I recently got a $100 Amazon gift card for completing a survey. I was planning to get a reader for a while. Checked amazon for Kindle. Not available any time soon. Read reviews of Sony Reader. Reviews said PRS 500 series were good and many people didn’t like the new PRS 700 because by adding the touch screen feature the reader became less book like. I don’t have another reader. But I decided to go with PRS 700 because it supports the new Adobe format and a lot more built in capacity.
Un-boxing is done and it is now charging. While it is being charged, I am using the e-Book library software to get those 100 free classics. This is a terrible piece of software, I have to give it a zero stars if there is anything like it. I still don’t know how the hardware is. I will add it to this post after I use it for a while.
I created my account and got my credit for 100 classic books, no problem. Then I went to the store. Clicked on categories and then clicked on e-Book store classics. Then clicked on one of the subjects. This lists the books. By default it lists 10 books per page so changed it to 100 books per page. It took a while to refresh the page. I almost decided to kill the application when it was not responding. I clicked on buy now button (option available in the preferences). I hoped this will keep me on the same list. It asked me if I am sure about buying this title and I said yes. Then I got a confirmation saying it was added to my library. After clicking ok, it takes me back to the home page. I start all over. Once it completely stopped responding and had terminate from task manager.
Verdict on e-Book Library. Terrible. If there is a reason not to buy Sony Reader this would be it. If Sony want to succeed, they need to get some good software developers. The whole thing felt like pieces of software installed on a Vaio laptop I had in 2002.
More on the Reader itself later…
Update 06/14/2009
If you have a Sony PRS 700 e-book reader, here are few things you need to know.
Pretty much all new books you must buy from the Sony ebook store.
There are about half a million free classic books available there. This is a partnership between Sony and Google. These books are public domain and good read for anyone who likes classic books. Not sure if you need a reader but definitely you need to download the lousy Sony software.
There is no support for multiple users. If you share the reader with other family members and are reading the same book at the same time, you need to remember where you left off. I am not sure if other readers support this feature. But you can read your purchased books on the computer and it retains the book and page for you.
You won’t be able to read clearly without the back light if there is not enough lighting in the room and the back light kills the battery life. Even when there is enough lighting, you are better off turning on that back light because the surface reflects too much. I don’t want to say this but something like OQO Model 2+ can do everything that be done by this device plus more. Sony need to work on getting this device back to purely e-ink without wasting energy and causing strain on the eye from that back light. If the device effectively has more emission than an OLED screen, then it cannot be considered a true e-book reader.
If you connect the reader to the computer when the computer is on, make sure you turn off the reader manually when you turn off the computer. The reader gets switched on when you turn on the computer. You may not notice this if you are not reading a book on the reader. You have probably connected it to the computer to charge it. Now when you turn off the computer, the reader stays on and drains the battery. Next time you open the reader, it may not come to life unless you connect it to a charger and charge it for a while.
Reading a PDF is not a pleasant experience. The fonts were too small. I could zoom but then the content goes beyond the edges.