Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

Thanks for the comparison mgmueller.

What is your guys opinion on the SDK and adding the missing features (zoom + annotation) yourself? Is it possible to create applications with the SDK to add those missing features yourself? Or is this part of application code missing and there would be no way to write those features yourself?

If it would be possible my choice will be the DR800S, not the iLiad.

iRex has said that the zoom feature is enabled in the UDS layer, which is not open source. I'm not sure about annotation. Supposedly iRex is already working on annotation, but we've gotten some conflicting information about that.

Theoretically anything is possible, but I think it would be very difficult to add in zoom yourself.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Jumpn Jack Flash

I would wait for the 1000 update (it should have zoom) and then go looking at what is different between 800 and the 1000 implementation, it may only be a file entry switch such as the folder switch was.

They've said that the "switch" for zoom is in the UDS layer, which we do not have access to.

[ajamudc]

I know the 800 doesn't zoom in on pdf's. Earlier in the thread, someone posted pics of a pdf with large margins when they were doing a comparison to the intelligent zooming of the Iliad. Would it be possible for someone who has one to post two views of a pdf, in portrait and landscape orientations? Does that preserve the formatting while making the text larger?

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by ajamudc

I know the 800 doesn't zoom in on pdf's. Earlier in the thread, someone posted pics of a pdf with large margins when they were doing a comparison to the intelligent zooming of the Iliad. Would it be possible for someone who has one to post two views of a pdf, in portrait and landscape orientations? Does that preserve the formatting while making the text larger?

Various things have been tried. Setting margins to zero has no effect on PDFs and in landscape, the PDF is scaled to fit the screen, ie: portrait pages have large blank areas to the left and right and text is very small.

[badbob001]

Someone posted a video of the dr800s. Bit of a snore. The entire face of the device does look to be of the same uniform color.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Someone posted a video of the dr800s. Bit of a snore. The entire face of the device does look to be of the same uniform color.

To me, it's kind of a "Bizarro Apple": Function over design...

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

To me, it's kind of a "Bizarro Apple": Function over design...

It's not as if Apple products don't do anything but just look pretty. It's not as silly as some luxury devices that wrap gold or Swarovski, crystals around outdated hardware. Certainly marketing wise, polar opposites; IREX might as well advertise by throwing rocks at people.

Perhaps you meant it looked like a bizarro-ipad, which I would agree. I think it's more like multi-function versus single function.
ipad: 100,000 apps
dr800: reading app

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

It's not as if Apple products don't do anything but just look pretty. It's not as silly as some luxury devices that wrap gold or Swarovski, crystals around outdated hardware. Certainly marketing wise, polar opposites; IREX might as well advertise by throwing rocks at people.

Perhaps you meant it looked like a bizarro-ipad, which I would agree. I think it's more like multi-function versus single function.
ipad: 100,000 apps
dr800: reading app

I could go on for hours about Apple...
For example, claiming to have a "business phone", but not even offering "copy and paste" for 15 months.
Or claiming to have a phone at all, which has a battery duration of hours instead of days or even weeks (if I compare to my "standard" phones).
Or having a Mac Mini which sounds like a great Multimedia unit for your living room, but actually has a fan with the noise level of a vacuum cleaner.
Or having AppleTV, which permanently looses connection.
Or having iPod touch.....Well, actually nothing to complain here. Great gadget.

Meaning: They certainly don't have bad products. But I'll never understand the hype about them if I compare to other products. But I guess, that's what great marketing is about...

[Fjaril]

Hello everyone,
I just received my IREX DR 800 yesterday - ordering it Friday afternoon on the webshop of IREX. This worked very smoothly, I can completely recommend it for all of you who are longing for it.

[Fjaril]

Originally Posted by ajamudc

I know the 800 doesn't zoom in on pdf's. Earlier in the thread, someone posted pics of a pdf with large margins when they were doing a comparison to the intelligent zooming of the Iliad. Would it be possible for someone who has one to post two views of a pdf, in portrait and landscape orientations? Does that preserve the formatting while making the text larger?

Sorry, I don't have the pictures at hand right now, however, I just passed about 1 hour reading scientific pdfs on the 800.
It is perfectly readable - though a little bit small. Landscape mode doesn't help at all it still shows the complete page on the screen - which makes it extremely small and unreadable. Increasing the font size helps, however usually formulas are getting messed up - in such cases I switched back to original layout (which is very fast).
I would say, you can use it for scientific pdfs, but it's not optimal. Therefore I hope IREX will add a zoom feature....
The graphs by the way are perfectly readable!

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by Fjaril

Hello everyone,
I just received my IREX DR 800 yesterday - ordering it Friday afternoon on the webshop of IREX. This worked very smoothly, I can completely recommend it for all of you who are longing for it.

Congratulations looks like a great reader. I remember spending an insane amount for my first reader back in January 2007. A first gen Irex Illiad plus the leather cover for a total of EUR 731.

[HansTWN]

Mgmueller, could you post photo with the Sony 505 and the DR 800 so that we have a size comparison? Thank you!

[professzore]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Mgmueller, could you post photo with the Sony 505 and the DR 800 so that we have a size comparison? Thank you!

Take a look at this PDF. All major readers available here in Hungary (not especially 505) compared by size within a printable 1:1 ratio PDF.

Furthermore:
-- screen size comparison
-- external size comparison
-- all devices compared:


(All sizes are based on official specs and high-res images of the devices. May be off within 2% or error.)

[HansTWN]

Thanks! I was thinking that the DR 800 represents a great compromise of greatest usable screen real estate in a still very portable form factor. A Kindle DX is definitely too big to travel with comfortably, the DR 800 seems still small enough. But the 8.1" screen is definitely a great improvement over the 6". Now why did Irex take out the PDF zoom function????? Which designer bumped his or her head?

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by professzore

compared by size within a printable 1:1 ratio PDF.
(All sizes are based on official specs and high-res images of the devices. May be off within 2% or error.)

Very informative picture, thanks. You wouldn't happen to have a picture comparing the screen size of the Kindle DX with the Sony prs 900?