My PRS-500 came back today!

[AprilHare]

Thanks Sony! Good job!

It arrived about an hour ago via UPS Expedited. No international transport bill! Sent to US from Australia 9:30 AEDT 21 Nov 2009, 3 Dec 2009 from Laredo Repair Center.. arrived December 10 at 11:30 AEDT. That was surprisingly quick!
They marked it up as:
***Unit sent for Repair***
**Returned Repaired**
Warranty Repair **No charge**
Total Invoice Value $220.00
That last value is more (in USD) than what I paid for it originally! This firmware update is already paying off..
It's interesting: they put three stickers on my Sony Reader and cover (it came back separated); both had my surname wrong , as did the stickers on the clear propylene bag my Sony Reader came back in - but the paperwork on the box had all my details perfect! Their packaging was excellent, with the Sony Reader and cover wrapped in the clear bag surrounded by a large amount of bubble wrap (large bubbles) in the very solid box that was 2-3 times larger than the device itself.
The device itself came back discharged (with the ghost image of the About screen displayed); recharging showed the last book viewed was Emma; all the books still there - I had left my 99 Nintendo DS books on there along with the default content.
Other observations:

• Main menu has changed the logo to just the word Reader (I sorta miss it..)
• There seem to be less bookmarks than there used to be
• EPUB worked out of the box
• Otherwise the Sony Reader appears to be in great condition but I'll wait to see how it goes over the next day or two (one report here about problems recharging their Reader makes me want to test it thoroughly before ringing Sony to let them know and thank them profusely).

[grooks]

It does give hope to those outside the U.S. wanting to get their 500 upgraded.

Despite all the problems from your previous threads it looks like Sony did a good job.

[JSWolf]

Sony did do a great job. This is something I would never have expected Sony to do with the 500.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by grooks

It does give hope to those outside the U.S. wanting to get their 500 upgraded.

Despite all the problems from your previous threads it looks like Sony did a good job.

It's certainly given me more than hope I hope it gives other people encouragement as Sony are doing the right thing by us and we'll be supporting them in the long run too.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sony did do a great job. This is something I would never have expected Sony to do with the 500.

My oath! Great job Sony!
No-one expected this JSWolf; it shows a company maturing and connecting directly with their customers which is extraordinary and marvellous to find in this day and age.
I'm hoping Sony will begin selling ebooks and liseuses in Australia soon; then everything will be perfect as can be.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by grooks

Despite all the problems from your previous threads it looks like Sony did a good job.

I think the problems were exacerbated by:

• me being quicker than their customer support phone people to realise the firmware upgrade was being offered
• problems communicating on the phone with people who didn't handle recording difficult to spell details particularly well (my address details involve Australian Aboriginal words for instance), especially given the variable quality of the Skype line and standard phone communication protocols being bypassed by operators
• being one of the first from overseas to get this firmware upgrade done and as such they didn't precisely know how to handle things right.

That being said, this has been ultimately epic win and as such I am well pleased

[AprilHare]

Just connected it to my laptop; ADE recognised it straight away and I successfully registered it It found the PRS500 operations guide and reported it was a file compatible with ADE (!).
Interestingly, I have a Sony camera and the same image import software picked up the PRS500 and asked me if I want to import images..

[dreams]

Congrats, April! Now, go check out all the functions and have fun!

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by dreams

Congrats, April! Now, go check out all the functions and have fun!

Thanks dreams
Just having a play with it now; just hooked it up to my 350 MHz G3 PowerMac running OS X Tiger and the Sony eBook Library 3; it recognised the memory stick on the reader but not the internal reader storage (Shows up as Error).. The device mounts as 2 partitions under OS X and I noticed Windows shows 3 logical partitions but mounts 2.
I hope eBook Library 3.1 fixes up OS X support
Also transferred first ADE book - seems to be working fine
Oh, and ADE recognises PRS-500 and Memory stick under Windows Doesn't under OS X.. but that's something for the trusty workers at Adobe to figure out!

[AprilHare]

Oh, for anyone who's interested: The Sony Repairs website never, at any time, said that my PRS-500 had been received!

[AprilHare]

Interesting: calibre 0.6.26 reports my PRS-500 back as being firstly a Pocket Edition then as a 505.. I wonder which one is closer to the truth? Doesn't matter very much, it works great
With a new install of calibre now, should I select PRS-500 or Pocket Edition in the wizard?
Another thought: the PRS-500 Operation Manual - should someone unofficially update it for the PRS-500 with new firmware?

[AprilHare]

Oh, and now it recognises tags/collections on both Memory Stick and internal memory And I must say my favourite calibre newspaper subscriptions look really good!

[Gravitas]

awesome.

I'm expecting a bunch of paper books at christmas, hopefully enough to see me though my withdrawal period whilst I send my beloved PRS500 for it's upgrade from the UK.

I was waiting until someone from these forums not in the the USA had success first

[Scott_T]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Oh, for anyone who's interested: The Sony Repairs website never, at any time, said that my PRS-500 had been received!

Same thing happened to me. They change work orders somewhere in the process. I called and shuffled around till they found it and all was well. It just took longer than expected.

[AprilHare]

Can't believe people haven't talked much about this: now you can select the specific page you want to view in a e-book! You type in the numbers, press ENT on the joystick, and Bob's your uncle! Marvellous

Originally Posted by Gravitas

awesome.

I'm expecting a bunch of paper books at christmas, hopefully enough to see me though my withdrawal period whilst I send my beloved PRS500 for it's upgrade from the UK.

I was waiting until someone from these forums not in the the USA had success first

I had a similar book stash! I figured: best time to get it done was while the iron was hot so to speak
Go ahead.. send it off..

Originally Posted by Scott_T

Same thing happened to me. They change work orders somewhere in the process. I called and shuffled around till they found it and all was well. It just took longer than expected.

I chose to hold back and wait... the liseuse withdrawal symptoms became acute..

[PieOPah]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

I had left my 99 Nintendo DS books on there along with the default content.

Just curious, how did you get the DS Books onto the Sony? I haven't got the DS Books myself but would love to know how it was done...

Thanks,