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CommanderROR · 03-16-2006, 07:20 AM

well..for me the Iliad is still an interesting device, but it has lost a lot of attractivity for me...

Reasons:
1.) Price

2.) no cover (don't laugh, it's very important for me...I don't want to have to pack the book away in a case or pouch/sleeve as soon as I put it out of hand...and I don't like to carry around a seperate case all the time. Also consider weight...the Iliad is heavy...with case even heavier...?)

3.) Too much focus on IDS in my opinion...I don't mind something like Sony's connect store in principle, but a device with Wlan can be used for so much more than synching to some kind of Content-Delivery-System. Instead of using it that way, iRex cripples the Wlan capabilities and makes them "IDS-Exclusive".

4.) The device is set to launch in April and apparently still not done...it should be in production stage by now...in my opinion...

5.) The device is expensive and has a lot of capabilities...but the only thing that seems to be full-fledged is IDS...and they don't have the server or the content for that yet...the Hanlin V2 offers no content delivery but has a calender and other PDA functions onboard straight from the box...and they also offer the SDK so there can be more software very soon...Sony offers no SDK and probably will not support many formats, but they promise to have 10k+ books ready for purchase right on launch-day.

6.) Battery Life...I know the Iliad has more features and everything...but judging from the fact that they give their usage in time in hors instead of page-turns, something is fundamentally different between teir power-management and the Sony/Jinke version. 21 hours in comparison to 7000-8000 page-turns seems pretty puny. Seen from a "reader" perspective it means reading a couple of chapters instead of reading 10 or more books on one battery charge. Longer battery-life means more book-like to me. And always keep in mind that all stated values are ideal values...real-life battery-life is probably a lot less, especially if you use anything but the basics...

That's it...my impression so far. I still think it could be a cool gadget, but it's no longer my Nr.1
I hope Jinke and Sony get a move on so we can get a preview/review of the Hanlin V2 and the Sony Rader soon...

03-16-2006, 07:20 AM	#16
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	well..for me the Iliad is still an interesting device, but it has lost a lot of attractivity for me... Reasons: 1.) Price 2.) no cover (don't laugh, it's very important for me...I don't want to have to pack the book away in a case or pouch/sleeve as soon as I put it out of hand...and I don't like to carry around a seperate case all the time. Also consider weight...the Iliad is heavy...with case even heavier...?) 3.) Too much focus on IDS in my opinion...I don't mind something like Sony's connect store in principle, but a device with Wlan can be used for so much more than synching to some kind of Content-Delivery-System. Instead of using it that way, iRex cripples the Wlan capabilities and makes them "IDS-Exclusive". 4.) The device is set to launch in April and apparently still not done...it should be in production stage by now...in my opinion... 5.) The device is expensive and has a lot of capabilities...but the only thing that seems to be full-fledged is IDS...and they don't have the server or the content for that yet...the Hanlin V2 offers no content delivery but has a calender and other PDA functions onboard straight from the box...and they also offer the SDK so there can be more software very soon...Sony offers no SDK and probably will not support many formats, but they promise to have 10k+ books ready for purchase right on launch-day. 6.) Battery Life...I know the Iliad has more features and everything...but judging from the fact that they give their usage in time in hors instead of page-turns, something is fundamentally different between teir power-management and the Sony/Jinke version. 21 hours in comparison to 7000-8000 page-turns seems pretty puny. Seen from a "reader" perspective it means reading a couple of chapters instead of reading 10 or more books on one battery charge. Longer battery-life means more book-like to me. And always keep in mind that all stated values are ideal values...real-life battery-life is probably a lot less, especially if you use anything but the basics... That's it...my impression so far. I still think it could be a cool gadget, but it's no longer my Nr.1 I hope Jinke and Sony get a move on so we can get a preview/review of the Hanlin V2 and the Sony Rader soon... Last edited by CommanderROR; 03-16-2006 at 07:37 AM.