Sony e-reader

brendor

I note that the sony e-reader is coming out in the UK in September - does anyone know if and when it is coming out here? There is nothing on the Sony Ireland website.

eclectichoney

Hmm I'm tempted! Was just going to start a thread. Waterstones on dawson street will have it for €250 on Sept 4th I think.

byte

I've seen that it'll only load ebooks bought in the Sony shop which are in a proprietary Sony format....

Seems as stupid as their first "mp3" players being only able to play Atrac files.

brendor

eclectichoney wrote: »

Hmm I'm tempted! Was just going to start a thread. Waterstones on dawson street will have it for €250 on Sept 4th I think.

Can i ask where you heard this?

Eoin

byte wrote: »

I've seen that it'll only load ebooks bought in the Sony shop which are in a proprietary Sony format....

Seems as stupid as their first "mp3" players being only able to play Atrac files.

Why do they keep doing stuff like this? They really missed the boat with the MP3 players. Now they probably have some of the nicest mini-MP3 players, but it's too late.

They also sold an amplifier for your home cinema that also streamed media from your PC. But the catch was that the PC had to be a Sony. Real shame, as the amp itself was top notch.

John_Mc

It's just Sony's business model. Force customers to use their format or accessories, which are always more expensive than the standard.

This approach applies to their Laptops, cameras, mp3 players etc.

I've stopped buying sony since they were caught red handed installing new copyright security additions to windows media player without user consent or permission, which is effectively hacking your computer :mad:

brendor

Jesus lads i only want to know when i can buy the thing in Ireland- im not asking you to buy it nor do i particularly care whether or not any of you buy Sony stuff or not!

Eoin

brendor wrote: »

Jesus lads i only want to know when i can buy the thing in Ireland- im not asking you to buy it nor do i particularly care whether or not any of you buy Sony stuff or not!

Nice.

eclectichoney

brendor wrote: »

Can i ask where you heard this?

http://eoinpurcellsblog.com/2008/08/05/the-sony-reader-will-be-on-sale-in-ireland/

byte

bedlam wrote: »

Nope, It has supported 4 different formats since the get go and it now has epub support which should make getting books from 3rd parties a lot easier in the future.

Granted at the moment if you want to buy recently release ebooks you are going to have to go with the drm'd books from the Sony Store. There's also lots of content from Feedbooks if you like the classics as well as access to more modern Creative Commons licensed books.

Personally for anyone looking for a 6" screen eReader, I'd currently recommend the Bookeen Cybook. Very nice machine, incredibly light (almost 85g lighter than Reader) super thin and format wise it supports mobipocket (which you can deDRM) among others whthh epub support forthcoming.

OpenInkPot are working on ports for both devices which will again give users (willing to replace firmware) more choice

Ah, right. Thanks for clarification.

It was one of 3 eBook gadgets tested on the Gadget Show on five a week or two ago.

Tom

Got one of these last October in the US on the release day of the 505. New firmware has just been released to read PDF's correctly - most of the books I had are in this format - beore the new firmware it was easier to save the PDF as text but now it presents them perfectly.

It is also supposed to work with Adobe Digital Editions - haven't tried this yet. Anyone know any good sites that sell ePub format books to Irish customers?

Zascar

I'd love to get one of these - for some reason I think I'd use it more than a book.

Can you put any pdf on it that you find online etc, or do you have to buy it from their store etc?

ElNino

I have a Sony Ereader since Christmas I would highly recommend it.

There is an excellent cross-platform open source free library management application called Calibre which I use to add and delete books to my Ereader. Calibre supports conversion from (HTML, LIT, RTF, TXT, PDF(simple text+few images)) to the SONY ebook reader format LRF and it is regularly updated. It works with the Sony firmware.

You can download it here:
http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/
It doesn't work with 64 bit Windows.

J-blk

ElNino wrote: »

I have a Sony Ereader since Christmas I would highly recommend it.

ElNino, I've been very tempted to get one of these since it came out in the US (had people on two occasions try to get me one but they were always out of stock...) but I'd really like to hear a first hand account of how the Reader handles PDF in particular? I have a lot of technical/programming eBooks in PDF, which is what I would want to mainly use on it and I'm not sure they will be easy to read. Can the Reader zoom in on PDF at all?

Beyond that, does it handle CHM (or can CHM easily be converted for it)? Thanks.

J-blk

bedlam wrote: »

Sounds like the iLiad would be better suited for you. It handles any technical book in PDF format I've thrown at it admirably with out the need for zooming due to its larger 8" screen.

Yep, I've looked at the iLiad and it is very impressive (I really like the ability to take notes) but I'm not sure I can justify the at least double (for the Book Edition) asking price over the Sony Reader - that's why I'm interested in some first hand account of how the Reader deals with PDF. There are plenty of reviews out there that mention problems but these are all from the original 2006 launch and I'd really like to know how things are now...

ElNino

J-blk wrote: »

ElNino, I've been very tempted to get one of these since it came out in the US (had people on two occasions try to get me one but they were always out of stock...) but I'd really like to hear a first hand account of how the Reader handles PDF in particular? I have a lot of technical/programming eBooks in PDF, which is what I would want to mainly use on it and I'm not sure they will be easy to read. Can the Reader zoom in on PDF at all?

No, you can't zoom on PDFs. PDF support is much better with the new firmware as it reflows text based PDFs but I still find it hard to read PDFs. There are utilities available to convert PDFs to Sony's LRF format but I have tried them. The Mobileread forum has a lot of information on this topic http://www.mobileread.com/forums/

Beyond that, does it handle CHM (or can CHM easily be converted for it)? Thanks.

It doesn't handle CHM so you need to decompile to HTML and convert to LRF
or a better solution would be to use ABC Amber CHM Converter to convert to LIT which converts very well to LRF using Calibre. The software costs $20 here http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html

J-blk

Thanks for the replies ElNino - much appreciated. I guess I have to take everything on board, the iLiad may indeed be a better fit for my needs but the cost is very high by comparison to the Reader. I'm also wondering if Amazon will go ahead with an international Kindle launch anytime soon (and hopefully a version that's not as fugly) so maybe waiting awhile longer might be the best option.

J-blk

bedlam wrote: »

You know you want to

That's the problem, I'd love to get one The missus might kill me though, given the amount of gadget spending... maybe if I convince her it's for her - she loves reading after all .

J-blk

So I ended up getting one of these after all. The screen is amazing and the lag between page changes is a lot shorter than I thought.

For anyone interested, Waterstones has started selling them since Thursday. I picked mine up in the Jervis Street one today (I hadn't pre-ordered, just walked in and asked for one).

RuggieBear

how is it with normal pdf's?

J-blk

RuggieBear wrote: »

how is it with normal pdf's?

I was pretty surprised TBH - it has three levels of zoom and these seem to work on all the PDFs I've thrown at it so far. At the large setting, it's very comfortable to read almost anything and you're not zooming in/out to read more pages - it's pretty seamless and just adds more pages (so if the text you were reading would fit in one page in "small" print, it may take three in large) . I really thought I was going to have problems with PDFs based on some comments here, but I'm very pleasantly surprised.

The Waterstones in the Jervis Center has a couple of demo kiosks set up so you can play with it a bit - seeing the page refresh in person (which I thought was going to be terrible) kinda sold me on it.

Sesshoumaru

J-blk wrote: »

I was pretty surprised TBH - it has three levels of zoom and these seem to work on all the PDFs I've thrown at it so far. At the large setting, it's very comfortable to read almost anything and you're not zooming in/out to read more pages - it's pretty seamless and just adds more pages (so if the text you were reading would fit in one page in "small" print, it may take three in large) . I really thought I was going to have problems with PDFs based on some comments here, but I'm very pleasantly surprised.

The Waterstones in the Jervis Center has a couple of demo kiosks set up so you can play with it a bit - seeing the page refresh in person (which I thought was going to be terrible) kinda sold me on it.

What kind of PDFs have you read on it? Technical stuff or just novels?

J-blk

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

What kind of PDFs have you read on it? Technical stuff or just novels?

Technical stuff only so far - some books on Ruby, general programming, Mac OS X - all fine, even the ones that have a lot of diagrams/graphics in them. I tried a few jpgs from cbr (comic book files) and these would need a lot of zooming/scrolling so not ideal. I'd say you'd have the same problem with PDFs of magazines which are entirely made up of images, but "standard" PDFs seem just fine.

jimmycrackcorm

I'm interested in getting one of these for all my collection of PDF computer books but I'm wondering if they are at all practical. I've hear some people have success with some sort of conversion program from pdf to native format.

J-blk

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I'm interested in getting one of these for all my collection of PDF computer books but I'm wondering if they are at all practical. I've hear some people have success with some sort of conversion program from pdf to native format.

There's Calibre which ElNino posted about (it's one of the first posts on this page) and that can convert PDFs to LRF which is the Reader's native format. Still, I've loaded a few PDFs on now (mostly programming related) and the only one that looks kinda wonky is not much improved by converting it to LRF. If you can get into a Waterstones, you can a take a look at one as you kinda need to see it in action - just try setting the zoom to a higher level (there's a button at the bottom left) because the ones I saw in store were set to the smallest scale.

jimmycrackcorm

I had a look at the one in Waterstones in Dawsno street, but the sample books are the native ones. I'm kind of thinking though that it might be ok to convert pdfs to the native format anyway as I only want to read. If I want to cross-reference stuff then I'll do that on my laptop.

mrbloo

It's all a bit moot, as neither Dawson Street nor Jervis Street have any for sale right now, and they won't have any for "two to three weeks". Even then, they will be honouring pre-orders first (for a €50 deposit), so even in two-three week's time, there might still be none in stock.

One of the staff in Jervis told me that after setting aside the pre-orders when they first came in, there were three (!) copies left for the shelves, and they went in an afternoon.

I wouldn't hold my breath on them not ****ing up the order quantities for the next one, useless gob****es. It seems that they really want people to pre-order and I can't understand why - especially when the demand is at least quantifiable at this stage.

J-blk

mrbloo wrote: »

One of the staff in Jervis told me that after setting aside the pre-orders when they first came in, there were three (!) copies left for the shelves, and they went in an afternoon.

That's not true - they went on sale on Thursday the 4th, I went into the Jervis Waterstones on Saturday the 6th and bought one. I hadn't preordered or anything.

I also think the stock allocation has something to do with Sony... This place will also deliver to Ireland, but will not have stock until the 19th and again, they seem to be putting a huge emphasis on preorders:

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?currency=EUR&cPath=4&products_id=3335

jimmycrackcorm

I asked about them in the sony shop in Liffey Valley and they had stock, but the price was 260 something, dearer than Waterstones.

J-blk

Just saw an ad on Channel 6 - apparently Xtravision is now selling it too, exact same price as Waterstones => €249.

rovert

Is it compatable with the Amazon Kindle books?

rovert

Oh yeah does the 100 free books offer apply in Ireland?

Four of a kind

am thinking of getting one of these tomorrow in xtravision....any reason why I should'nt ????

J-blk

rovert wrote: »

Is it compatable with the Amazon Kindle books?

No, it isn't. The Amazon Kindle books have DRM applied to only work with the Kindle, kinda of the main selling point for that device.

rovert wrote: »

Oh yeah does the 100 free books offer apply in Ireland?

You get a CD in the package with a number of classics and public domain books - nothing you couldn't find on your own really. If the offer for the 100 books is for commercial books, no, there's nothing like that. Waterstones gives you 500 points for their store with the purchase but that only works out as around €8 which is hardly going to get you one book...

Four of a kind wrote: »

am thinking of getting one of these tomorrow in xtravision....any reason why I should'nt ????

The screen refresh (screen flashes black for a second while the page turns) annoys some people while others find the screen size too small. If you have never seen one in the flesh, maybe go into a Waterstones to take a look at a demo unit (I doubt Xtravision has them on display), then decide if you want one or not and buy it from Xtravision (don't know if Waterstones is still out of stock).

talkingclock

got mine on saturday evening from Xtravision. they had a unit to play with on display.

i really like it. although i thought i'm oldfashioned in relation to books (have the book in my hand, turn the page, smell the paper etc) that device is really stunning. the display is just awesome. it looks like real paper!

J-blk

talkingclock wrote: »

that device is really stunning. the display is just awesome. it looks like real paper!

Playing with a display unit is well worth it - I kept reading reviews about the screen refresh effect and even saw a couple of YouTube videos and thought it would be a deal-breaker for me. When I got to play with the display unit I found it didn't really annoy me and now that I've had the unit for a few weeks, I hardly even notice it .

jimmycrackcorm

Any of you guys try to read some technial pdf's on it? I'm debating whether to go for this or get the new iRex REader 1000 with its 10" screen instead.

RubyXI

Sorry for my ignorance but how can you download books to this. I believe it comes with 100 popular books, or this is something available. But if there is a specific book you want to get on it, how do you do it? Or is your choice limited?

J-blk

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Any of you guys try to read some technial pdf's on it? I'm debating whether to go for this or get the new iRex REader 1000 with its 10" screen instead.

All I'm reading on it are technical books - programming, Mac OS X stuff, etc. For the most part it handles the PDFs quite well, even with a lot of diagrams in them, etc - the zoom feature works well. I've only had one book so far that looks wonky in PDF, but still perfectly legible. The new Illiad is much bigger though (but fugly!) so it will be better suited to some books - very expensive unit for my needs though.

phi3 wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but how can you download books to this. I believe it comes with 100 popular books, or this is something available. But if there is a specific book you want to get on it, how do you do it? Or is your choice limited?

Well if you want to buy books for it, yes, the choice is more limited than the Amazon Kindle - there are a few sites you can buy from, including Waterstones obviously and others - there are posts in some threads in this forum that mention a number of online bookstores you can use with the Reader. There is also plenty of content online DRM-free, from classics like what you find on Project Gutenberg to newer stuff on various sites - take a look at this post by Bedlam:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57314113&postcount=5

Giggler

Hi All, I am looking for some advice please!!
I stumbled upon the sony e-reader recently, having given up on having something like this, as Amazon Kindle was not available here. I have been doing some research, and am having trouble deciding between the sony e-reader, and the the iLiad Book Edition any help would be apprecited.

Cost wise the iliad is twice that of the sony, but i have had a bad experience with a sony product before, an mp3 player, and am reluctant to go there again unless i have to. I would be willing to purchase either, but just want the right product for me.

In terms of reading it would be for "normal" rather than "technical" products.

Also wondering about the costs and availability of books for each type of reader,

Thanks in advance
Giggler

deadl0ck

Thinking of getting one of these myself.
There a lot of places to get the books from - one of the better websites for SciFi and Fantasy books I've come across is eBooks.com.
They have most of their books available in Adobe (Digital Editions) which is directly supported on the 505 with the latest firmware (some details here).
Also the eBooks site has a lot of books for around the $6.99 mark. I've just bought The Sword Of Shannara Trioligy for $9.99 to see if I could buy from this site, and I'll read it when I eventually settle on a reader.
I've VERY tempted by the Sony- have seen it in the Sony Shop in Blanchardstown and I'm very impressed.....

ElNino

Giggler I would agree with what Bedlam said. I have a Sony 505 since before Xmas and I would highly recommend it for novels in non-PDF formats. If you are going to be viewing a lot of PDFs (particularly technical ones) then go for the bigger screen.

There are other ways of sourcing books if you do some googling. Obviously we can't talk about them here.

deadl0ck

Giggler - have alook at this YouTube review - about half way through he shows the PDF capabilities of the sony:

Edit : seems that youtube tag isn't working - here's the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdqHDaWaEA

Eoin

deadl0ck wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdqHDaWaEA

Edit : seems that youtube tag isn't working

You just need the ID of the video, like this:

[noparse]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdqHDaWaEA

[/noparse]

deadl0ck

Thanks for the heads up Eoin

J-blk

For what it's worth, though I do agree with Bedlam and ElNino that the bigger screen on the iLiad is better suited for PDF, I've been very pleasantly surprised with the Sony Reader. I only have PDFs on it right now, mostly technical books, programming, etc and the zooming on them works great. On the "Medium" setting, most documents are very comfortable to read, diagrams look fine and only one book so far has had some formatting issues, though remains perfectly legible without conversion. Still, it's very hard to get a feel for if it'll be satisfactory for you or not, until you've used one.

deadl0ck

Just bought one this evening and have put 2 books on it. I'm off to bed now, and I'm gonna give it it's first trial.
I'm off all this week and am planning top get thorugh a few books - I'll report back at the start of next week

Giggler

Thanks for all the replies guys!!!

I was in London for a few days and had a few opportunities to give it a trial run.

Unfortunately i have to say that while being impressed with the overall size and the reader and the text on the page, i was not impressed with the look of the page itself, prob more used to a computer screen, but that could be overcome.

The thing that i was most disapointed with was the refresh rate of the screen, i am a very fast reader and i think that this would bug me after a while, especially as it is not a smooth change.

I also thought that the quality of the print on the screen wasnt that great, it reminded me of a poor photocopy.

i had been doing a bit of a search over the last few days for the books for the authors that i would read most often, not to off the wall, but not always main stream!! and i found their availability severely limited.

Deadl0ck, i cant wait to hear how you get on with your book.

I will i think revisit it again, but for now i think i will be reading the old fashioned way!!!

rovert

Can people in Ireland download Ebooks from this site or is it region blocked:
http://ebookstore.sony.com/

ElNino

rovert wrote: »

Can people in Ireland download Ebooks from this site or is it region blocked:
http://ebookstore.sony.com/

It's not region blocked but it only accepts US issued credit cards for payments. So unless you get someone with an American credit card to put money into your account you are out of luck.

Are you aware that Waterstones are selling Sony LRF formatted books on their website www.waterstones.com ?

rovert

ElNino wrote: »

Are you aware that Waterstones are selling Sony LRF formatted books on their website www.waterstones.com ?

I am Im afraid , thats the reason why Im asking about the Sony site.