PRS650 impressions...

dsalomon · 09-22-2010, 09:47 PM

This is my first post on mobileread and I just "officially" joined, so first let me just say HELLO to all! I've been lurking here for a great while.

I've been using a 505 since they first came out. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, I got my new 650 today and I have to say it is FANTASTIC!

Things I like about the 650:

- The touch screen works really well
- The software on the 650 is very intuitive - I love the interface
- It is MUCH faster than the 505
- 2 GB of memory compared to 256 MB on the 505
- The display is very sharp and the contrast is excellent

Things I don't like about the 650:

- Syncing is still slow - I had hoped it would be significantly faster (but this is really just a nit)
- It was annoying to have to re-download all the booked I purchased through the Sony store. It forced me to get the EPUB version and it wouldn't sync the old LRX files. Again, a nit because this is a one-time thing.

Now if Sony could just make decent software. I use Calibre for the recipes, but I use the Sony software/store as the interface to the reader. It crashed on me about 20 times today.

Sony did a great job with this. I love it.

slantybard · 09-22-2010, 09:54 PM

Welcome and I agree, the 650 is great.

desertgrandma · 09-22-2010, 09:54 PM

Welcome to MobileRead, dsalomon

Glad you are enjoying your Sony!

jaxx6166 · 09-22-2010, 10:33 PM

Interesting that you say syncing takes a long time. Is that with the reader software..?when I load everything through calibre it installs all 200 books in 1m48s

advocate2 · 09-23-2010, 12:18 AM

dsalomon,

Welcome. This is a great place to share information and learn. I hope you enjoy participating.

BSquaredInOz · 09-23-2010, 05:10 AM

I agree the 650 is great (it's my first reader so I only have 8 books so no speed issues for me) but the Reader Library is terrible

bmatt · 09-23-2010, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BSquaredInOz

I agree the 650 is great (it's my first reader so I only have 8 books so no speed issues for me) but the Reader Library is terrible

I don't think it is that bad, though I have been using the Kobo site for a while, and theirs is truly horrible. Finding books on there can be a chore, though it has worked out ok so far.

dsalomon · 09-23-2010, 11:29 AM

jaxx6166 - yes, that's with the Sony software. I downloaded about 580 books, about 20% were large PDF files.

I'd like to expand a bit on my initial comments about the Sony software. It's significantly better than it was when it was first released. However, it does still have a tendency to crash when working with a large number of books, approximately 600 in my setup.

I've also noticed that there are times when it eats up an ENORMOUS amount of memory. I've seen it use as much as 1.3GB of memory - and that's when it really starts to bog down (I have 8GB running 64-bit Win 7, so plenty of memory available.)

I do use the sync feature, which I do like. However, it shouldn't have to spin through every book every time it syncs. The software should be able to track changes and sync only those, without checking the date/time stamp first (which is what I assume it is doing as it spins through the entire list.) It needs to have a way to suspend the sync until the user is ready to let it do its thing. When I am adding a lot of books or moving books around into collections, every change I make seems to queue up another sync. After making a bunch of changes, I looked at the Status and it showed about 20 syncs in the queue. Every single one of those will look at all changes. Yes, you can click the "x" to cancel them, but that's just a pain to do. Granted, now that I have everything loaded and into collections the changes should be minimal and much quicker. Syncing is a fairly new feature, and I hope that Sony will add functionality and a greater level of control over it in future releases. (Sony, are you reading this board?)

The software also needs to be able to detect duplicates in collections. If you inadvertently add one or more books multiple times in a collection, it just lets you with no warning or error. There is also no way to remove duplicates other than manually.

Another gripe I have is with the Sony Store. It downloaded some of the same titles multiple times in a single session. This was when I first migrated from the 505 to the 650 and had to migrate from LRX to EPUB format (I had a lot of purchased books). When the download was complete, nearly every title was duplicated at least once, and some up to 8 COPIES! Again, this was a one-time thing, so its not a huge problem, it was just annoying.

I found another really annoying thing yesterday. I had the reader software running in the background. I inserted an SD card that was previously used in the reader into my card reader in my laptop to re-format it for other use. The reader software recognized that it had been used in the reader before (which was NOT currently connected) and started syncing the SD card to the library. This resulted in a mess that I had to manually clean up.

One main reason I use the Sony software as the interface is for the collections feature. Sony did a great job with that (other than my nit noted above). I find it very easy to use and very flexible.

My final comment (for now :-) is that it would be nice to be able to make changes to some of the metadata. I have found incorrect metadata a few times, and there's no way to deal with that in the Sony software. Yes, I know I can do this with Calibre - and I do that as necessary. It's just a minor annoyance to have to do this in separate software.

Finally, thanks to all of you who have welcomed me to the forum!!

levander · 09-26-2010, 05:21 PM

How is the handwriting with the 650?

I want an ereader that will do handwritten notes so badly!

culverg · 09-26-2010, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by levander

How is the handwriting with the 650?

Just got my 650 as my first ebook reader, so don't have much basis to compare. I had hoped to be able to use it for handwritten notes, but don't think it can keep up with my handwriting speed. Might be a processor or screen update issue (or maybe just me), but hoped to have this capability and sadly not there now. Still love the reader and I'm very excited about my new toy.

Maybe some future homebrew / hacks can fix this with existing hardware?

mrdee0 · 09-29-2010, 02:24 PM

I joined today as my prs650 arrived today and its at the moment charging up. Loaded books using calibre which was really fast which i didnt expect. Looking forward to bedtime now so i can read in bed with my huge catalogue of books! Just feels wiered having this paper like display that is actually a screen- marvellous technology. When i first turned it on i got distracted and didnt see the startup screens, and when i looked back it was showing the home screen. I actually thought it was a bit of paper stuck on top and tried to find where to peel it off. Then i pressed a button and realised it was the actual screen lol
Its been 5 years now since my reading has dropped off because of not being able to carry books around me all the time.When i have had a book around i've sometimes not been in the mood for that book. But now i will have this with me all the time i can read whatever i want at any time and finally get back to the kind of reader i was five years ago. Excited to see how technology will develop- i think flexible paper thin displays will be the next big thing....

SkyDream · 09-29-2010, 02:28 PM

Pre-ordered PRS-650 and still waiting...it's Germany.

Mange · 09-29-2010, 03:18 PM

I too, have just gotten the PRS650 and I have to chime in with the others: it's absolutely wonderful. Better and faster screen, lighter and smaller (too bad though that my cool leathercase for the 600 doesn't fit).
The new zoom functions are wonderful and also the word logs are cool.
The ability to put your own picture as a screen in sleepmode is a cool thing to impress your friends with.
And another thing: it's so cheap too! I got this for half of what I gave for the 600 (well nearly)

But why did they change the miniUSBport to this new micro-something?

Take care all,
Magnus

yacoob · 09-29-2010, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mange

But why did they change the miniUSBport to this new micro-something?

New "standard", I guess:
http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2009/49.html

The best thing about standards is that we have so many of them!

jaxx6166 · 09-29-2010, 08:39 PM

Not to Hijack...but Calibre manages Collections quite well. I actually found that out the hard way. If you have any key words or series data stored in Calibre, it automatically writes it to the Sony as a collection. When I first got my 650 and imported everything through Calibre I found out there were 450 collections it created. After killing the tags, I had no more. Then I edited the series data, complete with book numbers, and found that it synced them to their own individual collections in sequential order.

When I tried to manage Wheel of Time on device, it added them into the collection in the order that I had selected them to create. Had a similar issue with the Sony software.

Once I figured out Calibre's new surprise, I didn't have an issue. Currently have 11 collections all synced through Calibre with zero issues. <3 Kovid

09-22-2010, 09:47 PM	#1
dsalomon Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: Sony Reader PRS-650	PRS650 impressions... This is my first post on mobileread and I just "officially" joined, so first let me just say HELLO to all! I've been lurking here for a great while. I've been using a 505 since they first came out. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, I got my new 650 today and I have to say it is FANTASTIC! Things I like about the 650: - The touch screen works really well - The software on the 650 is very intuitive - I love the interface - It is MUCH faster than the 505 - 2 GB of memory compared to 256 MB on the 505 - The display is very sharp and the contrast is excellent Things I don't like about the 650: - Syncing is still slow - I had hoped it would be significantly faster (but this is really just a nit) - It was annoying to have to re-download all the booked I purchased through the Sony store. It forced me to get the EPUB version and it wouldn't sync the old LRX files. Again, a nit because this is a one-time thing. Now if Sony could just make decent software. I use Calibre for the recipes, but I use the Sony software/store as the interface to the reader. It crashed on me about 20 times today. Sony did a great job with this. I love it.

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09-22-2010, 09:54 PM	#2
slantybard my parent's oops... Posts: 463 Karma: 1477570 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Vx->Handera->Clie-> Axim->505->650->KPW/Aura ->iOS/L2	Welcome and I agree, the 650 is great.

09-22-2010, 09:54 PM	#3
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	Welcome to MobileRead, dsalomon Glad you are enjoying your Sony!

09-22-2010, 10:33 PM	#4
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Interesting that you say syncing takes a long time. Is that with the reader software..?when I load everything through calibre it installs all 200 books in 1m48s

09-23-2010, 12:18 AM	#5
advocate2 My Kingdom for Karma Posts: 430 Karma: 7125 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Las Vegas Device: Sony 350, 650, 950, Nook Color	dsalomon, Welcome. This is a great place to share information and learn. I hope you enjoy participating.

09-23-2010, 05:10 AM	#6
BSquaredInOz Member Posts: 15 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Adelaide, Australia Device: Sony PRS-650	I agree the 650 is great (it's my first reader so I only have 8 books so no speed issues for me) but the Reader Library is terrible

09-23-2010, 11:29 AM	#8
dsalomon Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: Sony Reader PRS-650	jaxx6166 - yes, that's with the Sony software. I downloaded about 580 books, about 20% were large PDF files. I'd like to expand a bit on my initial comments about the Sony software. It's significantly better than it was when it was first released. However, it does still have a tendency to crash when working with a large number of books, approximately 600 in my setup. I've also noticed that there are times when it eats up an ENORMOUS amount of memory. I've seen it use as much as 1.3GB of memory - and that's when it really starts to bog down (I have 8GB running 64-bit Win 7, so plenty of memory available.) I do use the sync feature, which I do like. However, it shouldn't have to spin through every book every time it syncs. The software should be able to track changes and sync only those, without checking the date/time stamp first (which is what I assume it is doing as it spins through the entire list.) It needs to have a way to suspend the sync until the user is ready to let it do its thing. When I am adding a lot of books or moving books around into collections, every change I make seems to queue up another sync. After making a bunch of changes, I looked at the Status and it showed about 20 syncs in the queue. Every single one of those will look at all changes. Yes, you can click the "x" to cancel them, but that's just a pain to do. Granted, now that I have everything loaded and into collections the changes should be minimal and much quicker. Syncing is a fairly new feature, and I hope that Sony will add functionality and a greater level of control over it in future releases. (Sony, are you reading this board?) The software also needs to be able to detect duplicates in collections. If you inadvertently add one or more books multiple times in a collection, it just lets you with no warning or error. There is also no way to remove duplicates other than manually. Another gripe I have is with the Sony Store. It downloaded some of the same titles multiple times in a single session. This was when I first migrated from the 505 to the 650 and had to migrate from LRX to EPUB format (I had a lot of purchased books). When the download was complete, nearly every title was duplicated at least once, and some up to 8 COPIES! Again, this was a one-time thing, so its not a huge problem, it was just annoying. I found another really annoying thing yesterday. I had the reader software running in the background. I inserted an SD card that was previously used in the reader into my card reader in my laptop to re-format it for other use. The reader software recognized that it had been used in the reader before (which was NOT currently connected) and started syncing the SD card to the library. This resulted in a mess that I had to manually clean up. One main reason I use the Sony software as the interface is for the collections feature. Sony did a great job with that (other than my nit noted above). I find it very easy to use and very flexible. My final comment (for now :-) is that it would be nice to be able to make changes to some of the metadata. I have found incorrect metadata a few times, and there's no way to deal with that in the Sony software. Yes, I know I can do this with Calibre - and I do that as necessary. It's just a minor annoyance to have to do this in separate software. Finally, thanks to all of you who have welcomed me to the forum!!

09-26-2010, 05:21 PM	#9
levander Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: PRS-600	How is the handwriting with the 650? I want an ereader that will do handwritten notes so badly!

09-29-2010, 02:24 PM	#11
mrdee0 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: mrdee0	I joined today as my prs650 arrived today and its at the moment charging up. Loaded books using calibre which was really fast which i didnt expect. Looking forward to bedtime now so i can read in bed with my huge catalogue of books! Just feels wiered having this paper like display that is actually a screen- marvellous technology. When i first turned it on i got distracted and didnt see the startup screens, and when i looked back it was showing the home screen. I actually thought it was a bit of paper stuck on top and tried to find where to peel it off. Then i pressed a button and realised it was the actual screen lol Its been 5 years now since my reading has dropped off because of not being able to carry books around me all the time.When i have had a book around i've sometimes not been in the mood for that book. But now i will have this with me all the time i can read whatever i want at any time and finally get back to the kind of reader i was five years ago. Excited to see how technology will develop- i think flexible paper thin displays will be the next big thing....

09-29-2010, 02:28 PM	#12
SkyDream Wizard Posts: 1,377 Karma: 9400 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Europe Device: PRS-650, iPod touch 4G, iPad 3	Pre-ordered PRS-650 and still waiting...it's Germany.

09-29-2010, 03:18 PM	#13
Mange Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 410 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Höör, Sweden Device: Sony PRS650, T1, Kindle touch, PocketBook Touch	I too, have just gotten the PRS650 and I have to chime in with the others: it's absolutely wonderful. Better and faster screen, lighter and smaller (too bad though that my cool leathercase for the 600 doesn't fit). The new zoom functions are wonderful and also the word logs are cool. The ability to put your own picture as a screen in sleepmode is a cool thing to impress your friends with. And another thing: it's so cheap too! I got this for half of what I gave for the 600 (well nearly) But why did they change the miniUSBport to this new micro-something? Take care all, Magnus

09-29-2010, 08:39 PM	#15
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Not to Hijack...but Calibre manages Collections quite well. I actually found that out the hard way. If you have any key words or series data stored in Calibre, it automatically writes it to the Sony as a collection. When I first got my 650 and imported everything through Calibre I found out there were 450 collections it created. After killing the tags, I had no more. Then I edited the series data, complete with book numbers, and found that it synced them to their own individual collections in sequential order. When I tried to manage Wheel of Time on device, it added them into the collection in the order that I had selected them to create. Had a similar issue with the Sony software. Once I figured out Calibre's new surprise, I didn't have an issue. Currently have 11 collections all synced through Calibre with zero issues. <3 Kovid