Vital Stats…
name: “iliad” / “Electronic Reader ER 0100″
produced by: iRex Technologies
production stage: finished product; no known release date
cost: ~$790 / 650 euros (rumor)
screen size: 8.1″ diagonal
resolution: XGA (1024 x 768), 16 levels of gray at 160dpi
Features…
Content Formats: PDF, XHTML, TXT, APABI, OEB, mp3
Connectivity: 3.5mm stereo audio jack, WiFi 802.11g, 10/100MB wired LAN, USB (for connecting to a computer)
Built-in Storage: 128MB non-volatile, internal flash memory
Storage Extension options: USB type A connector for USB sticks, CF type II, MMC cards
Sidenote: InfoSyncWorld reports that the Iliad will have 224MB of non-volatile storage. I don’t know where they got this number. I sourced these specs from the official iRex product leaflet (PDF). See the Iliad’s own Product page for more general information.
System Specs…
Processor: 400MHz Intel X-Scale Processor
UI: Touch screen w/ stylus input
Battery: rechargeable. No word on capacity. Purportedly, one charge will last you for reading 3 hours a day for one week – doesn’t give a hard number for page turns. I would guess this is because, unlike the Sony PRS-500, it has true connectivity through WiFi, which drains the battery when transfering data, and has a digitizer for the touch screen which presents a constant drain while its turned on. What I would like to know is if the internal electronics can be switched off individually (WiFi / touch screen / etc.) to reduce battery consumption. It is critical that the principal advantage of ePaper – that no energy is consumed while the screen isn’t being refreshed – be preserved. If the WiFi can’t be turned off while the device is on (say, while browsing stored material), then this device will have a pretty short battery life.
Image sources: Mobilemag, InfoSyncWorld
This is a pretty exciting product! iRex has certainly gone overboard to make this a truly usable display by including a wireless option, as well as being able to connect to a computer and use it as an external display, rather than just something where you can dump content into storage, open the file, and then read. I’m still disappointed that they didn’t do a full size 8.5×11 display (13.9″ diagonal), but this product will have a larger screen than the Sony PRS-500 (6″ diagonal) so it is a move in the right direction.
The only major drawback is the price – roughly the same as the cost of a low end laptop that has integrated WiFi and a standard 15″ screen. The laptop I’m typing this post on – a Compaq Presario M2000 I got on sale last year – cost $550, without integrated WiFi, but in two months there was another sale for a Presario with roughly the same specs, except it had WiFi and a 15.4″ widescreen. To top it off, it cost $100 less than the one I got two months previous (*groan*).
I don’t see this as something that will fly off the shelves – it will probably only be bought by people with too much money on their hands who don’t really need it anyway. Ho-Hum, just have to wait for good ol’ mass production for the price to come down…
