Although I lot of people have been lauding the Kindle, I recently decided to go with the Sony PRS-505 instead. Yes, the Kindle has built-in EVDO access, and the ability to buy books without a computer, or even browse the web; and yes, the Sony has once again demonstrated it can’t create a compelling 21st century computer application to save its life. However, it had a few things that at least for me, made a better choice for me than the Kindle:
- The Sony is thinner — I want to be able to slip it into my laptop case and have it take the absolute minimum amount of space.
- The Sony simply looks much more elegant than the Kindle; steel with a leather cover simply looks a lot better than white, cheasy plastic.
- I’m not interested in buying a lot of DRM’ed ebooks; ergo, I won’t be buying may books from either Sony or Amazon’s web sites. It is highly likely that within 2 years I will be buying a more advanced eBook reader, possibly one with color, and I don’t want to be locked into a single format where I have to go and repurchase all of my books just because some the latest and greatest eBook reader uses an incompatible DRM technology from whatever Sony or Amazon has used.
- The Sony is $100 cheaper. Given that something better will be available within 2-3 years at the very most, and possibly sooner, I’m just not interested in spending $400 on a first generation prototype.
- Perhaps the most important, the Sony has the really, really good open source support. Kovid Goyal’s libprs500 project supports the Sony PRS-500 and PRS-505, and has very good version tools, allowing people to convert eBooks previously stored in HTML, PDF, TXT, Microsoft Reader (.lit), IDPF/Open eBook (.epub) into Sony’s format. And with a little bit of work, it does a very, very good job with the conversion. Better yet, its ability to convert multiple HTML pages into a single eBook, with credible table of contents, means that libprs500 can pull down the New York Times, the Economist, etc., automatically format it into a single eBook which you can save onto your Sony Reader, and then read it while you are on the airplane. No muss, no fuss. I can also take various books that are available on the web as HTML and also convert them into an eBook which can be used by the Sony Reader very easily.
This last point is I believe one of the best reasons why the Sony Reader will be able to compete very successfully with the Kindle. The libprs500 software is written as a python application, and it will work on Windows, Linux, and MacOS — and its GUI user interface is far better than the truly pathetic Sony Connect software. Score one for Open Source! In my opinion, Sony should send a very nice gift certificate to Kovid as a thank you; his open source project has added an immeasurable amount of value to their product.
The only thing that you can’t do using the libprs500 software is buy DRM’ed books which are locked to the Sony Reader — but that isn’t something that many people will be particularly interested in, I suspect. OK, I did buy Pillars of the Earth, which was available on the Sony site for $6 dollars — hmm, cheaper than Amazon’s $9.99 — but that was an investment I was willing to flush down the toilet when the PRS-505 becomes obsolete, mainly so I could test what buying a DRM’ed book would be like from the Sony web site. But I probably won’t be buying many books with DRM that way. On the other hand, I am quite willing to spend quite a bit more money on non-DRM’ed books from publishes such as Baen Books.
Here’s to the hope to the publishing industry figures things out faster than RIAA’s member companies. In the meantime, I will be mostly pretending that the both the Sony and Amazon eBook stores with their proprietary DRM’ed books don’t exist…
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January 20th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I have one of the earlier sony’s (Librie’) but at the time, it was crash-prone, and the open source converter code was very 0.1. I should give that another try now that there are newer tools… the screen was very nice…
January 20th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I’ve had a few crashes but nothing serious. It only happens when first opening a book that has been freshly downloaded; I’ve never had crashes while reading a book, so it’s never been a big issue for me.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:51 am
Indeed, the openness is more important than devices’ capabilities, since we’ll have lots of devices with lots of good features sooner or later.
Great article, thanks.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I agree: looks, size, and open source support. As you can charge it via USB, I don’t find myself missing web access. Libprs500 alone is enough reason. I used it to convert textbooks for school and wrote something the other day that puts my unread Google Reader feeds on it and marks them as read (using Google Gears). Things like this make the reader worth having, and exemplify how important open source is.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Who needs DRM books when you have http://www.gutenberg.org ?
February 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Gutenberg books are great if you want classics, but often I want to read books written in this century. And alas, Disney seems to be doing its best to make sure that no new works enter the public domain going forward….
February 19th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
My experience: Failed after 3 months. Poor customer service, won’t repair under standard warranty terms. Sony does not support this product, read their own support website - several of the links to their own FAQ’s have no answer. Sony does not recognize the serial number of their own product.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hey Jaciss,
I hope you check back here because I’d love to have something that will put my Google Reader content onto my PRS-500. Are you willing to share your code? Thanks
July 14th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Yeah, Jaciss!
Check in that code at http://code.google.com/
August 4th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Has bought to itself Sony 505, long changed, but after reading reviews was solved and I do not regret. Has come across a site where reviews on Sony are collected.
http://reeed.ru/en.html
Can to whom it is useful.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Hi,
The 505 is finally coming to the UK, so thanks for the posting - it’s been very useful and I’ve bookmarked the conversion app (now called Calibre). One simple question - what’s the 505 made from? Is it plastic or metal? I’m just wondering how durable is for carrying around.
Thanks again.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
[...] mi cumpleaños es muy pronto. Me gustaría recibir un par de gafas de Gigli, un Sony Ebook Reader o un carro nuevito de [...]
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
So you’re saying there is a FOSS solution to the fact that my only reason for NOT buying this product was lack of Mac support? ‘Cause I was about to hit “checkout” when I realized the requirements list only XP and Vista as supported OS’s and my main machine is a Mac and my other 2 machines run Ubuntu. I wrote to Sony and complained about the lack of Mac support but dared not think I could even hope the Linux boxes could be supported as well. Can I buy this?
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
Ted,
More of a question than a comment. I’m looking for an ebook that will allow me to upload business files that I can take to meetings instead of printing paper (and discard after the meeting). I purchased/retuned a PRS-505 because it wouldn’t name the files correctly. Is there add-on software that will let me control files somewhat like I do with Microsoft, or would my effort have worked better if I had saved all of the files onto the memory card? Thanks for any direction you can give. Also, the BeBook from the Netherlands looks promising.
Bob
September 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Bob W,
If the pdf file has a title and author properties, it will show up as the title used by the PRS-505. So I’m guessing this is more about the short-comings of Sony’s tools to convert business files to pdf’s. I assume it wasn’t using the Title properties in your Microsoft Office files? Did you try setting it there?
I’ll note that Open Office (which is what I use for all of my Office processing) will use the Title in the document properties as the Title in the PDF file, which in turn will be picked up by the PRS-505. I’m sure that if you use Adobe’s Acrobat Distiller it will do the right thing as well. You might also try using “print to PDF” from MS Office.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Bought one - have had it only 2 /3 weeks - in fact, the accessories I ordered only just arrived today… and yet, the display has already died. Very poor product quality!!!
September 24th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Sorry you had a problem with your display. Mine has been just fine since I purchased back in January. Have you tried returning it to the store for a replacement?
October 13th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
don’t worry people, all of the issues from the readers currently on the market are covered by the most amazing reader ever… coming soon….
October 14th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Edward, and that would be… ?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:12 am
If there is a newer and better device coming soon, how ’bout sharing the info. I’ve got a few days left on my grace period of a new 505, and I’d rather send it back and get full return value than hold it and weep a few months down the road. Ted, what’ happening?
October 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
What is the average batterylife when reading a book?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
how do you compare it with Jinke Hanlin v. 3?
October 16th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Bob and Mina, i cant tell you the details right now since i am involved in the design team, but, you can check http://codenamesirius.blogspot.com/ to leave your suggestions on what you expect from this device to be, or what features to have, like this, we come up with something you are really gonna love. So far, the design is completed and i have to say it is outstanding, none of the other devices can compare to it, next step, the software.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
If you’re still soliciting ideas, you’re a year away or more; the ebook space is only just reaching the point where design improvements on the technology already available make a difference - there are already-demoed technology improvements that would disrupt existing products entirely regardless of how well designed they are, if they ever get to production (easy example: flexible screens), so investing in incremental (design-only) improvements to the current tech would seem like a bad investment… another way to put it: we’re not seeing 1.5’s, we’re seeing a stream of new 1.0’s…
October 16th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Mark, i am not soliciting ideas, merely inviting people to make suggestions on what they would like to see in our product. Thanks for the remark, but is obvious that merely design improvements wont be enough, that is just part of it.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Edward, I hope you don’t mean the prs-700.
I don’t find that one a great improvement over the 505, I’m sorry to say..
October 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
oh no, my company is not related to any of the manufacturers of the readers out in the market right now.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
What I would like to see is a 505 on steroids. I want to be able to EASILY upload files from my PC (or Mac). There is a huge business application for people who possess many files, many of which they take to meetings or on trips, and today must lug a laptop around to access the files (or carry a flash drive and hope it works on someone else’s unit). Or they print. A read-only unit, like the 505 or iPod, will work for most applications. You may need two screen sizes - the current size to ready standard 8.5×11, and a second for larger sheets, excel files, and powerpoints. Hire someone from Apple - they’re kinda good at this sort of thing.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
thanks for the input Bob. I am the designer/creator, so i really don’t need to bring another one, eventually, on the future, yes.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I posted a huuge list to look through on your blog Edward, and I agree with Bob, many will want to take powerpoint presentations, etc,.. I haven’t included that one in my list neither.
With the post I thought you worked for sony, so on some points imagine you start from the Sony 505 there.
anyways…
October 16th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
and i answered.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:24 am
The reason that Sony has failed with ebook readers in the past is the same reason Amazon will ultimately succeed with the Kindle - availability of content. The Kindle doesn’t do everything, but what it does do, it does exceptionally well. Rather than make an ebook reader that is also a toaster, writing platform, mp3 player, Amazon made a device that provides core functionality that seamlessly integrates with its business model. Using a Kindle, with its EVDO access, makes it possible to browse for, purchase and begin reading an ebook in a few clicks. I don’t need to hook it up to my computer to download an ebook. Yes, it’s a bit expensive but at $9.99 for most new books, one can save compared to traditional printed books. Finally, Amazon stores all of your ebooks for you so if your device conks out or if you would like to clean some space for other books, you don’t lose your ebook.
This is no knock on Sony - I haven’t seen its ebook and want to thank you for your review of this device. Rather, the success of the ebook reader hinges upon the same premise that made the Blackberry phone so successful - do a few core things really, really well. In the case of the Blackberry, that was a way to deliver email to mobile business users and allow them to respond easily. The Blackberry isn’t particularly fancy compared to other devices, but what it does it does surprisingly well.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:07 am
[...] which was not DRM’ed, so I could easily get it into a form where I could read it on my Sony eReader. Thanks to that short story, I was introduced to an author, and a character, which I found very [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 1:29 am
@32: “The reason that Sony has failed with ebook readers in the past is the same reason Amazon will ultimately succeed with the Kindle - availability of content.”
There’s actually quite a lot of content available for the Sony eReader. Even if you don’t feel like breaking the DRM on Microsoft Reader .lit files so you can format-shift them to Sony’s .LRF files, Sony has its own book store for content, and you can also get content from Fictionwise, and many other on-line ebook stores. The latest Sony eReader will also supports DRM’ed BBEB and Adobe Editions files, in addition to Sony’s native .LRF DRM files, for those people who are willing to put up with DRM. The Kindle only supports native Amazon DRM’ed files, which means the only place you can buy content is from Amazon. Sometimes Amazon’s 9.99 flat fee is cheaper than what it might cost to get the same book at Sony’s store or at Fictionwise, sometimes it’s actually much cheaper to buy the book from a non-Amazon ebook source.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Oh, for Pete’s sake. You computer nerds can hash out all the techno-speak you want, but what it comes down to is that I and a lot of others just WANT TO READ BOOKS. How does the Sony stack up for us lowly consumers?
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
@35 Karen,
I love it. The Sony PRS-505 is much thinner than the Kindle, which is key for me. I don’t really care about being able to download books wireless over the web; I’m quite comfortable downloading books on my computer and then transferring them to the eReader. The time to turn pages is a little slow, but it wasn’t a major problem for me when I was reading. The place where it got annoying was when I was flipping through the book looking for a specific passage.
I have since upgraded to the Sony PRS-700. It is a hundred dollars more, and with the faster CPU, its page turning speed is much better. It also has a touchscreen, which means that you can much more easily turn pages by casually flicking your finger across the page. The touchscreen also allows you to search for a specific word or phrase in the book, and it allows you to write notes via an on-screen keyboard. So if you’re the sort of person who likes to underline passages and write notes to your self in the margins of the books, you can do that with the Sony PRS-700.
However. In order to add support for the touchscreen, Sony was forced to add a layer on top of the eInk display, and this has made the display much more susceptible to glare problems if your light source is in the wrong place, and to have a much lower contrast than the PRS-505. The PRS-505 had an absolutely gorgeous screen; with the completely white background, and crisp, black text, it looked very close to paper, and in fact some people didn’t believe it was real, but rather a simulation, until they saw the screen flash and change. Unfortunately, the PRS-700, because of the touchscreen overlay, is not as good. Some people call it unacceptably bad, although I find that the glare and contrast problems (which are bad when the room is not as well lit) can be compensated because the PRS-700 also has a side lighting feature using LED’s. This burns slightly more battery, and to be honest it’s still not quite as good as the PRS-505, but it is adequate, and the other advantages of the PRS-700 are so far superior that at least for me, I find the PRS-700 a very worthwhile upgrade. People who disagree can still buy the PRS-505; as of this writing both are available in stores.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
My Sony 505 worked shortly after Christmas 2008 and the Sony book I bought for my son has been fine since (a year). But mine has frozen and won’t respond at all. What do I do now? I need help.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Elizabeth, have you tried using the reset button? There is a hole in the back of the PRS-505 with the words “reset” right above it. Insert a paper clip, push and hold for perhaps 3-4 seconds. Then try the on/off switch.
Also, if the battery has run down too far, the PRS-505 may not take a charge from the USB cable, or it make a very long time for it to charge up. You can buy a dedicated AC adaptor from Sony that plugs into the yellow power connector at the bottom of the eReader, but it’s cheaper to get a 3rd party Sony Playstation AC adapter, and it works just fine. Try plugging in the AC adapter and see if the red LED next to the on/off switch starts glowing. If so, let it charge until the Red LED turns off, then see if it will turn on. (Actually, you can wait 5-10 minutes and then see if you can power it on. Another advantage of using an AC adapter is you can read while the battery is charging, something you can’t do if you are charging via the USB cable.)
The final thing to try, if neither of these things work, is to see if you can manage to get the Sony PRS-505 to take a firmware update. Sony has updated firmware for the PRS-505 that gives it some new features, including supporting Adobe Digital Editions (DRM’ed) ebooks. You should be able to download it to your Windows PC from the Sony web site. If it could be that your unit is not booting up because its flash drive got corrupted somehow, but there’s enough low-level reflexes left that it will accept a firmware update.
If none of these things work, I’m afraid I can’t suggest anything other than contacting Sony Service and asking if it is still under warranty, and if not, how much they charge for non-warrantee repairs.
Good luck! I hope you manage to get your eReader working again!
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Please see http://www.fadedpage.com/c/ppgenex.php for a short list of books produced for Gutenberg using a markup tool called ppgen and Calibre.
In particular I would recommend the example LRF of “InDarkestAfrica” which can illustrate that free ebooks can also look aesthetically pleasing.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
thanks for the Kovid Goyal’s libprs500 project’s link!!
great resource!
December 9th, 2008 at 8:29 am
What I found useful was
http://www.lib2go.com
It converts many formats to LRF (Sony reader format).
December 11th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Hi Ted,
How do technical papers with figures look on the 700? I’d like to read CS papers and programming books on the reader.
Thanks.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I really enjoy Project Gutenberg, but as mentioned above, gutenberg only has old classics. Does anyone know where I can find free downloads of modern books?
December 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
http://www.mobileread.com has books.Mostly of Gutenberg, formatted to better fit the PRS-500/505
Modern books cost money, unless the author gives them for free,like Paolo Coehlo,who gives 3 of his books for free.
December 27th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Maybe silly question…but…I’ve just got a 505 for Christmas and am due to get a new computer. If I set up the 505 on one computer, is it easy to then switch to a new computer?? Thanks!!
January 1st, 2009 at 6:55 pm
[...] http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2008/01/19/why-i-purchased-the-sony-prs-505-reader/ [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I’ve been keeping my eye on the e-readers for a few years, and recently checked out the new 700 series Sont with the touchscreen. It’s really bad. The touchscreen requires quite a bit of pressure and worse, it lowers the contrast considerably. It looks like the first gen sony reader. The 505 looks way better.
I’m hoping they switch the pressure touchscreen to a static touch like the iPhone or similar products. Of course, the refresh rate of the 505 needs to be improved, and more importantly, they need to figure out a way to refresh without the reverse image flash it currently employs. Yikes! That’s annoying.
Having said that, I think the 505 is currently the best on the market. I’d love to see one double the size, in full color, for magazines, comics, etc.
I’ll add that I don’t have a 505 because I’m currently still using a PDA for e-books, because I don’t feel the ebook readers are different enough right now for the money since I use the auto-scroll feature on my PDA. I never have to touch a button once I start reading. Just turn on, fullscreen, auto-scroll. It works really well. Once the pages can turn “instantly” on the e-ink readers, I’ll switch. The lack of eye strain inherent in e-ink technology is enough to make me give up the auto-scroll feature, once they improve the other aspects I mentioned.
Can’t wait to see the next gen of e-ink!
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
@35, Karen
As a reader, i’m crazy about the Sony. I didn’t like the Kindle as well. It’s hard to hold in my creaky fingers without pressing something I don’t want to.
The Sony is light, heavier than a paperback, lighter than a hardback. It fits neatly in my purse. It’s easy to hold, intuitive to use. My computer-illiterate mother had the hang of it in five minutes, once I showed her the power switch.
The display is easy to read, with three text sizes and good contrast.
My one gripe is that html books often don’t arrive with their covers.
I write ebooks. And I think a good, inexpensive reader will make sales go way up. I know I buy more since I can take them along and read them instead of just avoiding them on my home computer.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Tytso - thanks for the battery information - we’re having the same problem with our 505 and hand no idea what was the cause.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:29 am
hello. I’m an academic professor and i’m thinking of buying the sony 505 reader. I have hundreds of PDF papers that i’ll put in the reader to read. My question is if i arrange the papers in folder on my pc, can i just transfer the folders to the reader. will it keep the folders names? i tried to transfer folders to the digital adobe reader software but i couldn’t, and couldn’t do it using calibre either. need help please.
Thanks.
January 17th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
hello, when I brought my first spectrum I expected to do a little work to make things happen. After 25+ years if I am going to spend £200 on a device I want it to do the job i.e. down load everything and anything and put it on the page in the correct format to make easy reading without any fuss bad messages etc. I have a amstrad 740 printer that does just that, it must be 10+ years old. If sony or anybody else cannot get it right before they put them on sale why bother buying them.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am
@51: George,
The Sony works quite well for books; it isn’t going to deal with spreadsheets very well, and its support for PDF’s formatted for A4 or US Letter paper sizes is marginal mainly due to screen size issues. So for the eReader’s primary intended use case, you don’t have to do anything fancy other than to give your credit card number to the Sony Book Store.
However, those of us who are interested in making the eReader do more than just display books pre-formatted by Sony and other publishers are happy that it can be more, sometimes with a little more work. (In other cases, once you use the open source Calibre program, it will add new features, such as reformat various magazines and newspapers that are available on the web for the eReader very easily, which should meet your requirements of “I don’t want to do even a little work”.)
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I’m wondering how to conver lit files so I can read them on my 505
January 25th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
check out manybooks.net
some more modern works.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for your answers. I did end up getting a Sony e-reader and am quite satisfied, except for the content issue. I have been waiting for a particular book for months, and now that it is out, it is on Kindle, but not Sony. I wish I knew if it were going to become available, but there seems to be no way to find out. I emailed the author and was told it was all up to the publisher. I wrote them, but have not received a reply. What’s the deal with gettng books on Sony?
February 8th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I am thinking of getting a Sony PRS 505 this week. I had thought about a Kindle but as of right now they are sold out and have been since before Christmas. Also I have seen pics of the new Kindle and it looks bigger and uglier than the original. Also for where I live we don’t get Sprint service so the EVDO would not be all that useful. The price is also rather high, being as you can get a 505 for as little as 259.00 new and a Kindle is still 359.00 new. If anyone has other leads to a cheaper price I would welcome it.
I am excited because I am stuck with the small screen on my ipod touch or my full laptop screen. With the 505 it is bigger than the ipod screen but small enough to be very portable. I am not wild about the lack of Mac support but with Parallels it is a not much of a problem.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I’m sure i would love my new 505, if i could only get it to work. I cannot “authorize” my reader. My system meets all the requirements (my ipod connects with zero issues), and i’ve been through three levels of tech support (5+ hours), only to have a diagnotsics program remotely ran to determine what the problem is, so thier “engineering” staff could fix my issue. The friendly tech said that Sony’s response at this level takes 2 business days, but his experience was that it would take 4 or 5. Unfortunately, it’s been exactly 2 weeks, and still no fix. I’m trying to be patient, but i’m about to settle on the Kindle…..
February 24th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
sherif -
here’s what the calibre manual says about “collections:” calibre has full support for collections. When you add tags to a book’s metadata, those tags are turned into collections when you upload the book to the SONY reader. Also, the series information is automatically turned into a collection on the reader. Note that the PRS-500 does not support collections for books stored on the SD card. The PRS-505 does.
So it seems to me that you should be able to use this feature to, in effect, create folders for your pdfs.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I bought my 505 through Dell online, not from a store with a salesperson. I was disappointed to find that my reader does not have a high-contrast screen. The background is sort of gray and the text is not true black, more of a faded black or dark gray. It’s not easy to read and in some lights, actually strains my eyes.
Why is mine not performing like others? I looked everywhere for a place to adjust the contrast and have not found any means to do so. When I bought it, I upgraded the firmware — I got it in late July, 2008. Any advice? It’s too late to return it.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:32 pm
@59: Nan,
Are you sure you have the Sony PRS-505 and not, say the PRS-700? Most people who have commented on the PRS-505 have been very pleased with its contrast. You might want to go to a Target or a Best Buy; most of them have PRS-505 e-Readers available on display. Maybe you have a defective unit?
March 1st, 2009 at 6:59 pm
@#59 Nan,
Yeah I wonder too about the model you have. Does yours seem like reading a newspaper? That’s about the best e-ink looks at this time, not quite white, not quite black.
But having said that, I was VERY excited about the touch screen functions of the 700, only to find out the touch screen aspect lowered the contrast of it dramatically.
(hmm… you don’t suppose they pawned off their unused 500 model screens under that touch screen do you??)
Anyway, they really went “one step forward, two steps backward” with the 700 as far as the contrast. Maybe “the” 705 will be back up to spec.
If you do have the 505, bring it to a store that carries it and compare the two just to make sure. If it’s not right, send it back for a replacement and make sure they pay for the shipping costs.
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:10 am
@#60 tytso and @ #61 Chris:
It is definitely a 505. I will take it into a store and compare it to a display model, good idea.
My eReader recently does something else that doesn’t seem right either — twice I have charged it fully, shut it off, and after it’s been OFF for a few days, I turn it back on only to find that the battery is almost dead again. How long should a battery stay re-chargeable? Because the screen isn’t that light I’ve only read 13 books so far, each no more than average length.
So do you really think I can get them to repair this or replace it, after buying it in August? I have read bad things about Sony’s support for the eReader, such as it’s basically nonexistent. I bought it through Dell — does anyone happen to know if they would have any responsibility for sending a defective unit?
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:13 am
I am now confused. Should I go for the 505 over 700? Should I wait a while for new e-books to come out? I like the sound of touch-turning the pages but the resulting glare doesn’t sound good. I am buying one for a present for someone who likes gadgets and reading and travels a lot, but I don’t want to give them something that causes them hassel. Also, what are the book selections like? I’m presuming it’s like going in to a regular book shop and having all the latest titles, both fiction and non-fiction?
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Does anybody know which Memory Cards work with the 505 ?
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
1- Folders don’t work on the PRS, you’ll end up with a library holding of upto about 200MB of pdf’s.
2- Goto mobileread.com for more books
3- books can be made in HTML code, and converted using calibre, or created in Bookdesigner. Bookdesigner is buggy,and you will need to give it a try or 20 before a you’ll get the right settings to give you professional results!
BD also creates a creditline at the end to the BD creators.
4- Switching computers only needs you to install Sony Library on the other computer, and setting up the account there too. But if you you don’t buy books from Sony, it just takes as much as to replug the USB cable in the new pc, and you’re set! You can use explorer or another filemanager to copy/move/delete files. XP,Vista and Windows7; as well as modern Linux distributions recognize the reader as an external USB drive.
5- Calibre converts lit files to lrf files pretty well!
6- When contrast ratio of the 505 is low, it can be 3 things:
-1:low battery
-2:(extreme) cold environment below 15 degrees Celsius (or something like below 60 degrees F)
-3: Broken screen
7- My battery lasts about 8 hours too, depending on the usage. When used not very frequently (say, I’d read an hour every day), the battery lasts slightly more then a week and a half.
Take note my PRS-505 was first taken in use around Nov-Dec 2007, and is a good year and a half old!
It could also be a bug from Sudoku. One of the first sudoku games had a bug that drained the battery even when being turned off. Best thing you can do is reset the device on the back. Don’t worry, you won’t lose any books on the device.
8- another issue with touchscreens is they get dirty, and scratched, and inevitably get areas with defective sensors. So expect the touchscreen pageswaps to do more then just swapping pages, constant swapping over the same area actually also degrades the plastic!
9- The Sony reader can read MMS cards (upto 4GB)as well as SD cards. Since MMS cards are hard to find, SD cards go fine upto 8GB. I have not yet tested higher capacities, as I see no need for higher than that. 4GB + 200MB internal memory equals about 3000 books in LRF format, or about 200 PDF books less then 20MB/book.
I think Sony reader should read 8GB SD cards as well, but at the time of writing not many 16 or 32GB cards have been tested, and there could be some incompatibility issues here or there, but it would be very unlikely if you’ll ever need a card this large on a reader!
Most I can think of is using the reader to playback MP3’s, but with the internal battery you’ll most likely not get more than 2 - 4 hours of MP3 music (depending on the bitrate, and playback volume).
And <20MB PDF files that contain comic books could go as high as 400 on a 8GB card, which is just ridiculous much, and would take you probably a year to 3 years to read through them all!
April 6th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
PLEASE HELP - I’m Desperate! =S
My Sony Ereader PRS-505 froze while I was listnening to music in the car due to the fact that it was too dark to read. I realised that the music wasn’t playing and tried to click the next song, as it didn’t play, I attempted to go back to the menu. Instead of going to the screen I wanted, the power turned off. I turned it on again and the screen opened to the music list instead of the start up screen. It stayed frozen for the drive home and on arrival I tried restarting with the sharp end of a safety pin. It restarted and the loading screen came up… it was frozen.
I searched many forums, mainly on http://www.mobilereader.com and tried the ‘ten times restart thing’ which resulted in it continuosly restarting, loading, freezing and restarting again ten times. I also realised that I should restart with a softer implement so I tried a paper clip. Holding the power switch for about a minuite didn’t work either. I will try the play station AC charger when my brother returns with it tomorrow. For now I will wait for the Ereader to exhaust it’s battery so that I can charge it with the AC charger tomorrow.
None of the help forums or trouble shooting in the manuals have come across this problem. If you have PLEASE tell me it can fixed without taking it to the shops as my warrantee is only in the US and I got it as a gift from mu uncle who lives there. I’m sorry about the confusing explanation!
April 8th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Daisy I once had the same issue.I can only tell you what helped me:
I tried charging my reader but it wouldn’t charge, so I took my laptop,plugged it in the USB, and at the same time charged it with the AC.
Then I found I could turn on my device.
Most likely it’s due to an empty battery. Everytime you try to restart, the battery doesn’t have enough juice to do so, and the reader freezes.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:20 am
I join Elizabeth Eggleston about PRS ‘frozen screen’ problem. It is quite irritating and as I have noticed - not depends on battery charge level (at least for my model). Reset button works, but not always and I just have to wait until the device wakes-up again. I have not heard similar issues with other ebook readers, so hopefully it is not typical for e-inc tehnology in general.
May 20th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
There is a glaring problem with the PRS505. It is not talked about at all. The battery can not be replaced by the user. After many inquiries to Sony, they finally said I would have to send it back to them for a new battery. Cost $280.00. No wonder they don’t talk about it!!!!!!!!!!!
May 25th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
For all you eBook readers out there who want content, just try searching through torrent sites for books. Type “fiction” into any torrent search engine and you can download libraries of THOUSANDS of non-DRM books, usually in LIT format. Torrent sites aren’t just for MP3s and movies. Happy reading.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Members of BORDERS BOOKS can print off a coupon for a Sony 505 for $199. One per customer. You may be able to just show your card and get one, call first.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I didn’t inquire about battery life or replacement. To my dismay I discovered that for a new battery, you have to send it to Sony. The price I was quoted was $280.00. Yes! Two hundred and eighty dollars! I paid $290.00 for my 505 almost 2 years ago. Buyer beware?????
June 13th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Ok! I just went through an issue with my 505. Not using it that much when I go to power up - the power light comes on then the screen will flash 4 times then the screen shows it’s powering up. From there it may - or may not - decide to show the loading screen. No matter which screen the reader will not complete the boot process.
I’ve tried resetting all sorts of ways - pushing the reset button then the menu button etc. to no avail.
Finally I remembered the last time it gave me a problem and wouldn’t start up, I had read to leave it sitting for a day or two and that might help. Last time it did - this time it didn’t.
What finally worked was I found a Generic adapter Class 2 power supply laying around with the same connector but with an output of only 3Vdc - 300 mA. This is lower than the Sony adapter of 5Vdc but in my experience lower is better if you are in testing mode.
Sure enough - it pumps out enough juice to charge my battery. These batteries are a bit touchy and if you have any problems with start-up, order yourself the Sony charger for a real charge. It seems the USB cord just doesn’t do it if the battery is too low.
Now - the system works as it should - - Whew! I’ve even got a 4 GB Card in the machine and it works great.
Totally satisfied.
BTW - I also have the Kindle. This Sony is far superior in looks - feel and just all around quality. The biggest advantage Kindle has is Amazon. I am continually frustrated to find books I like to order ALWAYS around 15 - 20% more for the Sony than the Kindle.
So far I have not bought ONE book for my Sony - but many for the Kiindle.
If Sony really wants to make this thing sing - they need to focus on content pricing and availability.
June 17th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
If you get a generic PSP (Playstation Portable) charger, it should work just fine. I got a non-brand-name charger from Target for half the price sony wanted for a PSP or PRS-505 charger.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I had to use both a PSP charger and the USB charger, in order to kickstart it to charge.
More people have the problem that the reader won’t boot when the battery is depleted.
in some cases the battery is so empty it just won’t charge.
In that case you could use the PSP charger and USB at the same time to kind of ‘overvolt’ the device to at least boot.
Some people successfully charged their reader with the AC though.
The problem also with USB charging is, that the OS needs to boot itself in USB charging mode (and display the USB charging icon), but does not have enough battery to do so.
June 17th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
What I’ve found is that if I let the PRS-505’s battery to get completely drained flat (which I normally try to avoid), if I just use my PSP charger, it will eventually charge the battery enough so it will come back; you might have to be patient and wait for a while, though.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Hi all - particularly ProDigit and tytso!
I can’t tell you folks how happy you have made me! I ALSO had the screen-freeze problem on my PRS-505. Having been a long-term book addict and having bought the Sony Reader with much trepidation(”it can’t POSSIBLY have that wonderful ‘book’ feel!”), but I absolutely fell in love with it. The joy of being able to take masses of books with me wherever I go (to buy loads MORE books without the fear of there being a cave-in from the weight in the upstairs rooms!). I have absolutely loved the 505, and to suddenly have it go kaput on me was devastating. All your advice re charging has got me back on track though (the Reset thing didn’t work for me either), and I can’t thank you enough :o)
I bought mine in Jan 09, but one of the weird things I’ve noticed is mine has never done a ‘clean’ USB disconnect even straight out of the box - it just hangs. It’s nothing I’ve done improperly because I also always have to follow instructions to the letter, and pored over the instructions when it arrived (*have sympathy for my husband when he’s building flat-pack furniture!). When it arrived and I’d charged and then sync’d my first books, I’d done a disconnect and then left it for hours with no status change until I finally risked pulling the USB cable (at this point, the scene looked like ‘cut-the-red-wire’ in a bomb disposal film as I waited for it to blow up!). It was fine, but I always have the same scenario (even when I sync new books: eBook Library or Adobe Digital Editions concludes the sync but not my 505) - when I pull the USB there’s a heart stopping ‘OMG, what’s it doing now?’ moment before it normally sorts itself out, but everytime it looks like it’s going to crash.
From reading your posts, I have bought an AC adaptor now to see if that will help things and avoid it getting it’s knickers-in-a-twist connecting to my PC just for charging. But are all these ‘quirks’ what everyone else has? I’m not onto using an SD card yet but have 135 books on my reader which I believe is pretty close to capacity for the reader itself. Would I be better putting in an SD card and transferring some books onto there?
Thanks again all of you - I had to survive three days with it frozen and I couldn’t do anything with it, and it nearly killed me :o)
July 1st, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Ani -
I had the same problem with my 505 when I first got it. I called Sony Support at 877-263-2863. The problem is some sort of corrupted file and they walked me thru cleaning it up.