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I just made a call to iRex. Do not expect an iRex DR1000SW before december 2010. The device will be completely redesigned: ePub support, possibly an improved scribble function and so on. And wireless.
I also mentioned that my iRex iLiad does not support wifi from ad-hoc networks, like my laptop or smartphone with an internet connection which broadcasts wifi. This apparently was news to the person I spoke to. Hopefully they will fix that.
The problem with the commercial hotspots with an authentication/pay screen on a webpage makes it difficult to use those connections. That probably remains unsolved.
Altogether I think I will not wait for wifi on an iRex device and get an DR1000 instead for reading my PDFs. Reading my newspaper is then something for my iPhone or iPad.
But the DR1000 is currently sold out, a new batch from Asia is underway and is expected to arrive end of June. Marketing of the DR1000 by retailers will recommence only after that, now even the DR1000 units for display in stores are sold in most shops.
Another consideration is the price. The DR1000 only gives a bigger screen, but is expensive. My iLiad still works. If I also get an iPad to read my news, it all adds up too much.
I did not like to hear that I can not annotate the papers of my students like I am used to on my iLiad. The ePub format does not allow this. The workaround is to carry one SD card for your 1.7 material and one for your 2.0 material. The first to annotate like I am used to. The annotated PDFs I can still merge using ILiadPdfScribbleMerger 1.8 I assume. When I want to read ePub titles I swap to the 2.0 SD card. Support for the old format is dropped because the market demand for ePub is the strongest.
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