Sony takes Reader openness one step further, will offer EPUB titles only
By Darren Murph 
posted August 13th 2009 7:18AM
posted August 13th 2009 7:18AM
posted August 13th 2009 7:18AM
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Wow, I might actually start buying Sony products!
I bought one a few months ago and haven't looked back. It supports both Memory Stick (go figure..) AND Secure Digital - the first time I've seen a Sony product offer SD, never mind both. The open format support is also another reason why I went that way and never considered the Kindle..
It's products like these that I will support from Sony.
@Precurse
Just as an FYI, the early PS3s that had the built-in card reader could read Memory Stick, SD, and CF.
Is there eBeer @ the ePub?
Yeah, this is excellent news - good job Sony. Standard format is step one - I don't want to buy books in weird formats or that only work on one device.
Now if they (Sony/publishers) can continue to increase the range of books available to the point where it's actually better than my local library rather than much, much worse, I might consider buying the thing. It'll probably take a while but hopefully they will get there eventually...
Love the fact that the Reader is open and supports ePub. Allows me to stick with Shortcovers, the app i used for both my Blackberry and iPhone. Great service, you guys should check it out!
http://bit.ly/32ws2
-S
Better late than never?
their previous (well, still current) models (505 and 700) also supported epub for over a year, as this article says. this isn't actually big news, though i am happy that sony is going all-in with epub.
big news would be if amazon dropped their dumb AZW format and switched to epub.
Agreed. I used to use an App called Shortcovers on my iPhone prior to purchasing a PRS-300.
I loved Shortcover's selection, and they just announced compatibility with the Reader, so its great I have the added convenience.
You can check it out at: http://bit.ly/32ws2
-S
I actually always liked Sony's e-reader. I just don't read that many books. It'll be nice to download editorials or other long, Web articles and read them on a non-back lit screen. I wonder if it's doable.
Yes
Check out Calibre. An open source e-book reader manager available for Linux and Windows, and I think Mac too. Doesn't handle DRM, but works pretty good for DRM free book management and conversion to and from a bunch of formats. It even has a nice RSS feed feature that downloads and builds an ebook of supported RSS feeds to automatically copy to your reader on connection. Not so great with pictures yet, but if you can copy the text to a file, it can convert to ePub, Mobi etc.
Sorry I couldn't hear you over my Kindle reading to me.
I like my Kindle as much as anyone else. But if there's one major flaw with the device, it's the lack of compatible formats and the limitations that puts on how much content is available for the device. A move like this on Sony's part not only impacts Sony readers, but puts pressure on Amazon and other eBook reader manufacturers to follow suit. This is only a good thing, for just about anyone involved.
@John
Enjoy it while you can. What Amazon giveth, Amazon taketh away on request of the publisher. But the kindle is doubleplusgood eh..
Ugh. If I wanted to listen to a book, I'd buy a bleeping audiobook.
If your book is DRM-free, you can probably find software to convert it to audio, then put it on your MP3 player.
How about an ePub reader app for the PSP? After all its screen is quite larger than the iPhone's. (4.3" vs 3.4" diagonally)
No text-to-speech on this guy. Come on, Sony.
Sony now less evil than Amazon. Never thought I'd see that.
Wait! No! Sony - please, PLEASE don't do that.
The Reader can't display ePub titles fully justified, so you're stuck with left-aligned text the whole way through the book.
Sadly I agree with you. Although I applaud Sony for embracing a non-proprietary format, ePub just doesn't look as good as LRF on the Sony Reader. I can't stand the pagination either. I suppose there is hope with a firmware update in the future.
The world's smallest violinist is playing for you.
Actually, the latest Adobe Mobile SDK does support full justification, and I presume upcoming firmware updates will include the latest version.
"Slowly but surely, the mega-corp who has historically clung tight to its own formats while the world opts for others is finally seeing the light." -- Keep in mind that the Reader is (or was?) Sony America's baby; when the LIBRIé was canceled, the head of Sony America asked to develop it into something suitable for the US market. Sony America seems to have a better understanding of what makes us roll our eyes at Sony products. Hence SD, USB Mass Storage, and ePub.
I never thought I'd see the day when geeks would greet with complaining the news of a notoriously closed-format-using company embracing open formats. This is great news! It starts with just one company providing a better system and, if it is successful, then the others can't ignore it. Just like with Amazon using DRM-free MP3s and then Apple following suit.
This news SUCKS too! Get with it people! All this is, is another bait and switch. Ok we'll go to the open format but now you can only open the book 12 times and copy it 3. If your battery fails 4 times, then screw you. If you upgrade twice then you need to purchase your library all over again.
How is this any better? Oh, my, but t but the format is an open format now. Whoopty-Sh!t.
We all KNOW that book DRM needs to be more robust as we move away from paper as the paper version were killing the industry as they could be shared without restriction! OMG! We saw publisher going out of business right and left! They need rescuing and fast!
******************** GET A LIFE SONY ********************
@john bailey,
Thank you so much for recommending calibre! I couldnt get sony's software running under windows 7 for my 505 and calibre runs awesome! Plus i get all my news on my reader now! Thank u thank u thank u!
Happy to be of use. It's a great little app that deserves all the publicity it can get. I'm using it on Linux myself. I'd be lost without the format conversion features.
There is a forum section on Mobileread.com for Calibre, and the guy who wrote it is a regular contributor. Worth checking out for help with the more advanced stuff.
Calibre is one of the greatest pieces of software ever. Seriously.
Everyone who is even remotely interested in reading ebooks should have it. I use it to create EPUBs that I can then read in FBReader on my Nokia n800. You have full control of the formatting options and the app itself includes presets for all sorts of mobile devices.
I think the article is a bit misleading with by stating "Sony's online store will be readable on any device that supports EPUB." I believe the ebooks will only be readable with devices that support Adobe Adept EPUB, which I believe is a DRMed version of EPUB.
So I think this leaves out application like Stanza which supports EPUB for the ITouch/IPhone, which supports EPUB but not Adobe Adept EPUB.
Not quite. If Sony's book store currently downloads DRM free books such as the big library of Google books without applying DRM to them (which as far as I remember is the case), then any ePub reading device or app should read them in the DRM free format. But I think the implication is "supports the DRM encumbered version of ePub"..
My Cybook supports Mobi, but I don't refer to it as supporting text or PDF, because the convention seems to be to describe it by the DRM enabled file format used instead of all the non DRMed file formats available. .
And what exactly is stopping an app being written to read DRM encumbered ePub files in an iProduct? May not be Stanza, but it is technically possible, unless there is some licensing restriction from having the Kindle software as the only DRM book format allowed. Unless Apple has some problem with this format that is, like it being able to read naughty books.. I have a mobi reader that even has a PID of it's own, so I could read DRMed books on my little Palm PDA if I so desire. So not exactly a technological barrier.
"The Sony Reader is amazing. Just found out you can use the Shortcovers eBooks on it as well.
Super easy process!
http://bit.ly/FsI77"