Sony’s pulling a switcheroo on its customers, rebranding its “eBook Store” as “Reader Store” (see what they did there? Err…) but more importantly, changing formats from BBeB to EPUB. This is a surprising step forward for the proprietary-loving Sony.
Undoubtedly you would’ve battled Sony’s formats in the past, so know what I’m referring to. The big change happens this Friday, with all books downloadable in the open EPUB format only. The third cherry on Sony’s big surprise cake this week is that the Reader Library 3.1 software will also become available on Friday, bringing both Mac and PC support—head’s up, Snow Leopard and Windows 7 users. [Sony]
Jim
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 11:40 AMHUGE mistake rolling out an upgrade this ambitious on a friday, as v.3.1 effectively made it impossible to purchase books from their site. I waited 49 minutes for their help desk to answer….poor guys were completely swamped by customers with the same issue as I…and the Level 2 techs had GONE HOME FOR THE WEEKEND!!!!
Huge mistake for Sony to roll this out before Christmas, as the necessity to download v.3.1 BEFORE one could buy a book meant that on Christmas day their site went down as everyone who unwrapped a new Ereader rushed to activate and use them…
In any event, after 3 separate conversations with level 1 and level 2 techs since Dec 11 the best they can do is download some info re my Mac’s operating system and ISP performance and promise to get back to me….sometime. It’s the 29th now and I’m still waiting.
I have 95 books in my e library which won’t work with other ereader hardware, nevertheless I’m considering cutting my losses and switching to a Kindle or Nook.