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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."
Perhaps the most hard read title in the world?
I don't know about everyone else, but some of these naming conventions are starting to get annoying.
This sounds, to me, like they will only support DRM capable formats
It supports PDF, TXT and HTML, among others. Plenty of scope for non-DRM'd files.
Whether or not anyone will sell you a book in a non DRM'd format is another quetsion, but if they will the chances are you'll be able to read it on this.
My main problem with it is that I can buy an awful lot of dead tree for 650 euros. I'm still waiting for a really good e-reader. I would be happy to pay somewhere around 150 pounds to get an A5 size tablet that I can read PDFs on. Wake me when that happens.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
I agree. Digital ink is one of those technologies - like flying cars - that's been around in sci-fi for decades and yet somehow never seemed to be realized in real life (even though, unlike FTL travel or universal translators, it doesn't seem that hard to create). It's one of the technological advances that I think will have a geuinely huge and lasting impact on digital media.
Just think about it - any portable device (other than an audio device) has pretty much been constrained to indoor use. Take a laptop outside and try using it. And sure, $900 can buy a lot of paperbacks, but try carrying them all with you at once. On top of that, $900 is what it costs now. What did the first CD or DVD player cost?
And on top of that, you have to realize that this is much, much more than just the capacity to carry around a library with you. With searcheable documents and note-taking ability it's going to grant users the capacity to carry around a library, card catalog, and user-created index.
I've been waiting for this to come out for years. Of course I'm not in a position to get the first model (too expensive, and I imagine that some things like text recognition won't be working quite right) but I honestly believe this is one of those products that will (if quietly) really change the landscape of digital devices. As far as I'm concerned it's 10 times more useful than a laptop for most non-tech-related uses already.
We give out laptops to middle and high school kids in my county. What a waste! Textbooks are pain in the ass to read on laptops. And that horsepower is wasted on kids who don't code, can't game, and don't even use cool programs like Mathematica or something. For note taking, reading, and research this is a real breakthrough. Toss in mp3 support and it's like any bibliophiles idea of portable nirvana.
The only thing that remains to be seen is how they draw the line between eBook devices and laptops. What functaionality will end up where? What will distinquish one from the other - or will they merge into one ultra-device if digital ink gets full color, etc.?
Oh yeah - and did we mention 21 hours of battery life. Now THAT is starting to look like a portable device.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
I saw this device last month in Moscow at the World Editors Forum, where Dr. Caroline Pauwels of the Free University of Brussels discussed a field test being conducted in conjunction with De Tijd, a daily newspaper published in Antwerp, which produced a daily e-paper edition. They gave the device to 200 people, both print and online readers. The test was continuing but she talked about some preliminary results:
* Slow.
* No search.
* Difficulty setting up wifi connections.
* Good quality display, easy to read.
The bigger picture: She called it an "evolution of paper" but not an evolution of newspapers, and raised questions about whether editors are prepared to evolve into a medium where RSS feeds/aggregation, interconnections with other resources, and conversation are expected and demanded.
I briefly examined the device, which seems a bit larger than the e-paper device Sony has been selling in Japan for a couple of years now.
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.
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.
Where'd you read the part about 2-4 seconds for a page refresh? If true, that would really suck.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I understand why publishing companies don't want copies to be made any more than with paper books, but they need to find a way to at least allow transferring ownership of an ebook from one device to another, or make them so cheap compared to paper books that it doesn't matter, if they expect ebooks to come close to replacing paper.
I'm with you. IMO they made some serious mistakes. First and formost is the cost. Secondly we have something which ties in directly to the first, which is the inclusion of (of all things) an mp3 player. Is it some new dictum that all new hardware will evolve to a point where it includes an mp3 player?
Anyway, it's too expensive. I'm an early adopter, but I will not pay that kind of money for a mere ereader. A portable screen like this should cost 300 euro's max...and that's for the first run of the tech. But then they have to go and include an mp3 player?!? WTF? WHY? I do not want one on my ebook reader. Either make an all purpose device like a palmpilot with this screen or just make a simple no-frills reader. Preferably just the reader, as everyone and his dog has a better mp3 player. It increases cost and size (chip, jack) and drains the battery. AND PEOPLE WHO WANT THIS THING TO READ ON DON'T WANT AN MP3 PLAYER! THEY WANT TO READ BOOKS!
I mean, shoot, my phone has an mp3 player which I never use, as does my palmpilot (which I do use the mp3 function on). I love the screen on this thing....but just not for that money. My guess is they'll never re-coop their investment, as they screwed up their market research on who wants one of these things and what they want on it. They should have diverted the mp3 R&D towards creating a html help (.chm) reader for this thing, as that's what it's sorely missing.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Why an MP3 player? Well, they probably had something like a sound chip (maybe even build in) from a PDA. This thing uses a 400 MHz XScale processor. It is very easy to add MP3 in software, and the software is probably even already available for this kind of configuration anyway. So why? Because it is already there.
:)
As an early adopter, you definately do no like spending. If you look at Blu-Ray, you would have to put in a hell of a lot more cash to get one of those. I think the eInk market is in potential much, much bigger. For most companies at least, this is not much of a price to pay. I would love having one of these things, if only for not having to lug all the documentation to company meetings (and printing them out). Give me a single purpose eInk reader over a laptop anytime.
The resolution of 1024 x 786 would be the largest drawback for me. A laser easily does 600 dpi, almost 4 times the resolution, giving my eyes some much needed rest (what am I still doing here behind my computer