PRS-500 owners: Will you take advantage of Sony's upgrade/trade-up offer?

[igorsk]

x64 will definitely be supported by the update:

Using the PRS-500 with Windows 7 operating system or 64-bit versions of Windows Vista operating system will require a firmware update for the PRS-500.

No word about OSX yet but I expect it should work.

[cactus_reader]

Originally Posted by SanAntone

I completely agree with Leaping Gnome...why would anyone "trade it in" when you can sell it with very little effort on ebay. They're going for about $150 right now.

I can think of one reason that fits my situation - my PRS-500 is no longer working properly. From day one I've had issues with the battery - the battery life never came close to living up to the specs - but over time it has gotten worse, and now reports a dead battery within a few days, regardless of usage. When I plug it in, it sometimes reports the battery is fully charged - but it is inconsistent. Rather than trying to sell a dysfunctional reader on ebay "as is" or trying to get it repaired - I may be better of taking the trade in deal. I've had my eyes on the PRS-300.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by igorsk

x64 will definitely be supported by the update:

No word about OSX yet but I expect it should work.

I agree. I am expecting the firmware change will allow for the 500 to mount as an external HID storage device. This will allow 64-bit Windows, and Linux and Mac to mount the thing.

BOb

[EatingPie]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I agree. I am expecting the firmware change will allow for the 500 to mount as an external HID storage device. This will allow 64-bit Windows, and Linux and Mac to mount the thing.

Hopefully. But I find it more than a little discouraging the igorsk's link specifies Win64 and Win7, but not Mac OS X.

-Pie

[pearle]

Originally Posted by igorsk

x64 will definitely be supported by the update:

No word about OSX yet but I expect it should work.

Sweet. Good enough for me. A firmware update it is.

[bassoprofundo]

Ok, so I sold both my PRS-500s to a guy last week prior to Sony announcing the update. He noticed that the update info had been posted over the weekend and decided to send both in to be updated. Now, he tells me that Sony says that one of the devices is "out-of-warranty and can't be updated" or that they want $100 to do it. Does this make sense to you guys? Sony's warranty was only a year on these, and I don't know of any PRS-500s that would still be in warranty given that timeframe. Nothing on the site mentions the device needing to be in warranty to submit for an update. Help???

[nesagwa]

Still not interested in a trade in. Wasn't interested in it when they did the same deal for the 505 trade in. It was pretty insulting then - especially when the prospect of ePub support was pretty much nill - and I still dont think it's a very good offer when there really isn't much different on the new models that I'd really call an upgrade outside of the slightly better screens.

It's nice to see that Sony remembered the 500 exists after 3 years of absolutely no updates or support from their software.

But you know, that's Sony. Can't fix anything in software, they just pump out a new hardware revision every four months.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nesagwa

But you know, that's Sony. Can't fix anything in software, they just pump out a new hardware revision every four months.

You have a short memory. If you'd bought a PRS-500 when they first appeared, you would be well aware of the fact that all sorts of software bugs were fixed in the 2 or 3 firmware releases made for the machine. Remember the charging bug? All the RTF bugs? All those were fixed.

[Gravitas]

I'll be looking to do the epub upgrade for my prs 500, but as I'm in the UK, I'll be relying on the good members of this community to help me.

I'm amazed that Sony have been so accommodating to early adopters, I've never heard of any other electronics company offering a free upgrade for a 3 year old piece of kit.

Whilst I'm more than happy with my prs 500 and can usually get the books I want (though having to convert from other formats, which is sometimes a bit annoying), I recently got a 505 for my wife and it would be quite handy to share books, so epub update is good for me.

I'm just not sure I could do without my prs 500 for a month this close to christmas (time off work, lots of reading ) - i figure 1 week to get it to someone in the USA, 2 weeks at sony getting updated and 1 week to get the device back to me, so this may have to wait until early in the new year.

[ChrisAllenFiz]

Originally Posted by Gravitas

I'll be looking to do the epub upgrade for my prs 500, but as I'm in the UK, I'll be relying on the good members of this community to help me.

I'm amazed that Sony have been so accommodating to early adopters, I've never heard of any other electronics company offering a free upgrade for a 3 year old piece of kit.
.

This ain't no charity gig. They are worried that their main source of revenue, ie the book store, will be damaged by them not updating.

Where was the updates when they didn't have something to sell us? Where was the collections support? Will they now offer us a decent firmware with collections et al? I'm guessing not, just the format that keeps the money coming in.

Personally I think it's terrible the way they dropped the 500 when the 505 came out, and this is more of a kick in the nuts for those of us outside the US.

[Xerxes]

People can still get more than what sony is offer.

[nesagwa]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You have a short memory. If you'd bought a PRS-500 when they first appeared, you would be well aware of the fact that all sorts of software bugs were fixed in the 2 or 3 firmware releases made for the machine. Remember the charging bug? All the RTF bugs? All those were fixed.

I do.

But those fixes were all well before the 505 came out weren't they?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome

I sold my old PRS500 on eBay a month ago for $140. Why would anyone trade it into Sony for $50 or $75? Sell it yourself, get more money and get actual cash you can spend on anything you want, not just what Sony wants you to spend it on!

Although I sold my two 500s a little over a year ago, I would say that if money is what one desires, then going the Sony route makes less sense. Simply advertise here for free and get more than $75 for your Reader.


Don

[Akumag2]

I'll be doing the upgrade option even though it will get rid of my clock & icons custom firmware, icons I dont care about but the clock is useful when I forget my watch or when reading at night and need to know its time to sleep.

I find the upgrade insulting though, the pocket edition is pants, the only good thing is the better gray scale, there is no expandable memory doesnt play music or pictures, its horrible, and the touch Ive seen a few of them and the screens are harder to read than the 500, they look washed out.

I wish they had offered a refurb 505 instead, I got my wife one for less than $10 when Circuit City closed down and I must say her's is much easier to read than my 500.

But on the other hand I find the button layout on the 500 better than all the other version of the reader that came out, I wish they would just upgrade the screen.

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by Akumag2

I'll be doing the upgrade option even though it will get rid of my clock & icons custom firmware, icons I dont care about but the clock is useful when I forget my watch or when reading at night and need to know its time to sleep.

I find the upgrade insulting though, the pocket edition is pants, the only good thing is the better gray scale, there is no expandable memory doesnt play music or pictures, its horrible, and the touch Ive seen a few of them and the screens are harder to read than the 500, they look washed out.

I disagree completely. (But hey that's me!) The 300 Pocket is awesome. I NEVER used the mp3 player, never used a memory card--why bother when I can have a year's worth of reading in the internal memory? OTOH, the 300 literally fits in my pocket and I take it with me everywhere, while my 500 & 505 were just a tad too big and only fit in the thigh pocket of cargo pants. (The 300 feels thicker and sturdier than the 500/505, so I am more comfortable pocketing it.)

My concerns about the upgrade are, first, will it still handle Russian books? That is more important than ePub although both would be nice. I also like the icons and font sizes, but I really would miss the clock and mapping of the menu joystick for page turns.

Also, will the upgraded 500 NOT be able to read lrf/lrx files? I converted books in several other formats TO lrf because it displays well (justification and all). Inability to read lrf on the upgraded 500 would be a dealbreaker too.

No Russian on the upgraded 500 would be a dealbreaker for me. Does anyone know about this yet?