Calibre and new Sony software update

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by flyash

Why do you even use Sony software? When I got the 600, I just installed Calibre on my laptop, and never bothered installing Sony's library software.

I use the Sony software to buy books or grab their free offerings now and then.

Originally Posted by vxf

I am fairly new at this, so maybe I just haven't figured it out... but Calibre does not seem to handle annotations at all. If I want to store a PDF with handwritten notes, how do I do that with Calibre? Or even if I just want to read said PDF on my PC screen?

You're right, calibre does not handle annotations or hand written notes.

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I just use the Sony software. Why use Calibre at all if you live in America?

You get a superior complete ebook management suite and a ebook library that is flexible and ready to use with whatever your next ebook reader might be.

Library Management calibre manages your e-book collection for you. It is designed around the concept of the logical book, i.e., a single entry in your library that may correspond to actual e-book files in several formats.
calibre can sort the books in your library by: Title, Author, Date added, Date published, Size, Rating, Series, etc.
In addition, it supports extra searchable metadata:

• Tags: A flexible system for categorizing your collection however you like
• Comments: A long form entry that you can use for book description, notes, reviews, etc.

You can easily search your book collection for a particular book. calibre supports searching any and all of the fields mentioned above. You can construct advanced search queries by clicking the helpful "Advanced search" button to the left of the search bar.
You can export arbitrary subsets of your collection to your hard disk arranged in a fully customizable folder structure.
Finally, calibre will even go out onto the internet to find book metadata based on existing title/author or ISBN information. It can download various types of metadata and covers for your books, automatically. The metadata system is written using plugins so that different types of metadata sources can be supported in the future.

E-book conversion calibre can convert from a huge number of formats to a huge number of formats. It supports all the major e-book formats. The full list of formats can be found here.
The conversion engine has lots of powerful features. It can rescale all font sizes, ensuring the output e-book is readable no matter what font sizes the input document uses. It can automatically detect/create book structure, like chapters and Table of Contents. It can insert the book metadata into a "Book Jacket" at the start of the book.

Syncing to e-book reader devices calibre has a modular device driver design that makes adding support for different e-reader devices easy. At the moment, it has support for a large number of devices, the complete list of which is here. Syncing supports updating metadata on the device from metadata in the library and creation of collections on the device based on the tags defined in the library. If a book has more than one format available, calibre automatically chooses the best format when uploading to the device. If none of the formats is suitable, calibre will automatically convert the e-book to a format suitable for the device before sending it.

Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device. The ebooks include the full versions of the articles, not just the summaries. Examples of supported news sites include:

• The New York Times
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Economist
• Time
• Newsweek
• The Guardian
• ESPN
• and many, many more…

calibre has over three hundred news sources and the news system is plugin based, allowing users to easily create and contribute new sources to calibre. As a result the collection of news sources keeps on growing!
If you are interested in adding support for a news site, read the User Manual. Once you have successfully created a new recipe, you can share it with other users by posting it in the calibre forum or sending it to the calibre developers for inclusion in calibre.

Comprehensive e-book viewer calibre has a built-in ebook viewer that can display all the major ebook formats. It has full support for Table of Contents, bookmarks, CSS, a reference mode, printing, searching, copying, customizing the rendering via a user style sheet, embedded fonts, etc.

Content server for online access to your book collection calibre has a built-in web server that allows you to access your ebook collection using a simple browser from any computer anywhere in the world. It can also email your books and downloaded news to you automatically. It has support for mobile devices, so you can browse your collection and download books from your smartphone, Kindle, etc.

The most recent Major Upgrade adds quite a bit of user flexibility and features. Read the latest info and view a short video here.

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I only use Sony Software and have no problems. Sony makes the unit and one should stick to compatible software.

Compatible software? Calibre is compatible with Sony devices.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Sony software is fine and if you use annotations and notes on a regular basis then it may be absolutely essential to your needs.

I too have the Sony software installed for the rare occasion I buy books from them. I also buy books from Amazon so I have their Kindle4PC application installed too. I make sure to strip the DRM before any purchased book is added to my Calibre Library, thus ensuring that my library will be completely ready for any future device I buy.

People should use whatever software they are comfortable with but you did ask why use calibre, hopefully this answered your question.

[crash86]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I too have the Sony software installed for the rare occasion I buy books from them. I also buy books from Amazon so I have their Kindle4PC application installed too. I make sure to strip the DRM before any purchased book is added to my Calibre Library, thus ensuring that my library will be completely ready for any future device I buy.

People should use whatever software they are comfortable with but you did ask why use calibre, hopefully this answered your question.

I have one question. I just downloaded the Kindle for Mac, how do you strip the DRM?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by crash86

I have one question. I just downloaded the Kindle for Mac, how do you strip the DRM?

I don't know. On a PC I would use Skindle or Unswindle but I'm unsure about the Mac environment.

Google Apprentice Alf's Blog or Darkreverser's New Blog and ask for help there.

[Squirsier]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I just use the Sony software. Why use Caliber at all if you live in America?

For those outside of America, perhaps Caliber is better.

I only use Sony Software and have no problems. Sony makes the unit and one should stick to compatible software.

Considering the PSR-300 I own is very finicky and tends to reset itself on its own, wiping Collections but not books, I prefer Calibre. Quite simply, I don't have to redo all my collections (which is a pain) everytime my reader wipes them off from the Sony Software when all I have to do is keep tags current in Calibre. Next time I send all the books, the tags are translated automatically as Collections, easy as pie.

As for sending books, the Sony Software always crashes when I try to send all my library - not so with Calibre.

Sony makes good hardware but poor software, always have, always will (I do own more than 1 Sony product that uses a proprietary software).

[vietchovui]

Originally Posted by crash86

Hi all.

...I plug in My e reader, it opens the Sony Reader program and that's when it all goes belly up....

In Sony Software, there is an option to automatically open the software when the reader is plugged in. Just uncheck this option and everything will be fine.