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Month….
We had a look at what could possibly be the biggest phenomenon
since the IPod; well that is what Sony is hoping - it is the Sony
PRS-505 E Reader. For those of you unable to attend the meeting
this little baby is basically an electronic library for storing
and reading of books. What the IPod is to music, the Sony E Reader
is to literature. Currently Geoff Walsh and I each own one of
these E Readers and both of us are very pleased with them.
So what is The Sony E Reader? Well as previously
stated it is a self contained library which can hold books in
various formats, audio files and even pictures. A bit like the
local library really but without the need for a library card.
The Reader itself weighs in at approximately 260 grams with dimensions
of 123 x 174 x 8 mm and comes complete with its own leather soft
cover in beige – optional black covers are also available.
The E Reader has an easy on the eye e-ink screen which creates
a natural reading experience that is good even in bright sunlight.
The unit has 192Mb of internal memory which can reportedly store
up to 160 books. The internal memory can be supplemented by either
SD memory cards or Memory Stick Duo cards. There are slots for
either type of memory. Battery life is extremely good with a reported
6800 page read from a fully charged battery. The reader can be
recharged via a computer USB port or by an optional stand alone
charger. The Sony version runs in at around £35 which I
considered rather steep. I managed to get a third party charger
from Amazon for about £15. A stand alone charger is much
quicker and more portable if using the E Reader on holiday.
192Mb of memory can hold
a large quantity of reading material. If you consider a large
novel like World Without End by Ken Follett has 1237 pages but
only takes up 2.3Mb of disc space, there is room for a lot of
books on the E Reader. The device can handle numerous file formats
including its own native format Epub (.epub) which is fast becoming
the de facto UK consumer’s format of choice. It will also
handle BBeB files (.irf or .irx), PDF files (.pdf), Text files
(.txt) and Rich Text Files (.rtf). Any Word documents imported
into the E Reader are automatically formatted into Rich Text Files.
Apparently there are around 25 e-book formats in existence some
of which are dedicated to specific e-readers and not all e-readers
are compatible - shades of the VHS and Betamax video wars of the
1980’s.
The E Reader itself offers
a myriad of functions to make your reading enjoyable. The screen
is clear and readable even in direct sunlight. It offers smooth
page scrolling and auto bookmarking so that you can pick up where
you left off. There are 3 levels of page magnification readily
available from a panel control button on the front face of the
E Reader. The page orientation can also be swapped between vertical
and horizontal.
The E Reader is menu driven
and extremely easy to navigate around. Books are stored in alphabetical
order and can be easily accessed via the menu. A nice touch however,
is the ability to create collection folders. Here you may for
example hold all the books by a specific author or topic- just
like in a public library. The package comes with its own software
where data can be transferred from a computer to the E Reader
itself. Any document can be removed from the E Reader at any time
but with all the memory available it becomes your own personal
library without taking up all the room that physical books can.
I have always loathed getting rid of books, so being able to hold
a large library in a small device is to me, excellent.
Not only can the E Reader
be used for reading books etc it also has audio facilities which
is excellent for the popular audio books. The device can handle
.mp3 and .aac formats. So we can even play background music while
reading our latest novel. I have found that the E Reader will
only play music files in alphabetical order and there is no way
of creating albums like the collections for the books. But then
again, it is not marketed as a music player. As audio books tend
to be very large the external SD or Memory Stick modules come
in very handy.
If that was not enough
the E Reader can also process picture files in bitmap, jpeg, gif
and png formats. The pictures will only display in black and white
but the resolution is good. It cannot handle movie files though.
The E Reader would not
be of much use if you are unable to readily access books. With
the Sony PRS- 505 E Reader comes a cd with 100 classic novels
on it already to download to your Reader. These include all the
Charles Dickens books as well as many of the great classic books.
In fact if the book is out of copyright then it can be freely
available to obtain and there are many websites where these can
be found. If you are looking for more modern books then most of
the big publishing houses offer titles in E format as well. The
Ken Follett example above costs about £8.00 to download
from Waterstones. The paperback version costs roughly the same.
If you are looking for
more than the 100 classics which come with the package one of
the best websites is http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page This
is a huge worldwide enterprise that is trying to get as many out
of copyright books into E format. Books are freely available and
maybe out of print books can be found as well and often they are
available in numerous languages. Even if you do not have a reader,
the site is well worth a visit to see what it is about.
For modern books still
in copyright the publishers Waterstones have an extensive list
of E books which is growing by the week and prices are extremely
competitive.
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/home.do
Another free site that
offers not only novels but a whole range of categories to download
is http://manybooks.net/ Downloads are available in numerous file
formats to suit the type of reader being used. There are loads
of sites out there offering E book material – so just Google
E Books and see what you come up with.
The Sony PRS-505 E Reader
costs about £215. More details on this E Reader are available
from www.sonystyle.co.uk
The Sony E Reader is not
the only player on the block and I guess as the idea becomes more
popular and affordable, we will see other companies moving into
the market. The IRex Iliad also uses the e-ink screen for easy
reading and comes with an optional 8GB memory card. It does have
an expensive price tag of around £449. More details available
at www.iliadreader.co.uk
The Amazon Kindle 2 is
only available in the USA but rumour has it that a UK version
will be available later this year. Cost in America is around $359
dollars. Again details are available on www.amazon.com/kindle
One idea I have got for
the Reader is to hold all those user manuals which very often
come in .pdf format. They would then be readily available when
trying to get to grips of a new piece of software for example.
Dave Robb
Windows 7 contains Trojan
A pre-release version of Windows 7 has been infected with malware
and is currently being distributed on peer-to-peer networks.
This version of the new operating system includes malware that
downloads further files from the internet. Trend Micro has named
the threat TROJ_AGENT.NICE.
You might ask why would anyone want to download Windows 7 from
this sort of site when it is available for anyone to download
from Microsoft.
Subscriptions
By now you all should have renewed your subscription, if you have
not already done so please contact Derek as soon as possible.
Cheques for £15.00 for full membership and £5.00 for
associate membership should be made payable to Melton Computer
Club.
Carphone Warehouse buys Tiscali
TalkTalk has bought Tiscali in a move that it says will reduce
costs and provide a better service for customers of both companies.
The deal makes TalkTalk the largest residential broadband supplier
and it expects to make significant savings by integrating the
two networks. Customers could win, too, through lower costs by
choosing to unbundle and take a TalkTalk telephone line and broadband
service. The merger of the companies is expected to be completed
by 2011
Virgin starts 200Mbps Broadband Trials
Virgin Media has upped the ante by announcing a trial of 200Mbps
broadband — four times faster than its current fastest service.
They are currently in the process of upgrading their 2 Mb service
to 10 Mb for all existing subscribers.
We will have to wait and see how long it is before they make this
new package available to us all.
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