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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Sony PRS-505/LC Blue Digital Book Reader Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-05-27 Sony PRS 505 This Sony 505 is an excellent e-book reader that does exactly what it was intended to do. I chose this reader due to its design and abillity to shop for my e-books using a computer. It was a huge step up from the small screen Palm i have been using. I will recomend this reader everyone who asks about it.Once Sony changes the mp3 software it will get 5 stars from me. I will admit I rarely use this feature anyway. Date: 2008-05-27 Sony Reader rocks! I purchased the Sony Reader 3 months ago after researching the market. There are many reasons to buy this product including the Sony brand and user friendly sleek design. I use the reader every day and highly recommend the product. Do yourself and the environment a favor and buy the ereader. Date: 2008-05-22 Elegance with Purpose I've had the Sony Reader for about three months now. I'm not sure if they've updated it's practice, but Sony was sold out for quite a long time. I waited about two months for my Sony Reader to arrive. It appears that the entire reader market, including but limited to, Sony, Amazon (Kindle), Bookeen(Cybook), are facing serious supply issues. Many of the products have estimated waiting periods of 2wks to 1mnth. In which, I'll explain, why this isn't as big as an issue as it may seem. This review will be longer than usual; I think it's important for someone making a $[...] purchase to be properly informed. Cost: It's expensive. $[...] could buy a second-hand laptop or about 40 best-seller books. (Assuming you buy on Amazon of course!). Frankly, I think a lot of buyers of the Sony Reader should think hard about this issue. Are you buying it because you read? Or because you just want the new gadget in town? However, if you're stuck between this device or others because of cost, don't make a choice based on the cost. It's just not worth it. Style: Sony (generally) makes elegant products. This was no exception, if not, better than its average product. This picture certainly doesn't do it justice, but once you hold it in your hand, the curves of the device were well-thought of. Perhaps the same could be said of the Kindle, but pictures of the Kindle cannot compare against the design style of the Sony E-Reader. It certainly attracts a lot of attention. I've had a lot of questions about it, especially when I'm reading anywhere. If not, a lot of people still look and try to understand what the device I'm holding is. It is extremely light. It's lighter than most books I hold. Because the product is also extremely thin, it's weight and style give a certain "beauty" to it. Design: The OS design is well-thought out, but not perfect. You can bookmark, and go through pages easily. But, it's still not perfect. However, to most average users, it'll easily satisfy any requirements. Reading: The page-flip takes time for each page flip. IE, not instant. I don't know the exact time it takes, but I'm sure it's listed somewhere on this Amazon page. Some have complained about it, saying it's taking too long, but it takes less than the time it takes me to flip a page. Sometimes, I doubt those who are complaining this about the Sony Reader - especially when they say it causes them to lose out of place. I average about 500-600 WordsPerMinute(WPM) on more serious books and 600-700 WPM on novels, and I didn't notice this. Reading. I find it perfectly fine. I love how it works in any natural environment. IE, just like a real book! Which implies that you cannot read in the pitch-dark. Somebody below complained about the "contrast" of the product. To be frank, I haven't even adjusted that. I just sit and read for the sake of reading. +: I'm not sure if you enjoy reading on the bed, but I often love to read right before sleeping. Because I don't have to "flip pages" with this device (it's a simple button that I just press), I can rest on one side while reading. You can't really with most books, at least not nearly as comfortable. Fonts: Small, Medium and Large. They do the task. Nothing fancy, although some have mentioned that you can change it. Music: I have not tested this. At all. Which may seem odd, but I bought this device to "read." Support: I have yet to call Sony. However, online communities regarding this device are tight-knit and welcome new members. [...] has massive forums supporting this device, along with Kindle and Cybook. Battery Life: 7500 page flips. If you're a voracious reader, you should also be smart enough to realize if your battery is low for a few days to charge it. Page Finding: Perhaps one of the most annoying parts about any Reader is that the flip page is not instant. So, let's say you're trying to find a specific phrase, you cannot just flip and flip pages. This is because the page flip isn't instant (1/2 second wait). This is due to the "ink" technology of the readers, which means that any type of Reader will have this similar issue. Ebooks Online: I mean, afterall, you bought this product seeing what else you can purchase right? There are numerous stores out there. The costs are similar and are not only limited to Amazon or Sony's bookstores. [...] again will have a list of all of them. You can shop around and find cheap devices. PDF Support: This is a serious issue. Someone mentioned the size of the Reader, which according to them, was "small." Frankly I was baffled at that statement. The size of the reader is perfect for book-reading. If I wanted to carry a large device, I'd just bring my Thinkpad(Lenovo Laptops) around with me at all times! That being said, it explains why the Reader doesn't read PDFs well. This is a problem that is addressed by all the Readers. PDF's are designed with a very strict display in mind. (They were designed to transmit electronic documents to ensure that they would look the same, no matter what computer was displaying it.) As a result, PDFs were initially designed to be displayed on computers. The reader's display screen is obviously much smaller than any screen, therefore it doesn't do PDFs perfectly, or sometimes, well at all. However, there been a lot of community support that have written programs to automatically rewrite PDFs so that they are readable. Many of them have made a lot of progress, but are NOT perfect. If PDF support is a huge issue for you, again visit the MobileRead site. Software has pushed so that PDF readability is pretty much the same in quality across ALL the e-book products available. In short, the Sony Reader is beautiful, elegantly designed, and serves e-book reading well. It's not perfect, and it is expensive. However, if you love to read, and have a little flair of style, the Sony Reader will fit you well. If you're an academic and stuck with 55 PDFs take a second-look at some of the larger products out there. No internet, but did you really buy a reader to surf the internet? If so, do yourself a favor and realize a)Internet is not perfect and b) get an Iphone instead. Date: 2008-05-20 A Great B'day Present w/Caveats This was a lovely birthday present two weeks ago! Despite many "mediocre" reviews on various websites, I have been quite pleased with my new Blue Sony Reader. I felt compelled to submit my $0.02 because I wanted to clear up one main thing that many people, apparently, are not getting straight -- unless they have since realized the inaccuracy -- please see comment on pdf files [FYI: my true rating is 4.5 stars]. OK, here is my two cents worth: PROS: => it fits easily in my purse; not much taller than a paperback and obviously much thinner; => w/blue being my childhood favorite color, it is a very sleek looking piece of hardware and coordinates beautifully with the included navy blue cover; => I s'pose I could be shot for this, but I absolutely cannot imagine reading on my cellphone, PDA, laptop {w/the flickering, ugh}, etc.; hence, my new reader is PERFECT for...well, reading :o); => for those of us with ~20/20-but-not-quite vision, there is the small/med./large zoom feature for all e-book text AND, if you simply go to Sony's website, you can download the SUPER EASY instructions for creating your own pdf files AND you can ZOOM them...I tested these instructions with an online article after initially pasting into MS Word. Using the simple instructions, I QUICKLY CREATED A 2-PAGE PDF FILE AND WAS ABLE TO ZOOM IT ON MY READER; => I have had no problems w/downloads; they are quick and painless {e.g., War and Peace (~6mb) took about 35 seconds on my computer. I read a review where the person complained about it taking "65" seconds on his/her PC...}; => while I have not had it long enough to test the 7,500 page turns before recharging {what, about 2-3 weeks or more???}, I will assume this to be the case. I have been reading quite a bit this week, and thus far, the indicator is still "full;" => quite pleased w/the add'l memory slots. I already had SD cards for my PDA, so this was a nice feature on the reader {I do not use Sony's memory stick, but that is the other option in case you are not aware}; => the navigation is fairly simple & quick. Bookmarks can be set up for where you left off {in SEVERAL books, in case you tend to read more than one @ a time}. Page turning accommodates both righties and lefties. Being right-handed, I like the fact I can turn the page forward/backward with my thumb--barely moving my hand while reading. I also like the 0-9 tabs along the right side of the reader to quickly get to a title, author, etc., and I like the page search feature of simply entering a page number (e.g., 108) and you quickly get to that page. Hyperlinks in any e-book allow for quick navigation, as well. [BTW, if you hold the menu button down for ~3-4 secs., the reader returns to the HOME screen no matter where you currently are {I read a review on some website where the user did not like to continually press Menu to get back home, so he/she was not doing this correctly}]; => SINCE THIS IS SUPPOSED TO MIMIC/REPLACE A BOOK, I do not have a problem with the screen not having a back light. Oddly enough, while I enjoy reading the text on the screen in the three zoom modes as if this were a paperback, admittedly, I slightly miss the cover of the book not being in color on the reader [oh well]; and => last, but not least, as a subway commuter I was compelled this week to "pretend" I was actually listening to music while reading. Sometimes, folks in the subways [strangers] want to strike up a conversation {on airplanes, too--right, folks?!}, or a guy tries to flirt :o), {or a panhandler begs for money :o( }, and so forth. So I am always doing something on the subways during my commute {reading, logic problems, listening to music, whatever}, so now I can simply put the ear buds in my ears WITHOUT actually listening to music, but I can then read in peace. I have on occasion listened to classical music while reading on the subways, but I decided not to load/listen to music on my reader to maintain the battery life...but who knows in the future. Of course, playing mp3s is still a nice feature and it comes with a couple of songs. CONS: => perhaps I would have seen things differently had I not used Microsoft's free reader on my desktop first, but...alas: unlike MS's reader, the Sony portable reader does NOT allow text highlighting, selecting a word to look up the definition {i.e., if you have an e-dictionary(s) already downloaded}, searching for specific words/phrases in your e-book, or adding your very own notes or drawings on a page. Since I used these features on occasion w/desktops, they were somewhat missed on Sony's reader {esp. word search & definitions}. I suppose this would be a bigger problem for students {although, it would certainly be better for their backs and the environment by not killing so many trees for those enormous textbooks}. As far as I can tell, you cannot listen to "regular" e-books {non-audiobooks} w/Sony's reader. While I do not have any audiobooks in MS's reader, there is an audio feature and it works nicely with regular e-books I downloaded {e.g., if/when you are tired, you can press play and a voice starts speaking from wherever your cursor is in these non-audiobooks}. Also, just started using Mobipocket Reader on the desktop and it, too, is a beautiful and seamless [navigation] app; => similarly to the above, I cannot help but compare Sony's desktop software to iTunes. The navigation is just a wee bit sluggish. Screen changing in the desktop software with those status arrows is slow, even on a fast computer AND even on Sony's own website on the internet [noticeable on several computers around town, etc.]. While I am OK with the way the portable reader turns pages [time in seconds], the desktop software is much slower to navigate. also, it is slightly annoying the way it returns to an author's HOME page instead of just his/her PREVIOUS page when you want to read add'l info about a specific title {using the back arrow}. This is not a big deal if the author has just two pages, but for those with several pages, it is ridiculous to have to page through to, say, the sixth page AGAIN to continue where you left off; => not sure if this is a software bug, but so far this happens ALL the time on my desktop when I open Sony's software -- I click on "eBook Store," my e-mail address is already there, and I enter my password. But then I get a gray screen that says "Page not available...contact our customer support..." Yet, if I just go to the bottom of this window and click the eBook Store TAB, it goes directly to the home page of the store. Again, so far this happens 100% of the time and there is certainly nothing wrong w/our broadband connection, etc.; => inventory - this is a strange one. While Sony and Borders Books are in partnership, currently, there still are not as many titles as for, say, Amazon's new reader...go figure; => while it is only the 2nd gen, @ 300 bucks [much less than Amazon's, obviously] it is still pricey. Also, websites like [...] and others tend to have much cheaper content, so not sure what is up with that. I do hope inventory pricing will come down in the future. We opted to purchase the reader on sonystyle.com because it appeared the other online vendors were NOT doing the free 100 classic titles w/the purchase of the unit &/or any engraving; and => just a minor pet peeve I alluded to in the other section - I am spoiled by the vibrancy of MS's reader {even its highlights/drawings can be done in SEVERAL colors} so it is a bit to get used to, only viewing things in several shades of gray w/Sony's portable reader. I keep telling myself: "THIS REPLACES BOOKS; YOU ARE READING - READING; YOU COULD NOT PRESS A BUTTON TO LISTEN TO MUSIC WHEN YOU READ PAPERBACKS; YOU DID NOT HAVE A BACK LIGHT; YOU COULD NOT DO A WORD SEARCH WITH A HARD COPY; ETC.; ETC.; ETC." Folks, I guess if you keep everything in perspective, you will find very strong merits for having this tool--if you read a lot--and for taking back shelf space in your homes/doing right by the environment. Thx for your time- MLA Date: 2008-05-11 The best Reader for readers I just upgraded from the old Sony Reader to this new one and I love it. It's faster and there's no ghost-text anymore. There's even a helpful alphabetized table of contents now. I've had some eye problems (convergence insufficiency), but I love reading so much and I can't stop (probably not helping the eye strain). This was absolutely perfect for me. It's simple and does one thing well. I don't plan to use it for music or pictures, even though it has support for this. I don't even use the Sony library, because I think it's a rip-off. Every book is pretty much available for free on the Internet. There are tons of torrent sites and even e-Libraries that have free book checkouts. Online-literature and Project Gutenberg has classics. No one needs to buy books anymore, and this may be my last purchase from Borders Books. Menus are a bit slow, but it's livable with. There are only two things wrong with it, but the major one is easily remedied. 1. There is no backlighting. I wouldn't mind to read this in the dark, but if I can't no big deal. It's not like I can read books in the dark normally, and it would be a huge battery drain and bad for my eyes. Update: I got the Reader clip-on light off the Sony Style website. I love it; great flex neck and pretty bright. Very nice button placement and it doesn't turn itself on in my handbag. I don't know about the battery life yet, but mine came with spares (CR2032). Update: It broke within days :\, but fortunately they're only ~$12. 2. The software involves a lot of work. The interface is nice, and a bit reminiscent of iTunes in its syncing. You can get a pretty good guess at what it will look like on the Reader screen, but expect it to be smaller than it is on your computer. There is drag and drop for files, but it has to be over the Library or Reader sidebar buttons. Update: It's really easy to read full screen on your computer and manage bookmarks and collections. However, two things piss me off about the software. First of all, you can't change the author/title in the software, and I'm a huge stickler for electronic organization. However, in Word, you can change them. Since I use OpenOffice, I just went to the code for RTF files (just open an RTF in Notepad) and added a line of code after \info... {\author authornamehere}{\title titlehere}. So that wasn't too bad. For PDFs, you can download free software such as PDFInfo. But, PDFs are bad for the Sony Reader for the following reasons. First of all, you only have the options of small and medium for PDFs. And PDFs tend to appear smaller anyways, so you typically need the large for them. You can just increase the font size on your computer, but I realized that makes the files huge and lags your Reader. The people that complain of ridiculous page turn times were probably using PDFs. You can convert from PDF to text easily in Adobe Reader. From there, you can open it with Word/OpenOffice and save it as an RTF. Use what I said above to get the title name right. It depends on the person, but I like my text to be giant. At Arial 20 point font, it's perfect, especially on Large. And I learned from another review that holding down the Size button turns everything sideways and makes it bigger. Update: I found a fix to the annoying PDF formatting/paragraph wrapping issues! Selnick makes a free downloadable program called SmartWrap. It fixes all of your text so that there's no weird wrapping, and it's really easy to use. After a few uses of the trial version, you have to delete a pre-printed sentence at the top, but that's a non-issue. Randomly, for some books, quotation marks and hyphens will be replaced with square boxes, and even if it's annoying, it's not that distracting. Too much dialog isn't a sign of a good book anyway. I'll update again if I figure out how to fix it. It can't be detected in the Preview screen of your eLibrary. I just discovered Collections, which are absolutely amazing. You can organize virtual bookshelves and put books in various categories extremely easily. This is great for accessing books for different classes or of different genres, especially when you start adding a lot of short texts or poems. Long story short, I love it. Just download free eBook torrents, convert everything from PDF to txt, and then open your text in Word/OpenOffice and save it as an RTF. That should reduce any Sony-store-and-page-turn-lag-related stress.
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