received reader - Page 8

Bob Russell · 10-05-2006, 06:13 PM

I also got my cradle today! (Anyone else receive one yet?)

It is just as expected... appears to be exactly the same as the prototype sneak peaks we saw. It has a plexiglass rim that you slide the Reader into (either with the cover on, or with the cover off and an included sleeve inserted to make up the difference in size). When you put it in, the plexiglass rim glows white. The light should go off when the battery is fully charged.

I'm not sure whether or not it's better to keep it in the cradle all the time, or whether after it charges I should remove it.

It really is convenient for me on my desk, and minimizes the mess and hassle of cables. It's very easy to connect the reader by plopping it down inside, cover and all. The only trick is to remember that the open end of the case goes "into" the higher plexiglass rim on the cradle. (BTW, I call it plexiglass, but it's probably some nicer material and I've probably made the entire Sony design team cringe after working really hard to find a great material for it!)

One interesting thing to keep in mind, though. Remember how we mentioned that there is a slot for a lanyard? The instruction book (yes, it comes with it's own instruction book for the cradle) says "If the hand strap is attached to Sony Reader, set it to the side of the cradle." There's an illustration also. But the warning is "Placing Sony Reader on the cradle may not be possible if the strap end is thick." They seem to write as if a strap was included, but I don't think it comes with the Reader or the cradle. At least I didn't find one.

And, of course, you aren't supposed to disconnect it if it's doing a transfer. But if you do, sounds not as bad as messing with a PalmOS or PPC sync... it says to just restart transferring. Cool!

My apologies to those who are still waiting for delivery. I don't mean to be insensitive with my excitement. Yours will hopefully arrive soon.

bingle · 10-05-2006, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

I'm not sure whether or not it's better to keep it in the cradle all the time, or whether after it charges I should remove it.

Obviously I don't know about the cradle, but I left my Reader attached to the USB port on my computer overnight recently. I noticed in the morning that the USB symbol was very dark, and when I unplugged it left noticable ghosting. After a few page refreshes the effect was entirely gone, but I resolved not to do that again!

Greg G · 10-05-2006, 07:19 PM

Yay - Mine made it! That was some cross country journey:

Quote:

Date Time Description Location
October 5, 2006 9:14 AM Delivered ALLENWOOD,NJ
October 4, 2006 12:57 PM Enroute JERSEY CITY,NJ
October 4, 2006 6:21 AM Sortation Center Departure EDISON, NJ
October 3, 2006 4:19 AM Sortation Center Arrival EDISON, NJ
October 2, 2006 8:50 PM Sortation Center Departure MARTINSBURG, WV
September 30, 2006 2:51 AM Sortation Center Arrival MARTINSBURG, WV
September 28, 2006 8:00 AM Sortation Center Departure LOS ANGELES, CA
September 27, 2006 9:20 AM Sortation Center Arrival LOS ANGELES, CA
September 27, 2006 12:00 AM Pickup LONG BEACH, CA

Slava · 10-05-2006, 07:22 PM

Congrats, Greg!
Time to

Jake · 10-05-2006, 11:02 PM

As of this afternoon, I am a new and very happy Sony Reader owner! (with sincere thanks to geekravr for procuring one of these for me)

A word of advice: resistance is futile - you *will* be subsumed. The Borg has arrived.
Very rarely have I been so impressed with a new gadget.

You can have all the HDTV's you want but just give me this, great books and rainy Seattle afternoons at Starbucks and I am a very, very happy camper!

Greg G · 10-05-2006, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

As of this afternoon, I am a new and very happy Sony Reader owner! (with sincere thanks to geekravr for procuring one of these for me)

Congrats!

Steen Jurs · 10-06-2006, 06:10 AM

How do I get one if I am *not* based in the US? European Sony sites do not seem to know this product at all.

ChrisAllenFiz · 10-06-2006, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

As of this afternoon, I am a new and very happy Sony Reader owner! (with sincere thanks to geekravr for procuring one of these for me)

Cool, Mine left San Fran yesterday early morning. Hopefully it`ll show up on monday. I`m stoked. Worth paying a premium to have one when virtually no-one else in europe has one.

Steen Jurs : have a look on the flea market forum on this site, there are several people willing to sell you one, for a small fee.

big_stan · 10-06-2006, 09:16 AM

I finally got my yesterday, it took 3 days to go the final about 3 miles, very painfull. Anyway, I have to agree with some of the other posters. The box was very small, and fairly nondescript. The box certainly wouldn't jump out at you if it was sitting on a shelf (like an iPod or Slingbox would).

The unit itself, is amazingly solid. It actually feels quite heavy for its size. If you closed your eyes you would almost think your holding a slab of metal in your hands.

When I first turned it on, I initially thought that the display looked somewhat similar to my old Palm Pilot Pro, except the display has absolutely no depth. It looks like the text (or graphics) are printed directly onto the screen (with a printer). I have to say that it's just uncanny, and it will take me some time to get used to the idea that text can look this good on an electronic device. After years of staring at CRT's and LCD's (or 8+ hours a day on a work day), it going to take my brain some time to get used to!

I immediately downloaded a couple of books off of Sony's site, and a bunch of books from manybooks.net. For some reason when I select the librie format off of manybooks.net I get a 0 byte file, so I ended up downloading about 6-7 books in RTF format. I opened them up (in Word) changed all of the text to size 16, imported them into the connect software, and moved them over to the reader. I have to say I'm very impressed, they look just great.

The connect software itself is generally not bad, but it is kind of stupid. For example, I made a "collection" of SciFi books. Initially I had just 2 books in it, which I copied to the reader. Later I added 3-4 more. I then copied the entire selection to the reader, but instead of overwriting the original directory (which is what I expected), it actually created a second SciFi collection on the eReader. You also can't copy collections to the memory card, which I think is a huge issue. I for one would love to walk around with hundreds of books, including all of the classics (many available for free!), but as it is now this isn't really possible.

At the moment I have about 15 books loaded up, which combined only take 10 or so megs (and you have 64 Megs available internally). So if I was going on a vacation (even for months) taking enough to read wouldn't be an issue, even if I only relied on the internal memory.

So far I've used the device for a couple of hours, I read in bed, and played around with it for a couple of hours, and overall I'm very impressed. I charged it up when I first opened the box, but haven't charged it since. So far the battery meter is sitting at 100%. I'm going to try to go a couple of days without recharging to see how long it will actually hold out. So far so good.

Slava · 10-06-2006, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by big_stan

I immediately downloaded a couple of books off of Sony's site, and a bunch of books from manybooks.net. For some reason when I select the librie format off of manybooks.net I get a 0 byte file, so I ended up downloading about 6-7 books in RTF format.

It looks like they don't have all the books in LIBRIe format. I would say from all the manybooks.net books I downloaded, only about 30% were also available LIBRIe format.

Bob Russell · 10-06-2006, 10:00 AM

As far as loading up the Reader with books, I agree that the Connect software doesn't really help with large sets of books very much. I'm going to keep my Sony purchased books in one collection, and transfer them to the internal memory as desired. Other free books will be managed by me outside the software, and moved directly on the SD card so they don't end up cluttering up the software library. We'll see if that approach works.

tekchic · 10-06-2006, 01:18 PM

Does anyone know what USPS message "Arrival at Unit" means? I'm hoping that means my Reader has made it to my apartment, or at least gets delivered today. *Happydance*
==========================
Arrival at Unit, October 06, 2006, 5:58 am, PHOENIX, AZ 850XX

Slava · 10-06-2006, 01:47 PM

Once it gets to your apartment building, status will be changed to "Delivered"

tekchic · 10-06-2006, 01:49 PM

Thanks Slava. Now I know what I'm doing all weekend *fingers crossed*

ultim8fury · 10-06-2006, 06:41 PM

Quote:

06-10-2006 22:28 International Hub En route to delivery depot
06-10-2006 21:37 International Hub RELEASED WITH CHARGES
04-10-2006 21:37 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGING
04-10-2006 21:37 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGES
04-10-2006 21:17 International Hub Arrived in destination country
04-10-2006 21:14 International Hub Arrived at Hub
03-10-2006 09:38 Delivery Agent - SAN FRANCISCO Left origin country
02-10-2006 10:53 Delivery Agent - UNITED STATES AMERICA Collected from customer

There is a slight possibility of it being delivered tomorrow. Failing that it's on for Monday. It's gonna cost me though, stupid tax man.

10-05-2006, 11:02 PM	#110
Jake Renaissance Man Posts: 45 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Seattle Device: Sony Reader	Another Reader fanatic is born.... As of this afternoon, I am a new and very happy Sony Reader owner! (with sincere thanks to geekravr for procuring one of these for me) A word of advice: resistance is futile - you will be subsumed. The Borg has arrived. Very rarely have I been so impressed with a new gadget. You can have all the HDTV's you want but just give me this, great books and rainy Seattle afternoons at Starbucks and I am a very, very happy camper!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Received Great Deal on Reader at Borders	VanTT	Sony Reader	33	01-14-2008 01:42 PM
Just received a Sony Reader...	skell	Sony Reader	14	12-08-2007 04:57 PM
New Reader Received With Strange Defect	Vienna01	Sony Reader	6	12-17-2006 10:20 AM
Has anyone in the UK received a reader yet?	sarahw2275	Sony Reader	36	10-10-2006 10:37 AM

10-05-2006, 06:13 PM	#106
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I also got my cradle today! (Anyone else receive one yet?) It is just as expected... appears to be exactly the same as the prototype sneak peaks we saw. It has a plexiglass rim that you slide the Reader into (either with the cover on, or with the cover off and an included sleeve inserted to make up the difference in size). When you put it in, the plexiglass rim glows white. The light should go off when the battery is fully charged. I'm not sure whether or not it's better to keep it in the cradle all the time, or whether after it charges I should remove it. It really is convenient for me on my desk, and minimizes the mess and hassle of cables. It's very easy to connect the reader by plopping it down inside, cover and all. The only trick is to remember that the open end of the case goes "into" the higher plexiglass rim on the cradle. (BTW, I call it plexiglass, but it's probably some nicer material and I've probably made the entire Sony design team cringe after working really hard to find a great material for it!) One interesting thing to keep in mind, though. Remember how we mentioned that there is a slot for a lanyard? The instruction book (yes, it comes with it's own instruction book for the cradle) says "If the hand strap is attached to Sony Reader, set it to the side of the cradle." There's an illustration also. But the warning is "Placing Sony Reader on the cradle may not be possible if the strap end is thick." They seem to write as if a strap was included, but I don't think it comes with the Reader or the cradle. At least I didn't find one. And, of course, you aren't supposed to disconnect it if it's doing a transfer. But if you do, sounds not as bad as messing with a PalmOS or PPC sync... it says to just restart transferring. Cool! My apologies to those who are still waiting for delivery. I don't mean to be insensitive with my excitement. Yours will hopefully arrive soon.

10-05-2006, 07:22 PM	#109
Slava Addict Posts: 285 Karma: 129 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New England Device: PRS-500 · iPad · K3	Congrats, Greg! Time to

10-06-2006, 06:10 AM	#112
Steen Jurs Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Denmark Device: iPAQ, SONY eReader	How do I get one if I am not based in the US? European Sony sites do not seem to know this product at all.

10-06-2006, 09:16 AM	#114
big_stan Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006 Device: Sony Reader	I finally got my yesterday, it took 3 days to go the final about 3 miles, very painfull. Anyway, I have to agree with some of the other posters. The box was very small, and fairly nondescript. The box certainly wouldn't jump out at you if it was sitting on a shelf (like an iPod or Slingbox would). The unit itself, is amazingly solid. It actually feels quite heavy for its size. If you closed your eyes you would almost think your holding a slab of metal in your hands. When I first turned it on, I initially thought that the display looked somewhat similar to my old Palm Pilot Pro, except the display has absolutely no depth. It looks like the text (or graphics) are printed directly onto the screen (with a printer). I have to say that it's just uncanny, and it will take me some time to get used to the idea that text can look this good on an electronic device. After years of staring at CRT's and LCD's (or 8+ hours a day on a work day), it going to take my brain some time to get used to! I immediately downloaded a couple of books off of Sony's site, and a bunch of books from manybooks.net. For some reason when I select the librie format off of manybooks.net I get a 0 byte file, so I ended up downloading about 6-7 books in RTF format. I opened them up (in Word) changed all of the text to size 16, imported them into the connect software, and moved them over to the reader. I have to say I'm very impressed, they look just great. The connect software itself is generally not bad, but it is kind of stupid. For example, I made a "collection" of SciFi books. Initially I had just 2 books in it, which I copied to the reader. Later I added 3-4 more. I then copied the entire selection to the reader, but instead of overwriting the original directory (which is what I expected), it actually created a second SciFi collection on the eReader. You also can't copy collections to the memory card, which I think is a huge issue. I for one would love to walk around with hundreds of books, including all of the classics (many available for free!), but as it is now this isn't really possible. At the moment I have about 15 books loaded up, which combined only take 10 or so megs (and you have 64 Megs available internally). So if I was going on a vacation (even for months) taking enough to read wouldn't be an issue, even if I only relied on the internal memory. So far I've used the device for a couple of hours, I read in bed, and played around with it for a couple of hours, and overall I'm very impressed. I charged it up when I first opened the box, but haven't charged it since. So far the battery meter is sitting at 100%. I'm going to try to go a couple of days without recharging to see how long it will actually hold out. So far so good.

10-06-2006, 10:00 AM	#116
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	As far as loading up the Reader with books, I agree that the Connect software doesn't really help with large sets of books very much. I'm going to keep my Sony purchased books in one collection, and transfer them to the internal memory as desired. Other free books will be managed by me outside the software, and moved directly on the SD card so they don't end up cluttering up the software library. We'll see if that approach works.

10-06-2006, 01:18 PM	#117
tekchic Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 120 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Device: iPhone X, iPad Pro	Does anyone know what USPS message "Arrival at Unit" means? I'm hoping that means my Reader has made it to my apartment, or at least gets delivered today. Happydance ========================== Arrival at Unit, October 06, 2006, 5:58 am, PHOENIX, AZ 850XX

10-06-2006, 01:47 PM	#118
Slava Addict Posts: 285 Karma: 129 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New England Device: PRS-500 · iPad · K3	Once it gets to your apartment building, status will be changed to "Delivered"

10-06-2006, 01:49 PM	#119
tekchic Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 120 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Device: iPhone X, iPad Pro	Thanks Slava. Now I know what I'm doing all weekend fingers crossed

Advert

Advert