iRex intros the 1000, 1000S, and 1000SW e-readers to a symphony of yawns
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted September 22nd 2008 10:45AM
posted September 22nd 2008 10:45AM
Oh, fabulous day! The new iRex Digital Reader is pretty much what we expected: a 10.2-inch, Lithium Ion battery-powered, black and white e-ink device that still leaves us hungry for that snazzy reader that Plastic Logic has coming down the pipe. Geared towards business users, prices start at a hefty $649 for the Digital Reader 1000, and if you want a stylus thrown in -- you know, something else to lose -- be prepared to spend $749 on the 1000S. Still, the big daddy 1000SW -- with WiFi, Bluetooth and that 3G data connectivity -- adds some new functionality that will be welcome, though it's hard to say who's breaking off $849 for those aforementioned features.
[Thanks, Matthew]
[Thanks, Matthew]
EPIC FAIL
iYawn
Monday mornings are boring already... now I see this...
plastic stylus = $100?
bluetooth and 3g functionality = $150
Paying too much for a gimick
PRICELESS.
Obligatory mentioning of Apple for "paying too much for a gimmick" so no one else has to do it.
If its like its predecessor, than it's actually using a Wacom pen-screen. (conventional touch membranes are apparently not ideal for an eInk device, since they cut down on the contrast)
I didn't think you could make an eReader uglier than the Kindle.
Don't forget to protect it by storing it in your trapper keeper...
engadget got hacked?!?!
for a company named iRex they sure make bland machines
UM r4wr?
I would rather own an Apple Newton mesage pad, and use it in public!
Yeah, go and try that. Whenever I do, it summons crowds of oohhh-aaahhers inquiring where they can get one.
Nice parting gift for the lehman CEO's? Here's an iRex and a billion dollar, regards.
Low ranked, you know what this means right? billionaires read engadget comments!
I fail to understand why dont people use tablets for this work ?
It was actually a symphony of "Ouch!"
Sure about 3G connectivity for the 1000SW? I haven't see anything about it on iRex' homepage nor do those at Mobileread mention it (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29533).
so what does this do that you cant do on a cheaper laptop? ................
It's lighter, daylight readable, and has a battery life that would blow away even the most efficient laptop with an extended Li-Ion.
Maybe irex should outsource the case design to Japan. Some of the chinese made ebooks look better than this. What's with the hugh a** buttons x3?
650 U.S. dollars?
You can't read longer texts or books on a laptop, because it hearts your eyes.
This is the perfect size for a reading device. Much bigger than the current generation of e-ink readers. The touch screen is also a good thing. It consumes less power.
The only problem is the price.
Owww... it hearts my eyes!
I mean it consumes less power than a laptop.
That thing looks slick, but wow that's a high price.
How about making a $100 e-book reader?
That's not going to happen any time soon, the price of components, distribution, marketing... it's too high for $100 to be a reality.
It's a reflective screen technology not an emmisive one, which makes it sunlight-readable, and not a strain on the eyes.
It's very similar to looking at a book really.
Yeah just like a book, only 2 orders of magnitude more expensive...
I do like ereaders, just hoping that costs can come down dramatically over the next 3-4 years.
Wow, the age and experience of the commenters (and the numb-brained poster) here really shines through on this post. A tablet pc this size and weight would cost at least twice as much and have about an hour battery life at best. Yes, it would have more functionality, but that isn't the point. It would have a nice color screen, but would be difficult to read for long periods of time. Okay, shift gears and compare this to a Kindle or Sony (current gen). Screen size is comparatively huge and with the S and SW you get a digitizer (not just a plastic stylus, you morons) which is a MAJOR deal in a reader since you can now mark up documents (oh yeah, and take notes and sketch diagrams and...). You also get a much broader document type support.
To yawn at this is simply silly. Yes, the base 1000 model is a non-starter at that price, but the 1000 S and 1000 SW models have a combination of truly useful features/attributes not found in another eink device. Other readers will follow and competition will drive the price down and features up, but for students and professionals, this is the first reader that can truly replace paper documents. Get a clue!
I think the yawning is more a result of the reader PlasticLogic are bringing out, which promises much of the same functionality, but a slightly bigger screen, and a much, much nicer form factor. (This was announced about a week ago.) - Don't get me wrong, this is a lovely device, but it's bulkier and heavier than PL's offering, and very, very expensive.
On the plus side, it's on the market right now, and PlasticLogic haven't actually announced a price yet...
Even so, I wouldn't buy this at $650+ When the PL device does get released, the iRex will probably drop in price quite a bit.
Take a look at Gigabyte 912?, TABLET NETBOOK for the same price.
Yes this has the advantage on battery life (especially since they are shipping with a stupid 4cell right now) and size wise the current version is an 8.9
However I would much rather have that compared to this, since you can read ANY format on it. (plus do whatever else you want to, meaning one less device to carry around)
The basic version is at least $300 to much for me to even think about in passing
My dream is the gigabyte in a 10" version with a 9+cell battery, I would even gladly take the storage down to a "measly" 20G
Give me that even at the $700 range and I will scrimp my ass off for one.
I think this is fantastic! Been waiting for a new iLiad for months. It will finally allow me to read PDFs on it instead of wasting paper with printouts.
I have to agree with Paul. I am a graduate student and I have been following the e-ink readers for over several years waiting for a time to jump in. The limitations of all other e-ink readers on the market are the lack of ability to display a pdf of a journal article without having to reduce it's size which impaires its readability. Also no other readers offer this handwriting markup via a stylus, except those made by iRex; however, the screen on those currently available were too small for scientific journal articles and technical reference text. I'll admit the price is high, but if I wait 2-3 years for a sub $400 dollar reader with similar capabilities I will have already finished my Ph.D and won't have benefited from the productivity benefits afforded by such a device.
I think I speak for all grads here when I say:
"Throw in 10 free text book downloads of my choice and I'll buy it"
"I think I speak for all grads here when I say:"Throw in 10 free text book downloads of my choice and I'll buy it""
Actually you're speaking for undergrads and Master's degree students. Ph.D.'s don't buy books (I certainly bought < 10)--we trudge through hundreds/thousands of boring as hell, PDF-based research papers or pay through the nose for Journals. :) Nonetheless, not a bad idea for a promotion. It would certainly help offset the initial pain.
Paperless Dreamer is 100% right. This would certainly have been ideal in my Ph.D. coursework days. Even as a researcher, though, this would (will?) be wonderful.
I am also doing PHD and I hate to print tens (or sometimes hundreds) of papers and then carry them here and there. Last time I had 5Kg of printed papers and another 5kg of important books when I was traveling 8000km away and you certainly understand my pain.
In addition, IEEE and ACM now push for digital versions of the magazines and journals. If I can have one of these I can get the journals faster, have a lot of them in a 4-8G SD card and forget about storing a lot of magazines in my bookshelf.
However! I guess 650 is tooooooo much for me (I am doing in south east asia and I get only $400/month for all my costs from my supervisor).
Nice but too expensive, even at half this price I would be hesitant...
now they just need to drop the price on the 2nd edition to about $400 and I'm set.
The styling is quite nice, but the price is outrageous. As is the article. A little less spoiled brat and a little more information please. What does it do for that price?
It uses an eInk screen for one thing. These have the advantage of using almost no power and being daylight readable, however the tradeoff is that the technology is that the cost per square-inch of display is rather high right now. Also, while most eInk readers can handle 4 or 8 shades of gray, iRex's devices are the only ones capable of 16 shades. This gives them a serious edge when displaying graphics (devices like the Kindle are really only ideal for text).
The styling is quite nice, but the price is outrageous. As is the article. A little less spoiled brat and a little more information please. What does it do for that price?
You get more than just a stylus for the $100 over the 1000 model: the 1000S includes the Wacom technology allowing you to write onto the device itself and save the notes. The next $100 for the 1000SW gets you that AND the WiFi/Bluetooth technology as opposed to only USB syncing.
That's really why these guys are so expensive: they're both a document reader AND a note-taking tablet. It's still a pretty hefty price tag, sure.
Sony's ereader is really nice and it can do PDFs, no problem. I was in their store not too long ago playing with it.
Still waiting for a cheap eee-book reader...
You're probably going to have to wait a few more years. The cost of the technology isn't going to plummet overnight.
$800, why not just get a Lenovo X series...
Joseph, it's not quite clear why these would deserve this kind of reporting. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, they are not the pathetically underpowered, underequipped, undersized, DRM-crippled, and also still overpriced offerings of say Sony or Amazon or some company from China you have never heard of before. No, they are not the sexy prototype from the future you saw last week. So what? We are used to 15-year-olds practicing their mad sn1de-skillz in the comments, that doesn't mean we need articles of the same quality.
I wonder how much to replace a crack screen with these new Iliads. The first ones still cost upwards of $400 to replace it. I had mines for about a year and I cracked the screen. That's the last $700 Iliad I'm buying.