Old ebook reader, new Sony PRS-505

donslade · 01-04-2009, 12:37 PM

I received a Sony PRS-505 as gift this Christmas from my kids. Best gift this year. I have been reading ebooks for several years, starting on a Palm III, then on a Sony Clie SJ-20. When I migrated to a Blackberry Pearl I stopped reading on a handheld device but kept reading on my laptop or desktop machines. Now that I have the PRS-505 I can read anywhere as long as there is enough light - and I can bring that if needed! My wife is now having second thoughts about giving the kids the idea!

I read mostly sicence fiction with the some fiction and non-fiction or techinical books for variety. My favorite authors are Larry Niven, John Ringo, David Weber, Travis Taylor, Robert A. Heinlein, David Drake, lots of other SF greats. I've read all of Tom Clancy's books and others of that genre. I keep up with advances in my field through some electronic versions of engineering and automotive industry magazines.

I have bought lots of books from Baen's Webscriptions.net, some from Fictionwise.com, and now thanks to the info here I am looking into Tor's offerings as well and Amazon and other vendors. Of course I have many books from Project Gutenberg.

The info on this site makes using the PRS-505 so much easier. Calibre is the most useful program I have found. With it I have been able to convert most of my old favorites to be easily read on the PRS-505, even without my glasses! That program's author will be getting my support for an excellent piece of software.

I live in West Texas with my wife and three dogs. All my kids are grown and out of the house - except for the holidays when they all come home to visit! I am a mechanical engineer with 21 years experience working for an automotive supplier. My hobbies are computers, astronomy, working on old cars, electronic gadgets and my never ending honey-do list.

Thanks for the great site and high quality information.

Don S.

dogmom · 01-04-2009, 12:54 PM

you may have answered some of the questions I had about a new ereader. I've used a Franklin ebookman in the past but ready to move onto something more user friendly. (Really hate having to reinstall the operating system EVERY time you change the batteries--who thought up that idea?!). The problem is I have a lot of ebooks stored as html files. Can the Sony reader handle them?

Wetdogeared · 01-04-2009, 12:57 PM

Welcome to MobileRead donslade, there are several notable Texans that are excellent contributors to this site. I believe they are planning sone kind of Meet-up in the DFW area. I know Texas is a large state and this might be a long way, but keep it in mind.

lilac_jive · 01-04-2009, 01:10 PM

Congratulations on your new PRS-505!

slayda · 01-04-2009, 01:23 PM

Don,
Welcome to the world of eink. Just remember that it's addictive and gets worse.

Another Don (& also an engineer but retired)

MickeyC · 01-04-2009, 01:27 PM

Hi Don and welcome to the Forum. I got a 505 about a year ago and have to agree with slayda; the damn thing is addictive!

MickeyC · 01-04-2009, 01:29 PM

Hi dogmom and welcome to the Forum. Check into the eBook Software forum for answers on converting various formats. Don't know if you can convert html but I expect you can.

Seabound · 01-04-2009, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dogmom

you may have answered some of the questions I had about a new ereader. I've used a Franklin ebookman in the past but ready to move onto something more user friendly. (Really hate having to reinstall the operating system EVERY time you change the batteries--who thought up that idea?!). The problem is I have a lot of ebooks stored as html files. Can the Sony reader handle them?

Yes, you can convert html so that the Sony reader can read it. There's a super-duper software called calibre, by Kovid Goyal and which you can find here at MR, which can do various conversions. It even has its own forum here.

Welcome to you both.

Elsi · 01-04-2009, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

Welcome to MobileRead donslade, there are several notable Texans that are excellent contributors to this site. I believe they are planning sone kind of Meet-up in the DFW area. I know Texas is a large state and this might be a long way, but keep it in mind.

The next Texas meet-up is being planned for early April in the DFW area. RalphSirEdward has started a discussion thread to work out the details such as an exact date and the venue.

I have used El Paso as a way to illustrate just how BIG Texas is. It is closer from my house (north of Dallas) to Atlanta than it is from my house to El Paso! Go figure. But if you can make your plans to come to the meeting, we'd love to have you.

donslade · 01-05-2009, 12:39 AM

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Yes, Texas is a BIG state. Our youngest son left this morning for Dallas to go back to school. Made it in just under 11 hours - and that is with 80mph speed limits most of the way. We make the trek to Houston every couple of months to go to MDA and we break it up into a 1 day and 3 hour trip each way by staying with family in San Antonio. Not up to 11 hour days on the road any more, the 8 hours to S.A. is our max.

Calibre will convert most HTML to a format you can use in the Sony (I prefer LRF for now). There are also some other stand alone tools to do that but Calibre is the easiest and does a great job, expecially if you set the default formating to fonts and margins for easy reading on the Sony.

The DFW outing sounds like it would be lots of fun. We'll just wait and see how the schedule looks as we get closer to the date.

Thanks again,

Don S.

01-04-2009, 12:37 PM	#1
donslade Member Posts: 24 Karma: 140 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: El Paso, TX Device: PRS-505, Nook STR, Kindle PW3	Old ebook reader, new Sony PRS-505 I received a Sony PRS-505 as gift this Christmas from my kids. Best gift this year. I have been reading ebooks for several years, starting on a Palm III, then on a Sony Clie SJ-20. When I migrated to a Blackberry Pearl I stopped reading on a handheld device but kept reading on my laptop or desktop machines. Now that I have the PRS-505 I can read anywhere as long as there is enough light - and I can bring that if needed! My wife is now having second thoughts about giving the kids the idea! I read mostly sicence fiction with the some fiction and non-fiction or techinical books for variety. My favorite authors are Larry Niven, John Ringo, David Weber, Travis Taylor, Robert A. Heinlein, David Drake, lots of other SF greats. I've read all of Tom Clancy's books and others of that genre. I keep up with advances in my field through some electronic versions of engineering and automotive industry magazines. I have bought lots of books from Baen's Webscriptions.net, some from Fictionwise.com, and now thanks to the info here I am looking into Tor's offerings as well and Amazon and other vendors. Of course I have many books from Project Gutenberg. The info on this site makes using the PRS-505 so much easier. Calibre is the most useful program I have found. With it I have been able to convert most of my old favorites to be easily read on the PRS-505, even without my glasses! That program's author will be getting my support for an excellent piece of software. I live in West Texas with my wife and three dogs. All my kids are grown and out of the house - except for the holidays when they all come home to visit! I am a mechanical engineer with 21 years experience working for an automotive supplier. My hobbies are computers, astronomy, working on old cars, electronic gadgets and my never ending honey-do list. Thanks for the great site and high quality information. Don S.

01-04-2009, 01:29 PM	#7
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,732 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Hi dogmom and welcome to the Forum. Check into the eBook Software forum for answers on converting various formats. Don't know if you can convert html but I expect you can. Last edited by MickeyC; 01-04-2009 at 02:08 PM.

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01-04-2009, 12:54 PM	#2
dogmom Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: franklin ebookman	you may have answered some of the questions I had about a new ereader. I've used a Franklin ebookman in the past but ready to move onto something more user friendly. (Really hate having to reinstall the operating system EVERY time you change the batteries--who thought up that idea?!). The problem is I have a lot of ebooks stored as html files. Can the Sony reader handle them?

01-04-2009, 12:57 PM	#3
Wetdogeared Storm Surge'n Posts: 5,776 Karma: 8213195 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Lobster Capital Device: S0ny PRS-300/350/505/700/T1	Welcome to MobileRead donslade, there are several notable Texans that are excellent contributors to this site. I believe they are planning sone kind of Meet-up in the DFW area. I know Texas is a large state and this might be a long way, but keep it in mind.

01-04-2009, 01:10 PM	#4
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	Congratulations on your new PRS-505!

01-04-2009, 01:23 PM	#5
slayda Retired & reading more! Posts: 2,764 Karma: 1884247 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Alabama, USA Device: Kindle 1, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S+, Kobo Aura One	Don, Welcome to the world of eink. Just remember that it's addictive and gets worse. Another Don (& also an engineer but retired)

01-04-2009, 01:27 PM	#6
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,732 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Hi Don and welcome to the Forum. I got a 505 about a year ago and have to agree with slayda; the damn thing is addictive!

01-05-2009, 12:39 AM	#10
donslade Member Posts: 24 Karma: 140 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: El Paso, TX Device: PRS-505, Nook STR, Kindle PW3	Thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, Texas is a BIG state. Our youngest son left this morning for Dallas to go back to school. Made it in just under 11 hours - and that is with 80mph speed limits most of the way. We make the trek to Houston every couple of months to go to MDA and we break it up into a 1 day and 3 hour trip each way by staying with family in San Antonio. Not up to 11 hour days on the road any more, the 8 hours to S.A. is our max. Calibre will convert most HTML to a format you can use in the Sony (I prefer LRF for now). There are also some other stand alone tools to do that but Calibre is the easiest and does a great job, expecially if you set the default formating to fonts and margins for easy reading on the Sony. The DFW outing sounds like it would be lots of fun. We'll just wait and see how the schedule looks as we get closer to the date. Thanks again, Don S.

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