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iRex's iLiad E-ink eBook Reader is Now Available
An anonymous reader writes "iRex has just started shipping its e-ink eBook reader, the iLiad, starting today (July 3rd) — making it the first e-ink reader commercially available outside of Japan. It is available for purchase though iRex's website, for 649 euros (ouch!). Hopefully this price will come down before Sony releases their eReader later this summer."
I'll stick with books if only for the pure satisfaction of the ritual of turning pages. And of course, books are a less painful loss when left someplace by mistake (or stolen).
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
From their FAQ:
Which formats do you support?
In order to stimulate the momentum in electronic reading, iRex Technologies will support as many formats as possible in as open an environment as possible, respecting the rights of owners of content and IP.
Ok... So what formats are those again? This sounds, to me, like they will only support DRM capable formats... Which makes this a non-buy in my opinion.
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
As someone who reads books almost exclusively on my handheld device (10 years of Palm, now Windows Mobile), I don't see what the point of this is.
As it is today, with a good-sized SDRam, I can carry all the books I own in my pocket for easy access, anytime, anywhere.
If I want to carry around a bulky device to read books, I already have a notebook PC, which includes MUCH MORE capability than this silly thing. And at todays insanely low hardware prices, $825 will get me TWO notebooks, or even a pretty-decent gamer portable.
And especially considering that the ebook market is tiny on top of the above, who do they expect to buy this?
If Microsoft can't get it done, these guys sure won't
"You're either outstanding, or outprocessing"
in all fairness to /. - what else could they do on an issue like this? They had to report on it or everyone would say "This site is crap, digg reports on stuff like this...". If they report on it you want them to put a link to a site where you can buy it. I remember when someone submitted a list of "spy gadgets" with no link to where you could buy it and people were up in arms. So it needs to be reported on and needs a link to where you can buy it... all gadgets will be reported on because thats why were here; to know first and be at the cutting edge of nerding
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Making the text larger so I can more easily read it is DRM dependant!? Anyone suggesting "DRM will never get in your way unless you're a thief" needs to be kicked in nuts.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
IMAO* "iLiad" is the first in this line of product names that is actually any good. It's witty since it's a thing that reads books, and the iLiad is a book that is on the bible-ass-kicking level of hot-damn. Iliad already starts with an "I", so all they need to do is change the capitalization, meaning the whole thing isn't nearly as contrived as the rest of these product names.
The name's easy to remember since it already rings a bell for most people who have spent more than a day in a school, so for evil marketing purposes it's also a keeper. Only thing actually wrong with it is that it won't show up in google because... no wait, I just checked. They've somehow managed to get it listed as 6th.
Pretty decent branding, I'd say.
Not that I'd buy the silly thing. Got a laptop that I acquired for 10 that's portable enough for me.
All rites reversed 2010
Even purchasing new from BN or Amazon, I'd end up with about a year's worth of books.
These e-book readers are a relatively expensive solution in search of a problem IMHO.
"A revolution without dancing is... a revolution not worth having"
(IANAMD), but I think a backlit display is probably one of the biggest causes of eye strain. The whole point of buying an e-reader, for me, would be the e-paper.
My dad prints out hundreds and hundreds of pages daily because he simply hates reading backlit displays.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
I can't argue regarding the cost, but all new technologies are expensive when they first come out. It is the nature of the beast, if we didn't release new stuff because it wasn't cost effective when it was first brought to market, well... There would be no technology out there.
What I CAN argue with though, is the solution searching for a problem bit. The last time I tried to stick my computer and my monitor in my pocket so I could read it during the "commercials" at the movie theater (an example scenario, insert your own as needed) the darn thing just wouldn't fit. Especially since I have a CRT. There is a lot of digital content I would just LOVE to have in an inexpensive pocket sized reader so I can take it with me, and no a PDA doesn't cut it. Screen is way too small, and due to the nature of the device, the price will never be where I want it nor will the battery economy be there any time soon. This digital ink stuff, when the tech matures and the price comes down, will fill all my needs. But, I am not rich enough to be an early adopter.
Great, I have been waiting SO LONG for something I can read documents and books on without having to carry around a stack of documents and books.
Now, what's it say here?
You can change the font size of your text to suit your own reading comfort. (Format and DRM dependant.)
WHAT THE FORK???
Write and comment in articles (format and DRM dependant.)
WHAT THE [utensil]???!?!?!?!?!
I mean WHAT???
Sabotaging your own product like that is supposed to be the exclusing domain of Microsoft and maybe Sony. Now every small startup's jumping up on the 'make a product that's expressly designed so that others will actively desire to avoid using it' bandwagon.
Seriously.
Well, I guess I won't be buying one of those. I don't know or care exactly what DRM would prevent me from making notes on the text I'm reading. There's no real justification, but doubtless in some idiotic sense it counts as 'distributing a modified version'. Maybe nothing I would ever want to read would decide to be un-zoomable. But you know what? Why the fork should I even have to think about it for a second??
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Not all at once, no. But then, I rarely read more than one or two books at a time so why would they need to?
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