Has iRex misled us?

[ali]

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Err Ali, just to be sure I am reading this bit right?

Don't know.

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Are you correcting his spelling?

No. It's called "answering a question". If someone asks "Apples or Bananas?", all of the following are feasible answers: "The second", "The latter", "2nd", "#2", "Not the apples", "Bananas". If my choice of an answer hurts your religion, poses emotional stress on you, or confuses you, I am very sorry.

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Because if you are that isn't a word in the english language.

It's German, my mother language. Sometimes I use words (or grammar) from that language by accident. (No need to feel like I'm sending hidden messages to other germans by using foreign languages. I can translate it for you: "Desaster" in german means "Disaster" in english.)

Originally Posted by Riocaz

His spelling of disaster was correct.

Apparently, it was. He must feel very good by having such a fine comrade who confirms he can spell.

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Or am I mis-understanding?

That Could Never Happen, oh Grand Master of the English Language and the Secret Keeper of the Holy Pasta Recipe.

[ali]

Um. Could we get back to iRex (you know, the guys with the calendar problems) now? I guess this is slightly off-topic (and off-age)...

[Riocaz]

Yeah particularly as I had already been corrected by Natch and apologising.

[b_k]

stop at least flaming each other. We are flaming about iRex here.
I just wonder if they will let us go on flaming in their own forum.

[Riocaz]

No actually we aren't. (Flaming iRex that is)

We aren't being deliberately hostile or insulting towards iRex. At least that wasn't the intention of my question or poll. I am being serious.

And I wasn't flaming Ali either. I was asking a question as I misunderstood his post. A question I had already apologised for, long before he responded to the original.

Ali: Can we not get into this? We rub each other the wrong way. I will promise not to respond to you directly ever again on any topic/thread. And then maybe we can all stay on the issue at hand.

[Janus]

I can understand many are upset with another delay; but I think he iRex team is doing the best to live up to what they said; and I am sure there is alot more to come if we have some patience.

[CommanderROR]

@Janus in particular and everybody else too...

I think iRex misled us...by making us think they could acutally do software...

Their Hardware design is OK, it offers lots of possibilities. their Software team seems to be learning as they go along.
I have no clue when it comes to programming and I'll be the first to admit it, but I don't write software for a complicated mobile device either...

I'm angry, and it takes a lot to make me angry...I'll post again tomorrow when I can think a bit more clearly again.

[tofuman]

Yes. I'm willing to wait some more. It's much better than not having the product and waiting.

[firekat]

I think that overall the initial marketed expectations of the iLiad have been overwhelmingly lacking in the current realized implementation.

We did sign an agreement that was an understanding that the device was not ready for prime time, so in some way we should show some understanding of that fact.

There does tend to be a lack of patience in waiting for improvements in the device. iRex is a very small company and certainly does not have the resources that Sony would in either developing or marketing the device and this should be taken into consideration. I just think that at this point in time whatever amount of patience we have is beginning to wear thin.

Inherently the e-ink technology seems to have some major obstacles that make the immediate profitable marketability of e-readers a difficult task. The delays incurred by both the iLiad and the Sony Reader point to that fact.

With the lack of timely, frequent or updates with a lot of added functionality received from iRex, the feelings of frustration will continue to build. Right now I feel that I have half a device for the price of at least two. The growing sentiment and frustration that I sense from people on this forum is that they feel that this thing is going to be dropped like an orphan child sometime soon or that the original design specifications will never be even partially realized.

I like the iLiad, I have not had the opportunity to work with it as much as I desired. I just wish it would be more than what it is now. There are a number of shortcomings that make it cumbersome and inconvenient, these specifically are but should not be limited to:

The absolutely painfully long start up time. I was hoping for a PDA kind of start up, waiting for the start is almost ridiculous. I would be interested in knowing what the startup interval is on the Sony Reader.

Bookmark support in PDF's. Without this, the purpose for which I bought this device is moot. The size of the documents I have to navigate are totally impractical to work with without this function.

Connectivity. I have to build my content on my laptop then transfer it to an SD card and then to the iLiad. This is all very time consuming and cumbersome. There has to be an easier way.

The Travel Hub. Let's be frank this thing is an abortion of design. It dangles from the connector in a manner that invites it to either falling or getting ripped out of the connector. Hanging additional cables off it at those angles makes it even worse.

Support for other formats. I was looking forward to playing MP3's while I read. When if ever will we see MP3 support as promised? Text lacks wrapping. I have not tested it too much but when I did try it the font was pretty tiny as well.

Being charged for Scribble support. I thought that this was all supposed to be part of the deal and not cost me extra. Using it is sort of like a joke, the writing that I get on the iLiad does not look anything like what I write on paper.

I guess all of those that have made the purchase of the iLiad felt that they were putting their money into the purchase of a potentially more powerful and capable device that up until now has yet to demonstrated. Unfortunately at this point in time there does not appear to be anything other than small incremental steps in meeting the intial release goals of the device. This is very frustrating and makes the purchaser feel like they are being left out in the cold with half of a very expensive device in their hands.

Do I feel like in some way I was bilked? Do I regret my purchase? To a certain extent yes to both cases. Right now I am hoping that some sort of revolutionary update will pick up this device out of the current quagmire that it is in now. Will that happen? I don't know. The optomistic side of me says yes, the realist side says no way. The only thing that I can do now is be patient, something I think that we all are getting short of especially when considering the premium price.

[k2r]

Originally Posted by firekat

I like the iLiad, I have not had the opportunity to work with it as much as I desired. I just wish it would be more than what it is now. There are a number of shortcomings that make it cumbersome and inconvenient, these specifically are but should not be limited to:

For me it's not the features that they didn't implement yet. Hell, I do understand that iRex is a small company and that it's hard for them to meet timelines.

I wouldn't be hesitating to buy an iLiad if the platform was open since I knew that - whatever happens to iRex within the next months - the device would be of much use for me during it's physical lifetime.
650€ is a massive price-tag.

Hell, I really WANT an iLiad, my last weeks would have been more simple if I had one. iRex, if you read me: I am willing to give you my money!

But I'm not confident in your future.
So just give me full access to the device and let me use it in the ways I want to.

The Sony thingy is no alternative for me - I don't trust them (rootkit et al.) and the device does not have wireless or a tablet.

iRex, if you comply with the GPL and open up the device I'd buy tomorrow.
k2r

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by firekat

I would be interested in knowing what the startup interval is on the Sony Reader.

I covered it in my review, and it's also in the comparison matrix, but for convenience's sake, return from suspend mode is ~4 seconds. See the review for more detail.

[donkaarlos]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I covered it in my review, and it's also in the comparison matrix, but for convenience's sake, return from suspend mode is ~4 seconds. See the review for more detail.

Didn't find facts about one hot topic "battery life" (Only that it ran for 4 h without any indication on the battery sign). My Sony Librie had a spec with alkali batteries of 10’000 page turns. The device run down very fast on alkali batteries! This issue was discussed in the forums at that time. With 900 mAh rechargeable Ni-MH (4xAAA’s) batteries life got acceptable. However batteries still run down quite fast. Haven’t tested how long it takes – switches to suspend pretty fast and than the device shuts down itself.

Now Sony specifies only 7000 page turns. To meet the specs this is something like 7000x2 sec, which is close to 4 h continuous page flipping… well I think I’m going to try to measure how much my Sony drains between the page turns…or do we now that already? Sure eReader is likely to be improved. However I would bet that it will not run over 20 h?!

PS: The ones, who want battery life, buy the device shown on my avatar. Runs for many months with two AA batteries and has immediate start up. The screen has same feature as e-ink, it freezes and needs no power between the page turns.

[Riocaz]

Originally Posted by firekat

We did sign an agreement that was an understanding that the device was not ready for prime time, so in some way we should show some understanding of that fact.

There does tend to be a lack of patience in waiting for improvements in the device. iRex is a very small company and certainly does not have the resources that Sony would in either developing or marketing the device and this should be taken into consideration. I just think that at this point in time whatever amount of patience we have is beginning to wear thin.

Thats part of the point though. Not everyone has signed up to that. The early invited people did. But the webshop doesn't now have the big disclaimer that it used to.

Their "current status" does tell people generally what to expect but it fails to mention the attrocious battery life issue. Which is mying by omission in my opinion.

We were told that the iLiad would run for 10,000+ pageturns (and later 21 hours). They have removed every mention (that I could find in an admittedly quick check of their website) of how long they expect the power to last.

That worries me. As of right now the iLiad is great for what I use it for (Reading on the tube and the occasional meeting) as long as I charge it at least every other day. It's not so great for what I intended to use it for (reading on Holiday, without having to charge every day. As a Note/textbook during lectures etc etc).

[ali]

Originally Posted by Riocaz

Thats part of the point though. Not everyone has signed up to that. The early invited people did.

I didn't. I guess it's now obvious that the "statement" people had to sign should have included a deadline.

However, those even earlier just wrote an email directly to iRex, and, IIRC, I wrote that I could live with beta software until the release of the consumer version in September. September's over, so I'll try to get partial refunds next week.

[emkay]

Originally Posted by ali

Desaster.

There is no reason to buy an Iliad right now - the Sony is better in all respects. Even if the Iliad was $350, the Sony would be the better choice.

I can't agree with this. The iLiad hardware is better specified. It's silly to pretend otherwise. Have you seen the Sony Reader next to the iLiad? It looks tiny!
The iLiad software isn't there yet. But it has more potential, and we are told that an SDK will be released. Can you see Sony doing that?

I can understand people getting pissed off with iRex. (I would probably be more annoyed with them if I had paid for my iLiad out of my own pocket, but my employer bought it.) They have failed to deliver on the software side, and particularly on power management. So far, anyway.
I think they promised too much, when they are really a technology provider, not a software provider. The resources going into the software development are clearly not enough. This is annoying. I would find pdf zoom/pan really useful now. Not in mid October.

But that doesn't suddenly make it a bad device. As long as they a) get the software up to spec sooner rather than later, or b) let the open source community get in there and do it instead (probably in quarter the time) then we will still be OK.