Palm TX or the PRS-505 ?

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Sony uses a soft touch touchscreen which basically is a plastic coated film over the screen.
The more you use it, slowly the more scratches it will start to have.
I know because I owned a touchscreen laptop,and mp3 device.

Actually, there are reports suggesting that it doesn't do it that way, but rather uses a glass surface, which doesn't have that problem - the downside is less accurate location sensing, but that's not critical in this usage, which is why it could be used.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Plus,I'm fairly sure that touchscreens get damaged over time. Sony uses a soft touch touchscreen which basically is a plastic coated film over the screen.
The more you use it, slowly the more scratches it will start to have.
I know because I owned a touchscreen laptop,and mp3 device.

The type of touch screen that you're describing is a resistive touch screen, which is the type used by Pocket PCs, Palms, etc etc. It can indeed by scratched by sharp objects.

The Sony does NOT use this type of touch screen, but a CAPACITIVE touch screen. This works by a different principle and does not involve a soft "scratchable" layer on the screen.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's your choice, of course, but I do think that what you're doing is a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face", as the saying goes.

Suppose you buy a device with MobiPocket support. Yes, MobiPocket books can have DRM, but there are also numerous DRM-free MobiPocket books around, and reading those is a much more rewarding experience than reading text or PDF-format files, which is what you're stuck with on the JetBook (as I understand it).

Actually Jetbook also supports .fb2 format. After some experimentation, I have convinced myself that converting html into .fb2 is not that difficult; the formatting will be perserved. So I will buy .lit or .mobi books and then convert them over to .fb2 books. Also, I don't think there is anything wrong with reading pdf books, provided the pdf books are formatted and sized correctly for my screen, so I am working on figuring that out as well (not to mention manybooks.net will pre-format it for me. I also believe that the Jetbook developers are working on support for both ePub and html. So ultimately I am not worried about the reading experience (Heck I have been reading on my iPod using Stanza for over a month now and find it plenty rewarding .

Having a device with DRM support doesn't force one to buy books which have DRM.

No, but it does mean I am paying a licensing fee as part of the cost of the device. I am doing my utmost to ensure that my vote counts as loudly as possible.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

text or PDF-format files, which is what you're stuck with on the JetBook (as I understand it).

Jetbook also supports .FB2.

BOb

[RWJ]

Originally Posted by Rixx

I read tons of books on the Palm TX (320x480 screen, using mobipocket free reader).

I already have all my ebooks in txt and rtf format, so the DRM issues with Sony are not a problem.

I am wondering how annoying the screen flash is on the PRS-505?

I don't notice it at all. I'm not normally a gadget-person, but I can't say enough good things about my PRS-505. I've used my husband's Palm occasionally and find there to be no comparison, especially for reading for prolonged periods - the PRS-505 is great. I suspect it might be easier to read than paper, in a lot of ways.

Sony Style stores in Canada have a no questions asked 30 day return period. That's what tipped the balance for me - and after about 3 days I knew I was hooked. I don't know if there are better/cheaper places to buy from, or if the stores near you don't have this policy, but if you can't borrow one, or play with one for a while, this strikes me as a very good and low risk way to see if it works for you.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RWJ

Sony Style stores in Canada have a no questions asked 30 day return period.

What do they do with the ones that get returned? Resell them?

[RWJ]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do they do with the ones that get returned? Resell them?

Good question. If they're returned because of some defect, you can either get a replacement immediately or a full refund, and in that case I imagine they refurbish them and sell them cheaper and elsewhere; if just because you don't like it, DH says that for other devices they reformat it, replace whatever packaging isn't pristine, and resell as new for full, so I guess they do that for readers too.

[Lemurion]

I have a Palm T|X and use it as my primary reading device. I've got an aluminum shell for it and it goes everywhere I do. I've read probably 5 novels on it in the last week alone. It's a great device.

I saw a 505 in Target the other day-- ran what tests they would let me do-- and I'm getting one as soon as I have the spare cash.

[DMcCunney]

I use a Tapwave Zodiac 2 as my primary reading device. It's a Palm OS PDA with a 320x480 color screen, 128MB or RAM, and two SD card slots. Aside from the standard Palm PIM functions, it plays MP3s, displays JPGs, plays videos, handles light word processing, spreadsheet, and database functions, and oh, yes - it plays games.

I have about 3,500 ebooks on the device. The majority are HTML converted for Plucker, a free, open source offline reader for Palm OS devices. Plucker supports color, hyperlinks, embedded images, text attributes, and custom fonts. Among other things, I have the complete Baen Free Library in Plucker format. I also have several hundred volumes in MobiPocket format, plus stuff in eReader, Adobe PDF, plain text, and Word doc and RTF formats.

It all works well, and the biggest drawback is having to remember which book is in which format displayed by which viewer. (And I get PDFs only if no other format is available for the work, since PDFs are problematic on small screens.)

I need color, and a device that does other things besides display ebooks, so my PDA serves the purpose and I'm not currently in the market for a dedicated reader.

The Sony Reader is a nice device, and the larger eInk screen makes for comfortable reading. If you don't mind the blink on screen refresh, can get the content you want to read in a form the reader can display, and don't require other functionality for the device, it may be a good choice.
______
Dennis

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do they do with the ones that get returned? Resell them?

They probably get refurbished.
Get is a big store room for a couple of months, then they're connected to an electronic tester.
Anything defective will be repaired or replaced, tested again, and then sold to a seller often at 30% of it's original price.

That's why very now and then you'll find exceptional buys appearing out of nowhere with seemingly new items.

[dordale]

My vote is definitely for the 505. Before I go mine, i did fair bit of reading on my Sony Clie. Great device, but the 505 (or other e-ink device) is much better for reading IMO.

dordale

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Between the 505 and the 700, I don't think the 700 justifies the $100 increase in price.
That's 30% of a price increase,for touchscreen and leds. There's no wifi/3g, no real vast improvement over the 505. The design also is near button-less,all happens on touch screen.

The 700 also has the ability to search your eBooks and add notes. The 505 doesn't and never will. Plus the 700 has double the internal memory of the 505. So the price increase for all the new functionality is not a bad thing at all.