Missgivings..

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Predictions:
The chance that Sony will eventually discontinue the 500 series = 100%
The chance that Sony will come out with a new Reader = 50%
The chance that the newest Reader’s file will NOT be compatible with the 500 series = 50%

The chance that the books you buy at Connect will eventually be UNreadable by any new Reader - 75%

Where do you get the idea that Sony will come out with a new reader that isn't compatible with DRM BBeB?

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Where do you get the idea that Sony will come out with a new reader that isn't compatible with DRM BBeB?

Where do you get the idea that it will be compatible?

I assume a future Reader NOT in the 500 series.
I gave it it a 50% chance. Just guessing.

[JSWolf]

Because I think Sony would be shooting themselves if they made a new reader with no BBeB support.

[bkilian]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because I think Sony would be shooting themselves if they made a new reader with no BBeB support.

You mean like their new music players with no ATRAC support?

[Zabuton]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

You can't have it both ways -- by not buying ebooks from the Sony Connect store you're demonstrating to the company (which most likely only knows what it knows by way of the bottom line) that you don't have any further interest in the Reader and are very likely letting it sit in the bottom of a closet. Companies have such narrow visions of what happens after initial sales.

So if sony thinks there's not much interest after initial purpose they will very likely make the totally incorrect conclusion that there isn't much interest in the Reader and certainly no long-range future for it, since they can't make continued revenue by selling content.

If you want them to continue to develop the Reader, you had better hope that enough people buy books from Connect to demonstrate a large enough interest for them to keep the product alive.

Hardware sales aren't the only factor they look at, since once every user who is interested has a Reader, the only way the company will continue to have a revenue stream from the Reader will be the much smaller trickle of new users plus the hopefully significant flow of revenue from the sale of content.

I'm not saying that anybody has a moral obligation to buy from the Sony store, but I am saying that if there isn't much by way of such sales Sony may well decide to end the product.

Yes. I am aware of this. My contribution is already in the hardware purchase. One more buyer for the eReader is better than one less.

By the way, Sony Connect store does not accept non-US credit card. Granted this is second hand info, but nothing in there that makes me want to try to purchase.

[tgharold]

I had some of the same concerns as the original poster. I dislike DRM and I like to packrat books. The solution for me so far?

- I buy my books from Baen's site without DRM (and in multiple formats).

- I'm working my way through the ample content from Project Gutenberg (mostly versions that the good folks here have created and posted in the MobileRead forums).

If I do bother to buy books from the Sony store in DRM format, it will only be for titles that are of the read-only-once variety. So I shan't much care if the DRM gives out or if I can't read them 5-10 years from now.

(I'm extremely happy with my PRS-505. It's an excellent piece of hardware for doing fiction reading in the evenings before I nod off. And I'm getting a chance to finally start digging through all of the classic literature that I never got around to reading.)

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by Zabuton

Yes. I am aware of this. My contribution is already in the hardware purchase. One more buyer for the eReader is better than one less.

By the way, Sony Connect store does not accept non-US credit card. Granted this is second hand info, but nothing in there that makes me want to try to purchase.

I realize that Sony is definitely not making it easy for us to show them that there is a market.

So I hope it doesn't become a case of "Show us there's an interest" while they make it difficult to show that there's an interest and then claim "there's not much of an aftermarket potential for sales of content."

Indeed one more buyer for the Reader is better than one less, but many hardware manufacturers know that unless/until a super-duper upgrade with many new features and increased capabilities is released, most who have already bought something won't be buying a new one. So buying a Reader showed them that I am definitely interested, but it also showed them that they probably can't count on another hardware purchase from me for at least a few years.

I am totally amazed at the incompetence with which the Connect store has been set up, and am totally uncomprehending of why they won't accept non-US credit cards.

I'm not saying that anybody should buy books from Connect just to show Sony we are here, but I do hope that they don't look on the relatively small sales compared to sales of readers as indication that we don't care.

And I am so hoping that there can be some agreement on a device-independent book format which still provides the DRM that publishers seem so adamant about, so that we can shop at ANY on-line bookstore and buy a single format which can be read on the Reader or the Kindle or the Microsoft Reader software on desktop, notebook or pocket PCs.

And don't get me started on how stupid it is of Sony not to come out with Mac software, since Mac users are often among the early adopters of new devices and new technologies. Even though the Mac share of the computing world remains small, I bet the percentage of Mac users who adopt new technologies such as the Reader would be more like 50%, if the manufacturers would only pull their heads out of the sand and stop listening to their software developers who only want to write for a single platform!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tgharold

- I'm working my way through the ample content from Project Gutenberg (mostly versions that the good folks here have created and posted in the MobileRead forums).

When can we expect to see some books posted by you? That's the best way to say "thank you", if you appreciate the work that people have done in producing them!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

And I am so hoping that there can be some agreement on a device-independent book format which still provides the DRM that publishers seem so adamant about, so that we can shop at ANY on-line bookstore and buy a single format which can be read on the Reader or the Kindle or the Microsoft Reader software on desktop, notebook or pocket PCs.

MobiPocket has become pretty much of a de facto standard. Almost every device on the market except Sony supports it.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

I am totally amazed at the incompetence with which the Connect store has been set up, and am totally uncomprehending of why they won't accept non-US credit cards.

I think they figure that ID's you as being in the US. There are laws againts exporting "encryption" because it can be considered a "munition". There was a point when Internet Explorer had two versions, one that used a 40-bit key for SSL and one that used a 128bit key. The 128bit key version could net be downloaded outside of the US due to this rule.

The rules may have changed. But, once again, this is probably a DRM issue.

BOb

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by bkilian

You mean like their new music players with no ATRAC support?

Well, I'm a fan of the ATrac3+ format. They should have opened it up--*much* better than mp3! I can still convert any of my CDs to ATrace3+ (or another format), but having ripped hundreds and hundreds of CDs into Atrac3+, it does suck that newer players don't support it. I guess I should stock up on some older models while I can.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by HarryT

MobiPocket has become pretty much of a de facto standard. Almost every device on the market except Sony supports it.

Well, my gripe is that PDF is the real standard, and Sony gave us very poor PDF support. When people send me documents, they are pdf's. Would be nice to be able to view material from work (pdf's) on the Reader, but I can't. Same old story- it's a real hassle to get material into a format a reader can display properly.

UnPDF works okay- but there are format problems when converting to LRF. I do find it handy- even bought an additional copy for my Mac. I have been using it and Gemini to take pdf's to html, and read on my Nokia tablet- works very well. And the formatting seems to be better in html than lrf. If the Nokia had a slightly larger screen, I would use it for all ebook reading (display even works fairly well outside).

Most of the docs we generate at work are in PDF format- the high speed Canon copier makes it easy to go paperless. If PDF is going to continue to be used so widely, I would think e-book manufacturers would want to support it well. I do enjoy my reader, and have bought several hundred dollars of books from Sony, but I would never buy another Sony ereader unless it could properly display standard sized (American Letter size or A4) pdf's well.

[Taylor514ce]

PDF was designed out of PostScript, a programming language for producing final, static page representations. PDF represents the final presentation of a document, with formatting choices "baked-in". Useful for office documents and the printing industry, certainly, but wholly unsuited for an electronic version of a book, which needs to adapt to a variety of devices, resolutions, screen sizes, system fonts, and so on. Anyone producing PDF e-books misunderstands the e-book market.

[llasram]

Originally Posted by HarryT

MobiPocket has become pretty much of a de facto standard. Almost every device on the market except Sony supports it.

That’s somewhere I have “missgivings.” Not that Mobipocket isn’t a de facto standard, but that it’s such a hideous format compared to MS LIT. I feel the pain of indecision every time I buy a book – do I buy the kludgy glob of degraded markup, or do I buy the frequently highly-semantic markup which requires a Windows licence to download?

Yeah, probably not a dilemma shared by the average consumer.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by llasram

That’s somewhere I have “missgivings.” Not that Mobipocket isn’t a de facto standard, but that it’s such a hideous format compared to MS LIT. I feel the pain of indecision every time I buy a book – do I buy the kludgy glob of degraded markup, or do I buy the frequently highly-semantic markup which requires a Windows licence to download?

Yeah, probably not a dilemma shared by the average consumer.

Could you elaborate?

Both LIT and MobiPocket are based on the Open eBook (OEB) standard. Both are essentially HTML within a custom "wrapper"; that's why it's so easy to convert from LIT to Mobi, or vice versa. To the best of my knowledge, they have pretty much the same capabilities.

In what way do you consider LIT to be better?