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But what I really want is a PADD.

You and me both! Why do the device manufacturers not seem to understand this? The closest thing to what I want would be the Apple Newton or the iRex iLiad, but they're just a little bit too limited. The iLiad, for example, would be almost perfect but for the crippling lack of USB host. And if it were a convertible tablet, it actually would be perfect.

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Online education? http://online.edu.org/

build in.
The Sony does not have a pen-interface, AFAIK.
That's a lot of additional potential for the Iliad, let's see if their software leaves beta soon and whether they provide us with an appropriate SDK...

For Iliad-Discussion from iRex see forum.irexnet.com
For more independent info on both products see http://www.mobileread.com/ .

WHAT THE FORK???

Calm down. Take a DEEP breath. Think quiet thoughts. Take a DEEP breath again.

Ok. Good.

I fully understand your frustration with lock-in book readers, but if you read the product specifications you will see that it does in fact support open document formats: PDF, XHTML, and plain text. With a little extra thought you will also realize that they may have difficulty supporting annotations on these formats. PDF supports this (except when disabled in the document), but for XHTML and plain text you'll have to think where to store these annotations, and if you want this at all. Similarly, not all other formats may be scalable, for example because they are bitmaps. (I don't know what the APABI format is, but that may well be bitmap.)

You're not the only one misreading this, see other treads under this news item. It clearly demonstrates what happens when a company doesn't have a PR department.

Yes, they also implement DRM-ed formats. I don't care, as long as they support the open formats.

See the product specs: http://www.irextechnologies.com/downloads/Productl eaflet-Iliad.pdf

1024x768 16 grey tones.

Take a look at the videos mentioned in my first post or google for "Iliad page flip seconds". Plenty of first-hand reports there.

You don't want a backlight, you want a traditional light that shines onto the page, like you do with traditional books. Backlit screens are harder to read over long periods. This is pretty much the whole point of e-ink

May be. Just some sort of lightsource.

1024x768? If I'm not mislead about the resolution of e-ink, the screen on that is likely to support 4-8 times that resolution.

See the product specs: http://www.irextechnologies.com/downloads/Productl eaflet-Iliad.pdf

1024x768 16 grey tones.

Where'd you read the part about 2-4 seconds for a page refresh? If true, that would really suck.

Take a look at the videos mentioned in my first post or google for "Iliad page flip seconds". Plenty of first-hand reports there.

To individual consumers who have sent in their request for notification, we recommend to wait for our consumer version, which will have a more extended functionality (September 2006).

This sounds, to me, like they will only support DRM capable formats... Which makes this a non-buy in my opinion.

You should probably look for an actual list of formats instead of jumping to whatever conclusion you want. Like the one in the product sheet that includes : PDF, XHTML, TXT, APABI (China only), OEB, MP3.

Odd that they didn't copy their supported format list from their product spec PDF, but oh well. In any case, if you check out that PDF here, they list the supported formats as PDF, XHTML, TXT and APABI (only in China). Support for OEB files as well as MP3 playback is due in an August/September firmware update.

(Still waiting on my iLiad.)

Actually, I was just reading Wikipedia's "Electronic Ink" article, and it just happened to mention this. The thing you link to is pretty good, but this is even better: 390 grams, about 6"x8"x0.5", 1024x768 pixel screen with 16 levels of gray, 160dpi, 400Mhz Xscale, more built-in RAM and Flash (64MB and 224MB respectively), Wi-Fi, possible USB host(!) (because it says it supports USB flash drives), SD and CF slots (I don't know if it supports non-disk things like modems or not). The only thing that the Jinke reader has better is that it uses Linux, but this one may use it too (the spec sheet doesn't mention software at all).

In other words, this thing might be more than an e-book reader -- it seems capable enough to replace my laptop, especially if it does have USB host (because I could hook up a Twiddler or compact keyboard for rapid text input). I just used their "contact" form to beg them to let me buy one, because although their site says it'll be available in April 2006, it's not listed in their online store.

Another publisher of technical books, Apress, sells its books as ebooks for a discount of at least half the price of the print book off its site. Now we just need a decently sized ebook reader, something with an A4 screen and technical book sales would skyrocket. Not only are the returns and such taken care of, but also the distrobution costs and the problem of toting around hordes of hefty technical books. If enough of us petition companies such as iRex (the makers of the iLiad) they might make one and in the process make our books much more portable rather than shelf sitters and monitor stands (Sams Samba Unleashed is excellent for this)

I like the diamond age model and can't really understand in this day and age, why technology can't solve the problems of form factor and price for a simple ebook reader.

Some interesting upcoming products are The iLiad from phillips (irex) and Jinke's V2 eBook Reader

These will supposedly have sd storage, wireless networking e-ink type high resolution display and great battery life. If I was in college again I would demand this. When my child starts needing books for school I'll cause a stink as well.

There are at least two other e-ink based products due out this spring: the Hanlin V2 Reader, that runs Linux and will sell for $325, and the iRex Iliad, made by a Philips spin-off, that has a larger screen size, wifi, and a touch-screen interface, but will not be able to be developed for by non-licensed developers. It will probably cost around $400 (although it will be a Europe-only thing at first).

The Sony one gets all the press, though, so I imagine it will be the popular option at least until Apple releases one ;-)

Both the new version of the Sony ebook reader and the Illiad are supposed to be available in April. Seeing how Sony is treating its customers, I would go for the Iliad - even if the updated Sony product is supposed to be allowed to display open formats.

The Iliad supports reading PDF, XHTML, TXT and playing MP3. It is provided by iRex, a company backed by Philips. Other than that, the products appear to be very similar.

PS: Don't forget that project Gutenberg provides a load of good literature for free.

Yep - check out iRex Technologies. They are going to produce the Iliad eReader, which seems to support txt, html etc. without conversion (unlike Sony) and also has a touchscreen for annotation.
They seem to be aiming at selling to other companies to brand, so any personal sales through their website might not have all the bells and whistles software-wise, but it looks like a better product than Sony's, and more hackable too :)

E-Ink has been around for a while, but no one has actually developed hardware around them until recently. Sony's new Libre http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/LIBRIE/ ) , IRex's Illiad ( http://www.irextechnologies.com/shop/products/ilia d.htm ), and Jinke's Reader V2 (http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/English/embedp ro/prodetail.asp?id=20)all look to be exciting e-book platforms which may make reading e-books something not tied to the tiny screens of PDA's and heavy laptops or neck and eye wearing desktops. Publishers like Fictionwise, Orsen Scott Card and Jim Baen have seen this coming and are ready to deal with it. Particluarly OSC's Intergalatic Medicine Show and Jim Baen's Universe on-line magazines look to be set to take particular advantage of the forthcoming increase in portable displays.

You'll be happy to know about this then. Made by iRex technologies (a spin-off of Royal Philips Electronics). Download the pdf for specs - it supports open formats openly with no conversion necessary (unlike Sony's ereader), and has a touchscreen to allow annotation. It is based on e-ink as well, and appears to offer all the benefits, none of the drawbacks :)

And others if you care to look around.

http://www.irextechnologies.com/shop/products/ilia d.htm

Books have been written on sheets of dried, mashed plants for about five millennia. Paper is a cheap, relatively durable and versatile technology. Sony's new Reader will not spell the end of that long history, but it could be the opening of an interesting new chapter.

Here's Philips' device, the iRex (a Philips spin-off, apparently) Iliad:

http://www.irextechnologies.com/shop/products/ilia d.htm

• E-Ink (ePaper)
• 8,1"-Touchscreen
• PDF, xhtml and txt
• 16 shades of gray
• MP3 playback (phone jack)
• 400-MHz-Xscale CPU
• 64 MByte RAM
• 224 MByte Flash internal memory
• USB
• CF/SD/MMC Reader
• 100-MBit/s-LAN- and 802.11b-WLAN (11 MBit/s)
• Pen interface for notes