Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by pauli

@Kolenka,

I checked another document: from the Adobe example library
Download the "Alice in Wonderland" ebook, this has pictures in it. When you change the font size in ADE (on a PC), the pictures also scale with the fontsize.

On the other hand. I downloaded a free ebook from mobileread (Reprinted Pieces by Charles Dickens, Illustrated) in epub format. Opened it with ADE on my PC. Here the pictures do not scale with the fontsize.... I wonder why? Is there some additional formatting in this ebook, that is not there in the Alice in Wonderland ebook?

You can specify heights of images in ebooks using units like 'em'...

<img class="ir" style="width:18em;height:27em" src="images/alice02a.gif" alt="The White Rabbit"/>

That's right from the alice ePub that I have which does this. Rescaling here is expected, as the meaning of 'em' changes with the default font size. If I specify my image size in pixels, which are considered a fixed unit, I expect the size not to change with font scaling... and indeed this is the case (I can even use fixed font sizes this way, but it isn't recommended for text at all).

The fact that the DR800 does rescale images that use a fixed pixel height/width seems to make it different from even my 505.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I'll be curious as to your impressions of battery life over the next few days as you use it, particularly if you just keep it in standby as opposed to shutting it the whole way down. On my Kindle and Sony I never turn it off, just use the standby, which gives great battery life.

I'd be interested in battery life too. I think they quote "hours and hours" on the website, so I emailed them a couple of days ago to ask if the could give an estimate of page turns, for comparison with other readers. So far, no reply! But I have to say I'm still tempted as my first dip into ereaders.

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by TGS

I'd be interested in battery life too. I think they quote "hours and hours" on the website, so I emailed them a couple of days ago to ask if the could give an estimate of page turns, for comparison with other readers. So far, no reply! But I have to say I'm still tempted as my first dip into ereaders.

Battery life is top so far. I have the device now for 2 weeks and did only charge twice.

The first time after I got it, and the second time last weekend (but the battery was not empty, still 20% left).

Today the battery level is still over 50%. I did use the device every day between 1 - 4 hours. The rest of the time it was in the "standby" mode, which means it is ready to use after 3 seconds.

But I also transferred new reading material, and if you connect it to USB it will also charge (but the reader was never connected for longer than 10-30 minutes every day).

In comparison to the Iliad this is a huge improvement.

[pauli]

@Kolenka, thanks for the explanation.. I'm new at this epub stuff. It is not as straightforward as I thought. I guess the actual formatting of the epubs can make a lot of difference.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by DeReader

Battery life is top so far. I have the device now for 2 weeks and did only charge twice.

The first time after I got it, and the second time last weekend (but the battery was not empty, still 20% left).

Today the battery level is still over 50%. I did use the device every day between 1 - 4 hours. The rest of the time it was in the "standby" mode, which means it is ready to use after 3 seconds.

But I also transferred new reading material, and if you connect it to USB it will also charge (but the reader was never connected for longer than 10-30 minutes every day).

In comparison to the Iliad this is a huge improvement.

This is a brilliant site and I'd like to thank everyone on it, and particularly this thread. You've helped me towards a decision and I've just ordered an IREX 800. It seems to meet more of my current needs than anything else out there - at least anything that I can afford.
However, if it turns out that I can't take to an ebook reader and I've just spent 500 euros to find that out - then it's your fault

It's more than 48 hours since I placed my order and it is still showing as "Pending Credit Card Authorization". I tried to telephone Customer Services to find out what was happening, only to be told - at just after 10.00 am - that there is no-one there yet, but maybe in half an hour!

This may be a good product, but of Customer Service is so bad I am seriously thinking about canceling my order - if I can find anyone to take my cancellation

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by pauli

@Kolenka, thanks for the explanation.. I'm new at this epub stuff. It is not as straightforward as I thought. I guess the actual formatting of the epubs can make a lot of difference.

The formatting follows the rules of HTML (or at least should be). The only difference is that using px/pt values for your fonts are not recommended (as they override the ability of the user to change the font size while reading). Images can be done either way.

The problem comes in with reality. Devices currently don't use any form of modern scaling algorithm, and so you get jagged scaling. This jagged scaling makes the small text on comics hard to read. So we use px sizes for the images because it is still supposed to work as expected (fixed size), and scale for the device on a computer where we can properly scale the image and keep the text readable. That's all wasted effort if the device isn't gonna honor the layout we tell it to.

The really weird thing is that SVG covers still seem to behave correctly on the iRex... it is just images.

EDIT: In fact, if devices started showing up that did even a simple bilinear scale, I'd be in a position where I wouldn't even have to worry about correct scaling or all that nonsense... using SVG to scale the images would be just fine as well, and processing the images for devices would become a lot simpler. Ideally, a device would do decent scaling and dithering, but I've yet to see anything more than decent dithering.

[Kolenka]

So here is a test ePub I've thrown together. 3 pages with the same image resized to 3 different screens: 6" Readers (505/nook/etc), Sony-900, and iRex 800 in that order.

What I'm noticing is that the iRex is definitely ignoring pixel sizes. If you set the font size to medium, it will respect them, but not on the default setting of small.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by TGS

It's more than 48 hours since I placed my order and it is still showing as "Pending Credit Card Authorization". I tried to telephone Customer Services to find out what was happening, only to be told - at just after 10.00 am - that there is no-one there yet, but maybe in half an hour!

There's a glitch with their website where sometimes the status doesn't get updated. Usually you can open a trouble ticket on their tech support site, give them your order number, and ask for the current status.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by TGS

It's more than 48 hours since I placed my order and it is still showing as "Pending Credit Card Authorization".

Ask your credit card company. It may be also some authentication/authorization problem. One my Amazon order was rejected due to a temporary server-brokedown at my bank.

If you can see the (pre-)charge on your credit card history, the process may be on the right way.

[professzore]

Hi,

I have some test PDFs here. As you saw on a previous reply from mgmueller, a few pages of if had been tested on a device. I made some improvements since then, and found a few new "must see" topics. Please, let me know if someone may help me to download a PDF, put it on the device and take some (10-12) photographs of the device showing it.

The only reason to this question is that I'm not able to test a device in hand, and until I can do so (or have some HQ pictures), I wouldn't like to order my device.

All may be get through private messages as also here on the forum.

Anyone to help?

TIA,

Professzore

[StevenK]

I've only now become aware of this device, but it looks pretty impressive and has zoomed to the top of my wish list. I want a large e-ink device for reading PDFs and the built-in option to eliminate the margins is a great feature. I really like that it is Linux-based and has a replaceable battery. I'm not interested in getting trapped in somebody's closed-up system.

So far, all of the issues with it seems to be things that could be fixed with firmware updates.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by StevenK

I've only now become aware of this device, but it looks pretty impressive and has zoomed to the top of my wish list. I want a large e-ink device for reading PDFs and the built-in option to eliminate the margins is a great feature. I really like that it is Linux-based and has a replaceable battery. I'm not interested in getting trapped in somebody's closed-up system.

So far, all of the issues with it seems to be things that could be fixed with firmware updates.

I've read somewehre, iRex is not sure yet, whether to implement zoom and annotation into iRex 800, but it definitely will remain available on Irex 1000S. (And on iRex iLiad of course, as there aren't any changes/updates in firmware anymore.)

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I've read somewehre, iRex is not sure yet, whether to implement zoom and annotation into iRex 800, but it definitely will remain available on Irex 1000S. (And on iRex iLiad of course, as there aren't any changes/updates in firmware anymore.)

It would be a pity if iRex don't implement them on DR800.
I'm just waiting for these features to buy the device. As I've already mentioned on a previous comment, it would be a regression from the Iliad I currently use and love.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Iñigo

It would be a pity if iRex don't implement them on DR800.
I'm just waiting for these features to buy the device. As I've already mentioned on a previous comment, it would be a regression from the Iliad I currently use and love.

There is a rumor that they will continue to sell the iliad as the DR800SW Pro.
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Just kidding. (I hope)

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by badbob001

There is a rumor that they will continue to sell the iliad as the DR800SW Pro.
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Just kidding. (I hope)

and it would be still one of the best ereaders in the market!