Not trying to start an uprising... but...

[fdp]

Alright, after a little time with my reader (a few thousand pages in) I've come to two conclusions:

1.) That I love the reader.

2.) That I absolutely hate the CONNECT software, and how insanely hard it is to load my own content onto the reader.

On the second issue, I would like to point something out to my fellow Reader users. It's called the "Librie Toolbar" I found out about it on this forum. It was released for the Japanese market years ago. Why isn't there an English/Spanish/French... Reader version of it available? Why is it that Sony somehow forgot to include even pre-existing software with this product? Shouldn't we, after parting with our $350 for what is otherwise a great device be frankly mad as hell that they are trying to corral people onto their buggy store?

It's not the goal of this post to vent, but I think that frankly we all need to put pressure on Sony. They gave us a great product, and we should be thankful for that, but we did pay them for it. What would it take for them to translate the Toolbar? Not much. What would it take for them to add the ability to edit catagory in the toolbar (or CONNECT for that matter)?

RTF picture support would be great, but this is something they can do easily, cheaply, and quickly. The impetous should not be on us to develop our own software. Anyone else feel this way?

-Joel

[HarryT]

Can't say I have too many gripes about "Connect". It's pretty basic but, for me at least, it works. I only use my own content, and just dragging files from an "Explorer" window onto the "Reader" or "SD Card" icon in Connect has worked perfectly. Could you explain why you find it "insanely hard" to load content?

Sure, it would be nice to have more features. One thing I'd welcome especially would be the ability to edit the title and author of a book from within "Connect", like you can edit the ID3 tags of music in "iTunes".

As I say, though, for me at least, basic though Connect is, it works and does what it's there for - gets Content from my PC onto Reader. I guess I'm in the "things are working" category.

[Laurens]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As I say, though, for me at least, basic though Connect is, it works and does what it's there for - gets Content from my PC onto Reader. I guess I'm in the "things are working" category.

I agree. It "just works", at least for me.

[Stingo]

Well, I agree with FDP. Connect does not "just" work for me and others when adding non-Sony content. It hangs, it crashes and it is generally unfriendly. When it works it is just barely adequate (for me). It is a shame that a company as big as Sony cannot put a better software package together. Hopefully with the advent of other readers Sony will see some reason to upgrade the software and firmware.

[HarryT]

Strange that we have such differing experiences of it. I wonder if it is, perhaps, conflicting with some other software installed on your machine? I've never had a "hang" and have transferred dozens of RTF files from my machine to "Reader".

I don't use the Connect "Library" - I just drag stuff straight onto the SD card. Are the problems, perhaps, in the Library features of Connect?

[RWood]

CONNECT has worked like a champ for me. Basic functionality is all it promised.

As for editing the ID tags -- I have found few products that edit tags of multiple format files other than dbpoweramp and those that do never modify the content of DRM files.

Classify me under "Happy Camper."

[NatCh]

It works well enough for me, most of the time, but I really would like for it to work better than it does, and I would really like the sort of tools that fdp is talking about.

[ThomWill]

The software has not given me any real problems. The amount / selection of content needs help (at least for me) and I believe Sony is working that problem. I do think the software could be much better, but then given hindsight, few things could not be improved.

[Stingo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Strange that we have such differing experiences of it. I wonder if it is, perhaps, conflicting with some other software installed on your machine? I've never had a "hang" and have transferred dozens of RTF files from my machine to "Reader".

I don't use the Connect "Library" - I just drag stuff straight onto the SD card. Are the problems, perhaps, in the Library features of Connect?

Harry, it is not the fake library feature (just creates pointers to files) the problem is definitely with content codes. For example, I have tried to download the complete memoirs of Casanova (a great read) into the reader multiple times in different formats. It has always hung or the file it downloads has issues. This has also happened with various RTFs. After going through more steps to strip the RTF manually it finally works. The software does a lousy job of preparing the file for download and chokes on many common format choices. The software kind of works under good to optimal circumstances but otherwise is faily flaky. Just my experience.

[taralon]

I've all but given up on the Connect software for my content. The thing is as cludgy as hell. YOu can't have both the library and the card open at the same time. How the heck are you supposed to figure out what's in the library but not on the card in that case?

You can have multiple copies of the same file in the library... and when you try and drag them both to the reader or the card, it'll crash the software 50% of the time.

Not to mention the online store. Can't they have a bleeding "back" button? Or a sort by author? I hate having to page through 12 pages of the same crap over and over again, simply because I wanted to read a blurb on a book.

And rtf picture support would be nice...

Jeb

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by taralon

Can't they have a bleeding "back" button?

There is one, but it's kinda badly placed. (I had to have it pointed out to me too )

[igorsk]

One can change the UI by editing the main-kBook.xml file.

[davec67]

Just looking at the software itself...

connect is incredibly slow - compared to the web site of the same content it is at least twice as slow

the window design is terrible - windows nested within windows having vertical scroll bars - for the simplest of functions I have to first scroll the outer window, then scroll the inner, then again scroll the outer and finally scroll the inner again to get to the bottom of it. Thats for every single page view (of the lists of books)

Whats with the >> options on the book contents page? It adds maybe a sentence to the description, complete waste of time.

when I view a book contents there is no search I have to hit the > button hundreds of times to get to what I want (and of course there is scrolling, scrolling scrolling).

numerous books I have imported end up with no title - how about a simple rule - if after importing a book has no title that it use the file name. I am willing to bet that no one wants a file with no name.

and a miriad of little things like this make the software appear not just basic but badly designed and implemented.

Its like they looked at itunes and amazon and produced the worst mix of both you can imagine.

The only way to use the connect store is to minimize it - search on amazon, check that it is availabe in connect (from the web site), then buy it on connect. I do not use it for anything else.

[taralon]

Thanks for the tip, I never even noticed that button there.

Jeb

QUOTE=NatCh]There is one, but it's kinda badly placed. (I had to have it pointed out to me too )[/QUOTE]

[melchioe]

My main gripes about the Connect software (including in part the Connect Store):

- those nested scroll windows within scroll windows things are a royal pain when using a smaller screen such as a tablet PC. On my larger-format 19" screen set to very high resolution, it's not as bad, but as davec67 says, the design is terrible.

- software crashes while transferring (from Connect to Reader, and from Store to Connect) about 50% of the time. While I can usually handle that without much angst (I've been using microsoft products for a long time, I'm used to it), when coupled with the next issue, it drives me nuts! If I do books in smaller chunks, I have less problems, so now I transfer only one book at a time and crash much less frequently (perhaps 10% of the time) The downside is I spend more time waiting at my keyboard, instead of doing something else while waiting.

- YOU CANNOT RE-DOWNLOAD MULTIPLE BOOKS AT ONCE FROM THE STORE! This causes me no end of anger. When re-downloading multiple books, I must call up my list of purchased books, and individually click on them to download them. I cannot select multiple books. And then, once a book is downloaded, the software pops up a focus-stealing dialog box (meaning it pops to the front and interrupts what I was doing) that demand I acknowledge that the book has finished downloading. This is the one place I wish it did that passive acknowledgding thing - e.g. the little status icon rotating. The popup keeps me from clicking ahead and downloading the next title while the first one is in process. This is an issue for me for three main reasons: 1) When the software crashes before I've fully downloaded 10+ books from one purchase, it does not automatically re-start the download when Connect starts back up - clicky-clicky-scroll-click-scroll-click-wait-click - repeat for each book - ARRRGGHHHH!... 2) I've had to fully reset my Reader a few times and uninstall and re-install the Connect software (per directions from Sony tech support), and re-downloading the 100+ books I've already purchased from the connect store is a pain. 3) My wife and I share our library on two separate computers and readers. Initial purchase only downloads to the purchasing computer. To get it to the second computer, we must individually click on each file and impatienlty wait for that consarned dialog box to tell me the file transfer is done.

- Connect does not play well with other software. Sony tech support has come to the conclusion with me that the reason I have had to reinstall Connect and reset reader multiple times is: I start by either purchasing some books and start the download, or transfer large numbers of books to the reader at once (like the entire Tom Swift collection from Project Gutenberg). Then, since I purchased a multitasking computer for a reason, while I wait for the software to take its time to completion, I do something else (delete spam, read news, or something else that's not processor intensive). Sony tech support says I shouldn't do anything else while downloading or transferring - just let the computer sit and don't click anything else. Indeed, since I have started letting it alone while processing, I have not had any problems requiring re-install or wiping the Reader. I have continued to experience crashes, just not the drastic stuff. Oh, and I have to let it alone while importing RTF files too, like the Tom Swift stuff.

- Can't they make the time stamps consistent? I have well over 200 books on my reader. Organizing these things is a pain. Date is one of the ways I would like to use to differentiate what I have where (2 computers, 2 readers, internal and card memory for each reader) - but the Connect software PUTS IN THE CURRENT TIME

There's probably more, but as I write, I'm getting madder about the Connect software, so I'm going to stop for the time being.