DR800SG now listed on Best Buy web site

[badbob001]

Heck, there is more talk about the dr800 than probably the rest of the world.

This was posted on Oct. 8, but I didn't see it before. The Irex CEO is giving a demo of the DR800 at what I assume is the Sept. 23 announcement of the product.


Just finished watching it. As exciting as a press release about a new toilet paper.

Look how long it took to connect to the Verizon network... it almost didn't make it. Bet they wished they included wifi at least for demo purposes. How long does it take a kindle to get to the amazon store?

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Heck, there is more talk about the dr800 than probably the rest of the world.

This was posted on Oct. 8, but I didn't see it before. The Irex CEO is giving a demo of the DR800 at what I assume is the Sept. 23 announcement of the product.


Just finished watching it. As exciting as a press release about a new toilet paper.

Look how long it took to connect to the Verizon network... it almost didn't make it. Bet they wished they included wifi at least for demo purposes. How long does it take a kindle to get to the amazon store?

I seem to recall someone who was at the event saying it was fairly deep in the building with marginal coverage. The kindle can take a bit of time as well if the signal is weak, but in general it's probably connected in 30 seconds or so.

[badbob001]

The Barnes and Noble ebook store on the DR800 is basically the BN Ebook Mobile web site:


Mobile site: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile...p?msrch=ebooks

So there is some sort of browser on the DR800 (hello Wikipedia!). The site looks like something I viewed on Netscape back in 1995. Ack, a Scrollbar! I have no idea if the page flipper will move between links or scroll down the page, with the latter forcing you to use the stylus. Perhaps it was a bad idea to remove the up/down buttons that were on the iliad. I would not be surprised if some Open... option on the device pops out a file selection window reminiscent of KDE or Windows 3.1.


The kindle store looks much better and obviously is formatted specifically for the kindle:



No doubt the ebook store as viewed from the Nook will be different with the split display:

[badbob001]

These old photos are new to me. Nice shots of the sides and back.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news-gall...ebook-reader/1

Am I simply beating a dead horse?

A few interesting ones below:

Looks like iRex hasn't improved their grayscale rendering:


No annotations, pen or drawing-wise, until firmware upgrade?


The flipbar is probably too far up for me to use one hand to hold and turn pages unless I 180 the cover:


I hope this usb port is stronger:

[Mr. Goodbar]

The greyscale rendering picture is interesting since the newspaper one is very blotchy, but the face picture isn't. Is it more a factor of the source material or potentially the file type? I just wish they would get this thing in the stores already since there is only one day left in October and that was their launch commitment.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised since they have such a great record of missing just about any date they ever mention. Why screw up a consistent record of misses at this point.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

The greyscale rendering picture is interesting since the newspaper one is very blotchy, but the face picture isn't. Is it more a factor of the source material or potentially the file type? I just wish they would get this thing in the stores already since there is only one day left in October and that was their launch commitment.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised since they have such a great record of missing just about any date they ever mention. Why screw up a consistent record of misses at this point.

Both pictures are displaying with the same quality. It's just that the newspaper has a picture that makes the limited number of shades very obvious. Large dark areas with a slow gradient change make the limitations obvious. Lighter shades and more rapid changes look better.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Looks like iRex hasn't improved their grayscale rendering:

For those unfamiliar with the DR1000S grayscale issues, see More display issues on the DR. It will be easy to check these test images on a DR800SG once it arrives.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Heck, there is more talk about the dr800 than probably the rest of the world.

This was posted on Oct. 8, but I didn't see it before. The Irex CEO is giving a demo of the DR800 at what I assume is the Sept. 23 announcement of the product.


Just finished watching it. As exciting as a press release about a new toilet paper.

Look how long it took to connect to the Verizon network... it almost didn't make it. Bet they wished they included wifi at least for demo purposes. How long does it take a kindle to get to the amazon store?

I have a Kindle 2. It takes as much as two whole minutes to get connected on some days. I'd say a fairly common delay is about 45s-60s though. If I leave the wireless on all the time then it connects a bit faster, 30s maybe. Once connected the speed of the network seems okay but the speed of the Kindle is abysmal so everything takes a really long time. I think even if I knew exactly what I wanted it would take at least 5 minutes to buy it through the kindle. I never do this. I hate it. I pull out my iPhone and buy through the iPhone optimized web interface. Far faster. Far prettier.

[merik21]

Issues!

1. So it's November, but the DR800SG is not on bestbuy.com or barnes & noble. Why?
2. When it was listed last week or so, it was listed $50 more than promised. Why?
3. It's being released without the annotation ability, which is really its only competitive edge over other ebook readers. Why?!

I agree with what this dude said on the irex blog

franz October 31st, 2009 2:43 pm

IREX please: The device seems great, but I was hoping that you would learn from the past and avoid missing your release comittments or alienating people with dodgy communications and promises of features that are not implemented in your release firmware yet.
People here have repeated an important point over and over again: Eurpoean customers – of which I am one – are not interested in waiting for ages for a 3g plan. We gladly take the device without it. Karel, can you please answer above questions about that without referring to what people stated several times they do NOT need from the onset? Also, please explain to us when you inted to implement NOTE TAKING, a CORE FEATURE of the device which amazingly enough is not yet implemented?

Speculation?

1. Irex is having serious issues with its distributors. This might mean other problems later on. It's understandable for a company to get the word out in advance, like Plastic Logic, but they'd better deliver on the date they promised!
2. The dollar is, yes, quite weak and the economic signs seem like it'll continue to be weak. So perhaps Irex wants to maintain its margin or Best Buy wants to make $50 over the MSRP. Either way, it's bad to share one price with customers and then try to sell at a higher price.
3. Irex is trying to release their product too early. If it doesn't have note-taking functionality, then I ain't gonna buy it. I'm not going to wait around on some assurance. I can't imagine buying a 4WD truck and accepting that the 4 wheel drive will be installed for free at some future time.

I'll hold my breath and cash to see what Plastic Logic gives birth to in Las Vegas in next January.

How are these issues affecting your purchasing decisions, ya'll?

Merik

[HansTWN]

I completely agree. If the DR 800 had WiFi and note-taking ability I would be buying one the minute it was available. But with such a half-baked effort I will be waiting for the PlasticLogic.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by merik21

Issues![LIST=1][*]The dollar is, yes, quite weak and the economic signs seem like it'll continue to be weak. So perhaps Irex wants to maintain its margin or Best Buy wants to make $50 over the MSRP. Either way, it's bad to share one price with customers and then try to sell at a higher price.

How are these issues affecting your purchasing decisions, ya'll?

Merik

They are definitely a frustrating vendor and they have a pretty good history of never making a time commitment. They eventually deliver on most of their commitments, but never in the timeframe they specify.

They had some over commitments when it came to the iLiad in regards to battery life which they couldn't fulfill. They seem to have learned their lesson on that regard, but only time will tell.

I really like the 8" size screen the the dr800sg looks to be a very nice device, but I can't understand how they continue to make the same mistakes as a company and stay in business. We'll just have to wait and see what the device is actually like when it is actually available.

[luqmaninbmore]

So, now the word is that they'll ship at the end of November. I was really psyched about this device, but now I'm seriously looking at the DX refurbs or a Sony Daily Edition.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

So, now the word is that they'll ship at the end of November. I was really psyched about this device, but now I'm seriously looking at the DX refurbs or a Sony Daily Edition.

Where did you see that?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by merik21

Issues!

1. So it's November, but the DR800SG is not on bestbuy.com or barnes & noble. Why?
2. When it was listed last week or so, it was listed $50 more than promised. Why?
3. It's being released without the annotation ability, which is really its only competitive edge over other ebook readers. Why?!

1. It's supposedly been delayed until the end of November. We don't know why though. iRex problem... BestBuy problem... ???

2. That was already discussed on here (maybe in another thread). There are two versions of the DR800. The "basic" one is going to be sold at the previously mentioned $399. There is a "limited edition" one that will be sold initially at $449, including some extra stuff (nicer stylus, etc). Personally, I would go for the basic one.

3. That is most likely because they are swapping out the viewer plugins right now. The current open source PDF and Mobipocket support is being replaced with Adobe PDF/ePub support. My assumption is that they have completed the read only versions of those new plugins, but are still working on adding in the annotation ability. If annotation is a requirement for you, then it's probably a good idea to wait until it has been added before making a decision to buy one.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

Where did you see that?

There was mention in another thread about an email stating it was delayed (from somebody who works at the iRex shop, I think), but I haven't seen any public confirmation of that yet. I also don't know if the email came from somebody in iRex management, or just a low level guy that answers the phones/email/etc.

The only thing we really know at this point is that it was up on BestBuy's site briefly, but got taken down. So some sort of problem existed. Whether it was with the manufacturer, retailer ... etc, we don't really know.