PRS-350 Mini-Review of my 350 with Photos

[Dave Berk]

Thanks for checking. It gives me hope that it was only one batch of screens that was defected.

Also thanks for the review and the pictures.

[Squirsier]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I guess the best way to describe it is to compare the internal edges around the screen to a picture frame. A picture frame is made of four pieces top, botton, and two sides that have their edges cut at 45 degree beveled angles so that the frame pieces fit together to form a rectangle. Apparently sony has combined four pieces, possibly housing the infrared sensors, and each piece has a 45 degree beveled edge. The pieces on my 350 do not line up perfectly so I can see the edges of all of them very plainly, especially the one that shows up in the photo. It is put together similar to a very cheap picture frame where the beveled edges don't fit precisely. No big deal as it is merely cosmetic, but it is definitely not up to Sony's top quality tradition.

Mine doesn't display this problem!

[Squirsier]

Originally Posted by jswinden

But overall, I did not encounter the slow downs that at least one person has.

I was using an LRF file to get this problem ; ePub seemed to work fine according to my tests (I still prefer LRF no matter what heh).

[worxland]

Could you test this slowdown issue with .txt and RTF? I use these two file formats only.

[The-eBook-Reader]

Great write up on adding fonts, Jack!

One thing I'd suggest is putting your name on it as the author. I can guarantee some sleaze wad is going to copy it and take credit for it and post it elsewhere.

Speaking of posting it elsewhere, with your permission I'd like to repost it on my blog, with your credit of course. What do you think?

Originally Posted by The-eBook-Reader

Great write up on adding fonts, Jack!

One thing I'd suggest is putting your name on it as the author. I can guarantee some sleaze wad is going to copy it and take credit for it and post it elsewhere.

Speaking of posting it elsewhere, with your permission I'd like to repost it on my blog, with your credit of course. What do you think?

You are welcome to post my document on your blog. I lay no claim to having developed these techniques or instructions. There are many here on MR to whom we owe appreciation for that undertaking. I don't even know who or who all the appreciation goes to, but it does not go to me. I merely took information from many posts in several threads and tried to make sense out of them. In the end I experimented a lot and recorded my results and then decided to write the article to help others get through in short order what took me a lot of time and experimentation to accomplish. That is why I didn't place my name in the document as I merely compiled what others had discovered and expanded and expounded it hopefully into plainer English.

Originally Posted by worxland

Could you test this slowdown issue with .txt and RTF? I use these two file formats only.

I'll try to do that tomorrow and then update this post.

[yakuzaboss]

Excellent review and great pics!

[The-eBook-Reader]

Originally Posted by jswinden

There are many here on MR to whom we owe appreciation for that undertaking. I don't even know who or who all the appreciation goes to, but it does not go to me.

I agree. MR is definitely a great resource for this kind of advanced technical stuff. But you are being too modest. You definitely deserve some of the credit for taking the time to layout everything in such a professional manner.

I've known about changing fonts for the Sony Readers for a while, but I never had the time to go through all the various posts and work everything out like you have. I, and I'm sure many others, appreciate the time you put in.

And when my PRS-350 arrives tomorrow I'll be able to test it out first hand . . .

[dordale]

Great review! Thanks for posting all the details and the document summarizing how to change fonts on the Sonys!

I'm even more anxious to get my hands on a new 650!

dordale

[FizzyWater]

Thanks so much for the write-up and for the consolidation of the font fix...I gave up, I'm afraid, in the thread because of all the changes! I might actually be able to do it with your instructions.

Originally Posted by jswinden

No but it does help with 2-column and 3-column PDFs. See photos from a crappy scanned type of PDF. This does not work in Landscape--only in Portrait.

...

Actually 2-column and 3-column splits also work in landscape if the original document is in landscape.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by kartu

Erm, the font hack required having custom firmware with modified adobe viewer file (without it, viewer does not look for a css file in internal memory).

[UPDATE]Just read the attached manual. Modifying css files contained in EPUB files is ment. Never mind.[/UPDATE]

The custom firmware hack on earlier devices has the great advantage of working for most epubs (including those with DRM) without having to edit the epub (you can't edit DRMed epub anyway). It doesn't work however if the epub already has embedded fonts--you will need edit the epub to take out the embedded fonts in the css so the default userStyle.css is used instead.

We won't know if the same technique will work with the new devices until someone is brave enough to try flashing the firmware--not for the faint hearted because if you do not know what you are doing you could (permanently?) brick your reader.

[kartu]

ShellShock
porkupan (aka boroda)/igorsk will certainly try to hack th edevice (and they've always succeeded so far) at least to add Cyrillic glyphs to the fonts.

Besides, 900 (unlike 600, but there is custom firmware even for 600 ) had recovery mode (discovered by porkupan), probably 650/350 have it as well.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by kartu

ShellShock
porkupan (aka boroda)/igorsk will certainly try to hack th edevice (and they've always succeeded so far) at least to add Cyrillic glyphs to the fonts.

Great--let's hope he upgrades!