iRex launches new iLiad Book Edition e-book reader

iRex has a new consumer e-book reader out today, which incorporates some of the company's higher end specs and makes them available in something a little more palatable for end users. Although it doesn't have the Kindle's pervasive connection, it can still sync RSS feeds, as well as take notes with its touchscreen. Check out the specs:

• 8.1-inch XGA display, 16 grayscale
• 400MHZ XScale CPU, 64MB RAM
• Wacom-based touch input
• 256MB flash memory, USB, MMC, and CF slots
• Reads PDF, HTML, TXT, Mobipocket, JPG, BMP, and PNG
• 3.5mm audio out
• Travel-hub add-on with... Ethernet! Oookay.
• 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.63-inches, 15.3 ounces

It launches May 9th in Europe, and will sell for a very hefty sum of €499 ($770 US). But hey, it does come bundled with 50 public domain classics, so, um, that's something. Some more shots after the break.

[Via MobileRead, thanks Adam]

[Zack @ May 7th 2008 12:06PM]

Hmm.. Am I the only one who thinks that this is less features (compared to the iliad 2nd ed.) for more money (the iliad 2 is $699)?

[spass @ May 7th 2008 12:11PM]

Good product. Seems superior to Sony, at a much higher price.

I can't help but asking "what is that impossible in getting a simple straight edge?" I am talking about the upper right corner aberration.

[sodapop @ May 7th 2008 3:45PM]

Haha you are a conformist. I little bit of curve really scares you that much?

[Vic20 @ May 7th 2008 12:12PM]

Has anyone actually read _Throne of Jade_? What an esoteric choice for a screenshot.

[clads01 @ May 7th 2008 12:14PM]

Am I the only one who read "iLaid" upon first glance?

[Phoenix @ May 7th 2008 12:36PM]

Me too :(

[Cal @ May 7th 2008 3:08PM]

Me three

[braindancer @ May 7th 2008 5:30PM]

Woo, I'd definitely buy a gadget called iLaid. :)

[TheCow5 @ May 7th 2008 12:18PM]

This is still too expensive. Cybook Gen3 is still half the price, does the same and looks better.
I am no the waiting list.

[Kaminix @ May 7th 2008 12:29PM]

It has a touch screen? Can't find it in the specs on Wikipedia.
If I'm getting one of these, then I'm in it all for using it as a notebook. :)

[Darnell @ May 7th 2008 12:37PM]

Is there a reason why e-book readers are trending towards lop-sided design?

[Joe @ May 7th 2008 12:44PM]

I hate to be that guy, but for that price it should at least have wifi. Otherwise I think it is pretty sweet. PDF FTW!

[dexaler @ May 7th 2008 12:52PM]

It looks like the Rex6000 from ages ago. Though a 'bit' refurbished...

[Jordan @ May 7th 2008 12:55PM]

Why are all these e-book readers all fugly? Every last one.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 7th 2008 12:58PM]

Aren't these one-trick-pony eReaders such as the Kindle and iLiad a bit outdated.
Wouldn't a iPhone be more useful for reading documents.
http://readdle.com/

I'm not making fun of this iLiad since it certainly could be useful, but this concept has been around for a while and hasn't caught on with the masses.

[Mog @ May 7th 2008 1:06PM]

You're comparing a device with an 8.1-inch e-ink screen designed for reading to a device with a 3.5-inch LCD screen designed for...well, anything but.

I hope you were being sarcastic.

Are dedicated reading devices something of a niche market? Perhaps - although everyone reads, and if it's not books (*cue Steve Jobs quote*) it's certainly newspapers, magazines, and blogs. But even being a niche device does not equal "being outdated," just because a smartphone can sort of display text documents too (if you want to kill your eyes). That's like saying that laptops are killing dedicated reading devices because you can technically read on a laptop. It's missing the point.

[JamesR @ May 7th 2008 1:06PM]

The difference is e-ink. If I read a 500 page book in a phone/PDA I'd go blind.

[johnny5 @ May 7th 2008 1:21PM]

It hasn't caught on yet because e-ink is new technology and prices still haven't dropped enough to offer reasonably-priced (sub-$200, but $100 is the sweet spot) readers. Each one of these devices that sells to early adopters will create the volume needed to lower costs. A better business model might help, too.

[Abuzar @ May 7th 2008 2:32PM]

The iPhone is horrible for reading books. Have you ever tried it?

[Bad Beaver @ May 7th 2008 1:17PM]

Hm. Same thing minus WiFi minus €150. It still should have WiFi though. At least the price is moving in the right direction. 8" is a decent screen-size too. It will never be the same as a real book, but it will take tons off the backs of students in schools and universities all over, save oodles for paper/copies... you name it.

[Atanas Boev @ May 7th 2008 2:01PM]

ethernet? and why not a modem port then?

[Boynamedsue @ May 7th 2008 2:11PM]

50 free public domain books! that'll save me a good ten minutes!

[dwr50 @ May 7th 2008 4:03PM]

Or ... you could buy an EeePC for half the price.

[Jared @ May 7th 2008 2:28PM]

Why couldn't the kindle look like this?

[roy @ May 7th 2008 3:11PM]

Have a Sony 505 and iLiad 2nd edition and played a few times with a kindle. The Sony and iLiad are in my opinion both better than Kindle despite (especially the iLiad) they also try to offer too much features for the use of the machines (the kindle is terrible in this area). It are e-readers with e-inkt technology, which is totally unsuited for browsing and other 'interactive' needs. They should focus on reading for which they are superior devices to anything, including iPhone, MacBook Air, Sony PSP and more of those shiny things I almost daily use.

The pros and cons of especially the Sony and iLiad. Both have great e-inkt technology, so crispy clear text:

Sony, pro
- small
- instant on
- made of metal: ultra robust.
- great battery life.

Sony, con:
- bad PDF support.
- below average export tools.
- bad Mac support.

Iliad, pro
- great PDF reading features.
- pretty okay battery life.
- bigger screen size, so good suitable for a lot of standard PDF's out there.
- WiFi.
- Made of rugged platic with metal frame. Not as robust as the sony, but certainly can take a pounding.

iLiad, con:
- too much buttons on device, which makes holding it a pain and too often force you into pressing buttons bringing up unwanted screens ... thus loosing time, because e-inkt is not that quick in bringing you back to your startingposition.
- too much functionality that-just-isnot-good-enough like the WiFi/PC hookup.
- no Mac support, but can more or less be mounted so isn't that much of a pain.
- Wifi security is under par. Yes: WPA PSK2, WEB. No: EAP-TTLS.
- No instant on, booting time over 35 seconds. Makes is unsuitable as the reader of choice for those ad hoc moments, unless you leave it on. That is no problem (battery supports some 14-18 hours in that mode), but the device had a lot of keys which happen to get activated when you throw your reader in a bag.

In short: the Sony is the best device when looking at portability. The iLiad is the clear winner in the eat-almost-everything-thus-you-can-read-all category.

[Karl Viklund @ May 7th 2008 3:17PM]

Looks like something from my old Mac Plus.

[sodapop @ May 7th 2008 3:43PM]

An e-book reader is fine and all, but if I were to buy one of these things it would half to be able to browse the internet and come with a keyboard like the iPhone has. A video camera and Skype too.

[saniko @ May 7th 2008 4:05PM]

roy, I'm in the same situation with both readers.

You did forget one plus for the illiad. The ability to use it as a notebook and take notes on PDFs is awesome.

The biggest con for the illiad is the ridiculous amount of potential it has and has not yet achieved. The Sony gives you enough but doesn't promise much more.

[Alexander @ May 7th 2008 6:28PM]

All of these eBook readers are too expensive. I would be willing to pay maybe up to $200 for an eInk eBook reader, if the books are cheaper, too, but right now I do not see any advantage in getting one. It is the same with music, as long as music as hard media costs the same as the downloaded version, I will always go for the real thing and just convert it myself.

[Armen @ May 7th 2008 5:19PM]

Any info about it's screen? Is it built with the newer generation of E-Ink's epaper which has a higher contrast (looks whiter)?

[Mike S. @ May 7th 2008 6:32PM]

I am a fan of the Kindle.

There is a pretty good comparison of the Kindle and the Sony here: http://www.thisistech.com/2008/03/01/cagematch/

[BC @ May 7th 2008 7:30PM]

As long as there is no standard ebook format that works on most platforms it will be all about the device with the most content, and right now the clear winner is the Kindle. If the Kindle had a bigger screen and better pdf support I would buy one immediately.

[Cray @ May 7th 2008 7:33PM]

The problem with these eReaders is the lack of color. Comic books are just dying to be read on these things.

[VV @ May 7th 2008 11:05PM]

The marketing shots of eink readers always make them look like you would be reading a paper book. In reality what you get is gray font on a somewhat less gray background. Having said that, they are still better than reading off an lcd.

It seems that the main change in this version is that they dropped wifi which should bump up the battery life a bit.

I like comments that you can get an laptop/eeepc/iphone. Yes you probably can and then go running to look for a power point after every ten pages. The main advantage of devices like sony or iliad is that the battery lasts days, not hours.

[Joe Teller @ May 8th 2008 5:13PM]

Too expensive. You can buy a notebook computer for that price. They've got to get these things down to a reasonable price... The $100 mark really... or put a lot more features in them.

[Chris @ May 9th 2008 3:10AM]

Just checked a US site. USD $599

[baz @ May 9th 2008 10:50AM]

Just got mine (£399 in the UK, they're selling them in Borders - staff there told me they had some exclusive deal)

I'll cover the downsides first: 50 books I could've grabbed from gutenberg (not that much of a downside, but bundling one modern book would've been nice; several of the books are illustrated, but no Tenniel drawings in the Alice in Wonderland?). Boot time is quite slow. No font choice - you get what was in the pdf, or a sans-serif font for html; since I use GutenMark to make pdfs, this doesn't bother me much.

On the plus side, the screen is pretty good, crisp even at small sizes (if you have one, look at the copy of the GPL in the manual). Buttons feel comfy to me (someone above complained about their placement). So far, it feels quite natural reading it.

@Kaminix: yes, theres a stylus, you can take notes on the books, or in a separate notepad; also an onscreen keyboard and hw recognition (not tried this bit yet)
@Atanas: the manual mentions plugging in a GSM modem, there's support in the settings for this.

[Alvin Brinson @ May 15th 2008 6:32AM]

Gotta say - it DOES look like fewer features for more money as compared to almost everything else on the market. That is to say, as compared to the Kindle. It may be slightly more ergonomic, and slightly more a few other things, but not worth the extra cash. Particularly without wifi or the persistent data connection.

[Robert J. Sawyer @ May 30th 2008 9:18PM]

I've got an iRex iLiad and have used a Kindle. There are pluses and minuses to each (and neither is perfect by a long shot), but I've got to say the much-bigger screen on the iRex is sweet. It's also nice that it's a touch screen on the iRex. :)

[Annette @ Jun 24th 2008 10:39AM]

Why are these standalone readers so expensive compared to a laptop/PDA say? And why don't they just create one that just reads ebooks? I've already got a computer, a digital camer and an MP3 player, I don't need all of that on my ebook reader!

When someone invents one that is reasonably priced (around the £100 mark or so), and can read *all* formats, I'm in. I read most of my ebooks in .lit format and so far not one of these support it: Kindle, Sony, Iliad, Cybook, none of them do it and seem to have no plans to incoporate them either.

I have an original Cybook (not the new gen3) and it was a pain trying to synch files. It's in the bottom of a drawer now.

My ideal ebook reader would have the following:

A 7" or 8" screen
Be light enough to carry with you
Have USB ports so you can just drag and drop ebook files (no synching!)
Supports various formats including .lit and PDF
Good battery length
Does nothing else but read ebooks
Is around £100 or less.

I don't ask for much, do I?

So, anyone care to invent that one? ;)

take care,
Annette

[jnorton @ Jul 14th 2008 2:21PM]

Can you search pdfs with the Iliad, either through handwriting recognition or a virtual keyboard ala the iPhone?