[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by timezone

1. Give us a USB port that can charge andconnect to the PC. Any device that still uses a proprietary plug should be banned from the universe. A proprietary plug is unacceptable.

I agree that the whole hub thing is annoying, but with the current batteries you can't charge via USB. It takes a higher voltage/amp to charge the iLiad than a USB connection will supply. Most of the devices that allow you to charge via USB are much smaller than the iLiad. If they put smaller batteries in so that charging was more convenient, then the battery life would be much worse.

It would be nice to have a port directly on the unit for a charger, rather than deal with the hub, but you're still talking about having one of those 12V power bricks.

2, Wacom is cool but why not have a touch screen. Then we don't have to worry about battery drain. I don't want to pull out the stylus every time I want to touch an icon.

I think that's the other way around. With a touch screen, it would have to be "active" all the time, making battery drain worse. The fact that you have to pull the stylus out in order to draw is a good thing, with regards to battery life. When the stylus is put away, it shuts off the wacom layer, saving the battery.

3. Open the Battery compartment. Stop drinking the Apple Kool-aid. A closed battery compartment is just plain stupid.

I agree 100%. This is one of my biggest complaints. They should definitely make it a user changeable battery.

4. We should not have to install a developer package to install third party software.

They've said before that they may eventually make the developer package installed by default. In the not so distant past, the developer package was a lot more risky that it is now. There used to be a real danger of third party apps bricking your iLiad. That's the main reason it's not on there by default.

5. Give us PDF DRM and ePub. In other words lets us choose which format we want to use.

I don't know about ePub (is there a third party app that will read ePub docs?), but the only way to get DRM PDFs is to negotiate with Adobe for rights to the PDF encryption. iRex has tried to work this out with them in the past, and Adobe was not interested. They have historically been very reluctant to let anyone else have applications that can open DRM PDFs. When the Sony got it, it was fairly surprising. Hopefully this means that Adobe will be more willing to work with other companies now. I think iRex mentioned on their site that there were going to try and go back to Adobe and negotiate with them again.

6. Improve the boot time.

7. A hibernate mode.

Can't comment there. Faster boot and hibernate are always good things. It'll take some hardware/OS changes in order to get there though.

8. Put the stylus in a location that is easy to reach even when the reader is in a leather container.

Or else have the third party leather container manufacturers design a better container. It's reachable with the iRex deluxe cover, I think it's just the M-edge cover that causes a problem.

9. Thinner and lighter.

Same as 6 and 7. The current size/weight don't really bother me though.

10 Get a distributor and sell in the U.S stores.

They already have a US distributor/retailer, eReader Outfitters. You don't really see it in brick and mortar stores, but that's true of most of the readers. I think that will start to change if/when ebook readers in general become more mainstream. I think it's still enough of a niche market that stores don't want to dedicate display/shelf space to them. I think we're getting close though.

11. If you don't improve customer service and continue innovating then sell the business to Sony or Amazon. Either get with it or get out.

They have already made some moves to address the customer service problems. Bringing it in house, instead of outsourcing it, will hopefully make a big difference. They are innovating, they're just not announcing future products/features in advance. That makes sense for a company with an established product in the market. It's just good business sense, otherwise you'll kill off your current product before you have a new one ready to sell.

They also do a lot that we as consumer's don't necessarily hear about. iRex's core competency is developing hardware. Most of the eInk readers on the market (including Sony, Kindle, etc) are using some hardware developed by iRex. When PVI builds an eInk screen, they take the eInk layer from EInk Corp and pair it up with a display controller. The display controller was designed by iRex. They've done some things "behind the scenes" that benefit all the eInk devices, not just the iLiad. A couple other companies are starting to get into this, but most of the eInk devices currently on the market are using iRex controllers.

That's also why the iLiad currently has a larger screen with better greyscale than the other readers. iRex also developed the display controller that gives them the size/greyscale advantage.

12. Get an agreement with Amazon to allow us to buy books from them.

I assume you mean kindle books? I doubt Amazon will let anybody else have access to kindle books. They made them incompatible with Mobipocket (which Amazone also owns) on purpose. The fact that you have to own a kindle reader in order to access kindle ebooks was not an accident. There's really nothing iRex (or any other device manufacturer) can do about it. It's Amazon's decision.

13. Be more aggressive negotiating with newspapers and magazines Co. and offer content and let us connect to iRex to download the ones we subscribe to.

Yeah, definitely. That was one of the more interesting features of the iLiad, but it never really went anywhere. I don't know what the reasons are, but I wonder if they had a hard time getting newspapers/magazines to agree. There are even a lot of book publishers out there that are not interested in getting into the "ebook" movement.

14. Talk to us iRex. Living in a hole in the ground will get you nowhere.

Kind of goes along with 11, but this has been discussed before both on here and iRex's forum. There's a balancing act between making big announcements when you're still working on new devices, versus killing off sales of your current devices because everyone stops buying it when they know there's something better coming out soon. Every company has this problem. If you're brand new to a market (PlasticLogic, Astak, etc) then it makes sense to be as loud/public as possible with what you're working on. Both to drive up interest amongst consumers, but also to keep your investors happy. If you're an established company in a market though, there can be some real downsides to making announcements of future products/features too early. People will stop buying your current product if they know something newer/better is just around the corner. That'll dry up your revenue stream and put the company in a bad financial posiition. It's not that an established company isn't working on anything new, it's just that alot of times it's better for them if they don't publicize it too early.

They have mentioned some of what they're currently working on for the next software release, and have dropped hints about "big things to come" with regards to hardware. They haven't given any schedule/dates for releases though, and it probably makes sense that they don't.