09:30 AM by Patricia in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Southeastern USA MR Hoedown Meet-up
October 25 at De Soto State Park
Near Ft. Payne, AL
Noonish potluck picnic
Organized by - BookishDreamer, DixieGal, & slayda

See this thread for more information:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26904

(And if you are in Europe, remember that there's a meet-up in Paris on the same day.)

04:40 PM by Adam B. in More E-Book Readers | iRex

iRex has been gracious enough to provide me a DR1000S review unit. I'm not sure how long they'll let me keep it, but I can already tell that it's going to be difficult to give back.

I plan on doing a full review after a few days of real world usage, but now I'll give my impressions after about 45 minutes of playing with the device.

First of all, the screen is big! I've been using the iLiad for about 2 years, and it's amazing to see how documents look on a big screen like this. It also seems to have much better contrast than my iLiad. But eink screens tend to loose a little contrast over time, so was expected. But the overall whiteness and larger screen makes documents an absolute joy to read.

There are a few things I'm going to have to get used to. For one, I've had a few problems accidentally pressing the buttons. The way I held my iLiad, I could grab the device by the side and just press the page bar. Now, when I hold the DR, it starts to skip pages. I have to retrain my self to grab the device below the page bar. Also, I've had problems getting the DR to actually lock the keys when I press the lock button. I'm not sure w

Reading full page PDF's is an absolute joy. The PDF's in the screenshots are 8.5x11" pages from a technical manual. They are readable on the iLiad, however the text is very small. On the DR, I have my documents set to automatically crop the margins. It's amazing to open a PDF, have no margins, and read pages the way they were meant to be on paper.

The DR is very menu intensive. To do anything but change a page, you have to bring up a menu. While this isn't too bad with the stylus, I can see users without the wacom enabled model finding this very annoying. It's an extra step from the way things were done on the iLiad with the menu bar.

Speaking of the stylus, drawing on the DR is very similar to drawing on the iLiad. There's still a slight delay when writing on the screen, but it's no better or worse than writing on the iLiad. It's nice, however, that the DR is able to write with a second stylus (I use a Wacom Executive Pen) while the included one is in it's holder. On the iLiad, you would have to remove and risk loosing the factory stylus whenever you'd want to write with my more comfortable style.

Screen refreshes are slightly faster than on the iLiad. I've uploaded a video onto Youtube comparing the two. There are times that you see the "Please Wait" screen when flipping quickly from one page to another, or when moving forward 5 pages. Luckily, using thumbnail view and search diminishes the need to quickly flip through pages while trying to find a specific page.

I look forward to continuing to use the DR1000S and providing a more in depth review. Based on my first impressions, I'd happily replace my iLiad with the device.

Click here to view an album full of unboxing pictures

A few highlights:

Youtube video comparing refreshes.

06:06 PM by Patricia in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Remember, the second Parisian apéro is coming soon.

WHEN

It's on SATURDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2008

from about 18.30 (6.30pm)

WHERE

LA TROTTINETTE
Sicilian bar / restaurant

23, rue de la Fontaine au Roi
Paris 11th arrondissement
Métro Goncourt (line 11)
or if you prefer Parmentier (line 3) or République (lines 3, 5, 8, 9, 11)

The plan is that we meet for drinks at about 6.30 and some of us will stay and dine there. The proprieter cooks fresh Sicilian food: home-made pasta and bread, with exclusively fresh ingredients, around 60% organic products. lots of vegetables which will make the vegetarians happy for once ! but the carnivores can have a steak if they prefer ! appetizers are at 7.50€, main course 12€, dessert 6€ (glass of beer 2.50€).

RSVP

Zelda reminds us that we should:
"PLEASE CONFIRM YOUR PRESENCE AND WHETHER YOU PLAN TO HAVE DINNER OR NOT by leaving a message in this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28720
i have to give him some more definite numbers a few days in advance ; it's a small place, and as everything is made to order with fresh ingredients, he wants to be sure to have the right quantities on hand."

http://www.cuisine-francaise.com/fic...ette-paris.htm

Zelda dit:

MR apéro à Paris : Le Retour !!! 25 octobre 2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hé oui ! après le succès retentissant du premier apéro MobileRead à Paris, et à la demande général, nous ne pouvions que remettre ça ! c'est donc avec une joie sans bornes que nous vous annonçons l'Apéro MR, bis !!

Sortez donc vos agendas : le deuxième apéro aura lieu

SAMEDI, le 25 OCTOBRE 2008

et en plus des énergumènes habituels, nous aurons pas un mais DEUX invités surprises (au moins) !!! vous ne voulez pas rater ça !!!

en plus, nous avons prévu ça un samedi ce coup-ci, pour les courageux qui n'habitent même pas la capitale mais feront le déplacement exprès. (d'ailleurs, certains n'habitent même pas la métropole. petit indice pour ceux qui voudraient essayer de deviner l'identité des invités suprises... alors vous voyez, vous les parisiens / banlieusards, il n'y a pas d'excuse qui tiendra !)

merci de laisser un petit mot ici pour nous dire que vous venez (notez que j'ai pas di "si" ; je compte sur vous ! car sinon je serai vraiment déçue), avec quelle liseuse, et à combien, histoire qu'on puisse prévoir le coup.

LE LIEU

ça y est, je nous ai dégotté un petit endroit de choix !! le bar où nous avions fait ça la dernière fois faisant concert le 25, nous déménageons à

LA TROTTINETTE
bar / restau sicilien

23, rue de la Fontaine au Roi
Paris 11ème
Métro Goncourt (ligne 11)
ou éventuellement Parmentier (ligne 3) ou République (lignes 3, 5, 8, 9, 11)

on y boit et on peut y manger aussi : ils proposent une cuisine sicilienne à base de pâtes et de pain MAISON, avec des ingrédients frais exclusivement, à environ 60% d'ingrédients bio. beaucoup de légumes ce qui plaira pour une fois aux végétarien(ne)s ! mais les carnivores pourront aussi manger un steak s'ils veulent. les entrées sont à 7,50€, les plats à 12€, les desserts à 6€.

ATTENTION, LA TROTTINETTE N'ACCEPTE PAS LES CB !!! chèques ou espèces seulement. Donc prévoyez le chèquier ou passez au distrib' avant !

je vous propose de lancer ça vers 18h30 ou 19h en apéro si ça vous arrange et puis ceux qui le souhaitent pourront manger sur place.

MERCI DE ME CONFIRMER VOTRE PRESENCE ET SI VOUS SOUHAITEZ DINER OU NON en laissant un message dans ce fil ;
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28716
comme tous les produits sont frais, je dois donner une indication (même approximative) de la taille du groupe et des couverts quelques jours à l'avance, histoire qu'il ait de quoi faire sur place.

__________________

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Ok kids, time for the weekly roundup of what we've covered this week:

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• New "Intellectual Property Protection" law enacted.
• KDDI's Color E-paper ... Giant Cellphone Display
• Carbon Nanotube Electrophoretic Display From Samsung

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources

• OpticBook 3600 for $229.99 at TigerDirect

E-Book Devices - iRex iLiad

• Introducing OpenIliad.com

11:22 AM by NatCh in E-Book General | News

Thanks to jonbaber for pointing this out to us!

We've heard bits and snatches about Bridgestone's "Liquid Powder" technology for a while, but this is the first time it's shown up as any sort of product. Previously, it was really sluggish, needing ~20 seconds to refresh the display, but this version is boasting an improvement to only ~12 seconds to refresh the whole screen -- they're really cooking now! Of course Liquid Powder does boast color, which is still an illusive commodity in the current e-paper market.

In an interesting move, the 13.1" (presumably diagonal) prototype device can only be used to display things that are already on your cell-phone display, if your cell has an infra-red link -- that's the only way it has to communicate. At first I couldn't see what they were getting at with that move, but they actually have an explanation that makes a sort of sense ... sorta:

In the finance and insurance areas, there has been a strong need for a tool that can display personal information and other data at an appropriate size while ensuring security of the information.

The company developed this system, assuming that it would be used to display an almost full-scale A4 size pamphlet, for example, while ensuring high security using mobile phone functions such as remote lock and remote data deletion.

Okay, if they're seeing that need, I hope it works out well for them. In any case, it's exciting to see some sort of movement on new e-paper technology. Sure they've still got a ways to go on the refresh front, and the color looks a bit dull in these photos, but it's still good to see that folks other than e-Ink think it's a good enough idea to pursue.

Join the ongoing discussion here.

Source Article here.

11:22 AM by NatCh in E-Book General | News

Thanks to athlonkmf for pointing this out to us!

Seems that Samsung has been working with Unidym's "carbon nanotube-based color active matrix electrophoretic display (EPD) e-paper" and is demonstrating a prototype unit at the International Meeting on Information Display (iMiD) conference in Korea.

This seems to be aimed more at computer monitors presently, but the applications for e-reading and mobile devices in general are obvious.

"Our ongoing successful collaboration with Samsung Electronics has delivered yet another world’s first achievement this year," said Arthur L. Swift, Unidym’s president and CEO. "In May of this year Samsung demonstrated the world’s first 2.3 inch black and white active matrix EPD made with carbon nanotubes, and now they have demonstrated the first color large scale EPD e-paper device, in an A4 format. This accomplishment marks a strong beginning to the second year of our joint development agreement to drive technology leadership between our companies in incorporating our carbon nanotube transparent electrodes into current display technologies."

Does sound promising, doesn't it?

Join the ongoing discussion here, or check out the entire press release here for more details.

09:56 AM by Adam B. in More E-Book Readers | iRex

I've long thought that we need a dedicated place for users to find applications and tutorials for the iLiad and all of it's possibilities. The Mobileread forums are great, but they aren't the best organized for finding all of the information you may need.

Given that iRex is soon going to be releasing the sources for the iLiad, our need for an organized community site has grown even further.

This is why I've created OpenIliad.com.

The site is still in it's infancy, and we need your help to build it up.

It provides an organized way of submitting and finding applications and programs for the iLiad. The site also has easy to find tutorials and links to relevant MobileRead forums, Wiki Posts, and the Dev Hub.

If you want to submit an application or make a comment, you will need to register. I will continue to add applications from the release forum in an effort to make the site more complete.

Feel free to post any comments or suggestions that you may have.

04:20 PM by NatCh in E-Book General | News

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act of 2007 is now officially the law of the land. It creates a "IP Czar" ('cause "czars" have worked out so well, historically, apparently) chosen by the Senate and reporting directly to the President, forms a brand new division of the Department of Justice for him or her to be Czar over, specifically for the purpose of protecting intellectual property, and defines penalties for copyright infringement.

The usual supporters are saying the usual sorts of things: that it'll protect content creators, and reduce infringement. The usual opponents are saying their usual things, that copyright laws are already stacked massively in favor corporations and against consumers. But I do think it's interesting to note that this is apparently a less severe version from what was originally opposed, evidently the DOJ objected to it on the grounds that it could put them in the position of becoming de facto free legal support for even extremely well-heeled copyright holders (i.e. the RIAA).

Personally, I find myself wondering if this is really the best use of Federal resources at this particular point in time. Surely we have enough to juggle without adding a new legal bureaucracy to the mix?

Source: PC World, and NewsOxy.com.