Sony Reader questions answered by Sony Reader Team

[yvanleterrible]

Html is not on the list unless it's in an other name. I'd go with Rtf , Word is available on every platform.

I don't plan on using the connect store, I'll go the Mac way.

The reader is not even on the canadian site. Sony does not plan to sell in Canada, don't they know we're cousins ? I live only 50miles away !!!

[rjnagle]

Wow, HTML not on the list! Could that be a mistake?

When you finish reading an RSS feed on the Reader, what happens? Does it get erased? Can you do anything to prevent it from being erased?

[doctorow]

Originally Posted by rjnagle

Wow, HTML not on the list! Could that be a mistake?

I wonder the same. Specs of the Sony don't seem to mention HTML either.

[yvanleterrible]

He did'nt even mention anything on inputs aside from markers. The tool has a USB plug, so have most keyboards. Simple software must be easy to write for it.

[Laurens]

Originally Posted by doctorow

I wonder the same. Specs of the Sony don't seem to mention HTML either.

I thought it was already settled that it doesn't support HTML. Anyway, it doesn't.

[rjnagle]

Is there an PC emulator for the reader software? I'm an author and want to see how it renders. Is the only way to do this to buy the hardware?

[ultim8fury]

As a UK citizen and a Mac user Looks like I'm SOL on buying content anyway so I'll just import the device or time a convenient holiday sometime after launch.

[Kosst Amojan]

Well no html support is a little disappapointing but also a little confusing, how are RSS feeds stored on the reader? It's no biggie though, Word has that nice "Save As" feature.

There is a Sony store in a mall on my way to work, whenever it comes out I'll just leave a bit early and pick one up.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Did nobody elese notice the littel fact, that it will not be possible to zoom PDF documents?

You can do a 90° rotation on PDFs and view sections of each page at a time -- that should give, what about 2X zoom?

Of course, if you have control of the PDF creation, you can make the pages the size of the screen in the first place. And there's the cropping trick that's been discussed at length in the iLiad forum which should help some too.


@KNatoli -- since Sony wants you to buy books from their Connect store, I'm pretty sure that deals with iTunes aren't real high on their agenda at the moment -- besides, like you said: "who wants to sell themselves to Steve Jobs"?


Interesting bit here, I've seen some small indications that they may explore MacPuter support for the Connect software in the future. Not something to base a decision on, but it's a sign that they seem to be interested in playing better with others.


As to notation/highlighting -- the Sony Reader, as it stands today, doesn't have any entry methods supported (no stylus/keyboard or such), so there isn't any built in way to make notes/highlights, as several have noted already. But it does have a (mini) USB jack (also mentioned by others), and it does run an open source OS, and they indicated a somewhat favorable view of hacking their Readers (at least) here. I've also seen some indications that they're looking at perhaps releasing some sort of SDK, but nothing reliable yet. Who knows what we mere users might get up to once the devices are in our hot little hands?

As Laurens said, there's definitely no native HTML support, that's been known for a good while now. The Connect store must be converting their RSS feeds to a supported format (BBeB, maybe). And it's been expressly said, both above an elsewhere, that content won't expire, so you should be okay keeping whatever you want to keep on your Reader for as long as you want to keep it. (yippee!)

All in all I'd say it looks like they've learned some things from the Librie' experience.

[Laurens]

I'm a little disappointed that RSS conversion relies on their Connect server. On the bright side: I'm still planning on writing a Sunrise-like application for the Sony Reader and it will make that application all the more useful.

[scotty1024]

Originally Posted by jæd

Well... Now I'm glad I bought an illiad...! I wouldn't have been able to buy any books for the Sony Reader on either my Mac laptop or Ubuntu desktop.

This just proves Sony still doesn't grasp their customer base for this product:

1. Prius owners, already proving they will spend $12,000 more to drive a car that costs more CO2/petroleum to make (vs a non-hybrid) than it will save in emissions/petroleum...
2. Early Adopters that actually read books (rather than web content.)
3. High powered executives whom will buy it precisely because it is so economically impractical, but "cool".

No one else is going to pay $$$ for the Reader at this point. I mean Sony will give a 20% discount off list for their DRM'd ebooks and Amazon will sell you the paper version for 30% to 50% off?

How large a percentage of that market are Mac users?

I'd put the percentage at around 50%, so in effect they just kissed off half their potential customer base for the product.

[dugbug]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

How large a percentage of that market are Mac users?

I'd put the percentage at around 50%, so in effect they just kissed off half their potential customer base for the product.

Honestly, that number is likely closer to zero.

Just look at the millions of business travellers reading on planes. All they need is to promote the readability, battery life, and ability to carry lots of books in a small lightweight space, and its a hit.

I would like to thank sony for the replies. Here is a little feedback for sony:

Im interested in the user interface to the reader. Please consider before you release it to make some of the user interface configurable through the pc connect software. For example, I may not want to hold the "next page" button down for five seconds before it jumps forward.

Also, make sure your connect software runs on vista!

-d

[geekraver]

After yesterday people won't be taking these on planes any more.

Anyway, I for one cannot wait for the Sony to be released (and I work at Microsoft so the WIndows XP-only support doesn't bother me - Mac users should snap up copies of Virtual PC while they're still available ;-) ). The iRex is just too expensive, and the Hanlin may never be properly distributed here. I'm champing at the bit; I'm tired of struggling with a 770...

[geekraver]

BTW for those concerned about lack of HTML support, you can use HTMLDOC to convert to PDF. This has the added benefit of giving you a lot of control over how the PDF is formatted. Most of what I want to read is either native PDF or HTML converted to PDF. The support for tables is pretty broken but otherwise HTMLDOC does a good job.

I'm very pleased that Sony is including the ability to rotate the screen, as much of what I read is technical papers or books and I suspect that they would suffer at 600x800 portrait. On the Nokia 770 I read in landscape more and its acceptable; the extra lines (from 480 to 600) will be a boon on the Sony.

What would be even better would be if Sony supported PDF reflow but that is probably expecting too much. I wonder what would happen if you used the Adobe PDF reader on a VGA enabled Pocket PC and reflowed the PDFs, then put them on the SOny? That would be an interesting experiment.

[ath]

Originally Posted by geekraver

I wonder what would happen if you used the Adobe PDF reader on a VGA enabled Pocket PC and reflowed the PDFs, then put them on the SOny?

Nothing much. Reflow, as it's implemented by Adobe, does not change the PDF document, only how it is presented. Saving a reflowed document saves the original document, by and large.