Those of you considering upgrading their E-Readers (or those that bought new and have relegated your old E-Reader to the closet) may want to check out Sony’s highly-regarded PRS-T1 “Reader WiFi”. Sony just reduced the price to $129 (from $149) and is also running a trade-in program that could get you a $50 Sony Gift Card. My Amazon Kindle 2 qualified for the trade-in even without including the charger which I kept for use with my new Kindle Touch.
While the Sony won’t display Amazon’s proprietary E-Books they have their own book store and it appears that an Open Source package called Calibre will allow many other formats to be imported (I read conflicting reports of success/failure converting Barnes & Noble’s to the Sony device). Of course, with Sony’s own bookstore holding over two-million books that might not be necessary. The Sony Reader is also compatible with most major library lending services.
At $79 ($129 – $50) the Sony Reader PRS-T1 appears to be an excellent value.
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I suspect the difference between ‘conversion works’ and ‘can’t convert’ in the B&N -> Sony translation is whether you are trying to convert books with DRM from B&N’s store. They use the same base format (ePub), so the only likely limitation is the DRM. (Which no conversion program will be able to help with – unless they strip the DRM, which is technically illegal.)
yeah, DRM and broken promises are the reasons I’ve abandoned Sony. I’ve had way too many problems with it from them. and promises to fix critical flaws in their products that never get fixed.
Sony GPS (with lifetime map updates) $1000 – Never got an update, and maps were out of date in my area from get go. Life time I guess ment the life they wanted to support, not the life I owned it.
Sony DVD Player $400 (yes long ago) – Refused to play Sony DVD’s with Copy protection
Sony Clie (palm pilot) and car dock with text to voice – $1000+ – Sony released update to Clie, that permanently broke the ability to use the car dock, Promised fix never came.
My final Sony Purchase was a 40″ Sony LCD HDTV. $2800 (again awhile ago). HDMI will not function with DRM products. (like the SONY PS3). I get a nice red lock screen, telling me to contact Sony support, or to use a licensed HDMI product. Sonys Response “We are aware of the problem, the solution is to use a non-hdmi cable to connect affected products”.
so pretty much anytime I hear something from Sony now days about them adding functionality or fixing something on a product I take with a few trucks of Salt.
I don’t think blaming Sony for the DRM in this case is fair. *Both* B&N and Sony support Adobe DRM. I just suspect that B&N may use something else for their own books, if people are having trouble. In which case, *they* are the one making it hard for you to move your books.
There may be other reasons to avoid Sony, but in this case I don’t think the blame is theirs.
And everyone seems to forget that Kindle and iBooks books also have DRM…
I don’t forget – it’s why I avoid them. (Kindle manages to have the double problem of proprietary DRM and a proprietary format. iBooks are ePub in proprietary DRM.)
There are lots of good ebooks available (legally, and for purchase) without DRM in open formats. Sony’s, B&N’s, and most other third-party ebook readers will work just fine with them. (The Kindle will too, but it tends to be through Amazon, and you have to convert to their format.)