MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Questions about iLiad's capabilities and whatnot

Asterra · 11-29-2007, 07:24 PM

These are newbie questions. The information available on this device tends to assume a certain measure of related knowledge, and I have very little. So here goes.

1) Supported formats. After maximizing the iLiad's compatibility with book / document formats in whatever ways that may be accomplished, which reasonably common formats remain unsupported, and/or which reasonably common iterations of formats are not adequately supported? In other words, if I were to buy/acquire some ebook at random, without paying any attention to its format, what are the odds that it would be something I could never get working with the iLiad, and what format(s) would that be?

2a) E-ink. The latest and greatest E-ink seems to be this "E-Ink Vitaplex", with most new and competitive devices boasting said E-ink, but apparently not the iLiad revision 2. The notable advantages of the new E-ink include things like refresh time (which the iLiad apparently still wins by making up the difference in device response time), brightness, and grayscale bit depth. First, how is it that the iLiad is achieving 4-bit grayscale when even the Vitaplex E-ink is supposed to be capable of only 3-bit?

2b) On the issue of brightness, which is perhaps my single greatest concern when it comes to these devices, are the listed figures accurate? 32% for the old, 40% for the new. I'd rather have the brightest (most paper-like) screen possible. Otherwise I may as well be staring at an oldschool graphic calculator.

3) I don't even know what reflow is, but it sounds like something the Sony Reader lacks and the iLiad may possess. Could someone elaborate?

4) Resizing images. There are all sorts of ways to resize JPG (or whatever) images. Nearest-neighbor is quick, easy, and ugly. Bicubic is much better. It's a safe bet that most JPGs the iLiad will be asked to display will be of much higher resolution than its native display, so the question of image resizing is important. It can be ugly, such as IE/Firefox's built-in scaling algorithm for images, or acceptable, such as the one employed by Windows Picture And Fax Viewer. Either way, it's a good thing to be aware of before plunking down 700 bucks.

Guess that about covers it for now. Thanks in advance!

11-29-2007, 07:24 PM	#1
Asterra Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: PRS-505	Questions about iLiad's capabilities and whatnot These are newbie questions. The information available on this device tends to assume a certain measure of related knowledge, and I have very little. So here goes. 1) Supported formats. After maximizing the iLiad's compatibility with book / document formats in whatever ways that may be accomplished, which reasonably common formats remain unsupported, and/or which reasonably common iterations of formats are not adequately supported? In other words, if I were to buy/acquire some ebook at random, without paying any attention to its format, what are the odds that it would be something I could never get working with the iLiad, and what format(s) would that be? 2a) E-ink. The latest and greatest E-ink seems to be this "E-Ink Vitaplex", with most new and competitive devices boasting said E-ink, but apparently not the iLiad revision 2. The notable advantages of the new E-ink include things like refresh time (which the iLiad apparently still wins by making up the difference in device response time), brightness, and grayscale bit depth. First, how is it that the iLiad is achieving 4-bit grayscale when even the Vitaplex E-ink is supposed to be capable of only 3-bit? 2b) On the issue of brightness, which is perhaps my single greatest concern when it comes to these devices, are the listed figures accurate? 32% for the old, 40% for the new. I'd rather have the brightest (most paper-like) screen possible. Otherwise I may as well be staring at an oldschool graphic calculator. 3) I don't even know what reflow is, but it sounds like something the Sony Reader lacks and the iLiad may possess. Could someone elaborate? 4) Resizing images. There are all sorts of ways to resize JPG (or whatever) images. Nearest-neighbor is quick, easy, and ugly. Bicubic is much better. It's a safe bet that most JPGs the iLiad will be asked to display will be of much higher resolution than its native display, so the question of image resizing is important. It can be ugly, such as IE/Firefox's built-in scaling algorithm for images, or acceptable, such as the one employed by Windows Picture And Fax Viewer. Either way, it's a good thing to be aware of before plunking down 700 bucks. Guess that about covers it for now. Thanks in advance!