Suvudu library updated

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

I bought a BeBook because

(a) It supports many more formats than most other reader

(b) The vendor wants to sell me one and provide support

About (a) - Granted, "supports manu more formats" is a relative term - it can handle many formats, but I wouldn't bother reading LIT files for example as they don't display well, and DJVU files often look pretty bad as the screen is way to small. But the point is, the reader does support these formats, and many more formats are extremely readable - FB2 and RTF are outstanding, HTML and TXT are not bad, even some MS Word docs will display well. And PDF is not bad, given that a PDF formatted to A4 page size will always have some issues displaying on a much smaller 6" display.

About (b) - I have complained often about Sony's unwillingness to even sell their reader in most parts of the non-US world, let alone attempt to provide decent support. But I usually end up with a lot of Sony owners telling me they don't have a problem. My hatred of Sony's sales policy goes back to around 2004/2005 when I was first looking seriously at electronic reading devices. The Sony Libre was being announced and I wanted one, and when they eventually came out I couldn't buy one because I was not in the US. Sure there are ways around that - travel to the US, get someone there to order it for you, etc. But when you add to that the crappy "region" restrictions of Sony's online bookshop and the necessity to access it using their software, it just makes you want to throw your hands in the air.

I think the Sony 505 is probably the sexiest looking reader around (esp. in silver), and for looks I'd grab one no questions. But just as we are all taught to not judge books by their covers, so we shoudl also not judge eReaders by their sexy skins. My BeBook is matte black and pretty ugly, in a "former-Soviet apartment block kind of way" - utlitarian, does the job, but not much style or panache. But I can read the formats I want quite easily, and as I tend to convert most of my reading material to FB2, BeBook suits me. If you're a Mobi format freak then I think there are better implementation, althougn BeBook is improving but some books still have too many hiccups on the reader for my linking.

But my advice is, if you're not in the US (or in one of the new member states of the "Coallition of the Willing" in Sony's slowly expanding sphere of influence: Canada, UK, Germany and a few other Euro countries) seriously consider if you want to go for Sony, or choose an alternative. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for the superb work done in developing the Calibre software, Sony would probably find people bailing out and choosing their competition much faster than they are - Sony should really be paying some serious bucks to kovidgoyal for his efforts, as his software is the reason so many peole outside Sony's official market can make good use of their readers (IMHO).

Anyway, just my $0.02 worth. [/rant]

I'll now wait to get flamed by the Sony supporters...

And if you don't like the stock software (which is very good), you can use OpenInkpot, which I like even better (mostly, but sheesh, it's still beta!). Today, BeBook is the most flexible, best organized e-ink reader on the market. But I read only non-drm'ed books, preferably in either HTML or RTF, with non'DRM'ed Mobi as a last resort.

And it has folders.....