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jrial · 03-02-2009, 04:23 PM

Well, I'm sorry if this sounds pessimistic, but I also own a Nokia 770 webtablet and something similar happened there. Nokia released an updated version, the N800, with an updated OS which made good use of the extra horsepower the little machine offered, an updated browser which was more stable than the one on the previous model and a more recent Flash version. Nothing got backported to the 770 by Nokia, they just abandoned the 770 as soon as the N800 came out. Now, consider that this machine was way smaller and had a normal LCD touchscreen, so it was far cheaper to produce. Yet still was in the same ballpark price-wise than the iLiad.

Sure, the opensource community created some sort of backport of the OS used in the N800 and N810, but it wasn't nearly as snappy nor stable as on the original 800/810 devices.

Nokia left its customers in the cold, and the FOSS community tried but failed to fix Nokia's mistakes. If iRex decides to do the same, I'm afraid we're SOL; there just aren't enough geeks with an iLiad and the platform isn't very frienly to code for. Even if iRex decides to open up more (and I wonder what more they could do, except make the device easier to reflash if you brick it), we'd still have a way too small hacker community to get some real cool stuff going. We're too scattered, everybody is working on their own pet projects, but noone is tackling the hard stuff where the real gains are to be had.

Where are all the alternative front-ends for example? The one iRex built in is horrible (no offense, guys). Six titles fit on the screen at any given time. There's no way to search. There's no way to keep track of what you've read and what you haven't. The settings screens are extensive. But there's no easy way to know which kind of settings are grouped where, so you end up flipping several pages to find the one setting you're looking for. While reading a book, you can always see what page you're on. But there's no easy way to check the title again without losing your position in the book, unless it's printed on every page. I'm sorry, but the reason I remember the titles of the paper books I read is because every time I pick them up to read on, I see the cover again.

All these little things bug me. Other people might have a different set of pet peeves. Yet the only real improvement I've seen from the community so far, other than some ported readers which can do more formats, is a full-screen PDF viewer. And not even an advanced one that toggles the bottom bar based on the pen being inside or out of it's holder, which we can detect, apparently.

And don't get me wrong: this is no criticism towards the iLiad community. We are a small community due to the pricey nature of the device, and the iLiad is not very hacker friendly either so the few hackers we do have are cautious lest they break their expensive toy.

03-02-2009, 04:23 PM	#7
jrial Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Diepenbeek, Belgium Device: Sony PRS-505, iRex Iliad, nokia 770, gp2x, palm zire 71	Well, I'm sorry if this sounds pessimistic, but I also own a Nokia 770 webtablet and something similar happened there. Nokia released an updated version, the N800, with an updated OS which made good use of the extra horsepower the little machine offered, an updated browser which was more stable than the one on the previous model and a more recent Flash version. Nothing got backported to the 770 by Nokia, they just abandoned the 770 as soon as the N800 came out. Now, consider that this machine was way smaller and had a normal LCD touchscreen, so it was far cheaper to produce. Yet still was in the same ballpark price-wise than the iLiad. Sure, the opensource community created some sort of backport of the OS used in the N800 and N810, but it wasn't nearly as snappy nor stable as on the original 800/810 devices. Nokia left its customers in the cold, and the FOSS community tried but failed to fix Nokia's mistakes. If iRex decides to do the same, I'm afraid we're SOL; there just aren't enough geeks with an iLiad and the platform isn't very frienly to code for. Even if iRex decides to open up more (and I wonder what more they could do, except make the device easier to reflash if you brick it), we'd still have a way too small hacker community to get some real cool stuff going. We're too scattered, everybody is working on their own pet projects, but noone is tackling the hard stuff where the real gains are to be had. Where are all the alternative front-ends for example? The one iRex built in is horrible (no offense, guys). Six titles fit on the screen at any given time. There's no way to search. There's no way to keep track of what you've read and what you haven't. The settings screens are extensive. But there's no easy way to know which kind of settings are grouped where, so you end up flipping several pages to find the one setting you're looking for. While reading a book, you can always see what page you're on. But there's no easy way to check the title again without losing your position in the book, unless it's printed on every page. I'm sorry, but the reason I remember the titles of the paper books I read is because every time I pick them up to read on, I see the cover again. All these little things bug me. Other people might have a different set of pet peeves. Yet the only real improvement I've seen from the community so far, other than some ported readers which can do more formats, is a full-screen PDF viewer. And not even an advanced one that toggles the bottom bar based on the pen being inside or out of it's holder, which we can detect, apparently. And don't get me wrong: this is no criticism towards the iLiad community. We are a small community due to the pricey nature of the device, and the iLiad is not very hacker friendly either so the few hackers we do have are cautious lest they break their expensive toy.