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Smart Bitches reviews the iRex 800SG – they don’t like it
March 15, 2010 | 9:18 am
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By Paul Biba
There have been a number of recent reviews of this unit and all of them have been less than favorable. Smart Bitches, by SB Sarah, now chimes in and feels the same way as the rest of the crowd.
You. Can only. Use. The Stylus. To Interact. With the Screen.
Seriously. I poked at the screen, pushed the buttons on the side, looked at the back. I handed it to Hubby and asked if he could figure out how to turn the page. Both of us were all, “WTF?” Then, I realized: it wouldn’t react to my fingers or my fingernails.
Just the stylus?
Yes. Just. The stylus. The screen will only react to the stylus, and not my fingertip, as do the Sony Touch and the iPhone, and other touch-sensitive device.
No damn way. I have to hold on to the subway pole with one hand and hold a reader in the other. There’s no way I can use this practically, to say nothing of the fact that the stylus is TINY.
AND there’s no place for the stylus to be stored on the device. Just a pocket on the case. This thing is asking to get lost.
That’s all because the iRex uses a Wacom digitizer. Wacoms, which were originally designed for drawing on the PC and Mac, use a special stylus or mouse that requires no battery. Nothing else will work with the digitizer, only the Wacom stylus. Not the best choice for a consumer product, but a good choice where precise drawing, and pressure sensitivity, is important. Any tablet that uses a Wacom digitizer will be the same.
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Comments:
I guess the Smart Bitches weren’t smart enough to find the flip bar… which does work with your fingers.
BOb
No the person who reviewed the IREX owns a Kindle and a Sony 505 so they are well informed on how buttons should work. I don’t think they were impressed by the unit from the start.
I can’t blame them. It’s way too expensive for such a stupid interface.
In the comments section, the reviewer wondered if she had a defective unit because the bar was in fact pushed, prodded all over and it refused to work.
Me, I’m intrigued by the iRex hardware design; 8″ screen with minimal bezel *should* be a winner even at the $399 price. But all the reports indicate the software is at best betaware quality. Having suffered with one such, I’m not going that way again any time soon. I’ll keep an eye out to see if they ever fix the software but they’d better not tarry.
Right now I’m waiting to see what the upcoming 10″-class reader from POCKETBOOK GLOBAL looks like because *their* software rocks. If their large reader hardware is anywhere like their jewel of a 5-incher, I’ll be all over it.
I find these comments interesting. You can navigate this device pretty much just as easily as a Kindle. Push the menu button and use the bar to go forward, backward and push to select. The device is not perfect, but I’m finding it to be a great device and the screen size and speed are great.