IREX is currently,
right this very second, taking the wraps off its big new splash in the ebook space,
the new DR 800SG. The 8.1-inch unit has wireless connectivity courtesy of Verizon in the US and
Qualcomm's Gobi multi-mode 3G for switching it up in the rest of the world. There's also 2GB of built-in storage, memory card expansion and stylus input ("true finger touch" is coming in Q2 2010 to a future product, right now you can only use the stylus, and a color reader is in the works as well for 2011), and IREX claims to have the fastest page refreshes in the biz. Perhaps most notable is that the reader is Barnes & Noble's first big play in the space, with support for the
B&N eBookstore -- though the whole thing is an "open platform" with support from content from Newspaper Direct and LibreDigital stores as well, and format support of PDF,
EPUB, Newspaper Direct, Fictionwise, eReader and TXT. Quite the mouthful, and IREX promises to follow wherever the market leads when it comes to DRM. The $399 device includes a leather cover and stylus in the box, and will be available this October in "select" Best Buy stores and will hit Europe in the first half of 2010. No wireless contract is required.
We got to play with the new reader briefly, and weren't quite sure how to feel. On one hand, it's another sexy, slim reader, with a pretty great and fast e-ink screen. On the other hand, the interface is totally minimal and a little nonsensical without the stylus. A bar on the left side gives you a "tactile" method of pushing right or left to turn the page, but it feels pretty janky. Notetaking isn't enabled currently, so you can't draw on the screen, making the stylus feel a bit of a burden, not a boon -- the closest you get to text input is tapping away at an onscreen keyboard. We're glad IREX avoided the visibility-hampering pitfalls of Sony's touchscreen ebook technology, but perhaps some more thought should've been put into the alternative. We didn't do any heavy downloading, but the reader takes a very long time to create a connection -- a good 20-30 seconds -- which might've been due to the concrete bunker we're hanging out in, or just a sign of a slow processor, we're not sure which. We love the "openness," and it's great to see so many format alternatives right out of the gate, but we're gonna need more time with the DR 800SG before we're sure it's worth the plunge.
posted September 23rd 2009 12:40PM
Even though I would not buy this I am happy to see many companies coming out with Ereader these days. More on the market the more popular it becomes with consumers. Cannot wait until we can live in a paperless world.
Some of their other readers let you run your own software on it. They were running linux and you could get firmware access to it. With a Wacom pen, and some modified open-source software (MyPaint comes to mind). This thing could make a nice little sketch pad.
That bar on the left better act like a touch-sensitive four-direction and push-in-for-select control or this is a big fail if the stylus is needed even to pick a book to read. You would want to switch off the stylus-sensitive hardware to prolong battery life and it would be a freaking pain if you had to turn on and off hardware just to make a single click.
I wonder if you can flip the device 180 degrees since putting the page-turn hardware at the spine of the cover seems pretty silly unless they think everyone will like bending the cover back. I bet they own paperbacks that have completely destroyed spines.
What what the hell is with the super-bright led? The beauty of e-ink is that it can be off but still look on. With that led, oh, you'll know perfectly well that it's on and draining on the batteries... almost like a warning light, like on any non e-ink device. Maybe the led color indicates how fast the battery is draining:
red: device + wireless + stylus: on
yellow: device + stylus: on
green: device: on
blue: demo mode so everything is on and running at max speed, but battery will last one hour
Need to know: resolution (at least 1024x768 would be good), shades of gray, non-stylus controls, battery life (looks like it's user-replaceable with that cover on the back), and landscape / 2-page view mode?
Answering some of your questions:
1. The flip bar on the left side can be pushed down and act as an enter button.
2. It can be flipped 180 degree.
3. The LED is NOT always on. During the demo the blue light was on to show that it is connected to a network (verizon).
4. The resolution is 1024x786, 16 shades of gray, works without stylus, I don't know yet about battery life, I'm guessing comparable to kindle and sony, and the battery is replaceable.
Thanks for the info concord. It's looking to be the e-reader to get and will be available this year, as long as most menu navigation doesn't require the stylus and the battery can last at least a week with wireless and stylus off.
I really hope that blue LED fades away once you open a book, else it will be really annoying! My Sony 505 just has a small charging light on the top which you can't see when reading
Not thrilled with the 256 shades of gray or whatever. It's like time traveling back to 1985 and using a TRS-80.
16 shades most likely. But that's [currently] the trade-off you make for the superior reflective contrast and ultra-low power consumption of eInk.
Some people just don't get the point of e-ink. It's not meant to be a replacement for an LCD display, nor is it meant to be a replacement for a tablet PC. It is meant to mimic the look and quality of the printed word in a book, and in that regard, e-ink has no equal.
If what you want is a color display that can handle video, then you don't want an e-reader; You want a tablet PC. If you want to use it to read manga or surf the web, then you don't want an e-reader; You want a netbook.
If you haven't picked up a book *without* pictures or color in over three months, then you're NOT in the target demographic for an e-reader. Go get something else. If color is your major concern, then you're clearly not worried about trying to read a novel while on the go, and should direct your attention to the umpteen-million devices that have a full-color, backlit LCD screen.
And for the record, by 1985 there were several color versions of the TRS-80.
Maybe you should get one of those if you need color when reading a book.
Ok. This versus Plastic Logic.
Compulsive ductile reasoning demands that I make an informed early adopter purchase!
Bah nvm. Too small for college.
"Europe in the first half of 2010"
:-(
What does "Notetaking isn't enabled currently" mean? Does that mean it will be enabled at some point? How? When?
It will be enabled with a firmware upgrade. Every other IREX devices is able to do note taking job. It won't be a problem for them, they just need more time to make it better than their predecessors. I'm guessing around early 2010.