of what collections it will create or delete on the device without actually changing anything until you're sure you've got what you want. And once you've got it the way you want, you're done until you decide you want to change things up.

I couldn't survive without it. My K3 would be chaos because I am pretty detailed in how my collections are set up.

As I believe you alluded to being aware of earlier, it doesn't work with the Touch. However, one thing that does work with the Touch is setting up the collections in Kindle for PC (or Mac, I assume, I have a PC) and then pulling the collections file from the archive onto the Touch. It's drag & drop to set them up in K4PC, considerably quicker than doing it directly on the Touch.

I love my K3 but I've got a new T1 on the way. It's a gift, but I picked it out. It's got features I want that the new Kindles don't. Firstly, a touch screen AND buttons. I also like that it's Android based and rootable. I like the form factor. Not crazy about the shine, but that's what skins are for.

[dnullify]

Oh i actually didn't realize that the collections plugin doesn't work for the touch.

So collections work if you drag a folder directly onto the kindle? basically mounting books withough calibre?

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by dnullify

Oh i actually didn't realize that the collections plugin doesn't work for the touch.

So collections work if you drag a folder directly onto the kindle? basically mounting books withough calibre?

No, it's done in the Kindle for PC application. You download the books into the program from your Amazon archive. You can also add mobi files from other sources to the application. Then you can create collections in the program, put books in them, then sync. On the Touch, there will then be an option in the archive (accessible through the books list on the device) to download the collections settings. Whatever books on the device match what you organized in the program will then be in the same collections on the device.

I think I explained that very badly, so hopefully someone can do better. I think I broke my brain today while dealing with insurance companies and property records.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by dnullify

-plastic (my 505 and the kindle is aluminum. Does the t1 feel cheap?)

Cheap? That's up for debate; different tastes and all that.
It *is* lighter and the Kindle Touch *is* stiffer.
(I have both.)
The T1 has physical page turn buttons even if not ideally-placed.

If you're up to it, you can easily root the T1 and install Kindle for Android.
Between that and Coolreader you'll have more native access to more than epub ebooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CRussel

This is sort of OT for here, but I'm curious, Harry. How do you use plugboards to organize your series? Certainly, I use a Calibre plugboard to change the on-device title to reflect the series. But I keep a LOT of books on my Kindle. I can't imagine not having collections to reduce the total number of pages on the home page.

For me, the total number of pages on the Home screen is irrelevant. When I want to find a book, I either use the "Search" facility if I want a specific book, or, if I just want to browse, I use the "type in an initial letter to go to that point in the list" feature.

[CRussel]

Ah, different way to work. That makes sense, then, from your perspective.

[dnullify]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

No, it's done in the Kindle for PC application. You download the books into the program from your Amazon archive. You can also add mobi files from other sources to the application. Then you can create collections in the program, put books in them, then sync. On the Touch, there will then be an option in the archive (accessible through the books list on the device) to download the collections settings. Whatever books on the device match what you organized in the program will then be in the same collections on the device.

I think I explained that very badly, so hopefully someone can do better. I think I broke my brain today while dealing with insurance companies and property records.

So i'd be converting all my files to mobi, then importing them into the kindle application, and then from there mounting them onto the actual kindle?

Seeing as they're both not completely aluminum, perhaps i'd be better off with the sony.

Do collections on the T1 on calibre same as they do for my 505?

thanks for all the responses, i'm glad i asked.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by dnullify

So i'd be converting all my files to mobi, then importing them into the kindle application, and then from there mounting them onto the actual kindle?

Seeing as they're both not completely aluminum, perhaps i'd be better off with the sony.

Do collections on the T1 on calibre same as they do for my 505?

thanks for all the responses, i'm glad i asked.

I concur about going for the Sony. As far as I can tell, the T1 works just about the same as the other Sonys, but there is a separate device plugin in calibre for it so you'll have to set that up the way you want it - it won't automatically use the 505s settings. But that should take all of about three minutes. Much more expedient.

My new T1 will be here tomorrow.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The T1 has physical page turn buttons even if not ideally-placed.

If you're up to it, you can easily root the T1 and install Kindle for Android.

These two factors would be a deciding factor for me. In that manner you would have both ePUB and mobi on the same device.

[dnullify]

So, calibre does not automatically work with the T1?

I just read a review that said calibre didn't work with the new t1. I'm assuming that's been fixed with an update?

Ive also read a whole bunch of the random glitches the t1 was having were patched by Sony.


Odd why I can't find one clearly ahead of another. Is the power button on the t1 in the same place as the 505?

[Abtacha]

Originally Posted by dnullify

So, calibre does not automatically work with the T1?

I just read a review that said calibre didn't work with the new t1. I'm assuming that's been fixed with an update?

It does work, but there is a new Device Interface Plugin for the T1 so if you changed anything in the old one (e.g. which metadata is used for collections) you'll have to do so for the new plugin again.