well, I know a lot of you have e-readers, so a plea! My Sony E-reader appears to have crashed good and proper. Luckily everything on it is on an SD card. I've reset it countless times, waited for the battery to run flat, you name it. I've trawled the web for solutions, but everything seems to say to reset it and that hasn't worked. It's really handy for my uni reading, I can't print out 100 papers and don't want to carry my laptop everywhere. It's really cluttering my mind right now! It's quite old, I probably can't send it back to Sony. So, any solutions before I ditch it? Also, what shall I get instead? My dh has a Kindle but I don't want to share. I don't want another Sony after this, but the SD card slot is really handy for academic work, I like to be able to transfer stuff between the e-reader and laptop when needed, but without messing round trying to find cables all the time, and the Kindle doesn't appear to have this functionality. Any suggestions? I don't use it for reading proper books, just textbooks and PDFs, that's it. Thanks!
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Posted 1 year ago #
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What model do you have?
I have an old PRS-500, and it once appeared to die, no resets work, etc. I finally tried plugging it into my laptop with the USB cable and even that didn't work. I gave up in frustration and went to bed, but I didn't disconnect it form my laptop. The next morning it worked perfectly again and has worked fine ever since. I ended up giving this to my mom, and she still uses it.
I have a Kindle now, and I love it because I read a lot, but it doesn't have an SD card slot. The only way to transfer to the Kindle without a cable is to email it. I've done this a few times with PDF files for work that I don't want to print and it works great.
FWIW, I didn't buy another Sony Reader because I couldn't justify the cost differential. There was no way I was going to pay $400 for the Sony when I could get a refurbished Kindle for $109.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have A Nook and it has a MicroSD slot. I love it!
Posted 1 year ago # -
nws2002, I've tried plugging it in for ages, it charged the battery but still stayed crashed...
gypsie: I hate those stupid micro SD cards, not going to go there, not compatible with my laptop!
I'll have a look for a new one I think. The 650 looks OK but you're right, really expensive!
thanks for the suggestions :)Posted 1 year ago # -
What's wrong with reading ebooks on the laptop? That's what I do. I never saw the point of buying another unitasker device myself, especially since there's so many competing formats between them all. (Anyone remember reel to reel tape, Hi-8, or Betamax? :p)
MicroSD cards come with a regular sized SD card holder to use in a regular SD slot FWIW.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@hlg - the only problem with ready on a laptop (or any backlit screen) is that it can cause eye strain. An e-ink screen solves this issue for those of us who read a lot. The battery on an ebook reader also lasts forever (2 weeks for the Kindle). All in all it may be a unitasker, but its a very good one, kinda like the old saying "jack of all trades, master of none".
Posted 1 year ago # -
ah, didn't know that about micro SD cards, that may help, thanks hlg. And I don't call an e-reader a unitasker as they're loads lighter, easier to read and the battery lasts ages compared with a laptop. I really don't want to lug a laptop on my scooter/train commute to uni, but if I have an hour's travel I want to be able to read. I only use my e-reader for reading PDFs, so the format thing doesn't bother me at all, I just need one which doesn't totally trash the PDF in terms of legibility. I still read dead tree books for fun, it's just textbooks and research papers for the e-reader, but that is dead handy, and worth it just for the portability.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Have you considered one of the little netbooks? Not nearly as bulky/heavy as a full-sized laptop, cheap, Adobe Reader for pdfs is free, and still a bit less unitasky. You could even download e-reader software.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've always thought that people think of e-readers wrong. They aren't an electronic unitasker that you get instead of a netbook. They are a BOOK replacement, yeah, all those things taking up all that room on those shelves, those are unitaskers.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have a Kindle2. I have had it two weeks short of one year. It has been amazing! A life-long book lover I was afraid reading on the Kindle would not be the same-but I am totally hooked! It is amazing. So easy to hold, so light! And takes up the space of one book but holds thousands! I have a small back-pack that is my "purse" of sorts. There is a cushiony pocket just for my Kindle and a zippered pocket holds the cord. I always know where it is and it is a snap to transfer pdf's to the Kindle from my PC. I recently got some free software so I could convert my Word docs into PDF's so I could put on my Kindle. I keep all kinds of information on there.
When I leave the house my backpack always goes with me. I am carrying my entire library wherever I go! Multiple Bible versions, non-fiction of all kinds and fiction....whatever I am in the mood for there it is! There are so many free books and I am not just talking about public domain classics either. New modern books are constantly being put out for free for a limited time.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Also, for those afraid of losing their DRM protected books. There are MANY tools out there to strip the DRM off of both Amazon and B&N books. It most locations (like the U.S.) such a practice is in a grey area of the law, but it can easily be done.
Also, I have always expected to see the book market become DRM-free much like the music market has.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Kamazaki "Also, for those afraid of losing their DRM protected books"
Is this when Amazon wiped out books that people had paid for? If not, what does it mean.
Don't know much about the technicalities of these yet, as I love reading and we all swop books around all the time for free, but I am thinking I could use it for reading in bed when I am awake in the night and DH isn't, and I don't want to put a light on. And I might get to like it enough to get rid of some of my collection of books.
At the moment I play sudoku on my i-phone, and the light from that doesn't disturb him. And it quickly bores me back to sleep.
On the other hand, I don't think it will be recommended for reading in the bath. Lots of my paperbacks get a bit 'swollen' after time in the steam and the occasional dunk.
Posted 1 year ago # -
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and one of its functions is to keep you from putting one company's files onto another company's device. In the case of e-readers it is the reason that you can't put Amazon books on a Nook and B&N books on a Kindle. It also prevents you from making and distributing copies of the files. This doesn't seem so bad, but what this also means is that let's say that Amazon dies tomorrow. All the books you bought from Amazon will be worthless if/when your Kindle dies. This is of course a worst case scenario and I don't believe for a second it would happen anytime soon, but it could. To give a decent analogy think of the digital book you buy as a real book, now put that book in a box and lock it shut. The box and the lock is the DRM around the book. When I say you can strip the DRM from the files (remember, legally gray area) you basically are just taking the book out of the box so you can do whatever you want with it.
Also, I don't know if you are slightly confused or if I am misunderstanding you. But the Kindle/Nook don't have backlights, so to read them at night you will have to have some form of exterior light just like you do with a normal book. This was done to more closely replicate the look of a normal book and it does a great job, but it does make it slightly more of a hassle to read at night. Also, I have read my Kindle at the pool, since I don't have to turn the page I sealed it inside of a gallon Zip-Loc plastic bag (the clearest ones I could find) and it seemed to work just fine.
Posted 1 year ago # -
DRM is also why you can't put things from iTunes onto an MP3 player. I do my kindle reading on my iPad, and while I haven't tried it in bed, it was great on a dark airplane...
Posted 1 year ago # -
iTunes has removed DRM from their songs in the past few months (can't remember exact date!) and amazon mp3 doesn't have DRM either.
I'd also recommend against using an ereader near a pool or other water as many have a strip inside (similiar to those in cell phones) which can show they've been exposed to moisture and it often voids your warranty.
Posted 1 year ago # -
ah, good to know. I've not bought anything from iTunes lately as I've been busy putting my own CDs on.... I did know about Amazon.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Yeah there was a big move to DRM-free music probably about a year ago.
I would expect something similar in the e-book market once the market matures a bit.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My ebooks with DRM are linked to two PDAs; one dead, one now unusable because the software that links it to my PC won't run on a Win7 computer. A fair bit of money lost.
I intend to find pirated files for those books, or crack them myself, dangnabit. DRM is a cheat.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Kamakazi "I don't know if you are slightly confused or if I am misunderstanding you"
You are not confused, I said I was ignorant about the e-readers. I know they say they aren't back-lit, but it never dawned on my tiny brain that means that in the dark, they are dark.
My friend who has recently bought a new e-reader was talking about the different makes, but didn't mention Kindle. As it's about the only one I'd heard of, I asked her if she had considered it, and she said she wouldn't touch it because they had removed the downloads previously, which was why I asked if you thought that might happen again.
I have got the Kindle app on my i-Phone, but I think I have to have a Kindle itself before I can download any of the free books, as they are asking for a registration number. If anyone knows otherwise, please tell me.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Zora - try the Calibre E-book Management software. http://calibre-ebook.com/ Its awesome for converting formats as well as managing your books.
Posted 1 year ago #
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