Hands-on with the iRex iLiad

[bicradash]

Originally Posted by Henrycat

Finally finished the post/answer to bicradash. Just go back to page 2 of this thread

Thank you very much for your photos, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry that my question took so much time for you. I should have made a selection for each of the PDF/TEXT/XHTML samples, before posting it. Hope I could repay you some day.

Looking at most of your photos, it seems that the iLiad is capable of displaying multibytes, but does not seem to have Japanese fonts.
Although most of the characters in the Japanese text looks like it's displayed, in some spot it shows the Unicode code point for the character instead. I think this is because the iLiad have the fonts for Chinese, but not for Japanese. Chinese font includes many characters from Japanese, but not quite all of it. It lacks numbers of character needed to read Japanese.

On the other hand, when I look at http://ilimas3.com.sapo.pt/Sample%20...0Languages.JPG, I can see that there's no lack of fonts, and is completely readable. I think this is because the fonts in http://www2.tba.t-com.ne.jp/ing/ing/smpl_1.pdf is embedded to the PDF. So maybe, if I convert the HTMLs to a PDF file with Japanese fonts embedded inside, I may be able to read Japanese texts (although this will significantly increase the size of the PDF file).

Oh, and it seems that the iLiad can't display UTF-8 plain text. I somehow had a wrong idea that the iLiad have a text viewer.

I just hope there will be some way to include Japanese fonts to it's OS... In this current status, to read Japanese texts, I would have to convert it to a PDF file /w embedded fonts. That will increase the file size a lot, not to mention the needless troubles to do so.

Again, thank you very very much for your photos. The information meant a lot for peoples eagerly waiting to buy iLiad in Japan.

[CommanderROR]

I also thought it would read .txt files...says so in the data-pdf after all...:-)

I hope they add that before release...I hate using PDF...too bulky in my opinion....

[avid]

Absolutely great information! Thanks so much for your time and effort!

My question - how does the Iliad feel to sit and read with it for several hours? My interest is in reading books so I am wondering how comfortable it is to use in that fashion. Are the pages as comfortable to read as a paper book? Is it easy on the eyes in good lighting?
My problem is that I can't read books on small screens - I need to "see" the whole page - at least paperback size.

I do NOT expect you to sit and read for hours - please just your thoughts on this based on your use so far. Thanks so much!

[drachasor]

About annotation, how thin and accurate are the drawn lines? PDAs always have annoyingly thick lines and hence lousy "notetaking" resolution. With wacomm (sp?) technology the Iliad could be much better at this....is it?

[Henrycat]

My internet is down again

But i found a bit of here at work

It's amazing hoy you can forget the important stuff

The Iliad:

- Has a beautiful box with a great design

- Turns a lot of heads because of size, functionality. Some of my friends though the Librie was a big PDA. The Iliad looks like a mini laptop.

- Makes it easy to read my ebooks. I just have to copy them to a CF card, or connect the device has an USB hard drive.

- Is definitely a cool device

The Iliad needs a file extension to "know" what viewer it will use.

Tried renaming to htm, but it shows code not page layout (same in a browser pc).

Will probably require a dedicated viewer.

Actually i changed the txt to htm because the device wasn't recognizing the format. Think the text viewer is off in my OS

So it's the xhtml viewer in the pics.

Usually i would agree but since i can easily import text to Indesign and export the pdf, i'm giving it a thumbs up.
I can easily create static texts with formating, hiphenization, titles, italics and bolds (Baen docs for instance are great).

Of course the regular user could simply use a program lke "WinPDF" to print to a pdf file. Just remenber to set page size to 12x16 cm

Now i just have to find a tool to make auto pdf's from a series of images (comics and mangas) .

Sofar i have only read Flag in Exile (Hornor Harrigton from BAEN). I'm used to the contrast of the Librie, so the Iliad is even easier to read.

When i showed the device to friends they agree it is has easy to read has paper.

The more light the easier it is to read, that's the great advantage of eink

Keep in mind you can paginate your texts to the 12x16 cm.

Simply print something to this size and imagine it's eink.

My OS version only allows default thickness, i can't make it thinner or bolder.

The final version allow's it, but i can only guess at the "quality".

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Henrycat

Are you a Librie owner? Go take a look at:

http://librie.2ya.com/

Looks like it's time to change your sig line, Henrycat

You mentioned lefty readers and the flip bar -- is there a way to invert the screen (turn it upside down) on the iLiad? That would effectively put the flip bar on the other side....

I'm not a lefty (though some of my best friends are lefties ), but I like to hold my books with either hand, so being able to put the bar on the other side would be a boon.

And thanks for taking the time and (considerable effort, given your PC issues) to share!

[Henrycat]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Looks like it's time to change your sig line, Henrycat

You mentioned lefty readers and the flip bar -- is there a way to invert the screen (turn it upside down) on the iLiad? That would effectively put the flip bar on the other side....

I'm not a lefty (though some of my best friends are lefties ), but I like to hold my books with either hand, so being able to put the bar on the other side would be a boon.

And thanks for taking the time and (considerable effort, given your PC issues) to share!

Don' know but it should be easy to do in the OS.

The only thing would be the direct access buttons, which would be upside-down

I still have my website, but since i stated working i havn't had much time.

Maybe i should find someone to take it up for the Sony reader. I think it can read the same files...

[CommanderROR]

Any news yet when the new OS version should be available?

[Henrycat]

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

Any news yet when the new OS version should be available?

Nothing yet, but believe me when i say i'm expecting it more than anyone else

[LittleTalker]

Hi Henry, thanks for all the info and pics.
One dissapointment though is that you can't browse files on a PC using wireless. The PDF brochure on iRex site shows that as a feature. Maybe it will be on the release OS. Did they mention that?
I wonder if it is possible to flip the screen to a landscape mode, so that you can for example read large format comic books, or any other file where too much scaling is undesirable. Is that possible? Did they mention plans to add such a feature?
again, thanks

[drachasor]

Originally Posted by Henrycat

My OS version only allows default thickness, i can't make it thinner or bolder.

The final version allow's it, but i can only guess at the "quality".

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. : )

[CommanderROR]

Hey henrycat!

I just sent a PM with two links to PDFs I'd like you to try on the Iliad. One of them is a bit problematc, so it would be interesting to see how well it works on the Iliad. I can't post them here because anybody would be able to DL them and I think that would be rather illiegal...^^

If you have the time, please take pictures of page3 in both "books" and put them up here in the thread.

Thanks!

[Henrycat]

More answers

They only meant to say you can put your content on the device, not that you could browse contents wirelessly.

Hopefully they will be able to add that possibility till the end of the year :P

You can see the picture on iRex website. Just be carefull because it's a really big picture. It also gives a good idea of how the grey background is.

http://www.irextechnologies.com/photos.htm

[TaKir]

[QUOTE=Henrycat]More answers

Originally Posted by LittleTalker
One dissapointment though is that you can't browse files on a PC using wireless. The PDF brochure on iRex site shows that as a feature. Maybe it will be on the release OS. Did they mention that?

Originally Posted by Henrycat

They only meant to say you can put your content on the device, not that you could browse contents wirelessly.

May be I'm stupid enough, but what does this answer below mean?

Quoted from Irex faq:
http://www.irextechnologies.com/faq.htm

"Is the E-reader restricted to feeding by iDS only?"

"No, The E-reader is an open system that also works with your laptop/PC (wireless/wired). The E-reader is also fit for reading from a USB stick, SD cards and CF2."

Do they mean, to "work with your laptop/PC (wireless/wired)" - but no browsing files? But there is no sens in such work!

[CommanderROR]

I guess they mean "the device works with your PC/Laptop...much like a PDA actually...ever seen a pda that can browse data on your PC?
(there is software for this, but out of the box, all you can do is sync...)

at least that's the way it is with my PDA