[poll=41]
I myself own a Sony PRS-505 and am rooting for the company to give us a terrific firmware update. I don’t want one to appear before it’s ready. That said, some people are impatient, and at least a few say they may not buy Sony in the future if this goes on. How do you feel?
I own PRS-500 and am already so invested in using it that the lack of new firmware won’t stop my usage — or my enjoyment. If I step up to a new generation of the reader, it’ll be for more than just ebabel reduction. It’ll be a multi-factored decision.
Interesting poll and timing too.
Sony’s so far missed the bullet from the iPhone. Jobs is apparently doing things in a very methodical manner to avoid all the mistakes Microsoft has made (XP SP3, Vista, et al). No ebook announcement … yet.
September could be a different story. All signs point to new hardware arriving in September. iPod Air?
I certainly would like to see a few additional capabilities added to the Sony 505 like epub, on device delete and maybe dictionary look up, but I have to say that Sony seems to be the closest of all the readers in having really good ease of use. The bookmark page for all your bookmarked items, lists by author and title, collections, seamless integration of memory cards etc. I’ve used the kindle, cybook and iliad as well and for me the Sony is much better from an ease of use standpoint.
Let’s hope they continue to upgrade when warranted, but it at least they released a device with relatively well thought out software.
I’m hoping for OpenInkpot to become a viable option for 505 owners. My 505 with FBReader is something I’d love to see come about.
http://openinkpot.org/wiki/Prs505
Software is shipped in this modern age with known bugs. That’s just how software development works–you pick a date, work hard to get the development complete, address problem reports (PRs) as you go, then prioritize these problems at the end of the project. Some are “must fix” before shipment, others are “deferred”. If you worked it any other way, if you vowed to address _every_ problem before shipment, most projects would be like Zeno’s arrow–approaching General Availability but never actually reaching it.
It is expected that bug fix releases (dot releases) will follow any major release. It is hoped (but cannot be expected) that future major releases may be available. No subsequent releases indicates the company has abandoned the software, the product, the consumer, and therefore the market.
Perception may be key here: most on this list probably believe that the Sony Reader is a specialized computer with software (hungry for a dot release or two); Sony may believe the Sony Reader is a box, sold once, revenue taken, and then forgotten. If it is the latter, I expect Kindle sales to reap the benefit.
I own a PRS500 so not sure if this is still supported in terms of upgrade. I have been using the ereader for over a year now and very happy with it. Looking forward thought to the possibility of not having to continue to undertake elaborate pdf conversions to get pdf books readable. More important to me though is improving the ebook library software which is abominably awful, especially in the time it takes to interact between PC and PRS.
Well, I think something is going on, just sum up: prices going down forty dollars, someone from Sony telling they are trying adobe digital in the reader, rumours of selling it in Europe…perhaps they are about to produce a new model after the summer. I think it´s better to wait and see.