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Grimulkan · 05-29-2009, 06:34 AM

Here is my review on the DR for academic use. It is based on 2-3 months of use. Rather than focus on a list of features, I thought I'd post about how I actually use it, what I like, what I'd like to see and what I find annoying.

****Warning: Wall of text imminent****

For research:
The good:
1. You can organize reference papers (and textbooks, if you have them on PDF) as you please using folder organization. Pretty neat, if you're disorganized in real life (like me). You can also use a bunch of .desktop shortcut files to make "playlists" collecting documents pertaining to a certain topic, or organize based on multiple criteria like author, date, topic etc. Creating these playlists would be cumbersome, until someone writes a software that does that.
2. You can make your collection as big as 32 GB depending on your SD card, or carry multiple cards with you.
3. You can open multiple documents at once and switch between them.
4. The large screen size really helps when you're skimming through a document looking for a certain page that has a particular equation, diagram or graph.
5. You can scribble all over your books/papers or on a separate notepad document. You'll never have to delete your old notes, its there on the DR (or on your computer) forever

The DR has an active touchscreen, meaning your palm or wrist won't distract the touch sensor while writing on the screen, if that is usually a problem for you.
6. File system organization with notes makes things really convenient. You can access what you jotted down on so-and-so day or so-and-so topic, merge them, and print them out or email them off.
7. You aren't constrained to work in your lab/office/library and won't be encumbered by a clunky laptop or a 3 hour battery when working elsewhere.
8. The eink screen makes long hours of reading simply great

9. An A4 or letter sized document looks great on the DR. The font size should be fine as it is (see pictures below), but you can zoom until the margins are cut out (or even the header, footer, page number etc.) and hide the task bar to maximize the viewing area.
10. Equations, graphs etc. look just like on paper, and if they're vector based (.eps figures, for instance, or just regular text), you can zoom in to tiny crevices and they will be re-rendered. This is pretty cool for graphs, when you want to zoom in to see what the value at a point looks like, or to differentiate between two lines that are really close together. You can then pan up/down/side-to-side. Now thats something you can't do with real paper

11. You can do a text search within your document, or use your own dictionaries to look up a word. If you can get your hands on a technical dictionary for your field, this can be pretty useful.
The bad:
1. Opening files could be faster. If you're trying to switch with more than 4 documents open, opening/closing old documents becomes a pain. Switching between less than 4 documents is also not as fast as I would like.
2. Page flips can be slow, especially when flipping fast while skimming or flipping in a random order. Work around: Convert documents into a bunch of images, which is MUCH faster, but you'll sacrifice full text search.
3. There is full text search within documents, but not across documents, or even a file name search. If we had a terminal app, we could use grep (for some text based formats) or ls. For now, organize well.
4. There is no "2 page viewing" mode. This would make skimming through large documents quicker. There is, however, an awesome thumbnail mode. Wish you could make the thumbnail size a tad bit bigger. Work around: you can also pre-process your documents to have 2 pages on 1 page, and then zoom and pan when you only want to view 1 page.
5. The combined effect of all this is that I still prefer having a bunch of textbooks open in front of me, for now. I use the DR when away from my books, or if I don't have (or can't afford) paper copies of my material. If you were stinking rich, you could buy several DRs (like the multiple data pads on Star Trek, but even they didn't have eink

).
6. If any textbooks you have *ahem* obtained are in .djvu, you'll have to convert them to PDF (the horror).
7. If you ever happen to delete metadata.db before you "merge" your notes, they're gone for ever! Merge regularly.
That said, I'd like better scribble merging features, and maybe a way to merge directly on the DR (instead of the PC).
8. While viewing pages in landscape mode in firmware 1.6, you may end up with an unrendered patch on the screen, necessitating a screen refresh. Hope iRex fixes this.
9. Added 05/29/2009: There is currently no suspend-to-flash feature on the DR, so you will need to shut it down when not using it for a long time. This means that you will need to find your old documents and re-open them after the longish bootup time. There is no recently used list as of 1.6.
10. Added 05/30/2009: I don't really consider the lag time of eink a problem while taking notes, but I've added a video of this so you can judge for yourself.

Note that ALL of these things can be fixed by software

For reviewing:
I'll cover things that I have not already covered above.
The good:
1. When reviewing theses, papers for journals, etc., the Wacom pen is invaluable. You can merge your notes to create an annotated PDF.
2. You'll never have to delete your reviews (I throw them away in real life), just in case you need them later.
3. You can open cited papers on the DR (provided you already have them on the SD card).
4. Even if your documents are not in PDF, you can print to PDF using one of many freeware PDF printers and save directly on the DR.
The bad:
Nada.

For note-taking in a classroom:
No need to worry about papers/pens (only battery life!), losing your notes or creating copies of them (for life!). Again, the small size gives you an advantage over laptops. Most people in the class will probably not even notice that you're not writing on paper.

I would like to see a better note-taking app out there (we're working on getting Xournal better right now). I miss the graph axes drawing and shape drawing functions from Microsoft OneNote.

For teaching/grading:
I've covered most things already. If you get assignments from students on PDF (otherwise you'll have to scan them), you can grade them on the DR, then merge them and email them back (or print them out, but thats the old-fashioned way). This is nice because it can drastically reduce the end-to-end delay on your [collect assignment]->[grade]->[return with comments] workflow, especially if your class only meets once or twice a week.

I'd still maintain test and assignment grades in Excel or some similar software because of the ease of data entry and the automatic formulas to generate statistics and graphs. Would be nice to have that on the DR.

Some people mentioned using the DR in class for lecturing. I think that other than the fact that you may already have your notes on the DR, the laptop with a Wacom pen is a neater option because it can directly plug into a digital projector and can take advantage of all the awesome PC software out there.

Notice that I have not said anything about the battery life, because though it *could* be a LOT better for the price and when compared to other eink devices, it doesn't really affect my usual pattern of work and lasts long enough for a working day. You can connect to your computer for an hour during lunch or carry a battery pack if you see yourself running out during the day. Some people might find that annoying though, so I'm pointing it out.

I can see some other ways to use the DR, if the software for it got better. For example, text editors with syntax highlighting, context sensitive search options, ways to jump to function declarations/definition and ways to link to API reference manuals can be used to browse through large code samples, with the luxury of an eink screen. If you don't mind using the stylus for text entry, you can even type on the DR, although a laptop or computer is probably a better bet for that. A calculator app (maybe porting a TI-89 emulator) on the DR might be handy

Might even be faster than a regular TI. Perhaps ports of Octave or Scilab for some limited math and symbolic manipulation, GnuPlot for graphs, a LaTeX compilation tool, etc. Just thoughts.

At this point, people might wonder "why not just get a $250 laptop?", at which point I'd say "becaue of the 10'' eink, the incredibly small size, battery life (yes) and possibly the Wacom pen". Now if only Asus would get its act together and make an EeePC with a 10'' screen that twisted around like a tablet and had 9+ hours of battery. Darn.

If you actually read all this, I'm amazed.

05-29-2009, 06:34 AM	#20
Grimulkan Lord Posts: 177 Karma: 328 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Q1 (on way out), PRS505, DR1000S (dead :<), TC1100 (10'' perfection!)	Here is my review on the DR for academic use. It is based on 2-3 months of use. Rather than focus on a list of features, I thought I'd post about how I actually use it, what I like, what I'd like to see and what I find annoying. **Warning: Wall of text imminent For research: The good: 1. You can organize reference papers (and textbooks, if you have them on PDF) as you please using folder organization. Pretty neat, if you're disorganized in real life (like me). You can also use a bunch of .desktop shortcut files to make "playlists" collecting documents pertaining to a certain topic, or organize based on multiple criteria like author, date, topic etc. Creating these playlists would be cumbersome, until someone writes a software that does that. 2. You can make your collection as big as 32 GB depending on your SD card, or carry multiple cards with you. 3. You can open multiple documents at once and switch between them. 4. The large screen size really helps when you're skimming through a document looking for a certain page that has a particular equation, diagram or graph. 5. You can scribble all over your books/papers or on a separate notepad document. You'll never have to delete your old notes, its there on the DR (or on your computer) forever The DR has an active touchscreen, meaning your palm or wrist won't distract the touch sensor while writing on the screen, if that is usually a problem for you. 6. File system organization with notes makes things really convenient. You can access what you jotted down on so-and-so day or so-and-so topic, merge them, and print them out or email them off. 7. You aren't constrained to work in your lab/office/library and won't be encumbered by a clunky laptop or a 3 hour battery when working elsewhere. 8. The eink screen makes long hours of reading simply great 9. An A4 or letter sized document looks great on the DR. The font size should be fine as it is (see pictures below), but you can zoom until the margins are cut out (or even the header, footer, page number etc.) and hide the task bar to maximize the viewing area. 10. Equations, graphs etc. look just like on paper, and if they're vector based (.eps figures, for instance, or just regular text), you can zoom in to tiny crevices and they will be re-rendered. This is pretty cool for graphs, when you want to zoom in to see what the value at a point looks like, or to differentiate between two lines that are really close together. You can then pan up/down/side-to-side. Now thats something you can't do with real paper 11. You can do a text search within your document, or use your own dictionaries to look up a word. If you can get your hands on a technical dictionary for your field, this can be pretty useful. The bad:** 1. Opening files could be faster. If you're trying to switch with more than 4 documents open, opening/closing old documents becomes a pain. Switching between less than 4 documents is also not as fast as I would like. 2. Page flips can be slow, especially when flipping fast while skimming or flipping in a random order. Work around: Convert documents into a bunch of images, which is MUCH faster, but you'll sacrifice full text search. 3. There is full text search within documents, but not across documents, or even a file name search. If we had a terminal app, we could use grep (for some text based formats) or ls. For now, organize well. 4. There is no "2 page viewing" mode. This would make skimming through large documents quicker. There is, however, an awesome thumbnail mode. Wish you could make the thumbnail size a tad bit bigger. Work around: you can also pre-process your documents to have 2 pages on 1 page, and then zoom and pan when you only want to view 1 page. 5. The combined effect of all this is that I still prefer having a bunch of textbooks open in front of me, for now. I use the DR when away from my books, or if I don't have (or can't afford) paper copies of my material. If you were stinking rich, you could buy several DRs (like the multiple data pads on Star Trek, but even they didn't have eink ). 6. If any textbooks you have ahem obtained are in .djvu, you'll have to convert them to PDF (the horror). 7. If you ever happen to delete metadata.db before you "merge" your notes, they're gone for ever! Merge regularly. That said, I'd like better scribble merging features, and maybe a way to merge directly on the DR (instead of the PC). 8. While viewing pages in landscape mode in firmware 1.6, you may end up with an unrendered patch on the screen, necessitating a screen refresh. Hope iRex fixes this. 9. Added 05/29/2009: There is currently no suspend-to-flash feature on the DR, so you will need to shut it down when not using it for a long time. This means that you will need to find your old documents and re-open them after the longish bootup time. There is no recently used list as of 1.6. 10. Added 05/30/2009: I don't really consider the lag time of eink a problem while taking notes, but I've added a video of this so you can judge for yourself. Note that ALL of these things can be fixed by software For reviewing: I'll cover things that I have not already covered above. The good: 1. When reviewing theses, papers for journals, etc., the Wacom pen is invaluable. You can merge your notes to create an annotated PDF. 2. You'll never have to delete your reviews (I throw them away in real life), just in case you need them later. 3. You can open cited papers on the DR (provided you already have them on the SD card). 4. Even if your documents are not in PDF, you can print to PDF using one of many freeware PDF printers and save directly on the DR. The bad: Nada. For note-taking in a classroom: No need to worry about papers/pens (only battery life!), losing your notes or creating copies of them (for life!). Again, the small size gives you an advantage over laptops. Most people in the class will probably not even notice that you're not writing on paper. I would like to see a better note-taking app out there (we're working on getting Xournal better right now). I miss the graph axes drawing and shape drawing functions from Microsoft OneNote. For teaching/grading: I've covered most things already. If you get assignments from students on PDF (otherwise you'll have to scan them), you can grade them on the DR, then merge them and email them back (or print them out, but thats the old-fashioned way). This is nice because it can drastically reduce the end-to-end delay on your [collect assignment]->[grade]->[return with comments] workflow, especially if your class only meets once or twice a week. I'd still maintain test and assignment grades in Excel or some similar software because of the ease of data entry and the automatic formulas to generate statistics and graphs. Would be nice to have that on the DR. Some people mentioned using the DR in class for lecturing. I think that other than the fact that you may already have your notes on the DR, the laptop with a Wacom pen is a neater option because it can directly plug into a digital projector and can take advantage of all the awesome PC software out there. Notice that I have not said anything about the battery life, because though it could be a LOT better for the price and when compared to other eink devices, it doesn't really affect my usual pattern of work and lasts long enough for a working day. You can connect to your computer for an hour during lunch or carry a battery pack if you see yourself running out during the day. Some people might find that annoying though, so I'm pointing it out. I can see some other ways to use the DR, if the software for it got better. For example, text editors with syntax highlighting, context sensitive search options, ways to jump to function declarations/definition and ways to link to API reference manuals can be used to browse through large code samples, with the luxury of an eink screen. If you don't mind using the stylus for text entry, you can even type on the DR, although a laptop or computer is probably a better bet for that. A calculator app (maybe porting a TI-89 emulator) on the DR might be handy Might even be faster than a regular TI. Perhaps ports of Octave or Scilab for some limited math and symbolic manipulation, GnuPlot for graphs, a LaTeX compilation tool, etc. Just thoughts. At this point, people might wonder "why not just get a $250 laptop?", at which point I'd say "becaue of the 10'' eink, the incredibly small size, battery life (yes) and possibly the Wacom pen". Now if only Asus would get its act together and make an EeePC with a 10'' screen that twisted around like a tablet and had 9+ hours of battery. Darn. If you actually read all this, I'm amazed. Last edited by Grimulkan; 05-30-2009 at 02:04 AM. Reason: Missed out a [/b], ended up sounding like I needed anger management.