Showing posts with label Sony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sony. Show all posts

Monday, January 25, 2010

ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR eREADER - OCCASIONAL SERIES - COVERS AND CASES

There is a bewildering range of accessories that you can buy for your eReader online, so I thought I should have a snuffle around and collect as wide a range of them and their suppliers for you as I could and post them in an occasional series of reviews and links.

I shall concentrate on companies who make their own accessories as the ones supplied by the makers of eReaders are obviously sold by the same sites and shops who will sell you the eReader, and thus easy to find.

This is a post which will grow over time as I add covers and bags that I come across in my wanderings through the net.

COVERS AND CASES:
Even if you have a cover for your eReader, it can still get very dirty and scuffed if it lives for a lot of its life (as mine does) at the bottom of a rucksack or similar, so some sort of custom made closed case is perhaps not too much of a luxury to protect your expensive eReader.  Of course you could simply wrap it in a small plastic bag, but the things I shall now be looking at are rather more fun.

To get to the companies below, simply click  on the company name, they are links to them.

These people make a range of bags in bright and cheerful colours for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and  Sony eReaders.  They are made from tough materials and there are basically two types, the first being simply a made to measure bag for your eReader, the second having a transparent front, so you can use your eReader while it is in its bag - probably useful if you want to read in the rain.
price: about 30 US Dollars




Playcom have a wide range of eReader accessories on offer, including several cases with transparent fronts, so once again you can use your eReader in its case. They seem to only have cases and other accessories for Sony products, but they sell a good wide range of these things.

price: about 26 British Pounds





This is a truly extraordinary case for the smaller Kindles from Amazon, it is completely water-proof (to 1 meter) and is so constructed that you can happily read your Kindle while swimming.  Apparently you can even read it in the water "hands free" as it floats upright.  It is a rather beautiful object in itself and comes in a cheerful range of colours.
It is also unsinkable (more so than the Titanic I hope!) as it has three built in buoyancy chambers.
Fun thing for he who has everything.

price: not yet known as it will become available this coming Spring.

  
 
They also make a range of very solid covers for the 6" Kindle eReaders, these are more like wallets as they have a closing flap.  I can do no better than to quote from their website here.
  • Precision construction and craftsmanship make the genuine patent leather Icon jacket a must have for on-the-go Kindle readers who don't want to sacrifice style for functionality.
  • The jacket's interior is made of lush grey microsuede and includes a side pocket for storage of papers as well as a smaller business card pocket and pen loop. A detachable wristlet strap allows for easy and stylish on-the-go carrying.
  • Kindle is held in place via a sturdy four-point mounting system made of the exterior patent leather. The front flap closes securely as well as folds back for easy reading via a hidden magnetic closure.
  • Compatible with M-Edge's e-Luminator2 booklight (sold separately)
         price around 35 US Dollars
    Source M-EDGE:



     Proporta produce among other eReader accessories, a range of cover/bags which will fit most eReaders which are quite impressive.   As with the M-EDGE products, I shall quote from their website, as they give a good and concise description of their products there.

    Their description of this product:
    Handcrafted from the finest quality faux leather, the beautiful Leather Style Universal Reader Case is designed to work with a range of eReaders measuring up to 134mm x 190mm x 18mm. The luxury lining will keep your device cocooned away from all the nasty little surprises that life has in store, and the button fastener prevents accidental opening. Finished with a striking green lining and a diagonal stripe with contrast overstitching, this case is as stylish as it is robust, and even has a special pocket for holding spare memory cards.
    price: about 15 British Pounds.
     
    Source: Proporta




    These people make a range of covers and bags that will fit a variety of eReaders and they come in a cheerful range of colours too, which I like.

    Basically they have bags to keep your eReader clean and unscratched while it is knocking around in the bottom of your bag or under the sofa in you house.  These are simply cloth bags, which you zip open and shut.  They also have a zipped pocket on the outside to keep papers and possibly a slim pen or two, handy I feel.

    Their eReader covers are impressive looking bits of kit, which seem to be adjustable to fit a wide range of eReaders, and have a pocket on the inside in which one can store papers... money for the bus and so on.

    Another rather pleasing range they have are slip on covers for eReaders.   These are simply fabric or neoprene bags with draw string closing, into which you stuff your eReader.  These come in an amazing range of technicolor tints and patterns, quite overwhelmingly colourful.... but fun!

    AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!
     

    They have gone yet another step, which I will report upon, even though it doesn't come under the heading of this post...... They offer brightly patterned decals (transfers for the English) to stick onto your eReader, simply to cheer it up....  Nice idea.
    prices vary from about 10 US Dollars too 40 US Dollars, and they can all be bought at Amazon.

    Well, this is a start, I shall be coming back to this post regularly and updating it as I come across other covers for our eReaders, so return and keep an eye on this post, it will grow!!!!!!! 

    SHARE WITH US:
    If you have come across a company who produce and sell  any accessories for eReaders, please do contact me so we can let the rest of the world know about your discovery.

    Tuesday, January 12, 2010

    SONY eREADERS FORMAT INFORMATION

    All the Sony eReaders support all the main eBook formats which I find an important plus about the eReaders from Sony, as it gives one a very wide choice of places to find books, unlike, for example the eReaders from Amazon, which only accept the proprietary format that Amazon have developed for their Kindle range of eReaders.
    I have also used Adobe PDF files on this eReader and find that they work very well and seem to flow well, even when one changes the font size.

    DRM Text (copy protected): 
    • BBeB Book (Marlin)
    • ePub
    Unsecured Text:

    • BBeB
    • ePub
    • TXT
    • RTF
    • Adobe PDF
    • MS Word (with MS Word installed on computer to convert for reader)
    Images:
    • JPEG
    • GIF
    • PNG
    • BMP
    Unsecured Audio:
    • MP3
    • AAC




    Sunday, January 10, 2010

    eREADER SONY PRS-505








    SONY PRS-505 eREADER


    The eReader which started me on my present hobby of hunting books all over the internet is the Sony PRS-505, a very basic piece of equipment, but to be honest, having tried out more recent and complex readers I find it perfectly satisfactory if all one wishes to do is to build up one's library and to read books on it, which is really all one would normally wish to be able to do.

    This is obviously not enough for the fervent margin note writers among us, but it is OK for me.

    Apart from a very easy to use system for organising the books stored in it (see below for a full set of technical specifications) the only extras it has are the following:

    • One can dog ear pages for later reference.
    • It is possible to store and view images in it, but frankly as it is only 8 grey tones, I rather fail to see the point of this.
    • MP3 files can be played, which means that audio books are possible, but I have found this uses a lot of power, so it becomes necessary to recharge the battery rather frequently.

    Ease of use:

    I find it incredibly easy to use in every situation I have used it in so far, ranging from sitting in a crowded Jeepney to sitting comfortably in a cafe.  it has two sets of page changing buttons, one on the side, the other below the screen, so it is possible to use either hand to change pages, which I find a very useful function.

    The ability to choose three different font sizes meets my needs very well, from the relatively tiny "small" setting, to the impressively big "large" setting.  This works faultlessly and very rapidly too.  Personally I play with this setting quite a lot, depending on how much light there is, as in poor lighting situations the smallest size can be tricky to read..... But than I am ancient, so rather need this help from my trusty eReader!

    I was enchanted by the way it remembers the page I was reading in any book when I switch it on again.  A simple but beautiful ability, which with "real" books I can only do by the barbaric means of the dog ear.

    Mine came complete with a simple but effective cover, which I can seriously recommend for any type of eReader as they tend to get knocked around rather a lot, or at least mine does, living as it does in the bottom of my rather over full rucksack whenever I go out with it, or falling from my nerveless fingers when I go to sleep reading it.  I am vastly impressed with its general toughness, mine has tumbled to the floor next to my bed rather too often, as I am one of those happy souls who can only get to sleep by reading.  Not that I recommend this treatment, but it is good to know it can cope.

    This model doesn't have any sort of built in illumination, so it is necessary to use some form of book light when reading in the darkness - this is when you realise that the underlying technology is completely different to that of a computer.  But this also means that the brighter the illumination - sunlight or whatever - which is a killer for computer screens, the better one can read this wonderful little machine.  By the way, the actual screen size seems to me to be an ideal compromise between portability and legibility.   it is approximately the same size as a smallish paperback, which seems to me to be about right.

    To sum up, if you can find one of these eReaders and simply wish for a machine in which you can store books and read them, and have no need of all manner of extras (touch screens, keyboards, colour screens and so forth) then this machine will serve you very well.

    SHARE WITH US:

    Do you also own one of these eReaders?  If so, would you care to let us know what you think about it?  I would be very happy if you cared to write about your thoughts on this eReader in the comments section, so that the rest of us can gain from your experiences with this machine.

    Technical specifications:

    • Size: 175 x 122 x 8 mm (6.9" x 4.8" x 0.3")
    • Weight: 250 g (9 oz)
    • Display:


      • size: 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal (approx 1/4 area of letter-sized page)
      • resolution: 170 dpi, 8-level gray scale
      • portrait: 90.6 x 122.4 mm (3.57" x 4.82"), 600 x 800 pixels | effective 88.2 x 115.4 mm (3.47 x 4.54 in), 584 x 754 pixels | for the Pictures application effective resolution is 600 x 766 pixels
      • minimum font size: 6 pt legible, 7 pt recommended



    • Memory: 256 MB standard (200 MB Accessible), Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8 GB, SD card up to 2 GB (some non-SDHC 4GB cards may work), or up to 32 GB with SDHC cards and version 1.1 firmware
    • Lithium-ion battery, up to 6800 "page turns" per charge
    • PC interface: USB port 2.0
    • Available case colors:


      • PRS505/LC: Dark Blue
      • PRS505/SC: Silver
      • PRS505SC/JP: Custom Skin (James Patterson Special Edition)
      • PRS505/RC: Sangria Red (introduced in August 2008)


      Image source:  Sony






      INTRODUCING eBOOK LIBRARY RESOURCE

      Since I was given my Sony eReader about 6 months ago, I have become a fanatical user of this amazing little machine and have spent many happy hours wandering around the internet looking for copyright free books to download for my reading pleasure, and also watching the rather entertaining battle that is developing between the increasingly numerous eReaders that are coming on the market as well as the inevitable war of formats that is happening.

      Those other ancients out there might remember the same battle that took place with video standards years ago - was it to be VHS or Betamax? Well much the same thing is happening with eBook formats, ranging from various propriety formats, such as Amazon's one and the more general ones, such as Adobe's ePub format.

      This struggle, and the curious sales situation (where can one buy an eReader?) make the present situation very complex for anyone who is wanting to leap into this wonderful form of mobile library, so I thought I would start a blog which would review all the various eReaders that are out there, and locate interesting sources of free, cheap or full price online eBooks in the various formats and publish them on this Blog in the hope that it will help others to enjoy this new form of reading and creating libraries.

      I shall also try and give useful hints about buying eReaders, as I have found the sales policy of the main manufacturers completely impossible to understand. One can buy a Sony eReader in Britain but not in Australia for example, or attempting to buy one if you live (as I do) in the Philippines online is impossible for no obvious reason. It is all very strange. Thus I shall be contacting all the major producers of eReaders and attempting to find out what exactly is their policy about selling their eReaders in various countries and publish this information to help others - plus the various tricks I have discovered to buy one if one lives in a country where they refuse to sell the things.

      I shall be doing much the same with the numerous online bookshops, who also often have curious sales restrictions based on one's location in the world (Publisher's copyright rules I gather). It is a jungle out there, Folks!

      I also hope very much that as the Blog develops, other people will post comments here with useful links and thoughts on this subject, and thus help people to buy eReaders that are suitable for them, and to locate eBooks that will give them the same amount of pleasure as I have had through my eReader.

      My first review will (logically) be of the Sony series of eReaders, as I have one model, and my wife (Lotty, whose idea this Blog was) has another, rapidly followed with reviews of some of the more interesting sites for downloading eBooks and software that makes converting the various formats possible.

      So, watch this space!!!!!!!!!!!