Hands-on with the iRex iLiad

[CommanderROR]

Thank you for trying my files Henrycat!

I'm amazed the first file worked at all...^^

Acrobat PC version always complains about some error (too many arguments) and then displays it anyway...but I can't make any changes or add reflow-tags because it then always refuses and repeats the error...so the Iliad PDF viewer seems to be sound.

[sammykrupa]

So the iLiad is actually nice to hold, without a plastic feel?! Wow, I never even expected iRex to do something like that. I guess that's what happens when a company works on a single product for 5 years (-:

[firekat]

I have been lurking on this site for a while watching the proceedings relating to the iliad.

I am interested in getting one, mostly for work. Currently I carry around a number of company manuals in pdf form on my laptop computer. The problem is that I would like to have fast access to these manuals. With them residing on the laptop getting them out for reference is a hassle. Drag out the laptop, start it up, wait for it to boot, then select the appropriate pdf file, wait for acrobat to open, then open the pdf and go to the appropriate section/chapter by bookmark and then browse that chapter as required. When the laptop is not connected up to "Shore Power" it of course runs even more slowly in battery mode. All this takes relatively a lot of time. One of the things I like about the Palm devices is that you turn it on it is ready to run. Period. Unfortunately battery life is limited, and the screen is just too small, and there is not to my knowledge any decent pdf support for the Palm to facilitate the viewing of these rather large company manuals.

Reading the reviews and all the information I have been able to cull from the web it seems that the iliad might be a good alternative to keeping the documents on the laptop and even though the device startup is around 30 seconds it would seem that it is a lot faster than dealing with the laptop.

My questions about the iliad would be the following:

With pdf documents can you easily access all the bookmarks for navigating within the document?

Is the pdf "Search" function operable, or do you have to manually just go through the document?

Does the iliad have the capability of having a list of "Favorites" or "Recently Opened Documents" so that you can just easily jump to a frequently used reference?

I would also like to be able to download from the web graphical weather images. Is this a possible function? This would be an example of the weather site that I would like to get satellite images from: Weather Is it possible to load a image file such as this:Pacific Satellite Weather ?

I imagine that in the above case I could just connect to the web download that image to the laptop then either load it to memory device and then install it on the iliad. This would certainly be more cumbersome and it would be more convenient and advantageous to be able to access it directly using the iliad wireless capability, would that be a possibility?

Sorry if I have asked questions that might have already been addressed.

Thank you for you time and consideration Henrycat!

[R2D2]

Hi Henrique,

Could I please ask you to try out page #2 of a rather big pdf file?

Thank you very much!

R2D2

[avid]

Henrycat said -
When i talked with Alex it seemed Adobe would be making the default PDF viewer later this year, but they won't support encrypted PDF. Weird decision, but if that's what they want.

Why would they not support encrypted PDF? This may limit access to library books - although many library books are both PDF and Mobipocket. But not all.

And what about purchased etextbooks? I was hoping to use the reader for these as well and assume that the files are somehow encrypted.

[scstraus]

Originally Posted by drachasor

Is the default thickness the same as a PDA then? I haven't seen any pictures of this and I don't think you've made any direct commentry on this. If you can put up a pic that would be nice. : )

I'd really like to see some screenshots of taking notes from a blank page. This would be half of the reason I'd be buying this, to replace paper notes, so it's quite important. Thanks!

[rlauzon]

Why would they not support encrypted PDF? This may limit access to library books - although many library books are both PDF and Mobipocket. But not all.

Well, no support for encrypted PDFs is going to make PDF support for it pretty much worthless.

One of the things that make the Iliad attractive was the idea that I could head over to O'Reilly and download PDF versions of manuals so that I could have them all in one convienent package. But I just looked at one of my O'Reilly PDFs and it says "This document has been encrypted..."

Checking all the other (legal) commercial PDFs that I have and they say the same thing.

[CommanderROR]

I'm pretty sure that somebody will add support for encrypted PDF...at least I hope so...

[vranghel]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

I'm pretty sure that somebody will add support for encrypted PDF...at least I hope so...

It's in their best (commercial) interest to support encrypted PDF.

To allow the buyer of the ebook to do what he pleases with the content?
Oh, no that will not happen; it conflicts with their plans of ripping off the customer.

[CommanderROR]

Any ETA for the updated OS and the opening of the webshop?

:-)

[vvoi666]

hi,

thanks for all your work henrique.
one quick question:

do you know what kind of wlan encryption (wep,wpa ...) the iliad is capable of?

thx
frank

[CommanderROR]

Still no news concerning the new OS and Release Date?

[vranghel]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

Still no news concerning the new OS and Release Date?

You're not the only who's anxious about the release

[TaKir]

We'll see no release soon... But I'm sure they will call a new release date. As they like to say: "Later. This year".
First they wiil finish their field trial with e-paper in June (http://e-paper.i-merge.net/field_trial.htm)

[LittleTalker]

But, the irex webpage claims it is to be released in May. Are they lying?