Comments on: E-book publisher tests iLiad: ‘Long odyssey away from epic success’

By: iTablet.mobi » A â€˜general-purpose systemâ€™ enables GPS

iTablet.mobi » A â€˜general-purpose systemâ€™ enables GPS — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:33:15 +0000

[...] Half a dozen specialized e-reading devices — the Iliad, the Sony Librie, and others* — offer e-reading off a carryaround screen, a need that FBReader and Plucker Viewer** meet wonderfully well on the Nokia tablets, at a lower price. [...]

By: A ‘general-purpose system’ enables GPS at Internet Tablet Talk

A ‘general-purpose system’ enables GPS at Internet Tablet Talk — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:36:42 +0000

By: PRIMULA

PRIMULA — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 19:53:55 +0000

This review of the Iliad shows a remarkable similarity with the complaints I sent to the Irex team, after i received my Iliad. Although I almost was in the postoffice to send the whole thing back, i decided to keep it, i felt in love with the design and e-ink technology and hope that necessary improvements will come. To me it also was a great disappointment that not all PDF’s were readable, not even the Google books are. While all over the world libraries start large digitization projects to bring knowledge to the people anytime and everywhere (Unesco’s slogan), this is done mostly in pdf, and why then has the Iliad restrictions on the kind of PDF they like to handle? Without saying so, nowhere in the advertisements it is said that they cannot handle all pdf’s. How could a customer know that there are differences in pdf’s?
By the way, I thought the review a balanced one and the comments of some respondents unfaithful and impolite.

By: don gothere

don gothere — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 02:39:03 +0000

I have a simple question?

Was this review using August 2006 R6.2 software?

The reason I ask is that some of the author’s concerns (such as slow PDF page flips) have been addressed in R2.6.

In my mind – and by reading forums such as http://www.mobileread.com – the complaint levels have dropped since R6.2.

Refering to that Tech marketing handbook “Crossing the chasm”, by Geoffrey Moore, the iLiad early releases were definitely targeting the ‘innovators’. Now they are targeting ‘early adaptors’ who typically also tolerate some of the “beta” nature of this device.

I am really interested in seeing how this crosses the chasm into the ‘early majority’ users through applications such as book clubs and subscriptions to publishers of newspapers and magazines.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:32:56 +0000

“It is Lee who claimed that Genene Miller Cote is respected, so you are using a strawman here. And it was David Rothman who claimed that she was tech-savvy.”

When I said “respected” I was refering to David Rothman’s opinion that she was “very much paying attention to”. Which indicated his respect for her.

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:13:20 +0000

Heh, that’s funny, we know the same law-firms!

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:50:56 +0000

Collin, now now, there is no need to malign law firms I know 2-3 who know how to use a computer .

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:49:37 +0000

“iRex never claimed to replace paper”

I never claimed that Irex claimed to replace paper. They claimed that it is their goal to replace paper. I have the e-mails and notes from my interviews with them to prove it.

“I have seen many better reviews on the iRex community forum and although they are far from positive and sometimes downright negative they still capture the whole picture better, but than again those people might not be “respected” “tech-savy” and “long time software and hardware developers””

It is Lee who claimed that Genene Miller Cote is respected, so you are using a strawman here. And it was David Rothman who claimed that she was tech-savvy.

By: Jannus

Jannus — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 07:35:54 +0000

iRex never claimed to replace paper, its an eReader and I fully agree with Lee. If you do a review please take the time to get your facts straight.

She fails to mention many things, I know that this article does more discredit to the writer and the site hosting it than iRex.

I have seen many better reviews on the iRex community forum and although they are far from positive and sometimes downright negative they still capture the whole picture better, but than again those people might not be “respected” “tech-savy” and “long time software and hardware developers”

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:44:51 +0000

“Seriously, before someone write a review they need to spend more than 30 seconds using the machine. And actually have a clue about basic computer usage. Genene Miller Cote may be “respected” but she is clearly not “tech-savvy”.”

Come on Lee, these devices are intended to replace paper. If Irex were to believe that average users are tech-savvy, they desperately need to re-do their usability studies. For crying out loud, they plan to sell these things to law-firms!

By: Jaed

Jaed — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:48:35 +0000

Point-by-point reply to this “review” is at http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=37445#post37445

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:44:42 +0000

Just to clarify what I actually meant to say in that paragraph:

It’s embarassing that somewhere as respected as Teleread would publish such utter tripe, no matter how “respected” the author may be.

For anyone interested I have listed the holes, and rebutted some of the inaccurate statements made in this article in my post on the subject over at the mobileread forums:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=37443&postcount=3

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 14:55:56 +0000

Seriously, before someone write a review they need to spend more than 30 seconds using the machine. And actually have a clue about basic computer usage. Genene Miller Cote may be “respected” but she is clearly not “tech-savvy”.

This review is so full of holes it’s unbelievable.

It’s embarassing that somewhere as respected as Teleread would publish such utter tripe, no matter how “respected” may be.

By: jannus

jannus — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 08:37:30 +0000

Regarding the PDF comment… not really savy tbh.

Most PDF documents are made for A4 size, if you try to view this on a 8,1 inch screen than as a long time software and hardware developer with half a brain you should now that the result is far from perfect.

Try an ebook from http://www.manybooks.net which are very nicely customized for the iLiad.

Regarding the software, which version was reviewed? I have to admit version 2.4 was pretty buggy but I see a big improvement with version 2.6.1.

Anyway I am pretty happy with my iLiad but like mentioned by Tribble, its maybe more for the geeks under us at this moment and in the current state.

By: Genene

Genene — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 21:22:06 +0000

In response to Roland’s statement: “But…everybody still has to “sign” the “software is not done” agreement sometime during the signup or order process… ”

Usually I would not get back into the discussion but in this case I would like to point out that I do not remember having to “sign” anything about the software not being done. I am pretty sure I did not — they just took my credit card info, charged the card a month before shipping the product (I wasn’t going to even mention that little slip up) and that was that.