Customer Quotes:

"At the suggestion of a member of the TBMOPA (on their forum), I downloaded Reader Plates for my new iPad II. It is the most intuitive and easy to use aviation software I have ever experienced. The flow of the user interface is a model for any interactive app."

"Let me say as a guy who designs software UI for a living that you have completely hit a home run here. The Reader Plates iPad app is a model of efficient and clear design and execution. I simply cannot imagine how it could be done any better. Bravo."

"...absolutely fabulous. It's the best I've seen for the iPad in terms of ease-of-use, and it's intuitively obvious how to get to things."

"Wow, truly an amazing job on your iPad app!! Since getting my iPad I've been using [__________], which is very well done, but I have to say that your entry into the iPad arena is outstanding. Nice job having everything we need just a click away on the tab or referenced from the "airport" page. Can't wait to try it all in the air in a few days. And thank you for making it possible to be able to use your service on my Sony and iPad for the same subscription cost. Very well done...way to go!"

"No brainer. It's a bargain."

"I flew an instrument approach for the first time with your product.  I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.  For me, it's Reader Plates from now on!  Thanks."

"I am very impressed and my only regret is that I did not do this sooner.

As far as readability I see no issue whatsoever - actually, I would consider it exceptional. They suggest a screen mode for the reader and it works very well.

Although the reader will never be considered a fast device, it is not painful by any means. I takes much less time to find a plate using it than it does to pick up a book cold and find one. If you select the destination airport enroute and then leave it on the "page" of approaches with the unit in suspend mode then the time is a few seconds to load the individual plate.

I guess in summation, I like it so well I will never be without it again. Actually, I am going to cancel my NOAA subscription that I have had for years and use this exclusively. I will likely print the plates for my destination as a backup, but as I get more comfortable with accuracy of the the battery status indicator I may stop that as well.

If you have been considering this, do no hesitate. I don't believe that you will be disappointed."

"I flew for 6 hours in mostly solid IMC with 3 landings recently and found the Sony to be more than acceptable. Although I wish it were a little bigger, I can still read everything on the plate without making it larger. I am a satisfied customer."

"Saw the article on Reader Plates in the last issue of AOPA Pilot and decided to try the product. Experience thus far has been positive. Here is my review.

- The hardware bundle offered through readerplates.com arrived quickly, with an 8GB memory card.
- The online subscription process went smoothly.
- The download of the plates (1.2 GB) took about 1h45 on a DSL line. I went away and read a book.
- I chose the manual install because I am always concerned about what unknown applications might do to my computer, but there was not much work involved. Basically copy and paste. I did some more reading while the operation completed.
- The full view of the plates is a bit small, and requires good eyesight (or the right eyeglasses in my case) to make out. However, the half page view of the plates is almost original size and very clear and easy to read. It takes about 2-3 seconds to switch from the top half to the bottom half of the plate.
- The Sony PRS-505 reader itself seems like a robust device, with long battery life.
- "Buttonology" is extremely straightforward. It takes less than a minute to get any given plate up on the screen.

I would feel comfortable flying with just this device, plus hard copies of the plates for my destination.

In sum: a great product, and a good deal. As somewhat larger reader screens with faster page refresh come on the market, it will only get better."

"It's fast and awesome!"

"I really like the reader and the plates - you're on something great - thanks!"

"I have been using [Reader Plates] for a few months now"... "and I concur that the readability is extremely high."

"[Reader Plates] has a service that puts the entire US plates on one 2G card that is updated by simply clicking an icon on your desktop. Click, walk away and come back in about an hour or so. They compress it somehow to fit it all in and the organize it as chapters by state. You can get to any plate in 10 seconds or less."

"[Reader Plates] worked on shrinking the margins around the entire edge of the plates so the plate is able to be zoomed to be marginally larger. Makes it a tad bit easier to read."

"In [Reader Plates] you can press the right center button and focus only on the top half of the plate. If you press it again you get only the bottom half. The lettering then is proportionally larger and quite a bit easier to read. With a modern GPS like a 430 you need the bottom mainly, so thats what I use. Then if you page up (or down) the unit will reverse contrast (black background, white lettering) and it can be very helpful in some lighting situations."

"All in all I have been very pleased with [Reader Plates]"... "I carry paper in the cockpit of my planned destinations, but this is my source for plates if my plan changes. It works well..."

"I am not affiliated with the company in any way, but I have been impressed with it. YMMV..."