Please have pity on an ignoramus (very long)

[ziegl027]

I’ve been lurking here for a while and find myself almost ready to “pull the trigger” on a purchase (well, on a very pointed, specific addition to my Christmas wish list). But I have a few questions. I’ve looked around here quite a bit, but honestly a lot of the threads (both questions and responses) are wayyy over my head. The terminology and issues are just too unfamiliar. When responding, please be patient with me and use very, very small words. Right now, in my naivite, I’m leaning toward one of the Sony Touch versions (Touch or upcoming Daily) or the rumored upcoming smaller Irex. I like the idea of the larger-format Irex devices, but the price is too rich for my blood. I like the large format of the Kindle DX, but I think there are too many hoops to jump to get it to do what I want (plus I think the button keyboard is dorky). I’ve been lurking long enough that I don’t have a lot of faith that the rumored Plastic Logic device will ever actually hit the market, and would rather go with a company with a track record anyway. And before anybody comments that I might be better off with a touchscreen “netbook”, I have one of those (a Fujitsu p1510D). It’s too heavy, too hot, and the battery life isn’t long enough for what I want it to do in this direction. Not to mention the eyestrain issues.

I have handled a Sony Touch demo unit and didn’t have an issue with screen contrast, it seemed to mechanically fit well in my hand, etc.

1) PDF files—I’ve seen some info suggesting the Sony does these quite acceptably. Others say it sucks. Still others say it’s fine if you manipulate the file in some way to optimize it. I do not now how to do this and have minimal interest in learning how. Most of what I will be reading is from sources like this. If anybody could give me a screen shot (this page links to a free content edition of the journal, so I don’t THINK copyright is an issue), I would be deeply grateful. Even better would be a few different ones (portrait vs. landscape, different magnifications, etc). Image display isn’t as important as you might think as long as the text displays in a readable fashion.

2) Taking notes—It is currently my habit to print out articles from journals to read, and to jot down notes in the margins. I tried this in the Sony demo, but couldn’t figure out how to ever see those notes again. The highlighted bits I tried seemed to work fine? I don’t necessarily need to save the notes forevermore (e.g. to print out or to e-mail to somebody), but when I look back at that article in a week or a month I need to have the notes. I know the first release of the Irex is not supposed to have note-taking ability, but they say that will come out as a firmware update. Does Irex have a reputation of living up to such promises?

3) Stylus—I know the Sony is basically a pointed stick and any similar object can be used. I understand that the Irex has some kind of unit-specific device. I tend to lose things. Anybody know how much that would be to replace? If it’s not a literal TOUCH screen, do you have to have that specific stylus to operate the thing at all, until you get a replacement? Or is there some method of limping along and still read?

4) File organization—again, largely PDF files, not books. Once I have an article on there, I need to be able to find it again. Ideally, I would want to file it under many different categories (e.g. “MRI”, “Equine Orthopedics”, “November Journal Club”). Subfolders would be great but I can survive without them.

5) Bookmarks—can you bookmark files (not books)? Can you have more than one bookmark in a file or is it strictly a means of getting back to the last page you were on?

6) Ease of transfer—Can I hook the unit up to any (PC) computer and dump files onto it the way I can a jump drive? Or does there have to be some kind of reader software on the computer that it goes though? I’m a bit of a nomad at work, working on a variety of public stations. I want this to be as easy (or almost as easy) as selecting “print” and walking to the nearest networked printer. It would be a big fat drag if I had to dump files onto a jump drive, walk back to my private office (which is two floors up and technically in a different building from where I actually work), upload those files into a library program of some kind, then transfer them onto the device. Add some kind of conversion step in there and it’s probably a deal killer.

7) Random notes—it seems like the Sony can easily function as an electronic notepad to jot down a few things as they come along. Can those files be organized in any way into folders, or is it just a list. This isn’t a deal killer, it can’t be any worse than a literal pad of paper. Or the billions of little scraps of random paper I collect because I don’t have a pad with me.

8) Wireless—other than buying books while sitting in a coffeeshop, what’s in it for me? I’m sure I’ll do some recreational reading with the thing, but it’s not a problem to hook up to a computer to download books for me, even if it’s one specific computer that I need to go to (unlike the PDF issue). Also, does anyone know if the Sony Wireless for the Daily is “free” or if there is a monthly fee? I willing to pay a bit more upfront for the Daily for the larger screen (I think, I want to compare it side-by-side with the Touch first). But I don’t want to pay monthly for a service I’m unlikely to use. I understand the Irex wireless is free?

I’m sure I’ll come up with more stupid questions, bear with a poor ignorant soul!

[Superlucky]

I'll try to help on the questions that I know the answers to.

Originally Posted by ziegl027

1) PDF files—I’ve seen some info suggesting the Sony does these quite acceptably. Others say it sucks. Still others say it’s fine if you manipulate the file in some way to optimize it. I do not now how to do this and have minimal interest in learning how. Most of what I will be reading is from sources like this. If anybody could give me a screen shot (this page links to a free content edition of the journal, so I don’t THINK copyright is an issue), I would be deeply grateful. Even better would be a few different ones (portrait vs. landscape, different magnifications, etc). Image display isn’t as important as you might think as long as the text displays in a readable fashion.

I have a 505, but if you like I will try and do this for you later. Sony does some PDFs great, others terrible. It depends entirely upon the PDF.

Originally Posted by ziegl027

4) File organization—again, largely PDF files, not books. Once I have an article on there, I need to be able to find it again. Ideally, I would want to file it under many different categories (e.g. “MRI”, “Equine Orthopedics”, “November Journal Club”). Subfolders would be great but I can survive without them.

My answer is based on the Sony Reader:

I highly recommend that you download and use calibre. It was created by one of our members and it is far superior to Sony's software. Calibre will allow you to add tags to each file. When those files go on your reader they will show up in collections based on the tags. For example, a file with the tag "Equine Orthopedics" and "MRI" will show up in collections labeled "Equine Orthopedics" and "MRI". I don't think there's a limit to the number of tags you can put on a file.

Originally Posted by ziegl027

5) Bookmarks—can you bookmark files (not books)? Can you have more than one bookmark in a file or is it strictly a means of getting back to the last page you were on?

Again, on a Sony, you can put as many bookmarks as you like in a file. The Reader "sees" everything as a book - it treats every file type the same. It will automatically keep track of where you left off, so bookmarks are used to mark other things.

Originally Posted by ziegl027

6) Ease of transfer—Can I hook the unit up to any (PC) computer and dump files onto it the way I can a jump drive? Or does there have to be some kind of reader software on the computer that it goes though? I’m a bit of a nomad at work, working on a variety of public stations. I want this to be as easy (or almost as easy) as selecting “print” and walking to the nearest networked printer. It would be a big fat drag if I had to dump files onto a jump drive, walk back to my private office (which is two floors up and technically in a different building from where I actually work), upload those files into a library program of some kind, then transfer them onto the device. Add some kind of conversion step in there and it’s probably a deal killer.

When I use an SD card I can just dump the files on it and then put the card in my Reader. You can also use a cable to put the files directly onto the device, but there's one problem: unless you use calibre you don't get the tags, so you'll have to hunt for the files by their titles or authors. The Reader will get this information from the PDF properties.



Hope that helped a little. Very good questions.

[tigriss7]

I've been on the fence about a Sony touch as well compared to the DX since the DX has issues with .pdf files. I really like the features of the touch. Ziegl027 hit all of my points on the head. Thanks for that. I have Calibre downloaded and just downloaded the Sony software from Borders to view the library at Borders to compare prices of their ebooks; I think as it hasn't finished loading then updating. I shall see what it does. All the different formats, especially the finickie Amazon DRM format ruffles my feathers. I don't like monopolized formats. The last time I checked books were all one format for all people to enjoy and they are all differently priced, yet they still sale, so why can't Amazon do that with their ebooks. They do appear to be little ebook dictators. Ok the Sony book store is powered by Borders, so the software I downloaded is what comes with the ereader. Now I can play with that a bit. Oh well. At least I now have those dots connected.

[ziegl027]

Thanks so much!

Now I'm on the fence about whether I should go back and look at the Kindle DX. If I have to run the PDF's through a conversion to get them display well, anyway, I may as well so and get them to show up on a display that's close to a printout in size. I had discounted the DX since to make annotations one has to convert the file. It's not like I HAVE to make annotations by hand in margins, usually I'm just underlining something and jotting down a word or two. For which the button keyboard should suffice. I still think it looks dorky, though.

Sigh.

[orion2001]

Hi there,

If you are looking to read academic journal articles, I wouldn't look to the Sony readers for that. They are quite good with PDFs that are either formatted for ebooks, or those which consist predominantly of text (so they can reflow the text at higher magnifications). Academic journal formatting does not lend itself to reflow, and you probably won't be able to read figure legends, etc on the Sony readers.

If you are primarily interested in reading pdf journal articles, you would definitely have to look into the Iliad or the DX. From what I have read it seems that there isn't yet any device that does a great job when it comes to managing all your journal articles, etc.

[Superlucky]

ziegl, can you PM me the PDF you linked as an example? I'm curious and when I follow the link I get a cookie error, despite the fact that my browser is allowing cookies.

[ziegl027]

Originally Posted by orion2001

you would definitely have to look into the Iliad or the DX.

Maybe I'll wait and see how the new IRex reader shakes out....Well, my B-day is in June and there's always next Christmas. Maybe the Plastic Logic reader will be out by then (and maybe pigs will fly).

The whole situation aggravates the you-know-what outta me. It's not like readers are spectacularly NEW, or that there isn't a market for people who are reading academic journal PDF's--probably anybody who owns a reader knows at least one person who is an academic professional, a grad student, whatever. And it isn't like something that can do academic journal PDF's can't do recreational reading. So why don't the &^$# reader developers fix this problem? Why don't the journal publishers use files that are more amenable to the readers?

[HarryT]

The basic problem is that a device which can display journal-sized PDF files well is just too big to make a convenient, "go anywhere", fiction reader. You need at least an 8", and preferably a 10" screen, to be able to read typical academic papers well, and that makes a big device. The best "portable" readers are the size of paperback books, because that's a size that is convenient to take with you.

[Superlucky]

Okay, here's how your sample looked on a PRS-505 (please excuse my lack of photography skill). It looked okay, but I think too small. Enlarging the text worked just fine. Overall not bad.

[ziegl027]

Thanks so much! This is a tremendous help to me. Just to be clear, you just dumped the file on there, as-is? The "med" images were just using the controls on the device, using the original file? Or did you manipulate it with Calibre?

This makes the Touch or the Daily look quite promising to me. I know on the med screen shots you are showing, the justifaction is wonky, but it honestly didn't bug me that much. I wonder, too, if I could use the Touch's zoom function to get a whole column at a shot, if that makes sense (although you can't take notes in Zoom, maybe? --off to the Sony board)....

I may have lower standards than some, the screen contrast seemed fine to me on the Touch, and I know a lot of people consider it entirely unacceptable.

[orion2001]

Wow, that actually does look a lot better than I expected. Nice work Superlucky! Also, I'd like to mention that there are some tools out there that will help you a bit with improving the PDF experience. You can use SoPDF to remove all extra margins on the sides and top and bottom of a PDF. This helps you get larger font sizes as you don't waste extra screen space on the margins.

In addition, you could play around with Papercrop which actually seems like a really neat tool for extracting single column text out of a multicolumn paper.

All in all, if you are happy with the pics Superlucky posted, and you are willing to do a bit of automated postprocessing on your papers, I think you can have a pretty decent experience with the Sony readers.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by ziegl027

Thanks so much! This is a tremendous help to me. Just to be clear, you just dumped the file on there, as-is? The "med" images were just using the controls on the device, using the original file? Or did you manipulate it with Calibre?

You're quite welcome. I did not do anything to the original file. I used the button on the device to change the font size and the orientation. Page turns were a tad sluggish, but not horrible.

Just to be clear, calibre can't manipulate pdf's. For that you need different software, such as those that have been mentioned or Acrobat.

[brecklundin]

just a reminder question to ask...not all PDF's can be edited, right? If the author chooses to lock the PDF file even if you are using Acrobat the file cannot be altered w/o the password? At least that is my understanding on how PDF creation and editing functions.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

just a reminder question to ask...not all PDF's can be edited, right? If the author chooses to lock the PDF file even if you are using Acrobat the file cannot be altered w/o the password? At least that is my understanding on how PDF creation and editing functions.

True. The file provided by ziegl027 did not have any security, so if it it is representative then it shouldn't be a problem. That particular file didn't really need any editing, IMHO.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Superlucky

True. The file provided by ziegl027 did not have any security, so if it it is representative then it shouldn't be a problem. That particular file didn't really need any editing, IMHO.

Thanks...I just wanted to be certain and the OP had that in mind when pondering PDF's. Odds are a lot of people are unaware that PDF's can, and are often, locked with a password but their authors. I have found it common on papers released into the wild even if they are free. Anyway, this way the OP won't assume any PDF can be easily manipulated just because it's not a scanned.

BTW, your shots of the PDF do a great job of showing what some PDF's can look like...