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jotheman · 12-29-2007, 05:26 AM

Hi everyone,

when I started thinking about buying a dedicated ebook reader some while ago, I found a lot of the info I needed in these forums, so I'll give it a try and post about the problems I now have with my new iRex Iliad here.

Biggest Problem: it's not really bricked, but I am stuck with the original software that came on it. Since I bought it in China, I seemingly cannot install any third-party software. In the quick guide that came with it, I was referred to the english MyIrex site, but I had to find out myself (a very lengthy process) that my Iliad will actually contact a special chinese iDS service - no wonder I always got an error message and could not connect. Even worse, I found out that in China, the developer's package is not offered. I tried the manual shell hack posted here a long time ago, but it doesn't seem to work with the newer firmware versions. Is there any newer hack that does the trick?

What makes things worse is that i am a Mac user. I counted on the Third Party software to get my Newsfeeds directly to the Iliad without the "companion software". Now I can only do the most basic things with it. I bought it for reading, of course, but it's not all about the display (which is pretty greyish, BTW), but also about the content, if you know what i mean. I like reading stuff on it, really feels quite natural. But what do you need WiFi for if you can only use it to have the device "call home" once in a while an not to update RSS-newsfeeds or download content right onto the device?

So what you get when you buy a chinese Iliad is an expensive yet very basic ebook reader which doesn't even support txt files. I could have bought a Jinke or one of the even cheaper devices on the market here, but the Iliad seemed more flexible and expandable. How wrong i was. Devices like the Archos 705 Wi-Fi or similar media players now come in cheaper than the Iliad and, although not specially designed for reading, wouldn't have me feel like being stuck with an out-of-date gadget from 2 years ago. How am I not to regret having invested 5800 RMB (about 570 €) in a device that doesn't even have a USB 2.0 interface?

To say someting positive about the chinese version: it comes with a chinese handwriting recognition feature that works flawlessly. There is no real use for it, though, since there are no applications on it where i could enter any chinese text, except for the names of the network profies...

I hope the ingenious people in this forum might know hot to "unbrick" my not-really-bricked-but-feeling-like-it Iliad and have some suggestions on how to get the most out of it using it with a Mac.

Thanks and a Happy New Year to everyone!

jo.

12-29-2007, 05:26 AM	#1
jotheman Sleeper. Posts: 109 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Boox Max2, Kinde Voyage, reMarkable, Dasung Paperlike Pro	Stuck with a brick. Hi everyone, when I started thinking about buying a dedicated ebook reader some while ago, I found a lot of the info I needed in these forums, so I'll give it a try and post about the problems I now have with my new iRex Iliad here. Biggest Problem: it's not really bricked, but I am stuck with the original software that came on it. Since I bought it in China, I seemingly cannot install any third-party software. In the quick guide that came with it, I was referred to the english MyIrex site, but I had to find out myself (a very lengthy process) that my Iliad will actually contact a special chinese iDS service - no wonder I always got an error message and could not connect. Even worse, I found out that in China, the developer's package is not offered. I tried the manual shell hack posted here a long time ago, but it doesn't seem to work with the newer firmware versions. Is there any newer hack that does the trick? What makes things worse is that i am a Mac user. I counted on the Third Party software to get my Newsfeeds directly to the Iliad without the "companion software". Now I can only do the most basic things with it. I bought it for reading, of course, but it's not all about the display (which is pretty greyish, BTW), but also about the content, if you know what i mean. I like reading stuff on it, really feels quite natural. But what do you need WiFi for if you can only use it to have the device "call home" once in a while an not to update RSS-newsfeeds or download content right onto the device? So what you get when you buy a chinese Iliad is an expensive yet very basic ebook reader which doesn't even support txt files. I could have bought a Jinke or one of the even cheaper devices on the market here, but the Iliad seemed more flexible and expandable. How wrong i was. Devices like the Archos 705 Wi-Fi or similar media players now come in cheaper than the Iliad and, although not specially designed for reading, wouldn't have me feel like being stuck with an out-of-date gadget from 2 years ago. How am I not to regret having invested 5800 RMB (about 570 €) in a device that doesn't even have a USB 2.0 interface? To say someting positive about the chinese version: it comes with a chinese handwriting recognition feature that works flawlessly. There is no real use for it, though, since there are no applications on it where i could enter any chinese text, except for the names of the network profies... I hope the ingenious people in this forum might know hot to "unbrick" my not-really-bricked-but-feeling-like-it Iliad and have some suggestions on how to get the most out of it using it with a Mac. Thanks and a Happy New Year to everyone! jo.