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Per Sony's web site (click on the specification tab) the only "Secured" format that the Sony PRS-500 Reader supports is their own BBeB format (which you get from their Connect bookstore). While they do support unsecured PDF files, they do not support PDF files which are encrypted by the Adobe Ebook security handler, which are most likely the books you are getting from eBooks.com.
My wife who also has the Sony Reader gets around this by purchasing the MultiFormat books (one of the formats is unsecured PDF) from Fictionwise.com, when she can't find what she wants on the Sony Connect site.
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Andrew,
"Secured" BBeB is the only format with DRM that the Sony Reader PRS-500 reader supports, but it also supports, PDF,Text and RTF (as long as they do not have any DRM). I think the Sony Reader comes with a BBeB creator/convertor utility as part of their desktop software (it's how they handle Word Documents), and there may be other 3rd party utilities out there as well. However it is unlikely that any of those utitlities will be able convert from any source that is "secured" by DRM. So your best bet is to look for publishers/bookstores that have unsecured formats that you can convert from or use directly as an option. For instance if you like SciFi, take a look at Baen's Store or their free library (the RTF formatted texts will probably be your best bet).
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Colum,
Depending upon the PDF you may want to try putting your Sony Reader in landscape mode. This will split the PDF into a top and bottom page and should greatly enhance the readiblity of most PDFs (or at least it did for my wife). However it may get a bit annoying, if the journals you are reading are in a multi column format, because you'll have to keep flipping between the top and the bottom
The problem is that for the 500 model the PDF text is not reflowable ( and in the larger sense the PDF format is supposed to be a fixed size, so viewing it on other than that size can cause problems for the viewer). So another alternative, permissions on the documents in question permitting, if you have a full copy of Acrobat is to export the text as RTF, and then import the RTF into the Sony Reader. You'll lose a lot of the formatting and all of the graphics, but the resulting text will be reflowable and will behave better on the Sony Reader
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Colum,
You caught me spouting off internal shorthand, sorry. What I meant was Adobe Acrobat as opposed to Adobe Reader. Adobe Acrobat (through File->Save As...) allows you to export a PDF into any number of formats (such as Text, RTF and HTML among others) with varying degrees of success depending upon the PDF and the format chosen.
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Colum
I'm pretty sure any of the flavors of Acrobat will convert to RTF. Acrobat Standard will be your lowest price option of the Acrobats (I'm sure there are probably less expensive 3rd party options, but I haven't tried any myself and can't offer any opinions). However before purchasing there is a downloable free trial of Acrobat Pro that you may want to try to see if the conversion will work the way you want it to on your PDFs.
Good luck
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Sanford,
You're a bit out of luck for now. DRM - or Digital Rights Management makes it difficult to say what is compatible with what, however most of the places you buy books from will protect those books with some sort of DRM. Currently, the Sony Reader (both the 500 and 505 models) only supports DRM protected content that you get from their store - Sony Online Connect and does not support any DRM content (especially in PDF files) that you get from any place else, such as eBooks.com.
If it helps, think about this all as an early versions of the iPod - when you purchased songs from the iTunes Music Store they would only work on an iPod and not any other MP3 players. Any songs you purchased from other stores such as Rhapsody would work (maybe) on your computer, but you couldn't transfer them to you iPod. But any songs you made or ripped from a CD (and were not DRM protected) would work in all MP3 players. The eBook market is in a similar state with eBook Readers - Sony's Reader currently only supports purchased content coming from their store. Other readers support their own DRM format - and not all stores support formats that any Reader supports.
It's even worse for you since you are using a Mac. The Sony Reader is not supported on the Mac. The Sony Connect software is Windows only, the 500 model is just plain not recognized at all on the Mac, and I believe the 505 model will only show up as a mass storage device (I haven't played with one yet - so I'm not sure). So if you have the 505 model your best bet is going to be to get non DRM protected books (see my links in previous posts) and copy them directly
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Ron,
There is no current eInk device which works with Adobe DRM. Getting devices to work with Digital Editions is something we are actively looking at. Back in June, Bill McCoy (our fearless leader) announced on his
blog that we are working with Sony on getting the eReader line to support Adobe DRM (read the second to last paragraph). Unfortunately I can't really provide more information than that. (Mutual NDAs and normal reticence to talk about ongoing work since schedules are nice estimates and features change - plus management gets touchy if I upstage their announcements).
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Ron,
Unfortunately I can't give you any satisfying answers. Bill's announcement meant what it said - at some point in the future there will be a Sony Reader released that will be able to display ePub files and PDFs that use Adobe DRM. This hasn't happened yet, although we are working on it. Sony has not publicly released any information (that I'm aware of) on their plans for this device and if there will be any backward support for older devices. When Sony does release that information, I'll post it here.
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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Patricia
The answer is unfortunately not. Neither the Sony Reader 500 or 505 will read DRM protected or unencrypted version of the .lit (Microsoft Reader) format (or Mobipocket for that matter). While there are plenty of conversions tools available that will convert from .lit to HTML or PDF, they will only work on on non-secured .lit files. This vendor lock-in that results from the fragmented DRM schemes is the sort of thing that drives all of us consumers mad, but unfortunately there is no immediate solution other than to choose vendors who offer non DRM secured like you have already done with the Multiformat books from Fictionwise.com.
Jim Lester
Adobe Systems
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