DR800SG now also available at CAR TOYS

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by BrassMonkey

Pauli - you made my day. Ends up I missed the semicolon at the end of the line. Got passed the calibration screen. Thanks again!

I suspect you may also be able to use a DS stylus.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by nikkie

I suspect you may also be able to use a DS stylus.

I could be wrong, but I think the DS's touchscreen is a "physical" touchscreen. You can use the stylus or your finger, right? That's also how the Palm devices work. The stylus is likely just a "dumb" piece of plastic and doesn't have the internals that a Wacom stylus has in order for it to interact with the digitizer.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I could be wrong, but I think the DS's touchscreen is a "physical" touchscreen. You can use the stylus or your finger, right? That's also how the Palm devices work. The stylus is likely just a "dumb" piece of plastic and doesn't have the internals that a Wacom stylus has in order for it to interact with the digitizer.

Just checked to be sure: Nintendo DS = NOT working = NO stylus, but pure "plastic".

[pauli]

Originally Posted by BrassMonkey

Pauli - you made my day. Ends up I missed the semicolon at the end of the line. Got passed the calibration screen. Thanks again!

Just looked back at your post where you explained what you edited first in the dr.ini file... the semicolon was indeed missing... (should have seen that, sorry)
but it's good to hear you finally got passed the "dreaded" calibration screen.

[OrcaBlue]

Just got my Irex delivered. The first thing I checked for was the stylus. It is included. Second thing, I notice is that the chassis is made of plastic and there is a slide shave where the edge of the back cover connects to the front face. It exposes the inside black color of the plastic. Hence, making it seem like the cover is deformed by a screw driver. However, carefully inspection showed that is not the case but a result of poor manufacture quality.



I have some hand on experience with Sony PRS 900. I have to say that I can see the stark difference in build quality.

I also tried the Wacom Graphire 3 Tablet's stylus during calibration. It's a no go. No respond when I used it to hit the x mark during the calibration.

I'll see whether I can live with that little defect on the chassis.

[BrassMonkey]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Any "penabled" stylus will work.Both Irex and Onyx use actual Wacom sourced digitizers.

Brass Monkey- I meant ill just send you one no need to purchase. I have a couple laying about in case someone loses one.

I have a response from IREX that they will be sending out a stylus. Thanks for your help.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

Just got my Irex delivered. The first thing I checked for was the stylus. It is included. Second thing, I notice is that the chassis is made of plastic and there is a slide shave where the edge of the back cover connects to the front face. It exposes the inside black color of the plastic. Hence, making it seem like the cover is deformed by a screw driver. However, carefully inspection showed that is not the case but a result of poor manufacture quality.



I have some hand on experience with Sony PRS 900. I have to say that I can see the stark difference in build quality.

I also tried the Wacom Graphire 3 Tablet's stylus during calibration. It's a no go. No respond when I used it to hit the x mark during the calibration.

I'll see whether I can live with that little defect on the chassis.

Sony 900 definitely is benchmark - concerning quality and material. A league of its own.
My iRex 800S doesn't look as "extreme" as yours, but it's somewhat similar. Plastic. Tension/torsion will deform it. I found that I "can live with it" and I don't expect a quantum leap if I'd exchange it. But, like I said before, a slight disappointment.
Unfortunately, I see this on quite a few of my units.
nook, although very elegant, has similar build "quality". Between the white frame and the black insert is a gap, similar to yours. With the right angle and light, I partially can see inside my nook.
And although being a Sony fan, I found myself a bit disappointed about Sony 300. The buttons are uneven, some are even with the frame, others stick out for about 0.3mm.
But: iRex 800S was twice the price of those units for me in Europe and even in the US is 40% more expensive, so we should be able to expect a bit more.
My personal guess: iRex sells in relatively small batches (compared to Sony or Amazon). The differences in the manufacturing process probably per se will be bigger as in "mass production".
I'm really curious about my "Pandora" game console. First batch is 3895 units - everything is possible in such small doses.
I don't have any figures for iRex. But if the (assumed) market leader Amazon only sells some 500k units per year, iRex probably will have some 100k. Meaning less than 10k per month. So their initial batches probably are somewhere in the range of "Pandora" I've mentioned before.
On the other hand, tomorrow I'll get my Nintendo DSi XXL. With 100k units (just in Japan) per month, you don't have to worry about quality there.

[drl]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

My iRex 800S doesn't look as "extreme" as yours, but it's somewhat similar. Plastic. Tension/torsion will deform it. [/U]

I thought I saw somewhere prior to my buying the DR800 that it was made of aluminium. Was a bit dissapointed to see that it is plastic. However, I must say that I find it quite sturdy--much, much better than the Cybook and not very easy to deform. All in all, I am very happy with the DR800 and the build quality.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by drl

I thought I saw somewhere prior to my buying the DR800 that it was made of aluminium. Was a bit dissapointed to see that it is plastic. However, I must say that I find it quite sturdy--much, much better than the Cybook and not very easy to deform. All in all, I am very happy with the DR800 and the build quality.

It is sturdy and it's heavy.
What I don't like (but that's not iRex specific but applies for the majority of consumer products): Plastic or not, it's possible to manufacture this very accurately as well. But this would need resources like automotive manufacturers for example may have it. Given the batch size I've assumed in #97 of this thread, this kind of quality level and accuracy obviously simply isn't possible/affordable for such small figures/revenue/production lots.

[OrcaBlue]

I agree with mgmueller, on Irex's relative size and manufacturing capability.

Here is my observation so far.

In term of features, DR800 lacks many. Navigation doesn't seem smooth and fluid as the PRS 900. At its current condition, it's behind the 900 in many ways.

* Plastic feels
* No annotation/scribbling
* No dictionary
* No standard SD slot (Micro SD is hard to switch)
* No hard case

* 3G connection to PressDirect.com is really slow.
(Download speed seem like 54kbps connection).

Here is its positive feature.

The screen.

* 8" inch screen,
* less glare than 900 (at certain angle, the plastic screen does have glare as well)
* Better contrast

In term of battery, I have a feeling that doesn't last as long as PRS 900. It was charged to 100% this morning. I downloaded 2 newspapers and turned about 20-30 times. Now, battery shows 87%.

Mgmueller, I am wondering what's your view on DR800's battery compared to PRS 900?

[MobileTechReview]

Wacom pen-enabled pens work. These are used with tablet PCs and pre-Intuos tablets. If you can visit with a tablet PC whose pen hasn't already been stolen at your local shop, it will work.

Wacom sells pen-enabled pens on their website (in the section for tablet PC pens).

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

I agree with mgmueller, on Irex's relative size and manufacturing capability.

Here is my observation so far.

In term of features, DR800 lacks many. Navigation doesn't seem smooth and fluid as the PRS 900. At its current condition, it's behind the 900 in many ways.

* Plastic feels
* No annotation/scribbling
* No dictionary
* No standard SD slot (Micro SD is hard to switch)
* No hard case

* 3G connection to PressDirect.com is really slow.
(Download speed seem like 54kbps connection).

Here is its positive feature.

The screen.

* 8" inch screen,
* less glare than 900 (at certain angle, the plastic screen does have glare as well)
* Better contrast

In term of battery, I have a feeling that doesn't last as long as PRS 900. It was charged to 100% this morning. I downloaded 2 newspapers and turned about 20-30 times. Now, battery shows 87%.

Mgmueller, I am wondering what's your view on DR800's battery compared to PRS 900?

I'm not "power using" iRex 800, so I haven't got a final picture. But in standby it seems to discharge relatively quickly. I'm falling below 50% within a few days.
My gut feeling says, it's workable, but less efficient than BeBook Neo or Sony 900. nook or Kindle, without touchscreen, seem way ahead. In standby, my Kindles only loose a few percent over weeks.
Also, iRex 800 seems to take awfully long to charge.

[MobileTechReview]

That's interesting- with active use my DR800SG lasts longer than my Sony PRS-900 (and I don't have any Sony auto-delivery of newspapers). The DR800 does take a long time to charge though.

If I leave my Kindle DX in sleep mode (screensaver on) and don't turn off wireless it doesn't last more than 5 to 6 days. If I turn wireless off and turn off the DX (screen is blank) it lasts more than a month in storage.

[OrcaBlue]

MobileTechReview, can you do some sort of comparison between the DR800 and PRS-900's battery life?

[MobileTechReview]

I haven't done battery benchmarks (not that there are formal tests for that) but experientially I can tell you that my Sony Reader PRS-900 usually lasts 6 days on charge while my IREX DR800SG lasts 10 days on a charge with the same use.

That's with 3G on (going into standby as dictated by device power management), reading at least 1.5 hours/day and downloading 10 books/periodicals over 3G.