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AWOL from new Sony Reader desktop app: Better reading software and easier downloading from public libraries
December 12, 2009 | 3:56 pm
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By David Rothman
Alas, the Sony Reader people remain deaf on many matters, despite their laudable switch to the ePub format.
Sony Reader Library 3.1 for the PC, just released along with an update for the Mac, teases us with a good but still-underdeveloped reading app.
Also, the library still lacks a decent tie-in with public libraries for seamless downloading from within the software.
Months earlier these issues came up about an earlier version of the software. Sony still isn’t listening.
Sony may even have gone backwards. I bought an ePub copy of Netherland but couldn’t see it in a double-page mode, the way I could read titles bought in the company’s proprietary format. Almost surely this is a software issue rather than a format one.
Worse, in both the reader and store mode, Sony’s software crashed—yes, two separate times in the first half hour or so I was trying the software.
Positives
More positively, even without the double-page mode, the software remains superior to Adobe Digital Editions as a no-frills way to display e-books.
What’s more, it let me easily drag Netherland to my Sony Reader PRS-505.
There are other niceties picked up—like the above—from earlier incarnations of the software (renamed Reader Library from eBook Library).
For example, Sony can take PDF and make it reflowable on both your desktop and your actual Reader—no small feat. I’m really rooting for Sony to apply the same care to the interface of the reader software within Library 3.1.
One other frustration, for me, is that Amazon’s new desktop reader app is most likely just the start, while Sony’s seems more or less stuck in time.
Still no meaningful public library integration
Let me also say, as promised in the headline, how disappointed I remain with Sony’s software as a way to hook up with public libraries and download free, legal e-books.
The “Library Finder: continues to do no more than that—just help you find public libraries near you (at least in the States). It finds libraries, not books. If nothing else, you cannot download library books from within just the reader software itself. You first have to fire up your Web browser. Then after the download, you’ll return to the Reader software for the transfer to the reader. Meanwhile you’ve had to worry about such details as logging on to the library catalog through your library card number, if the cookies didn’t stick.
Big mistake. With improved library integration, Sony could better use the “free” to grow its market share, aided by its library partner OverDrive. Why couldn’t the two have really teamed up on library integration?
A huge gap remains for Amazon to fill in the library area, and I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the next year or two, Jeff Bezos and buddies let customers download library-related books wirelessly, via agreements with libraries and library-related distributors. Is it possible that even OverDrive might in time defect?
Perhaps Sony will do some incredible library-related tricks with its new wireless model. Stay tuned. Meanwhile I hope Sony listens to my suggestion above, in both the reader app and library areas.
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Comments:
The “Library Finder: continues to do no more than that—just help you find public libraries near you (at least in the States). You cannot download library books from within the reader software itself.
I’m confused by this. A month or two ago, the last time I used my Sony Reader to read a library ebook, I plugged the cable into the reader and the computer, checked the book out and downloaded it, and the Sony Library software opened and autosync’d with my Reader.
It was just, check out book, click on download book, wait a couple of minutes, unplug cable and go read.
Or are you wanting to search for books in the Sony software instead of in your local library’s ebook catalog? If that’s what you’re wanting, I’d guess part of the issue is branding. Your local library is paying for them, they want you to know and go through them.
Also, if I’m looking in the library catalog for downloadable things, I don’t always care what format it’s in. I can use epub and pdf on my Sony Reader, but there’s no point in being able to search mobi files through the Sony software because I can’t use them on that device. If I’m reading mobi I need my laptop. A lot of the time I don’t care which format I find, I just want the book. Toss in mp3 audio books which would work on the Sony Reader, and and the Windows Media DRM files that can’t. I’d far rather just go to my library’s ecatalog and search there where I’ve got the full range of options.
On top of all that is so accurately detailed here, I recently discovered that if I check a book out from my local library through OverDrive and load onto my Sony Pocket Edition and I don’t finish it in fourteen days, I won’t ever be able to load it on the ereader again, even though I can check it out again. Believe me, I have tried. Deleted the “expired” book from the reader. Deleted the expired book from the Sony eBook Library on my computer. Reinstalled the eBook Library software from Sony. No dice. Seems like a DRM gremlin at work to me. Maybe Sony or OverDrive or somebody can put that on their bug list after they take care of these other problems you mention, David. Thanks for covering this issue.
Thanks for your excellent questions, Deanna–I meant the ability to find library books, not just libraries (I’ll tweak to make sure this is clearer).
As for Mobi vs. ePub and PDF, keep in mind that the Reader can read the last two. Typically in the public library world, the vendor is OverDrive–which perhaps can work on standardization issues with other companies. Note the move toward toward a standard DRM and ePub. Even a less than complete search would be better than none at all, and this capability would put pressure on other companies and organizations to speed up the ePub transition.
Branding? No prob. The library logos could still appear within the cat as displayed on the Sony.
I know there are challenges here, but if Sony does not strive for integration and maximum user convenience (should we have to spend even several minutes getting a book?), then Amazon may well preempt it in the library world. With all Kindle wireless and with WiFi connections of course working with its PC and forthcoming Mac apps, Amazon already has has much of the infrastructure in place. Maybe we would then even see a Mobi revival in a sense, lol, since Kindle format is really Mobi under the hood.
In Sony’s place, thus, I’d really get a-hoppin’ to integrate things. Be interesting to see if this will in fact happen through Sony’s own wireless.
Thanks,
David
Yeah, I like my Sony Reader Touch, but Sony is really messing up the software side of things. It’s such a crappy experience. The sony bookstore sucks too, with a bad selection (at least for me).
Last summer, before the newer Sony software came out and the Pocket and Touch were announced, I tried using the Sony Library software to browse the Sony store. Once. That’s all. Only once. It was a horrid experience. I quickly bailed on that and switched to my browser where I could browse the store with no problems. I don’t expect the newer software to have helped with that, so I’ve never bothered trying. Based on my experience using the Sony software to browse their store I’d NEVER want to use their software to browse a library catalog.
We’re told, everywhere, that the “cloud” is where everything is going to happen. Everyone’s using webmail, and Google docs, even Microsoft Office is going online. The trend seems to be for everything to be happening inside a browser. How often are any of us on a computer, and not using some form of web browser? I suspect the answer is not often. So why would we take searching for library ebooks out of the browser when we’re putting everything else in?
When I approach searching for a book, I’m either looking for a non-DRM copy to buy, or I’m looking for a library book to check out and read. I NEVER buy ebooks with DRM, so I’m never looking in the Sony ebookstore. If I’m looking for a library book to read, I don’t care which of the three text formats it’s in, so I’m going straight to the library catalog to get the broadest search.
I can see where, if you wanted to do one search and cover both the Sony ebookstore and your local library’s catalog, then having the Sony software search your library could be useful. I don’t see Sony offering us free library books right next to their books for sale.
Congratulations on getting the software to run – this is my second try at using a newly released version of software from Sony and the second time it hasn’t worked for me (and from what I’ve seen, lots of other people). Good thing we have the Calibre alternative – unfortunately though, that doesn’t help if we want to buy a book from the Sony Store. I guess I’ll just keep borrowing ebooks from my library…ohwait, I’m supposed to use the Sony software for THAT too!
I have close to 2000 books in my library and I cannot view them all in the new Sony software. The application stops responding when ever I click an item in the list view. The system is appalling.
I have had this reader for two years and I can count the numbers of times that I have used it. The initial lack of pdf compatibility. The lack of European integration for the first year (bought in the US, living in the UK. Cannot dl books from Sony in the UK for over a year.) The serious short-comings of the PC software (under whatever name it is being touted) means that thought I cannot recommend an alternative, I can recommend NOT buying a Sony reader.
Sony Library Reader software??? hahahahahahahhahhahaahhah it’s joke! Love my 505 but also recommend Calibre to manage your library. You can browse the store on the web @ http://ebookstore.sony.com/
but will need to use the Library software to download a SONY purchased book. But there are loads if sites to buy books for Sony.
I had no problems getting library books on my reader- just had to be a member of a local library, go online, log in to my library (NY) and “borrow” a book for 7-21 days and download it by saving to my computer (it’s usually a pdf or mobi file).Then install the “file” to my reader using the software or Calibre.
Even if you use the Adobe Digital- after you activate your reader, you just need to find where the book is at on your computer ( usually in the “My Document” folder > ” My book” or, > “My Digital Editions” folder and just either “add” the file via the Sony Library software or Calibre.
A great forum for help on readers and 1,000′s of free perfectly formatted ebooks is Mobile Read,