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I went to the Independence Center and I got to play with an IQ. They aren't actually selling them yet because there is a new firmware coming out next week that is supposed to fix some stuff. The guy at the kiosk was very nice and helpful, but he is self-admittedly new to ebook readers, so I actually knew at least as much as he did.
He said the kiosk in Seattle is open, but not where it is.
Anyway, here follows a brief report. I apologize for no pictures, but my cell phone is an antique without a camera:
This is being marketed as an Android device, competing with Ipad (or at least reading is only one of many things it does.)
On the homepage is, among other things, a section for Bookland with three tabs (Bestsellers [I think], Books, and Periodicals) that will take you to the site. Unfortunately, they show the covers of said books and periodicals...in Russian. The clerk and I couldn't figure out how to change this to English, but he's going to look into it.
It does indeed come loaded with hundreds of English PD books. I couldn't verify any other languages except Russian. But there are loads of language options when you set it up.
The three buttons at the bottom do not have anything to do with turning pages, nor did I see any option to map them in Settings. The center one takes you to the Home page, the right button takes you up one level (say back to the folder your book is in), and I forgot what the left button does--but nothing specific to the ereader. However, at the bottom of the page, rather like what comes up in fbreader on the 360 but narrower top to bottom, is a section that lets you change the font size, and there are also arrows you can touch to change the page forward or back. The arrows work pretty quickly, I thought. The appearance is of sliding to the left or right, more like a scroll than a book with pages. But it's something i got used to very quickly--no problem.
The swiping also turns pages, but it did seem a little slow to me.
The PD books I looked at were easy to read in terms of reflow, clarity of font, etc. I didn't have a chance to play around enough to see if there was more than one reader option, but I'm guessing that it comes with only the Android reader whatever it's called and will read different formats without you having to select anything.
It comes loaded with lots of Android apps, and has a g-sensor. One of the apps it comes with is a level--so you can tell if your reading desk is level, I guess!
It also comes with the apps you would expect--a calendar, a calculator, and a note taking app. I didn't find out if you can use it to take notes while you read. You can either draw on the screen using your finger or a stylus (I don't think it is provided) or use the qwerty keyboard.
The wifi at the mall is pretty slow, so I didn't try anything involving going online, but the guy's daughter was playing with it when I arrived, and she was online at the Disney site, so I know it works.
The screen has a brightness setting that seemed to go from very dark to very bright--so you can save your battery by turning it down when you don't need it to be bright. The clerk thought he had found a way while playing with it to reverse the background and print--ie black background and white print for reading in the dark, but he was unable to reproduce it, so I am unable to verify. It may well have been on one of the other readers he had.
That's about all I remember off the top of my head; I might remember more later.
All in all, I think it's worth $140 plus tax or shipping. So I'm going back when it's actually available to purchase.
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