Reconsidering Cybook vs. Sony Reader

[dcalder]

I'd originally decided on a Cybook - better variety of document type support (esp. Mobipocket), no proprietary format, no "we don't want your business" barriers for non-U.S. citizens to overcome - but, while I've been waiting impatiently for NAEB to clear all the annoying red tape so that they can start accepting orders, I've been reading posts and starting to reconsider. If I were to buy the Sony PRS-550 from BH Photo, it would be almost a hundred bucks cheaper than even NAEB's deal for the Cybook. The difference of the cost of an SD card (since the Sony apparently doesn't come with one) is negligible, given the prices that I can pick them up for on sale locally.

For those who've got the Sony and who've used an eBookwise 1150 (or similar), is converting eBooks for the Sony more or less of a hassle than doing so for the eBookwise? How well does it handle conversion of HTML? I read a fair amount of online, self-published fiction and fanfiction, most of it chaptered and including a linked Table of Contents (courtesy of the eFiction website script) and the eBookwise Librarian handles it quite nicely. Would the Cybook handle that better than the Sony? I mainly buy through ebookwise.com and stick to the multi-format books, so past purchases shouldn't be an issue either way.

How well does either the Cybook or the Sony fit in a purse? Other than the occasional eyestrain issue with prolonged periods of reading the 1150 in bright direct sunlight, my biggest gripe about it is that it's just enough bigger than a (normal sized) paperback to require a really big purse to take it along.

As for what I read: sci-fi and fantasy mainly, with a smattering of romance and action thrown into the mix. So far, my ebook purchases have mainly been multi-format from ebookwise, though I've got a handful of PDFs that I read on the laptop. My occasional nostalgic forays into the classics (Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, etc.) are, I think, a moot point as I can get them here or directly from Project Gutenberg and other sources in convert to just about any format imaginable. I read a lot of HTML-published fiction, as mentioned before, and it would be nice (thought not a must) to be able to read manga scanlations on something other than the laptop.

I'd love to be able to take advantage of the local library's ebook loans through Overdrive; if anyone can confirm that either the Cybook or Sony actually works with that setup, then that might be the dealmaker right there.

I'm steering clear of the iLiad for two reasons: (1) cost, and (2) size. As far as I can tell, it's actually bigger than my eBookwise 1150. That might be fine to use at home, but it's just too darn big to be convenient to carry around. As long as the reader has a comparable overall size and font size to a standard paperback, I'll be happy. I'm not too terribly concerned about font size, as I run my laptop resolution at 1280x800 with normal (not large) font size and would run it at an even higher resolution if it would go there.

In many ways, the Panasonic Word Gears looks like a darn good fit for me - if only it were actually available in Canada.

[mrsp]

Not wishing to highjack your post dcalder but I have been thinking the same as you so would like to hear the answer.

Also, if you buy a sony reader from BH Photo and you live outside the US, will they handle warranty claims and repairs for you? I've noticed that if you send your reader direct to Sony, people have said they won't send it back to you if you are outside the US. To me this is a deal breaker seeing that a number of people seem to be having screen problems. However, if you could send it to BH and they sent to Sony and back to you then it would be truly excellent.

Even though Cybook will deal with non-US residents, they are charging a hefty price and there are people who got readers in the first shipment who are already having warranty problems and who aren't getting answers from support. My own experience of bookeen's customer service was lacking....actually nonexistent because they didn't even reply to my question...

[JSWolf]

Conversion for the 505 has libprs500 and Book Designer available. Both can do some very good format conversions. I've used both to convert a number of files and they have come out quite nice. You can even purchase LIT format books and use lit2lrf to convert once you have stripped the DRM with ConvertLIT for a DRM free reading experience. But to be honest, most average books with no special formatting can be converted quite easily. One of the books I am reading now is one I converted from MS Reader format (I bought it legally) and used Book Designer to convert to LRF. I have taken a number of books from PG and converted them be it in text or HTML. Sometimes I do use Word to clean up the text first and maybe change the quotes and apostrophes. But overall, once you get the hang of converting, it's very easy.

[dcalder]

I think that maybe, for non-U.S. buyers, the biggest issue is actually that of the Sony warranty in case of problems. BH makes it clear that warranty is strictly between the buyer and the manufacturer - no special offers of extended/alternate warranties seem to be available. I do have friends & relatives in the U.S., so I suppose that I could perhaps get one of them to handle things for me if I had to send it in under warranty... Though, frankly, the warranty on the Sony pretty much sucks anyway, so maybe it's no great loss as long as the Reader is thoroughly tested during the 15-days that BH would take it for return/exchange as defective merchandise. (90 days limited warranty and a year on parts? Gimme a break; my Pentax Digital SLR had a better warranty than that before I got the extra from Black's Photo. Heck, the iPod Shuffle that we gave my mom for her birthday has a better warranty - 2 years replacement - from Staples at a cost of a measly $9. Sony appears to be trying to match HP for lousy warranties. At least they aren't counting days from date of manufacture - yet.)

Hmm... after much digging around the Bookeen site, I have no idea what the warranty on the Cybook is like. All Bookeen has to say about it is:

Article 8: Warranties and responsibility

You benefit from the legal warranty due to hidden defects.
The electronic products can have a manufacturer warranty indicated on the product description. In the case of a breakdown during the manufacturer warranty period, please consult the after-sales service manufacturer.
We decline any responsibility on the fact that the delivered product would not respect the legislation of the country of delivery.
We commit ourselves bringing the best service to the customer. Nevertheless, our responsibility could not be retained in the event of failure with our contractual obligations because of a fortuitous occurrence or of a case of absolute necessity as defined by the jurisprudence returned by the French jurisdictions.

Anybody who's got one want to check their documentation and see what the warranty is like? Warranty may actually be a moot point here...

<Edit> Okay, found another thread that pointed to the warranty info on the Bookeen site - silly me, I'd looked for it under the reader's specs, not in the shop. So, there's a year of warranty and shipping to Bookeen is at the owner's expense while they cover the return shipment. Not too bad but trackable shipping to France from Canada would run somewhere in the $50+ range, I suspect, so the Cybook warranty isn't exactly perfect either.</edit>

Much as I like the idea of the non-proprietary formats used by the Cybook, it really is a lot more expensive. The price for the package from NAEB is definitely better than what's on offer from Bookeen directly but it's still over $75 more than the Sony - considerably more than the cost of the memory card and USB wall adapter that the Sony doesn't include. Mobipocket would be nice but I'm not sure that it's quite that nice...

[JSWolf]

For the 500/505 you can get a PSP AC adapter and it will work fine as the 500/505 have the same power requirements as the PSP. So you can get a cheaper AC adapter then the one Sony is selling.

As for proprietary formats, any format with DRM is a proprietary format be it BBeB, MS Reader, eReader, Mobipocket, Adobe PDF, AZW, and any others I may have missed.

[Astropin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For the 500/505 you can get a PSP AC adapter and it will work fine as the 500/505 have the same power requirements as the PSP. So you can get a cheaper AC adapter then the one Sony is selling.

Sweet....I already own a PSP.

[caeebe]

Originally Posted by dcalder

I'd love to be able to take advantage of the local library's ebook loans through Overdrive; if anyone can confirm that either the Cybook or Sony actually works with that setup, then that might be the dealmaker right there.

I'd like to emphasize this question as I already do most of my reading through my library's Overdrive program (even without owning an ebook device yet). I just don't have the money to buy 2-4 books per week AND buy an ebook device so I need a cheap/free place to get all my books.

Thanks

[HarryT]

It may not be the same stuff you're reading at the moment, of course, but there is enough material in the public domain to keep you going for several lifetimes. That's all "free".

I'm afraid, though, that generally speaking, eBooks are not "free". They are moderately priced, but not free.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by caeebe

I'd like to emphasize this question as I already do most of my reading through my library's Overdrive program (even without owning an ebook device yet).

The PRS-505 might be able to read Adobe library e-books when it is upgraded with Adobe Digital Editions. It is my understanding that the Cybook already supports MobiPocket library e-books, although there were (are?) issues with the clock (library e-books are authorized for 2 weeks), see Mobipocket sync fix. If no one confirms Cybook support here, you may want to repost in the Cybook forum.

[igorsk]

No, the Digital Editions ebooks still have DRM and Reader won't read them.

[wallcraft]

Has Sony said one way or the other whether Adobe Digital Editions on the PRS-505 will support DRM?

Adobe's DRM maze is so complicated I'm not even sure that the Windows Digital Editions supports Adobe library e-books, but it has to do so at some point since we can't keep Adobe PDF Reader version 6 around forever just to read e-books.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Has Sony said one way or the other whether Adobe Digital Editions on the PRS-505 will support DRM?

Adobe's DRM maze is so complicated I'm not even sure that the Windows Digital Editions supports Adobe library e-books, but it has to do so at some point since we can't keep Adobe PDF Reader version 6 around forever just to read e-books.

Give it a try. I believe DE does support the same DRM as was used on the older eBooks. While DE can read ePub books is the standard format it can also read PDF files and thus replaces this functionality that was removed in PDF readers.

Dale

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Has Sony said one way or the other whether Adobe Digital Editions on the PRS-505 will support DRM?

I don't think anybody knows enough detail about what Adobe will do with mobile DE (since they don't yet seem to know themselves) to really say what will and won't happen. But the impression I had from the Sony guy we talked to in the conference call is that they want to support some sort of DRM in DE, otherwise it wouldn't be all that useful.

Salt to taste.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The PRS-505 might be able to read Adobe library e-books when it is upgraded with Adobe Digital Editions. It is my understanding that the Cybook already supports MobiPocket library e-books, although there were (are?) issues with the clock (library e-books are authorized for 2 weeks), see Mobipocket sync fix. If no one confirms Cybook support here, you may want to repost in the Cybook forum.

Unfortunately the fix isn't really a fix. It's just a stopgap that doesn't work well. Basically, if you want to read library ebooks, you'll need either an iLiad (I have not hear they won't work) or a Windows based computer. The problem is that the Gen3 doesn't have a proper clock built in. So when you turn it off, it loses the time/date that it was set to via the fix. I am surprised that Bookeen does not have a clock. That was a rather bad idea given the library mobi format ebooks. You by the Gen3 thinking you can read them and you cannot.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that the Gen3 doesn't have a proper clock built in. So when you turn it off, it loses the time/date that it was set to via the fix. I am surprised that Bookeen does not have a clock. That was a rather bad idea given the library mobi format ebooks. You by the Gen3 thinking you can read them and you cannot.

It'll work OK on the Gen3 as long as you DON'T switch it off. The battery lasts about 4-5 days that way, which is fine for many people.