Review 9-6-2006

[Riocaz]

I was just going to leave this but as Ali decided to make yet another attack on me, I feel I have to respond. This is my final word on this thread though

Originally Posted by ali

Read your original review: You disagree with her opinion. Your response attacks the person, not the opinion.

You repeatedly make fun of her being "tech-savvy" (I'm sure she is, btw). You fail to show that what she writes is wrong, you just find mere minor inaccuracies, and hence you make fun of her. Bad style, dude. Rude.

No I poked fun at the fact she was described as tech-savvy when her review doesn't give that impression in the slightest.

You even wrote "Thought I should mention it here, as iRex may want/be able to take action about the inaccuracies in the review". Wow. You can't stand her opinion so you suggest to delete it. You even post it in the iRex forum just for the reason to have them take action against something. Sounds like (german word, sorry) Blockwartmentalität to me.

This was on the iRex forum btw, as Ali hasn't bothered to give a reference.

Again you are putting words in my mouth. The "action" I meant was to ask Teleread to post a rebuttal pointing out the glaring omissions and misleading information for what it was.

I did not state that it should be deleted. Nor would I presume to do so.

And all the things you write are really, really minor inaccuracies. Compare these things with the gross false advertisements and announcements from iRex, the guys you defend here.

Have you read my posts about iRex? I am quite happy to blast them when they screw up (e.g. their support). But when I believe they haven't I will defend them (e.g. someone not understanding how to read an international number formatted in a standard manner).

As I have stated repeatedly to you on this thread. I have no problems with a critical review. It's just that the review was, in my opinion, both inaccurate, and misleading.

And you were selling people your opinion as globally valid facts. You said documentation for the on/off switch wasn't needed (but people didn't find it). You said it's ridiculous to assume you could read A4 content (but lots of people assumed precisely that). You said it's people's fault to think it could read their PDFs, just because it doesn't explicitly state so in the shop (but lots of people have issues with that).

2 people didn't find it. Had they spent the tiem they took posting here looking at the machine, then they would have found it.

As I have said I find documentation on the obvious to be patronising and annoying.

I have stated nothing other than my opinion. I have stated that many times. If you feel her review was balanced and fair that is your opinion.

Opinion is your own viewpoint, nothing more nothing less. I could say that it's my opinion is that the sky is red not blue. It would be wrong, but it would still be my opinion.

I have the impression that you are completely unable to see that other people think different than you.

Not at all you are as enttled to your opinion as I am. And you have the equal right to air it here.

All I read in your posts is "they think different than me, so they must be false, because I'm superior".

Odd I get the same impression from your posts. That may have something to do with the personal insults, and the fact that you demand people do as you say.

(And I can figure what would happened if the Iliad wouldn't suit your personal needs. Say, it couldn't read documents longer than 50 pages because scientific papers are usually shorter, and hey, they didn't explicitly state that in the shop. You'd explode and go completely berserk. IMO.)

If I brought a device without checking it was suitable for my needs then the fault would be mine. If it was sold to me on the basis that it did a job it cannot do then that is the fault of the seller. 2 completely different things.

Her 3 complaints were:

A lack of documentation.
Which was shown to be largely incorrect. (Though not completely I admit)

PDF documents scaled to read right at A4 arn't comfortable to read on a screen smaller than A5.
This is common sense. It's blatantly obvious that an A4 document at font size 10 will be the equivilent of font size 5, or smaller, on a screen less than half the size.

The PDF viewer doesn't read DRM pdfs.
iRex never claimed that it did or that it would.

The final points:

1. The only person making personal insults was you.
2. The only person to put words in other people's mouths and then attack them for things they never said was you.
3. The only attacks at all on this thread are the ones you have made.

[asincero]

In general, putting the manual for an e-book reader on the e-book is stupid. It's like putting the key to a safe inside the safe for safekeeping. It's just stupid. Good thing the iLliad is relatively easy to figure out. But $DIETY help anybody like my elderly parents trying to figure out how to even turn the damn thing on.

My initial take on the device is that it's definately "rushed" and lacking polish. Although, I feel it's mainly software issues so it'll get better. At least I hope it's just software issues. The PDF reader, for one thing, really sucks. It's just too damn slow. The speed is probably fine if you're reading a novel. But if you're trying to read some kind of reference manual where you need to quickly flip back and forth between pages, forget it. I understand it's just xpdf tailored for the iLiad. I was never too fond of xpdf, and preferred Adobe's reader under Linux. acroread was always noticebly faster than xpdf.

I work for the company whose the exclusive distributor for the device in the U.S. for the aviation industry, so my group got a whole box of them to play with. In one day, my boss already trashed his after he accidently dropped it on his drive way. A situation that would've been avoided if the damn thing had a friggin carrying case! $800 and those guys couldn't throw in a $10 carrying case for free?

Oh, and my iLliad has froze up a number of times. I just updated to the 2.6.1 firmware yesterday. Let's see if the freezing issues are still there...

I can't wait for the SDK to become freely available. The first thing I'm gonna write for the thing is a compiled HTML reader since I have a lot of e-books in CHM format.

[pitcher23]

Originally Posted by ali

You repeatedly make fun of her being "tech-savvy" (I'm sure she is, btw). You fail to show that what she writes is wrong, you just find mere minor inaccuracies, and hence you make fun of her. Bad style, dude. Rude.

I'm sorry, but what she wrote was not a minor inaccuracy. It was a flat out significant mistake. Her saying that if the device runs out of power it becomes irrevocably damaged could not be more wrong and should not be glossed over as a writers style. I know I f I were the average customer reading that review I would steer the hell clear of a product like that. It's like a person writing a review on hairdryers saying that "the dryer will electrocute you when plugged in", but forgetting to add "if you drop it in the tub while you bathe".

A person who is taking the time to write a review of a product, who incidently wrote that no paper documentation, save the 5 x 7 sheet that came int he box, should at least read that one page through before posting such an egregious error.

Originally Posted by ali

Some people have jobs, or a life. Read every forum to be found on the net? If I'd do that for every device I have to buy in my job, I'd probably been fired. No, "read everything" naturally has limitations, which are different for different people.

Come on now. That's a cop out. One does not need to do research in one day on a product they would like to buy. If you could spare a half an hour, you would find an awful lot about any product. Incidently if one goes to google and enters Irex Iliad, A mobileread topic will be third on the list. If the reviewer was serious about researching, she would have found Mobileread in about a half a second.

[pitcher23]

Originally Posted by asincero

In general, putting the manual for an e-book reader on the e-book is stupid.

I can understand peoples feelings on that, but it is an ebook reader and it would be a little silly to have a print manual when you are trying to sell a device that is supposed to be an alternative to print.

A quick start guide to get started IMO would suffice, but for now, most who have bought the Iliad are fairly tech saavy(word of the week) and know that if you want to find documentation, go to the product website and more times than not a PDF of that device will be there.

[ElaHuguet]

A note about "lack of documentation", including "how to turn it on":

If you got to the iRex shop in order to buy it, you are also perfectly able to go find the documentation on iRex's web page: the famous "missing" manual, and since before that even (that I recall) several pdf's for "quick reference" (guess what was the first thing it showed you how to do on that guide? yup, turn it on). I always look for product specifications when considering a web shop order, I downloaded these LONG before I received my iLiad. The long manual I reserved for when I could fiddle with the iLiad itself, the 17-page quick reference guide gave me an idea of how it was set out before I decided to buy.

To Ali: I must admit I laughed about your comment on not finding a phone number to call if the iLiad was DOA... when I buy my stuff, I anxiously wait to get home and unpack it to find out where the shop is that I bought it from.

Update: I HAVE kept the original box, btw, AND the little bit of paper, let me transcribe it:
SIDE 1
Dear iLiad user,
Welcome to the world of electronic reading!
The world of electronic reading is a young and growing segment, with new features and opportunities for new aplications arriving in the months to come. (my emphasis)
You have just received what is the latest state of technology in mobile electronic reading. Over the next weeks and months more functionalities and new software releases will become available (again, my emphasis). In order to benefit from these software releases, it is important that you register your iLiad.
To register the iLiad go to www.iRexTechnologies.com and click the link: "Register here" and follow the described steps.
After the registration of your iLiad you will be able to connect to the iRex Delivery Service (iDS) to receive extra software releases. Connect to iDS by pressing the connect key (top right corner button). (this tells you it's not the on/off button) In the future the iDS will also be the best solution to get your newspaper subscription and/or receive an e-book on your iLiad.
For more information on the functionalities of the iLiad you can download a Quick Reference Guide at www.iRexTechnologies.com. (this pretty much squashes all complaint, methinks)
In the future we will provide you with new software releases that will provide more functionalities to make mobile electronic reading even more fun!
The iRex team
----
Three times, they've told us software will be updated... hardly final, eh?
----
SIDE 2
This has the warning note on power out when installing new software, then four bold points:
1. How to recognize a new software download
2. Connected to the mains voltage (so you don't get a power out)
3. Frequency of software download for installment (once a month)
4. The installation process (by the way, in this one, they say the on/off switch is a slide, by a process of elimination there's not much left that fits)
5. Restart the iLiad to try out your newest software

To Riocaz: the phone number doesn't appear on box or paper, but the website does on both of them.

[pdam]

Buying is emotional, not logical for most people. The fact that I should KNOW reading an A4 doc on an A5 device, doesn't make me less dissapointed that I can't read my work reports after suspending belief and believing the (general) marketing hype ...
The fact is that for a real average user - the device isn't there yet and will proved a dissapointment - as the Lady says, non of the problems are insurmountable ...

People expect more help docs ... people would like to read their A4 work docs ... info is not yet prevelant about the device or who publishes for it or how best to covert you work documents or when the power management problem will be fixed or ....

It's early days ... iRex's ability to respond, to what I personally view as constructive criticism in this article, will help shape the success of the device - the article was published in good faith - we should stop worrying about the finite detail and worry more about how iRex counter the concerns raised ....

...time for the meditation thread ...

[yan1972]

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