Tag Archives: prs-600

Sony Reader Library: sync problem not what it seems

Well, that was certainly odd.

I’ve been using the Sony Reader Library via Windows 7 for a while now, and today I found a new bug: while attempting to sync to my Reader, the application would hang on a particular book.  After trying a number of different things, I found out that it was not the book which was listed that was causing the problem, but the next book in the library.

For some reason, the link to the location of the book on disk was corrupted; it showed up just fine in the Reader Library, though clicking on the book resulted in an error saying that it could not locate the file.  I removed that book from the library, added it in again from its location on disk, and then the Sync operation worked without a hitch.

I haven’t had too many problems with the Reader Library software from Sony, though clearly what they need to do in this case is to alert the user that there is a problem, and what that problem is.   Hopefully this will be fixed at some point, though the pace of updates is currently very slow.

Amazon’s Kindle 3: interesting..

I’ve had my Sony Reader Touch for close to a year now.  It’s my first electronic reader, and it’s a wonderful device.  The touch screen does add a bit of glare to the screen, though it’s incredibly useful and makes the interface work quite well.

Today, however, Amazon revealed their third version of the 6″ Kindle, with a Wi-Fi only version for $140.  Notably, too, the battery is larger, reportedly lasting up to a month; and they also are packing in a new e-ink display which is supposed to garner better contrast and faster page turns.

DRM improved?

Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party, though I did find on Amazon’s website a certain section labeled “Downloading to Multiple Devices,” which reads in part:

Content purchased from the Kindle Store can be downloaded to your Kindle, or Kindle compatible device, as long as you’ve registered the device to the Amazon.com account that purchased the Kindle content. There is no limit on the number of times a title can be downloaded to a registered device, but there may be limits on the number of devices (usually 6) that can simultaneously use a single book.

That means you can download and read your books on any Kindle device you own as long you’ve registered each device to the Amazon.com account where your Kindle Library is stored.

Personally, this sounds like a big upgrade.  A year or so ago, it was the case that certain titles would only be allowed to be downloaded a certain number of times.  That meant that with multiple devices, generations, etc., the content which you paid for would no longer be yours. Tying the purchases to the account, and having the with “no limit” to the number of downloads sounds like a great step up.

Closing remarks

I personally have no reason to want to stray from my Reader.   It serves me well, is still great for my eyes, and still does have a touch screen which the Kindle series lacks.  Even so, it seems as though Amazon is slowly getting their act together, and I can see that the case may be that they win this e-book stuff in the end, especially if they keep good hardware at such low prices; as well as a reasonable system of DRM to allow your content to actually be your own.

iBleh

I was a fan of Apple, for a time.  When OS X came out and matured a bit, I really felt that they were on the right path.  Their hardware is reasonable, too, if not a overpriced and the only opportunity to buy into this said OS.  Through the iPod and the iPhone, Apple has had such a huge share and power over the realm of technology.   Their heavy emphasis on design and a slick and simple user experience are certainly unparalleled by any other player, and because of this their brand has risen to grand heights.

Today, Apple announced their new product, dubbed the “iPad.”  It’s the first Apple product release in the past few years that made me laugh out loud.  I’m still occasionally pinching myself in order to verify that everything went down the way that it actually did.  The iPad, while certainly rather slick in a number of ways, is largely a big iPod.  It isn’t going to be a great machine for work; it is too bulky to be reasonably portable; and the choice of a standard LCD-based backlit display obliterates its use as a legitimate reading device.  I’m sure there will be plenty of people who will buy an iPad or two despite these shortcomings; though I’d argue its a rather big waste of money that could instead be spent on a whole variety of better options.

I don’t know that now is the time for Apple’s debut into the space developed by the emperor’s new clothes; though I do feel that there are some visible cracks in the armor built up around its own empire.

Reading

Reading books seems to be only one small part of the larger uses for the iPad.  Where this is most evident is by Apple’s choice in display technology, opting for an LCD display in lieu of Pixel Qi or other emerging e-ink like technologies.  I’m looking at an LCD of one sort or another for a massive part of my daily life: at work, and then at home on my computer or on my TV.

I also have a Sony Reader Touch (model PRS-600) which I got a few months ago.  The difference in reading on an e-ink or a similar display which is not backlit is rather astounding.  Eye strain drips away, and the low power draw makes for much more infrequent charge cycles.  No matter how much I read, I can get about two weeks before I need to charge the Reader.

As Steve Jobs has said in the past that no one reads anymore, it seems clear enough that this viewpoint took place in part of the design of the iPad.  ”iBooks” may be one feature of the device, though it is certainly not a central component.  Pixel Qi, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly suited for the iPad form factor and use case; and that’s just one technology.  Mirasol and Liquavista could also occupy this same space, with slightly different approaches to about the same problem.

On the other hand, Apple does seem to have gotten behind the EPUB standard for electronic books.  What they did not reveal, of course, is the type of DRM that will go along with their EPUB titles sold by their store.  Already there are a few different systems out there, namely by Adobe, now augmented by Barnes and Noble with their Nook.  Fundamentally, the EPUB bandwagon is what I’d hope to be the standard for the future; though with Amazon having their own format, there is still heavy fragmentation in this space.

Less than a week with the Sony PRS-600

Each month or so I grant myself a toy of certain undetermined proportions. It’s generally something I’ve wanted for a while, and I only grant myself the chance to grab it once I’ve done a whole bunch of research to determine what it is that’s the best fit for me.

Perhaps the above iss just an all-too-general pre-roll which can be copied into any sort of tech I’m talking about.. but I’m keeping it there for now.

Case in point, this month I went ahead and purchased a Sony Reader Touch Edition from B&H, and the long and the short of it is that I’ve been really, really pleased with my decision.

Is the PRS-600 the most fantastic device out there, and the best that will ever come out for a time to come? No. I’m generally not interested in the “best” option, though, because it bumps into a law of diminishing returns of some sort or another. I generally shoot for 70% of best, and this generally makes me pretty happy. I haven’t broken the bank, if said device / object I have breaks or crashes and burns then it isn’t quite as much the end of the world, and, generally, when I’ve picked such an option there’s at least some reasonable user base of other people who have the same types of problems and, hopefully, solutions to those problems.

The Sony PRS-600 is one of the first more affordable electronic paper ereader devices which has a touch interface. There is an upside to that in terms of usability, and a slight downside in that the screen is a bit more reflective and less strong in contrast than non-touch models. I personally have had to shift the device around a bit in certain circumstances in order to see the screen properly, though as an amputee (my left arm stops a few inches after the elbow; been like that since birth, doesn’t hurt, etc.) this slight manuevering is still much more of an easy compromise when it comes to often needing two hands to properly hold a bound book.

Amazon‘s Kindle is certainly the big player in this market right now, and for good reason. The Kindle library is certainly more comprehensive, and in certain cases cheaper than alternatives out there. With that said, the Amazon solution is also largely a closed system. I like the model of the Sony Reader in that I can download the file, back up that file, and use the file with whatever Reader devices to which I authorize my content. Sony does have their own store, though you can also go to other content providers as long as they support the proper format. The newcomer to this space is Shortcovers which in two words, looks crazy promising. There’s also Project Gutenberg, whatever PDFs I want to throw into the device, and, hugely, the ability to rent out books from local public libraries via Overdrive.

Bought an e-reader

So I’ve been waffling a lot, both internally and on this site, about the current state of e-readers. I’ve done a ton of research and have put a whole lot of thought into what’s available out there, and finally went and purchased the Sony PRS-600. I wrote the following comment on the wonderful MobileRead Forums in this thread:

So first off, I am new to these forums, though I got my PRS-600 last Thursday and have been really, really happy with it. I ordered the red version from B&H which had v. fast shipping. They’re a great vendor, have bought a lot of other equipment from them with no issues.

I also grabbed up the M-Edge PRS-505 Excutive case when it was still $15 which is working out quite well. It does push on the volume button at the bottom right edge, but I haven’t had any problems with that so far. It also gets in the way of the power switch a bit at the top left, though not in a bad way. It’s rather bulky and is quite secure and well padded.

As to the below, no, I have found that you cannot trim the edges off of the PDFs, sadly. This means it’s pretty hard to read in certain files, though if you have the orientation in landscape then it helps a fair amount. Each page is then two pages, and while the fonts are rather small and the margins are pretty large even at this point, it’s been doing the job for me lately.

You cannot keep the zoom, so each page you’ll have to re-zoom in. For some files, the re-flow (Medium, Large, etc. fonts) does work rather well, though in others it’s not quite as great: I have a couple PDFs that preserve line breaks, so you get crazy ragged edges (i.e., every other line is about three words). In all cases w/ PDFs, page breaks are always preserved, which is rather annoying: that is to say that even when there is just one paragraph/sentence/word that goes into the next page turn due to re-flow, the rest of the page is blank, so you have to turn the page again to start the the next page in the PDF.