Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I would have expected such durations for v1.

The v2 only gets to 15hrs when reading mobipocket; continuously reading PDFs with light annotation results in a battery life of 8-9hrs.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Very comfortable to hold in one hand. Great to turn pages with the flipbar. You even can press the flipbar. So you can scroll through your library just with the flipbar and select a book by pressing the flipbar. Great ergonomics.

Have you encountered any features that you can't use the flipbar to navigate but have to use the stylus? Most importantly, navigating the library? I understand the right side has an a-z bar for clicking with the stylus... can the flipbar navigate to that or would you need to page down hundreds of pages if your library is large?

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Yes. In "settings" you define the direction of the flipbar. Then you can rotate of course.
The unit is even symmetric. Upper und lower frame have identical height.

I was under the impression that the rotate menu item was simply a toggle from portrait to landscape. Does it actually come up with more options such as:
0 degree, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees?

[planetrobbie]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "both devices" sharing these defects? You can certainly use a folder structure for your books on the DR1000! Or were you referring to the nook?

Yes by both I meant Nook and DR800SG.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Have you encountered any features that you can't use the flipbar to navigate but have to use the stylus? Most importantly, navigating the library? I understand the right side has an a-z bar for clicking with the stylus... can the flipbar navigate to that or would you need to page down hundreds of pages if your library is large?

If you push the flipbar briefly, it moves a single book further in the respective direction. If you keep the flipbar pressed for, let's say half a second, it moves further for an entire page (9 books in list view or 11 books in thumbnail view). Haven't found a way to jump to a specific page via flipbar.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

I was under the impression that the rotate menu item was simply a toggle from portrait to landscape. Does it actually come up with more options such as:
0 degree, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees?

Hmmm....sorry, you're right, my bad.
That's really an unsatisfying solution. Way better solved on Kindle, to rotate in all 4 directions.
Here it's just portrait and landscape.

I'm right handed but I always flip with my left hand, no problem to me. But I can see, how this can be frustrating for lots of you. I find this really strange...

Sorry again for my wrong information.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

The v2 only gets to 15hrs when reading mobipocket; continuously reading PDFs with light annotation results in a battery life of 8-9hrs.

Makes sense. I've mainly read Mobipocket on iLiad. PDFs I only use for checking "professional" documents (contracts, proposals, ...) for specific information, but not for continous read. For Mobipocket, my estimate would have been 15 to 20 hours, which always was absolutely okay for me.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by astra

This particular post was a reply to yours

testing that has been done to the previous versions of iLiad. They had only 10-12 hours of reading time and I am curious what part of it to be blamed if not the touch screen.

If you look back pretty far in the boards you'll find quite a bit of discussion about some design "mistakes" in the iliad that could not be worked around in software. Specifically they were never able to completely place the device in an idle/sleep state. This meant that even when just sitting idle reading a page or sitting on the desk the processor and other chips continued to draw greater power than necessary. That is one of the primary drivers behind the less than stellar battery life on the iliad. In most display oriented devices the processor is the second largest battery draw after the screen. With the epaper screen the processor and associated support chips would become the biggest draw. If they've finally gotten the hardware design fixed we should see comparable battery life performance to the other devices on the market. At least we should have the potential to see that.

Also, the 800 has a battery that is at least 30% larger than the v2 iliad so that should help as well. We'll just have to wait and see as more people get the device.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Makes sense. I've mainly read Mobipocket on iLiad. PDFs I only use for checking "professional" documents (contracts, proposals, ...) for specific information, but not for continous read. For Mobipocket, my estimate would have been 15 to 20 hours, which always was absolutely okay for me.

For me, once you get into the high teens or low twenties in number of hours it doesn't really matter, but everybody's usage is different. More is always better, but once you get past a certain point you get into design/cost tradeoffs.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

If you look back pretty far in the boards you'll find quite a bit of discussion about some design "mistakes" in the iliad that could not be worked around in software. Specifically they were never able to completely place the device in an idle/sleep state. This meant that even when just sitting idle reading a page or sitting on the desk the processor and other chips continued to draw greater power than necessary. That is one of the primary drivers behind the less than stellar battery life on the iliad. In most display oriented devices the processor is the second largest battery draw after the screen. With the epaper screen the processor and associated support chips would become the biggest draw. If they've finally gotten the hardware design fixed we should see comparable battery life performance to the other devices on the market. At least we should have the potential to see that.

Also, the 800 has a battery that is at least 30% larger than the v2 iliad so that should help as well. We'll just have to wait and see as more people get the device.

I see. Hopefully, they sorted it out.

[steffi]

how can I convert existing PDF files to azw then?

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Kindle DX only has rudimentary PDF support. You can open it - that's pretty much it. No zoom, no font sizes. You can rotate the screen as sole optimisation.

iRex iLiad has, in my opinion, the best zoom functionality (iRex 1000S as well, but given the huge screen you barely need it there).
iRex 800 does reflow instead. Nothing too special, most others can do this as well.

For Kindle DX, PDF would NOT be my first choice, Amazon's native .azw by far delivers better results.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by steffi

how can I convert existing PDF files to azw then?

"Calibre" always is a good choice for conversion.
Problem is: PDF as a source file doesn't deliver. Results won't be perfect.
But at least you can change font sizes within the converted documents.
You don't have to convert to .azw, though. Basically, .azw is Amazon's version of Mobipocket. Kindles can operate .mobi and .prc without problems and you're more open for other plattforms.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Well, I don't actually read more than 6 or 8 hours in a single instance of course. But I permanently keep it on - for days.

I tried using the same approach with my Iliad V2 (to bypass the cold booting every time). I couldn't get more than 24 hours out of it. With WiFi off and stylus in. Eventually I ended up plugging it into the charger when not in use.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by professzore

AFAIK Kindle 2 can search in any text PDF as all PDF files are indexed at the first opening. That's what Kindle do the best among all others.

Unless the PDF support has changed since the original Kindle DX firmware (as described in its manual), only the metadata in PDFs is available for global search (i.e. indexing) - not the text. However, it is possible to search for a word within an open PDF.

Has anyone tried searching within an ebook (all formats) on the DR800S?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by m-reader

I tried using the same approach with my Iliad V2 (to bypass the cold booting every time). I couldn't get more than 24 hours out of it. With WiFi off and stylus in. Eventually I ended up plugging it into the charger when not in use.

24 hours of reading time? Or just 24 hours in standby?
24 hours of reading time for most users would be close to 1 week, which seems okay for me and is the way I operate.
24 hours in standby would be a joke of course and is contrary to my experience.