Irex Iliad Review
The iLiad has the best screen we’ve ever seen for text and impressively long battery life. The asking price, however, will be too high for most, and the device’s software needs to be improved before we could truly recommend it. At present it’s good, but not quite as good as it should be.
Imagine a device somewhere between A4 and A5 in size that lets you read e-texts and make your own annotations. And imagine it offers you a screen format that is so easy on the eye that reading text on it is almost like reading a book or a newspaper. Even outdoors in bright sunlight. This is what you get from the iLiad Reader.
The iLiad is not the first of its kind, with Sony’s eBook reader using the same screen technology. The Sony device however, has less advanced specifications and is compatible with fewer file formats. Also, crucially for our UK based readers, the Sony Reader is not available in this county.
It has built-in Compact Flash, SD and USB slots and will read content direct from flash storage including a USB stick so you can copy stuff from your hard drive and use a flash device as permanent storage for the iLiad Reader. Another option is to use the free PC desktop companion software, which will queue files for sending over a wired or wireless connection (Wi-Fi is built in), as well as make a backup of your device and do fancy things with PDF documents - more on that later.
The howls of derision greeting the announcement of the Amazon Kindle last week reminds me that I never got around to reviewing the iRex Iliad that I bought some months ago. I can’t provide a proper comparison of the two; not only do I not own a Kindle, obviously, but I haven’t even used the Iliad to read DRM-protected books.
But for my particular purposes as an academic, the Iliad works very well. It’s still a first generation technology, and has several kinks that could, and should, be ironed out. Even so, what I’ve seen convinces me that academics are likely to become early adopters of this technology en masse when it comes down in price and becomes a little more user friendly.
Tags: amazon kindle, announcement, bright sunlight, connection, content, derision, early adopters, ebook reader, flash storage, generation technology, GPS Device, irex iliad, Kindle, kinks, make, newspaper, pc desktop companion, proper comparison, reading a book, reading text, screen, screen technology, sony device, usb stick, wi fiRelated posts
Posted on August 19th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: GPS Device
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