Hands-on with the iRex iLiad

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by tribble

Anone know, where to get a USB Lamp with an LED that uses little power and has large light emission.

Why not make the ilIad a little bit radioactive by putting some Tritium in it? This way it would glow in the dark without draining the battery... ;-)

Actually Tritium lights don't emit beyond their casings, but I think they are nevertheless forbidden to use in Germany...

http://www.betalight.com

[arivero]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Why not make the ilIad a little bit radioactive by putting some Tritium in it? This way it would glow in the dark without draining the battery... ;-)

Speak with e-ink and file a patent!

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by arivero

Speak with e-ink and file a patent!

I don't think that anybody would dare do that: Too much waste management trouble.

[arivero]

Originally Posted by R2D2

I don't think that anybody what do that: Too much waste management trouble.

I tend to agree. E-ink (well, or MIT?) did it, and we went carried to this low speed development status of the readers and this strange continental division (a reader for USA, another for Japan, another for Europe). All the benefits will go to the lawyers most probably.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by tribble

Anone know, where to get a USB Lamp with an LED that uses little power and has large light emission.
The best i found so far is an LED, warm white, 12000mcd, 18mA, 20°, 5mm, 3.4V.

But thats not attached to anything yet.

Hey, Tribble,

try Googling "LED USB light" you'll find a good selection, and you can find someplace that's convenient for you. They seem to average 10~12 USD. You also might find them at your local computer/office supply store. If all else fails, Amazon seems to have them.

Nearly as I can tell, these lights are going to draw around 30 mA (the packaging may tell you more on that, but it may not -- lower mA is better!), which is not much. The real question is how much battery capacity the iLiad has, and what effect that extra draw will have on its life.

As a theoretical exercise, a 30 mA draw on, say, a 600 mAh battery will drain that battery in approximately 20 hours. Of course that doesn't count the juice to change pages, or access files, etc. (and we don't know the iLiad's battery's capacity, for that matter), but it does suggest that you might be able to get through an evening's reading by one of these lights without totally draining your battery.

I'm guessing that anything designed for lighting up a laptop's (usually dark colored) keyboard ought to be plenty bright for reading the iLiad's much smaller, lighter colored screen.

Another thing -- I realize that Laptops have really big, honkin' batteries compared to the iLiad, but I don't think a USB keyboard light that had a heavy power draw would work very well for laptops either, so that, again, suggests that we may have a workable solution.

[firekat]

You could always just get one of those "bookreader" LED lamps that they sell for regular printed books. After all they are made for books! The iLiad is just not made of paper products but is in fact a "book". These lights are small, have their own internal (cheap & easily replaced) battery, will free up the USB port for other purposes, wouldn't drain the power out of the iLiad, and they are relatively inexpensive. In addition to all of that they are manufactured for reading books! I am sure that you could find an easy way to attach it to the iLiad with a little ingenuity. A small square of Velcro is a low tech way that might work effectively. Why re-invent the wheel?

[deadite66]

so are people gonna use theirs straight away?, i'm tempted to hold off on full time use until powersaving is added considering the non-user changable battery.

[tribble]

i am going to use it right away. If the battery dies, i will drive to eindhoven myself, if necessary, to make them change it

[High 5]

Not using the Iliad is like not driving your new Ferrari until they put in a larger gastank.
Nah, if it'll ever arrive, I'll go flatout past all the high-speed camera's.

[Riocaz]

I'll use it straight away.

[scstraus]

Originally Posted by Henrycat

In the near future i don't think there will be any specific notetaking application.

If i understand correcty the user will be able to write notes on the various readers, simply take off the pen and the device will allow for writing (if the reader supports it).

Once the device is "finished" they should start working on the various add-ons, one of them the refinement of notetaking, so i think before the end of the year it should be done.

Or maybe some of the users here in mobileread could create their own application

Thanks for the answer Henrycat, let me know if you hear anything else!

I find this move unfortunate and strange since the features page of the iliad says
"Use the iLiad as your notepad."

I mean, there's not much to adding it if it already supports annotation. Well I'm not buying it if it doesn't have that. It's got to replace my pad of paper and at least some of all the magazines I carry in my laptop bag to be of any use to me. Hopefully they'll add it to the consumer version. Otherwise the touchscreen is just a waste of time and money.

[ElaHuguet]

HenryCat's answer was before the current version of the iLiad, it now has notetaking abilities, and several templates (such as lined paper). I used it to think out the design for its own cover.

[scstraus]

Originally Posted by ElaHuguet

HenryCat's answer was before the current version of the iLiad, it now has notetaking abilities, and several templates (such as lined paper). I used it to think out the design for its own cover.

Cool! Care to share any interesting tidbits you may know about the notes application? Does it do a good job of filing large amounts of notes? Is it fast? Can you easily take multipage notes? Screenshots ?