Need your experience.. thinking of purchase...

[valkyriesound]

Hi!

I'm very seriously considering the irex reader. I have a Sony PRS-500 but it
is no good for all the technical books (pdf) and graduate business books I'm
trying to read.

A couple of questions:
1. What's up with the crazy price increase? Did they give a reason for this?
2. For those of you with the reader... how well does it display PDF files?
Any experience with technical books on this reader?
3. I've been trying to catch up on all the threads here... has the battery life
problem been fixed?
4. Can I take notes freehand on the unit (no keyboard)? Can I take freehands notes over another book file I'm viewing?

Anything you think would be a problem for a grad student using the device?

Where's the best place to buy one? Hopefully with a decent return policy?

Thanks for your help!

[planetrobbie]

I'll try to help a little bit with answers.

1. I'm in Europe so I can't help about that

2. PDF displays really really well on the 10 inch display, it was my main motivation in buying it and I'm quite happy with it up to now. Technical books too, screen estate solve a lot of issues with other smaller readers. There is just a little glitch or feature that I don't like, when you zoom (it's only 10 inch so sometime you need to) you need to zoom out before turning page, I would prefer to be able to turn page within the zoom with the buttons. The only solution is to use the stylet to touch a page number in the status bar.

3. nop, it should be in firmware 1.5 which should come soon but who knows if it will indeed and how much of the issue it will solve ? On my side it's ok, I'm not moving a lot with the reader so I'm able to recharge it often :/ That could be a problem if you need your device all day long without any ways to recharge it.

4. For sure you can also on top of your current book, that's nice even if that's not excatly like a paperboard.

Hope that help,

planetrobbie

[keng2000]

1. No info released yet.
2. It is not excatly A4. about 80-90% of it. But It is very well compare to my HP Tablet in the poetrait view (12")
3. FM 1.5 may inprove to 20 Hrs. usage. Not OK but fait enough.
4. writing ith stylus is not the same as natural writing. But other option is using the Digital Pen but not help saving paper.

for larger device 10" e-ink, It is only DR1000S.
You may wait for Platic Logic in Q1 2010. or Hanlin V9.V9c. V9t Jinke.

[omro]

Originally Posted by valkyriesound

2. For those of you with the reader... how well does it display PDF files?
Any experience with technical books on this reader?

I find that it generally displays PDFs very well, though sometimes things are a little small. Rotate the screen and zoom to 100% and with a little panning it's full text size and very legible. I rarely find that I have to do that though.

Originally Posted by valkyriesound

4. Can I take notes freehand on the unit (no keyboard)? Can I take freehands notes over another book file I'm viewing?

You can, but the calibration is pretty awful, so you end up writing and what you write appearing a little below and to the side of where you thought it would be. If you can train your brain to ignore that and don't mind not writing on lines, you can easily take simple notes on the device.

It's quite hard to make notes on books, as there isn't a hi-ligher option. You can underline and circle things, but with the calibration off, it often ends up looking rather messy.

[ttf]

Well I do not own one, but I can add my non-technical thoughts. Maybe you won't like them...

I've been lurking in the forum for a while now, motivated by a strong interest in the DR1000.
I'm working in the IT education and consulting business and the idea of having the necessary IBM z/OS documentation (all pdf) at hand in a small device is tempting. And the near A4 format guarantees excellent readability especially for technical documentaion in A4/Letter format- as most forum posters agree.

However I stepped back. Bringing an "almost ready" device to the market seems to be usual practice in a technically driven environment and I - like many DR-1000 owners here - would have been willing to live with a short battery life, because I'd use it in a "stationary" way, either at home office or at the customers site. Also, as an early adopter in a market without real competition (as all DR1000 owners are at this point in time, there's no other device with a screen as large) I was willing to pay my € 599.

But increasing the price considerably to € 699 before the 1.5 firmware is out (which promises to make it "really ready" for usage) really brought IRex out of the race for me. I think that is an embarassing move.

Also, from what I read in this forum, they do not seem to be very communicative. That is a very important aspect of support/service, especially with a very "young" device. For myself, I mailed to the German representative in late November and never received any answer/reaction.

In short: I decided to wait until the market is more mature and offers a broader range of devices. My opinion is that this will not be the case before 2010 (see Plastic Logics delay for eaxample).


ttf

[pthwaite]

For reading A4 pdf.s the DR1000s is excellen. It's even okay for A3 though you do pan around. The display is clear and quite usable.
The battery life is still very poor I can get about 4 - 5hrs in fairly heavy use. This is fine in an office environment but can be limiting for site work, though car charger usb sources work to overcome that to a certain extent. Hopefully version 1.5 of the firmware will improve this.

You can write on the display quite easilly and clearly, but towards any of the edges the calibration is truly awful. Why it is this bad I don't know and again maybe version 1.5 will help.

The software that comes with it to merge the notes and scribbles you make does work, though again it doesn't work well. Anyhting over a "medium" size pen gives a poor representation of what you wrote. 3rd Party developers in this forum have done a better job than irex.

In the end, I got it mainly for its pdf display properties and it does that extremely well. I suspect things will improve with V1.5 firmware & hopefully the other shortcomings will get sorted in the near future too.

regards

[valkyriesound]

Thanks all of you for your feedback! One more quick question:

Can you sort files into folders? So I can have my files organized on the memory card?
I hate how the Sony just puts everything into a huge list....

Thanks again!

[pthwaite]

Yes, you can create folders and put your files in them. As many as you like.

[harryE123]

1. I dunno, it's a small co. so, go figure, I was lucky enough to get onboard just before the price increase, so I can understand how sour it might feel, but at the moment to me, the price is deserved going by the no competition in this size these guys are facing.
2. Pdfs display very well, esp. those that are ready made so to speak, the ones I have uploaded from my scans take a bit of time to load but it might have to do with my not knowing my way around acrobat to optimize them. Technical books are ok, not great because the screen is too small for them still imo, others might differ, but there is always the landscape mode which works, and I personally use the zoom and pan feature in continuous mode. That said I would have like the display to be a bit more like real paper in terms of it being more reflective.
3.1.5 firmware will be out in a matter of days and we shall see, but even as is I don't have a problem with battery, I don't know why others expect a portable device to last for days on end, instead of the usual 1.5 days cycle (or even less) that most smart phones and pdas go through. I can appreciate that they might want that because the tecnology of eink warrants, that's true.
4. sure, yeah you can switch between open books and take notes on both if I understand what you are asking.

grad students, yeah sure.

[cjp]

Originally Posted by valkyriesound

Anything you think would be a problem for a grad student using the device?

Hello,

I agree with many of the posts here so far - reading PDF's has been more than just great. I'm a doctoral student and have so many to read not only weekly but in preparation for the Comprehensive Exams (August!) this DR1000S has allowed me to not only carry hundreds - maybe a thousand, put into folders, courses, theories, topics... you name it, I have it. I use two different 8GB SD cards with a full backup on both my laptop and desktop computer. Super easy to keep organized.

The battery life has improved somewhat with the last update and I expect that it will be even better shortly. As a 'workaround' when I first bought it - October I think, I use a rechargeable battery pack that has allowed me to continue working when I haven't had a chance to recharge that day. It has worked out very nicely with little hassle.

In all - I cannot imagine my studies this year without it. I bought it as an investment into helping me stay up on all the reading (PDF journals) that I need - and have not been disappointed. I say, if you are a serious student who must have continued access to PDFs, then go for it! You will love it.
CJP

[valkyriesound]

Thanks for the grad student vote!
I'm working on my MBA and I have SO much to read.
I figure I'll still have lots of tech books to read after school as well.

I'm looking forward to the next gen of large readers but I figure
I'll still get the $1000 worth of use in it as an education investment.

Thanks all!