PRS-600 The Killer Function on the PRS-600

[exodont]

I love the faster page-turn and the touch screen and the cuddly feel of the new reader, but for me the real leap forward has been the search function. I have 1514 books on an SD card and on my 505 finding the book I wanted would take a great deal of page shuffling until I eventually arrived at my goal. This tended to drain both my patience and my battery.

However, all that has changed. Now I just fire up the search box, enter the author's surname or a word or two from the title, and seconds later the book appears. This is sheer bliss for me and worth every penny of the upgrade. And the search function can be used within the book too - find that favourite line or quotation almost instantly. Brilliant!

Someone on another thread (I forget where) asked how long it took to reboot 1500 books on a 600 compared to a 505. Using the same 4GB SD on both machines the times were 13 mins and 34 mins respectively. But - and it's a big but - there are considerable variations in timings when cards of different capacities and different manufacturers are used. It will take more time than I have to figure that out. All I can say is that my fastest SD card, comparing all my 2&4GB of various manufacture is a 4GB SanDisk Extreme III by a big margin.

[kampang]

That is very slow ... rebooting took 13 minutes.

Is it the same like cold boot? Because here said 27 seconds (more or less)

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2&postcount=24

[kacir]

Originally Posted by kampang

That is very slow ... rebooting took 13 minutes.

Is it the same like cold boot? Because here said 27 seconds (more or less)

When you insert memory card with many books the reader must index the files and that can take long time.
Next time you start reader, it should start fast. Also when you add books using Sony Library software.

[bhs]

Wow! Thank you for reminding me about this great search feature using author names and/or words of a book title. I never tried it out this way until now. This is a very efficient way to find a book or a group of books! A major step toward a Save-and-Read feature that I have been looking for in an ideal eBook reader. Sony did it!

Now Collection has become secondary, if not unnecessary. I never do well with Collection as it requires extra management steps, and I often miss some here and there. I can now only leave Collection for essential books. Thanks!

I will try to get an Extrem III as you suggest .

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by bhs

I will try to get an Extrem III as you suggest .

I'd save your money. I highly doubt that card read speed is the bottleneck in the indexing operation. Moreover, those high-end cards are expensive more because of fast WRITE speeds, not read speeds. Like when you're taking pictures in a camera, you need to write quickly. Just get the cheapest class 4 16GB card from a reputable manufacturer and retailer. If you get something from a no-name seller off fleabay chances are it will be counterfeit.

Also keep in mind that MS Pro Duo cards are hideously overpriced, and you can get SD/microSD to MS Pro Duo adapter cards for cheap at places like dealextreme.

[DrMoze]

That's handy, but I took the alternate (and sensible) book-management strategy of keeping about 100-120 books on my Reader. That's about a years' worth of reading, with books in all my favorite genres, and finding particular ebooks by title or author are just a couple of button clicks away. (Do you really plan to read all 1500+ books anytime soon, or is it just 'comforting' to stick them all on a memory card?)

[DixieGal]

You could probably speed things up by copying whatever you are reading to internal memory. Keep the card in your wallet for backup.

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

You could probably speed things up by copying whatever you are reading to internal memory. Keep the card in your wallet for backup.

Or keep the card at home for safekeeping. Seriously, the internal memory on any of these devices holds a huge amount of reading.....

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

That's handy, but I took the alternate (and sensible) book-management strategy of keeping about 100-120 books on my Reader. That's about a years' worth of reading, with books in all my favorite genres, and finding particular ebooks by title or author are just a couple of button clicks away. (Do you really plan to read all 1500+ books anytime soon, or is it just 'comforting' to stick them all on a memory card?)

Some people read very short stories or articles, so 1500 of them is not an unresonable number to have on the device.

[exodont]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

You could probably speed things up by copying whatever you are reading to internal memory. Keep the card in your wallet for backup.

My reasoning for working as I do is as follows:

(1) I have tried various permutations over the years with a succession of ereaders and contrary to expectations the internal memory seems no quicker than an external source.

(2) The total size of my book collection is 955MB so I would need to divide this between internal and external memories.

(3) It's taken me many hours of work plus considerable cash outlay to acquire my books thus an ultra-safe backup system is essential.

So, it's far easier for all book backups to be made to memory cards, the internal memory I use solely for my notes and memos which are all backed up to a laptop, and I can read/work on any of two 505 readers and one 600 which are usually in different locations.

Thanks for all the suggestions though folks, I do appreciate it.

Finally, I mentioned that previously that a full reboot on my fastest SD card took 13 minutes. That has now been beaten by a Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 4GB. It took exactly 10 minutes. It might be my imagination but large books (> 5MB) seem to load up more quickly too.

[exodont]

Originally Posted by DrMoze

That's handy, but I took the alternate (and sensible) book-management strategy of keeping about 100-120 books on my Reader. That's about a years' worth of reading, with books in all my favorite genres, and finding particular ebooks by title or author are just a couple of button clicks away. (Do you really plan to read all 1500+ books anytime soon, or is it just 'comforting' to stick them all on a memory card?)

You are right of course, I couldn't possibly read them all. I have a similar number of 'real' books at home and I'm sometimes asked "Have you read them all?" And the answer is the same. Of course not, but I never know when I may want to look up something. It's the pleasure of having a personal library. And yes, I do find that rather comforting...

[Juliette]

I didn't know yet of this feature... and yes, that makes a really killer feature!

[Grandma Aubbie]

Thank you for mentioning this. I keep a couple of reference books, and I hadn't thought about using the book search. But, yesterday, when I needed to look something up, it saved me lots of time.

You are right - it's a great feature.