IrexIliad
Latest
iRex: something awesome this way comes
All we have right now is an ominous, glowing shape that might represent an e-reader of some sort and the promise (threat?) that "Seeing Is Believing." Following on the heels of Sony's vague e-book announcement, it seems that the folks at iRex also have something big planned. Sony will be keeping quiet until October 2, but over at iRex the bomb drops Monday.[Via Electronista; Thanks, Laura]
French newspaper goes electronic
It's not like this is the first e-newspaper we've seen, but France's Les Echos is now offering up an electronic flavor of its product to those with an iRex iLiad or STAReBook. Oh, and the Amazon Kindle, too as you'll recall from that little inadvertently mentioned tidbit from their press release. Reportedly, the e-paper edition "will include whole articles just like in the printed" version, but unlike the traditional medium, those with e-readers will receive constant updates of the day's hottest stories and will actually be able to read the 6:00AM print edition at 9:00PM the night prior. Notably, the newfangled Les Echos edition will cost a stiff €365 ($506) per year if you provide your own reader, and for those of us far, far away from the Eiffel Tower, check out a video demonstration after the jump.[Via MobileRead]Read - Press Release [PDF]Read - Photos of Les Echos e-newspaperRead - Videos of Les Echos e-newspaper
STAReBOOK STK-101 reviewed
As the ebook market widens, it's only natural that competition will start heating up, and the STAReBOOK STK-101 is quite a good example of a small player making a big impact. The STK-101's main claim to fame is built-in MP3 playback, which with an included 512MB SD card and the ability to listen to music while you read, sounds pretty well executed. Fortunately, STAReBOOK didn't stop there, and have made quite the peppy and intuitive reader. CommanderROR, who reviewed the unit, found book loading and page turning to be much snappier than his iRex Iliad, and battery life looks to be quite good as well. Obviously, the 6-inches of E ink screen isn't quite as impressive as the 8-inch Iliad, but it should be fine for most reading tasks, especially considering the Sony Reader's 6-inch form factor. Page navigation bests that of both the Sony Reader and the Iliad, with easy to use bookmarks, and a simple method of inputting page numbers using the cursor. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback to the STAReBOOK might be the biggest deal breaker: the book only supports .stk books, and the included converter deals badly with styling and only includes one hard-to-read font. Luckily, JPG books work fine, so a PDF-to-JPG converter should be able to supply you with reading material well enough, but it's a far cry from the open format support of the Sony Reader and iRex Iliad.[Thanks, Branko C.]
