Epub coming to the Sony Store on 11 December

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by yekim54

Based on your example, I think the fully justified version would look more like this (i.e., with gaps between words) on the Sony Reader:

aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaaa    aaa    aa
aaaaaa   aaa  aa
aaaa            aaa

Nope, more like:

aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaaa    aaa    aa
aaaaaa   aaa  aa
aaaa aaa

[yekim54]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Nope, more like:

aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaaa    aaa    aa
aaaaaa   aaa  aa
aaaa aaa

Yes, if that last line is the end of a paragraph, otherwise it will look like my post.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by yekim54

Yes, if that last line is the end of a paragraph, otherwise it will look like my post.

Both look pretty crappy to me.

Dale

[Madam Broshkina]

ePub books look fine on the Sony when viewed at the smallest font setting, but when you go to the largest font setting they do not look as good to me. I have attached 4 pictures from the same ePub book. The first two are from the nook at the small and extra large setting. The next are from the Sony at the small and large setting. I would also like to point out that the user guide on the nook is an ePub file that is not justified and at the largest font is does not look good to me. I would have taken a picture of it but I have ran out of film on my digital camera.

[mdibella]

Originally Posted by fugazied

Very good moves by Sony. With the nook and Sony devices, Amazon is starting to look a little old and haggard. Kindle 3 better have some good features!

It's an interesting question. If Amazon does not support EPub and then it turns out that Sony's EPub can be 'liberated' (and then converted to Mobi) then the Kindle will be able to read books from pretty much any source.

On the other hand, there's no way that other readers will ever be able to handle those pesky Amazon Topaz books...

I have Kindles and Sony readers too, so I carry whichever one has the book I am currently reading. The thing is, though, while I do confess I sometimes remove the DRM so I can move books between my own readers, I have never 'shared' one of these books. I do it only so I can use the books I buy the way I want to use them. (Like for example if I have books in a series in different formats, and want to carry the whole series with me).

My point is that I do not object to DRM as such, as long as the books are truly portable between *my own* readers. I'll register the readers, I'll put in a key, I'll do whatever makes the publisher happy, as long as I have portability.

Which means that I might even be willing to spend a bit more money at the Sony store for a book if my alternative is a crippled Topaz version...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mdibella

It's an interesting question. If Amazon does not support EPub and then it turns out that Sony's EPub can be 'liberated' (and then converted to Mobi) then the Kindle will be able to read books from pretty much any source.

On the other hand, there's no way that other readers will ever be able to handle those pesky Amazon Topaz books...

I have Kindles and Sony readers too, so I carry whichever one has the book I am currently reading. The thing is, though, while I do confess I sometimes remove the DRM so I can move books between my own readers, I have never 'shared' one of these books. I do it only so I can use the books I buy the way I want to use them. (Like for example if I have books in a series in different formats, and want to carry the whole series with me).

My point is that I do not object to DRM as such, as long as the books are truly portable between *my own* readers. I'll register the readers, I'll put in a key, I'll do whatever makes the publisher happy, as long as I have portability.

Which means that I might even be willing to spend a bit more money at the Sony store for a book if my alternative is a crippled Topaz version...

Very well said!

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by mdibella

It's an interesting question. If Amazon does not support EPub and then it turns out that Sony's EPub can be 'liberated' (and then converted to Mobi) then the Kindle will be able to read books from pretty much any source.

On the other hand, there's no way that other readers will ever be able to handle those pesky Amazon Topaz books...

I have Kindles and Sony readers too, so I carry whichever one has the book I am currently reading. The thing is, though, while I do confess I sometimes remove the DRM so I can move books between my own readers, I have never 'shared' one of these books. I do it only so I can use the books I buy the way I want to use them. (Like for example if I have books in a series in different formats, and want to carry the whole series with me).

My point is that I do not object to DRM as such, as long as the books are truly portable between *my own* readers. I'll register the readers, I'll put in a key, I'll do whatever makes the publisher happy, as long as I have portability.

Which means that I might even be willing to spend a bit more money at the Sony store for a book if my alternative is a crippled Topaz version...

That's exactly how I feel. I have returned a Topaz book before (thank goodness, it only happened once) and bought the ePub version for over 3 dollars more then what Amazon was selling it for but even though I would have loved to keep the cheaper Amazon version, I refuse to keep anything as limited as Topaz. That's why I no longer shop at the Sony Bookstore where I use to buy 90% of my books before I knew better, now they get 0% of my book purchase. I will be back if the new store ePub can be liberated. I too only want the freedom to move my books between my devices. I have no brand loyalty, I just look for features that meets my need so I definitely need flexibility.

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Any idea what will happen to our current LRF and LRX format ebooks? Will they still work after the firmware upgrade or will they all need to be replaced with epubs?

Originally Posted by amjbrown

a) They will still work

Originally Posted by kennyc

The change if for new book sales. The old ones (lrf) will still work on the readers from what I understand. It is not being removed (though it could be in the future).

I don't think the LRX files will work at all after the change. In the new 900 manual is specifically states that DRM protected BBeB ebooks (LRX) are not supported. I think this may be due to a limitation of the device on having one valid native DRM scheme and they are changing it from the BBeB Marlin for LRF files to produce an LRX file to the new ePub Adobe Adept.

But my estimation is that only the LRX files that show in your online Sony eBookstore "Purchases" list will be available to you on your Sony Reader in a converted DRM-ePub format after the conversion. This will make a LOT of ebbok pirates mad because their LRX files will be useless after the change-over unless it is listed in their Sony eBookstore as an authorized purchase.

But before the flaming begins, this is just my estimation of what will occur based on the released information from Sony so far. I could be completely off base.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pking36330

I don't think the LRX files will work at all after the change. In the new 900 manual is specifically states that DRM protected BBeB ebooks (LRX) are not supported. I think this may be due to a limitation of the device on having one valid native DRM scheme and they are changing it from the BBeB Marlin for LRF files to produce an LRX file to the new ePub Adobe Adept.

But my estimation is that only the LRX files that show in your online Sony eBookstore "Purchases" list will be available to you on your Sony Reader in a converted DRM-ePub format after the conversion. This will make a LOT of ebbok pirates mad because their LRX files will be useless after the change-over unless it is listed in their Sony eBookstore as an authorized purchase.

But before the flaming begins, this is just my estimation of what will occur based on the released information from Sony so far. I could be completely off base.

I think LRX will continue to work, otherwise they would have said so in their email. The only instruction was to download the new software. I think LRX isn't supported on the daily edition because they knew it was coming out after the ePub rollout. Plus, to change the current Readers to not support LRX they'd have to do a firmware update on all the devices, less the Daily Edition (and the 500, they've already started that).

So yeah, I think the existing LRF/LRX files are safe.

[kennyc]

And currently on the (old) store website it is saying "We'll be back soon..."

http://ebookstore.sony.com/downpage/index_b.html

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pking36330

I don't think the LRX files will work at all after the change. In the new 900 manual is specifically states that DRM protected BBeB ebooks (LRX) are not supported. I think this may be due to a limitation of the device on having one valid native DRM scheme and they are changing it from the BBeB Marlin for LRF files to produce an LRX file to the new ePub Adobe Adept.

But my estimation is that only the LRX files that show in your online Sony eBookstore "Purchases" list will be available to you on your Sony Reader in a converted DRM-ePub format after the conversion. This will make a LOT of ebbok pirates mad because their LRX files will be useless after the change-over unless it is listed in their Sony eBookstore as an authorized purchase.

But before the flaming begins, this is just my estimation of what will occur based on the released information from Sony so far. I could be completely off base.

The reason LRX files won't work on the PRS-900 is that the store will have changed by then and you cannot authorize your 900 to handle them. So the 900 is unable to be authorized. I do think the 900 will handle LRF. At least I hope so.

[PieOPah]

Not that I am overly bothered, but of the 19 books I have 'bought' from the Sony Store (they were all free), only 12 of them are available.

I should still be able to read the LRX versions but it would have been nice to update everything to a standard!

[vivaldirules]

I upgraded the Reader software to version 3.1 on my Win XP PC and have had no problems this morning. There is no firmware upgrade for the 505. The store is open and working. I bought a book and it downloaded in epub format. I transferred to my 505 and read it with no issues. Since there's no firmware upgrade, it displays badly on the 505: no full justification and no paragraph indents so with the ragged right edge and clean left edge and no blank lines between paragraphs, finding the end of a paragraph is left entirely to the imagination. That's the last book I buy from Sony until they and Adobe fix the firmware.

The only real curiosity this morning is that I went to check to see that I could still download the books I had previously bought and I see that roughly 20% are now listed as "Unavailable". So I did my search of their total titles as I've been doing the last couple of years and I see that they 14% fewer titles available at their new store than they did just last week. I assume that means they haven't converted all the titles to epub format yet so this may be a work in progress.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I upgraded the Reader software to version 3.1 on my Win XP PC and have had no problems this morning. There is no firmware upgrade for the 505. The store is open and working. I bought a book and it downloaded in epub format. I transferred to my 505 and read it with no issues. Since there's no firmware upgrade, it displays badly on the 505: no full justification and no paragraph indents so with the ragged right edge and clean left edge and no blank lines between paragraphs, finding the end of a paragraph is left entirely to the imagination. That's the last book I buy from Sony until they and Adobe fix the firmware.

The only real curiosity this morning is that I went to check to see that I could still download the books I had previously bought and I see that roughly 20% are now listed as "Unavailable". So I did my search of their total titles as I've been doing the last couple of years and I see that they 14% fewer titles available at their new store than they did just last week. I assume that means they haven't converted all the titles to epub format yet so this may be a work in progress.

Hmmm, I think that paragraph thing and the indents are due to the book formatting itself, not the software. The full-justification is software related, but I prefer it that way anyway. I've seen more horrendously spaced lines due to full justification than not -- in all formats.

I think/hope they are still converting. The Year of the Flood is "unavailable" and I was hoping to download it as an epub.....

[radamo]

I just checked my purchases from the Sony store to get epub copies... seems that of the free books most are available. Of the actual purchases only about 10% are available. That is MOST disappointing. I am also hoping this is a work in progress. Only time will tell.
RA