New Reader Activation Strategy

[Xsavior]

Hi All,
This is my first thread as a new Reader owner. (technically the 2 Readers I purchased are at my desk in Vermont while I am traveling in California, so I'm preparing as much as I can for when i get home ) My question is regarding what the best manner of registering the two readers is. One is for me, one is for my girlfriend, who lives 3 hours from my "home base". Should I register both on my PC so that we can share purchased content? From what I've read, that will also pool the activation credit, yes?

Another quick question I have that is probably hidden in the fine print somewhere (and I apologize for not being able to find this already) is what happens when I change computers? Is that related to authorizing the content on up to 6 devices? One HAS to be a computer, but I'd guess that as many of those 6 COULD be computers, so could she get the Connect Store on her PC, and have access to all of the same content that I do on mine? (if she uses my account?)

If that works, then I'd guess that 2 readers and 2 computers count as 4 devices, so I'd have 2 open slots for the future if I upgraded my computer and she upgraded hers. Does that sound right to the experts?

One last question that I haven't seen addressed yet (I may be looking in the wrong area) is has any progress been made to stripping DRM from .lrf books from the Connect store that would ensure my ability to use my purchased content on a separate device that may be purchased in the future?

Thanks again for the great community, sorry for the run-on sentences, and I hope I'm not being overly redundant with these questions. I've been looking, but there SO MUCH INFO!!!

[Vienna01]

Originally Posted by Xsavior

Hi All,
This is my first thread as a new Reader owner. (technically the 2 Readers I purchased are at my desk in Vermont while I am traveling in California, so I'm preparing as much as I can for when i get home ) My question is regarding what the best manner of registering the two readers is. One is for me, one is for my girlfriend, who lives 3 hours from my "home base". Should I register both on my PC so that we can share purchased content? From what I've read, that will also pool the activation credit, yes?

Another quick question I have that is probably hidden in the fine print somewhere (and I apologize for not being able to find this already) is what happens when I change computers? Is that related to authorizing the content on up to 6 devices? One HAS to be a computer, but I'd guess that as many of those 6 COULD be computers, so could she get the Connect Store on her PC, and have access to all of the same content that I do on mine? (if she uses my account?)

If that works, then I'd guess that 2 readers and 2 computers count as 4 devices, so I'd have 2 open slots for the future if I upgraded my computer and she upgraded hers. Does that sound right to the experts?

snip

Thanks again for the great community, sorry for the run-on sentences, and I hope I'm not being overly redundant with these questions. I've been looking, but there SO MUCH INFO!!!

If I understand Sony's Connect facilties, the ability to de-activate a device allows a user to move to a different replacement PC. Forever? There is a de-activate command on the screen next to my PC.

[Vienna01]

Originally Posted by Xsavior

Hi All,
This is my first thread as a new Reader owner. (technically the 2 Readers I purchased are at my desk in Vermont while I am traveling in California, so I'm preparing as much as I can for when i get home ) My question is regarding what the best manner of registering the two readers is. One is for me, one is for my girlfriend, who lives 3 hours from my "home base". Should I register both on my PC so that we can share purchased content? From what I've read, that will also pool the activation credit, yes?

Another quick question I have that is probably hidden in the fine print somewhere (and I apologize for not being able to find this already) is what happens when I change computers? Is that related to authorizing the content on up to 6 devices? One HAS to be a computer, but I'd guess that as many of those 6 COULD be computers, so could she get the Connect Store on her PC, and have access to all of the same content that I do on mine? (if she uses my account?)

If that works, then I'd guess that 2 readers and 2 computers count as 4 devices, so I'd have 2 open slots for the future if I upgraded my computer and she upgraded hers. Does that sound right to the experts?

snip

Thanks again for the great community, sorry for the run-on sentences, and I hope I'm not being overly redundant with these questions. I've been looking, but there SO MUCH INFO!!!

If I understand Sony's Connect facilties, the ability to de-activate a device allows a user to move to a different replacement PC. Forever? There is a de-activate command on the screen next to my PC's listing.

[NatCh]

Each PC and each Reader will count as a single device (of your allowed 6), so you're right on target there -- you can create a single account and put all 4 devices on it and still have 2 spots free.

If you take a device off (de-register it from the account) then its slot opens up. You have to have the device physical handy to do the de-registration, so if you know you're getting rid of one of the PC's, for instance, de-register it before you get rid of it.

Don't worry if you can't do that, though, because you can always call the customer support folks and ask them to de-register a device -- we had to do that when the home PC crashed in January. They were able to take it off for us though, no fuss, no muss.

As far as I know no one's cracked the DRM yet, but the hopeful news in that area is that Sony has signed on to go with Adobe's Digital Editions. If that takes off, then we may get a de-facto portable format for e-books out of the deal.

[whiteinge]

Originally Posted by Xsavior

Should I register both on my PC so that we can share purchased content? From what I've read, that will also pool the activation credit, yes?

Answer to one of your questions: yes this will let you share purchased content and will also pool the activation credits.

I picked up a second Reader recently and fortunately forgot to register my first reader, so now I'm up to my eyeballs in Connect store credit. :-)

[Dr. Drib]

of deregistering a Reader from a Computer regarding the books that are still ON that computer where the unit has been deregistered.

For example, I have ALL my Books on my computer (and I realized they are also on my account on the Connect site.)

Here's my question: When a unit is deregistered from a computer with books on the computer, can those books be loaded onto the deregistered Reader?

My thinking is -- probably not. However, as mentioned above, the titles are still available to one on the Connect site.

Is that anyone else's thinking?

Thanks,
Don

[Xsavior]

thanks to everyone for responding, i'm glad i wasn't just asking the same old same old question, you gotta love the discussion!

Dr. Drib, from my slowly growing understanding of the way things work, and with some experience with related material in the past, my guess is that as soon as you de-register, you will no longer be able to open any of the books. I'm wondering if the way around this might be alluded to in Natch's warning.

If you call customer support, and ask to de-register a device that is not online, or not capable of being on line, I'd think that what ever books that are currently loaded on that particular reader/computer would be readable indefinitely. Obviously that would be of limited usefulness, as you would not be able to load any further purchases from the Connect Store ever, but that's my theory. Does that seem like it makes sense?

Overall, though I am not a fan of DRM, it does seem as though Sony is being fairly reasonable with this approach. Now I just have to wait until Saturday, travel for 12 hours, swing by the office, pick up my readers, and get started!

[JSWolf]

What you should do is call customer support on this issue. Because if you register two readers on one account, you may not get the free credit to buy books. So call Sony and ask them how you go about setting up two readers on one account so you get the credit from both readers.

[DailyPlanet]

If you purchased books from connect, they are registered to your account. if you deauthorize a pc, it will ask you to sign into your account (authorize) in order to view the content. if you have activations left. this system works exactly like the iTunes system

[JSWolf]

What I want to know is can I authorize my wife's reader on my account and somehow allow her to redownload her books so they work on her reader? Would that be a matter of authorizing her reader on my computer and then having her log in on my computer and redownloading? I don't mind sorting out her books on her reader for her. This way, I can allow her to use my credit since I don't really pkan on using what I have left unless she's not going to use it.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because if you register two readers on one account, you may not get the free credit to buy books. So call Sony and ask them how you go about setting up two readers on one account so you get the credit from both readers.

The credits are tied to the initial registration of a given Reader -- it does not matter if there are already other Readers on the account. We have a number of folks who have done exactly this, and gotten one credit per Reader on a single account.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I want to know is can I authorize my wife's reader on my account and somehow allow her to redownload her books so they work on her reader? Would that be a matter of authorizing her reader on my computer and then having her log in on my computer and redownloading? I don't mind sorting out her books on her reader for her. This way, I can allow her to use my credit since I don't really pkan on using what I have left unless she's not going to use it.

If you're talking about getting your wife's books onto your account, it can be done. There were a couple of people back in the late fall, I believe, where they succeeded in getting the ConnStore help folks to combine two accounts, but it required the deletion of one of the two accounts. You can ask them, I think they'll probably do it for you, but you won't know for sure 'till you ask.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Well I want to de-register and I can't find the phone number to call them. Hoping this all posts..... using firefox and I think I had to use an IE extension to make it work right ........ don't ask...... this forum is not being friendly to me today as far as all I am typing out, only some is showing up on the other thread just about this matter.

my posts are also not showing up, I type and it like goes poof, what is going on . guess I can't quote you natch...... I wrote about this four times and everything I say goes bye bye and I don't know why...... so now I am twice as frustrated..... I cannot quote your post, that seems to be more of the culprit, so I just removed it. Also tried to respond to you about my problem on another thread and that wouldn't go through either. ah looks like this one with preview post is going to work..... I wrote connect cs and haven't heard back about de-registering the two computers listed in my account which are this one and which has been formated so no way I can de-register it myself....... I really need their number and I can't find it.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Sorry guys, I have gone to connect and customer service again and there is no phone number listed. All it pulls up is a place to email them. Perhaps they have changed what they are doing and how you can contact them, I went through all their help, no number to be found. And if there is, they are hiding it.

[NatCh]

They are hiding the rascal pretty good, aren't they? I can't find it either. I'll look some more and if I can find it, I'll post it.

[Aprilbeginnings]

Originally Posted by NatCh

They are hiding the rascal pretty good, aren't they? I can't find it either. I'll look some more and if I can find it, I'll post it.

Thanks..... I knew I looked and looked and wanted to look again in case I missed it. I don't think I am missing it, I think they removed it.... and via email, well it's been over 24 hours, will be interesting to see how long this takes.