Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by pauli

don't you just love that "made in the netherlands" sign on the back of your DR1000... I guess it's also on the DR800, am I right?

On the cardboard box, in which the unit came, is a label stating "Made in The Netherlands". So I assume it was really manufactured there.

[repods]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

No, there's no sign whatsoever on iRex 800's back. Neither Netherlands nor China nor anything else.

for sure it have to be inside the battery box, where you put the SD, like the mobile phones..
can you check ?
or even on the cardboard box ..

I'm quite disappointed that the kindle is made in china..
btw the sony 900 where is made ?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by repods

for sure it have to be inside the battery box, where you put the SD, like the mobile phones..
can you check ?
or even on the cardboard box ..

I'm quite disappointed that the kindle is made in china..
btw the sony 900 where is made ?

Sony 900 = Japan.
If you check Sony gadgets, usually you get about 8 language versions of the entire documentation.
That's because Sony is producing centrally and then ships to hubs.

You wouldn't believe, what products (even high end ones) are manufactured in China today. Check out iPhones. Or watch out for Apple's iPad. Or simply (more or less) any mobile phone.
As long as they just manufacture, you won't run in any problems.
Problems (I've done business with subcontractors in China and could tell quite some stories) only (may) arise, if they take over more responsibility. Of course, that's a harsh generalisation. There already are hundreds of Chinese companies, able to compete with European or American standards.

The process with China always more or less is the same:
- Mass production in China without language version.
- Shipment to centralised productions.
- Assembly in centralised productions.
- Logistics to central hubs (build to stock instead of build to order).
- Decentralised logistics.
"Assembly" for example means, flashing the respective language versions onto mobile phones, providing the correct documentation, ...
If you carefully check your consumer products, you very often find "assembly in ...". Doesn't mean, it has been produced in ...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by repods

for sure it have to be inside the battery box, where you put the SD, like the mobile phones..
can you check ?
or even on the cardboard box ..

I'm quite disappointed that the kindle is made in china..
btw the sony 900 where is made ?

DeReader already wrote: Cardbox of iRex 800 says Netherlands.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by DeReader

Yes, ePubs show page numbers and the hashed line in the upper right corner for bookmarking is there.

A bit of a shame, as that hashed corner looks weird and huge in the SDK image. Would have been nice to simply drop the page numbers entirely, but at least they manage to mostly keep them out of the text margins.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

A bit of a shame, as that hashed corner looks weird and huge in the SDK image. Would have been nice to simply drop the page numbers entirely, but at least they manage to mostly keep them out of the text margins.

The hashed corner is big, that's right. But it's not really intrusive. Page numbers really usually are out of the way.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

The hashed corner is big, that's right. But it's not really intrusive. Page numbers really usually are out of the way.

What am I seeing here with the page numbers on the side? Do their position on the page denote how far into the book one is? This is only for epub documents or all documents? Also, the page number is one-off from the page number in the status bar.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

What am I seeing here with the page numbers on the side? Do their position on the page denote how far into the book one is? This is only for epub documents or all documents? Also, the page number is one-off from the page number in the status bar.

Yes, the numbers on the side are the page numbers. It's quite common in ePUBs. Depending on the font size, number of pages changes of course. So, very often you find yourself with 2 pages number on the very same side. That's only for ePUBs and it's not iRex specific.
In the last picture, where you see "19" on the right, but "18" on the bottom is easy to explain. Further up in the page you'd see "18" as well. Actually, on this page you see parts of page 18 and 19.

[jiuzhege]

Originally Posted by MikeOnyx

What I have realized, especially in the US market, is that most Americans usually only care about 2 things: Price and Brand.

For example, say you walk into a drug store for some headache medication. If Advil and the store brand comparable to Advil is the same price, you would more than likely choose Advil because of the brand even though they are exactly the same. In fact, many people are even willing to pay more for the Advil over the store comparable.

But keep in mind, that Amazon and Sony were small once too. If the bigger brand always win, how did they get their start? In 1998, a small search engine started to compete with Yahoo, MSN, and at the time, so many other huge search engine companies. Today, Microsoft and Yahoo both continue to get frustrated with the sure dominance of this company. Of course, this company is Google.

Or another example, when Mozilla came into the picture, Internet Explorer held 90% of the market share. Now more and more people are making the switch to Mozilla Firefox. Also remember, Apple iTunes were once the small underdog in the music industry. All they did was utilize a niche of creating an desktop application that made buying music and putting it on their device as simple as possible. Now they are a powerhouse.

Amazon were a lot more successful than Sony at the start with their eReader simply because Amazon had the niche of adding 3G which gave people the ease of buying the book directly on the device, despite the fact that Sony was in the industry first.

All I'm saying is never underestimate the underdog and a potential niche. Because as history as spoken, a good niche is sometimes all you really need.

Also, to respect to LCD screens. LCD with a backlight cannot support prolonged reading. How long can you stare at an LCD screen before you eyes start watering and hurting? Or how long can the battery on it last before needing a recharge? And to say that the iSlate will dominate the entire eReader industry is like saying the iPhone will dominate and control the entire cell phone industry.

I'm also curious to get your opinion on why you think the iSlate will take over? Do you believe that the Brand alone will be much more important than the price and will make everyone pay that much more to have the device? What about the iSlate do you believe will give it the competitive edge that other eReaders will not?

I am not trying to be condescending. I am just trying to keep an open mind and to satisfy my mere curiosity on the matter.

To be frank, I am really interesting in onyx but think about the timing ,price and the specs compared to other eink readers in the same period.

I don't think I have enough reason to choose it even if I
have no preference on brand but product and price.

[badbob001]

How is the device with the leather cover? The edges stick out pretty far from the device, but I suppose that may be useful if you ever drop it on an edge.

I'm most concerned about how to hold it while reading. Since the flipbar is at the spine of the cover, to use the device with one hand, one has to fold back the cover 360 degrees. I suppose the folded triangular configuration of the cover can either give one more hold on the device... or the slippery inside fabric will cause it to shoot out from ones hand.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

How is the device with the leather cover? The edges stick out pretty far from the device, but I suppose that may be useful if you ever drop it on an edge.

I'm most concerned about how to hold it while reading. Since the flipbar is at the spine of the cover, to use the device with one hand, one has to fold back the cover 360 degrees. I suppose the folded triangular configuration of the cover can either give one more hold on the device... or the slippery inside fabric will cause it to shoot out from ones hand.

I don't like the cover. It's too wide, it doesn't have magnets to keep it shut on its own.
I'm not folding back the cover 360°, don't do that with any of my covers (nor with paperbacks). I fold it 180° and hold it with my left hand. The left part of the cover (the one that I open) rests on my left forearm. It's not heavy and feels about the same as the other covers.
But I simply don't like the look of it. I'll definitely look out for an alternative. Most of the time I've been using it "naked", without the cover.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I don't like the cover. It's too wide, it doesn't have magnets to keep it shut on its own.
I'm not folding back the cover 360°, don't do that with any of my covers (nor with paperbacks). I fold it 180° and hold it with my left hand. The left part of the cover (the one that I open) rests on my left forearm. It's not heavy and feels about the same as the other covers.
But I simply don't like the look of it. I'll definitely look out for an alternative. Most of the time I've been using it "naked", without the cover.

It sounds like you're resting the cover on your left hand, as if you're lifting a tray. Certainly not a secure hold if one were riding a train or a car. I suppose you then use your right hand to access the flipbar. Also not ideal if one has to use the other hand to hold the pole on a train.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

It sounds like you're resting the cover on your left hand, as if you're lifting a tray. Certainly not a secure hold if one were riding a train or a car. I suppose you then use your right hand to access the flipbar. Also not ideal if one has to use the other hand to hold the pole on a train.

I only read on the train when having a seat. I'd hate someone bumping into me.
I hold the cover in a way I can access the flipbar with the left thumb. I'm using the right hand only on units like Kindle 2 or Cybook Opus, where the button for turning pages is on the right.
But you're absolutely right: The bigger the reader (respectively the cover), the more inconvenient and complicated it gets. That's the reason why I don't travel with Kindle DX (or even more critical: iRex 1000S).
Some time ago I've preferred Kindle 2 and a polycarbonate cover. Extremely easy to hold and still protected (at least the reader/housing, no protection for the display). I'd love to have such for each of my readers.

[garagumu]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I tried this, but it does not have any effect. Would be nice if the screen could be turned 0, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

The 3.0 sources have references to a rotation direction setting (clockwise or anticlockwise). It's documented in sysd/data/ereader.schema, see below. But of course, it's possible that this may just be a holdover from the DR1000, and not actually implemented in the DR800.

But it might be worth trying to set it to clockwise (the code says that the default is anticlockwise), then maybe rebooting after a change to the dr.ini file?
/apps/er/sys/display/rotation=clockwise

    <schema>
        <applyto>/apps/er/sys/display/rotation</applyto>
        <key>/schemas/apps/er/sys/display/rotation</key>
        <owner>sysd</owner>
        <type>string</type>
        <default>anticlockwise</default>
        <locale name="C">
            <short>Rotation direction, clockwise or anticlockwise</short>
            <long></long>
        </locale>
    </schema>

It seems that you can also change the standby timeout in the dr.ini file (it's 30 minutes by default).
Please note that I don't have a DR800 and I've never tested this!

    <schema>
        <applyto>/apps/er/sys/power/min_standby</applyto>
        <key>/schemas/apps/er/sys/power/min_standby</key>
        <owner>sysd</owner>
        <type>int</type>
        <default>30</default>
        <locale name="C">
            <short>Idle time in minutes before standby, -1 to disable</short>
            <long></long>
        </locale>
    </schema>

[professzore]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

The hashed corner is big, that's right. But it's not really intrusive. Page numbers really usually are out of the way.

Great pics... New camera?

On the other hand, this leather cover seems cheap. Like smoewhat chinese second/third quality brand. A friend of mine (a furrier) makes lot better things like this. Shame. Just for example, compared to cases and covers of Nook.