[ali]

Originally Posted by emkay

I can't agree with this. The iLiad hardware is better specified. It's silly to pretend otherwise. Have you seen the Sony Reader next to the iLiad? It looks tiny!

There seems to be something about me that drives people into name-calling. First Riocaz with saying I'm "ridiculous", and now "silly". Is it really so hard to attack subjects instead of persons?

But, to the subject. I really think that right now (that is, with current software, or with the updated 2.7 specs), and with my way of using the Iliad, the Sony is better in all relevant respects. I invite you to prove me wrong or show where I missed something, so here are details:

the "larger" screen
The screen is larger (8" vs. 6"). However, there's the wasted space on top and bottom, making the usable are 7.5". Most things I display have a fixed aspect ratio of 1.4:1, which is displayed in an area with diagonal 7.0". So, for my content, the Iliad offers 7", the Sony 6". I don't think that's so much a difference, but the Iliad is slightly better. (The resolution of both is same, approx. 160dpi)

the "touch screen"
I don't use it. It's as there is none, if it broke two weeks ago I wouldn't have noticed until now, where I'm writing this. The touch screen has two purposes - navigation and note taking.
1 - Navigation: Using a wacom instead of a simple touch-sensitive thing is the worse choice, because I can't just tip things with a fingernail or the back of a pen, as I used to do with my Zaurus. I have to take out the pen at least three times until it works, and I have to use both hands. It is almost always easier to use the buttons, and it would be even easier if there were the "1" to "10" buttons on the Sony.
2 - Notetaking: Doesn't work on PDFs. I want to use it to annotate what I'm reading - there are two frequent usages: Correcting what students wrote, and adding comments when working through a complicated proof. But I have to switch between PDF and Scribble (takes ca. 10 seconds!). Plus the screen is miscalibrated, so I can really not read what I wrote with it. Also people report their battery life degrades from 9 to 5 hours when they take notes.
Together: The wacom is of no use for me, the Iliad would be of more use to me if there'd be more buttons and no touchscreen.

the "networking"
I see installing software updates as device maintenance, not usage. So the "connectivity option" networking is technically there, but it cannot be used. However, it adds to battery consumption and device cost, so it would be better if it would be not there.

battery life
No need to tell much. From first reviews of the Sony, I hear that the "7500 pages" figure may be accurate. The device can be used for a long time, and it takes just 4 seconds to awake from suspend.

the buttons
Still waiting for user reports, but it seems that the prev/next buttons are two times on the Sony, so you can push them both in portrait and landscape mode, while I think that flipping pages on a landscape Iliad is uncomfortable.

the viewers
I don't use the HTML viewer, everything I read is PDF. But from Sony user reports I see that switching portrait/landscape works, and it even supports a zoom-to-page-width without manual adjustment. Also they seem to use Adobe's renderer, which is much faster and better readable than xpdf (I posted comparison pictures somewhere).

the software
I don't know for sure about the Sony, but they published sources, while I paid for a device that comes with unlicensed software. "Unlicensed" as in "pirate copy", with the same legal implications. I didn't foresee that - a startup company who's first product is unlawful. I have a bunch of friends in different hardware startups, and they'd never come up with such a business idea. For me it's rather shocking, but this time, when talking about open source advocacy, Sony is the good guy and the underdog is the offender. This is new.

the software design
I said that in a different thread, but I think the design of the Iliad's software is flawed from the ground up. I know several guys who develop software for sensor nodes, that is, embedded ultra-low-power software. From there, I have some idea on what works and what not, and the setup with three levels of indirection, all being desktop-oriented, (framebuffer, Xlib, gtk) is bound to be slow and power consuming. On the other hand, the Sony seems to do it right - people report that the screen updates in a second, and startup time from suspend is 4 seconds.

the "but we wanted it" situation
The "we want to pay for being beta testers" argument is essentially correct. But it was (for me) based on the assumption I would get legally distributed GPL software, which means I have the right to fix software bugs myself. Plus the announcement from iRex was not "no good idea, it will probably take ages" - they said that the software would be beta until the release of the consumer version in September. So the agreement is to live with bug-ridden feature-less beta software until, well, last month. That's over now. We did our part (paying, giving feedback), now it's iRex' turn, and they failed.


That's it; feedback and counterarguments are welcome. If you just want to state how very stupid/ridiculous/silly/worthless/subhuman/nazi I am, please send an email to billgates@microsoft.com. Thank you.