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![[Willem Endhoven holding an iRex prototype]](http://www.teleread.com/team//irexendhoven.jpg)
Willem Endhoven holding an Irex Iliad.
Photo by Jan de Waal.
Iliad to function as USB drive, to use Linux
February 12, 2006 | 8:34 pm
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By Branko Collin
Willem Endhoven holding an Irex Iliad.
Photo by Jan de Waal.
TeleRead contacted Irex Technologies with a few questions about its Iliad e-ink based ebook reader, and got a reply from spokesperson Willem Endhoven, who is currently in the USA, but found some time to respond through e-mail.
Although I will probably contact Mr. Endhoven with some follow-up questions, I thought you might be interested in a couple of the answers we received.
Willem Endhoven: “Hi Branko. Thanks for your e-mail. You were one of the first to respond back [in December]. After that we got quite a storm of reactions.”
TeleRead: Your product leaflet tells us that the Iliad cannot be used to “surf the web”, but is capable of “viewing internet content”. What is the difference between those uses?
Irex: “The Iliad’s display is not fast enough to show some websites. Think of pages that use animations or drop-down menus. If a user wants to view a webpage, he or she can label that page a “favourite”, after which the device will make a “print” that is suitable for the display.”
TeleRead: Which device and which manufacturer do you consider to be your biggest competitors?
Irex: “Our biggest competitor is and will remain paper. A terrific product with a 400 year old reading tradition. Our biggest colleague and ambassador is Sony with its Reader.”
TeleRead: Does Irex have plans for other products, using other display technologies, such as rollable displays?
Irex: “For this year we have not planned any other product. The first feedback we got demonstrates that the 8.1 inch display is ideal for many applications. Irex has an extensive knowledge of e-ink, and will focus on e-ink for the forseeable future. Discussions with our target audience show that rollable displays do not add much to the reading experience.”
TeleRead: What operating system is the Iliad based upon, and can it be upgraded?
Irex: “We’re using Linux, and upgrades will be made available through the Irex Delivery System, IDS.”
TeleRead: Will it be possible for third parties to develop for the Iliad, similar to the way Hanlin promises with its V8?
Irex: Yes, but only for our partners.
TeleRead: Will the Iliad present itself as a USB drive to PCs, and will other devices be able to synchronise with the Iliad, such as other Iliads?
Irex: “The Iliad will indeed present itself as a USB drive to PCs, but a connection to other devices is not yet available.”
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“Teleread: Will it be possible for third parties to develop for the Iliad, similar to the way Hanlin promises with its V8?
Irex: Yes, but only for our partners.”
NOOOOO! Frack! Why would they screw up a good product by locking it down so that hobbyists can’t tinker with it? Damn iRex!
“Why would they screw up a good product by locking it down so that hobbyists can’t tinker with it?”
Money.
Money? You mean they actually want to make less money? Why would they want to make less money when they could just as easily make more?
It depends on their business model, really. If they’re selling devices, then it’s in their interest to make them as useful as possible. That means allowing users full access to the hardware and encouraging hobbyist development, because it will sell more hardware units.
However, if they’re selling software or services, then any “alternative” use of the hardware detracts from their ability to make money with it. If users purchase a device but don’t buy books or newspaper subscriptions or whatever, then the company has potentially lost money (or, more probably, just not made as much as they might). This is the way things work in the game industry, where console manufacturers sell their hardware at a loss but make money licensing the platform to game developers. Because they don’t make any money if someone doesn’t buy content, they’re eager to prevent any alternative uses of the hardware.
My guess is that the actual hardware costs of the Iliad are being subsidized by licensing agreements and content sales. That would make the company reluctant to have hobbyists tinker with the device itself. Of course, the Sony eReader is going to be much the same way, I’d imagine, since Sony is in the business of selling content these days, and the devices are just content delivery channels. Hanlin will be the hobbyist choice, because they just want to sell you a device; a refreshingly simple attitude in these times.
bingle: strongly agree with your services asessment. this leaves open the question of what they’re going to do with the consumer side of the business. (for comparison, take a look at Ambient Devices to see what a great act they have going – core competency in data sourcing, contracts for embedded apps for automotive, a national paging network, and [drumroll please] the front-end to it all being some snazzy Macey’s/Nordstrom style christmas gift gadgetry)
Back to the readers – maybe it’s my impaired understanding of Chinese (read: nil) but the Hanlin with its ‘Wolf OS’ (say that while growling and making a mean face) doesn’t look like it’s going to have its hardware hooks open to tinkerers either. Nor does it look to be as attractive from a hardware standpoint (processor, display, memory, expandability) as the iLiad.
But this unfortunate turn of events dashes my hopes of some kind soul making a DJVU viewer for any of these readers. Now I anticipate having to convert my tiny elegant DJVU treatises into 50mb PDF monstrosities that will be sluggish on a 3ghz P4.
JK: The V8 device, Hanlin’s initial model meant for the Chinese market, runs “Wolf OS”, which doesn’t look like a hobbyist choice.
However, their V2 device, which is due out later this spring for all markets, runs Linux. It’s still possible that Hanlin will choose to lock it down, but I can’t see a compelling reason for them to do that since they don’t sell content. You’re certainly right that it’s not as full-featured as far as hardware goes, though. That might in fact be the major reason the Iliad isn’t open: putting all those bells and whistles in the hardware means it’s tough to meet a good price point without subsidizing the device in some way.
[...] iRex iLiad reader too slow for "live" websites Branko from Teleread figured out why the iRex ER 0100 (aka iLiad) e-book reader isn’t suitable for surfing the Net despite wireless connectivity. One caveat of current E Ink technology is the relatively slow refresh rate of the display – current devices need between 0.5 and 1 second for a screen update – causing animated objects (such as drop-down menus) to blur or disappear. Nothing we can do about it except to hope for future third-gen devices to improve in this matter. Another bummer: Although the Iliad will run on Linux, only companies partnering with iRex will be able to develop third party tools for the reader. Given how Nokia is successfully using open source to give its gadgets (see Nokia 770) a first-mover advantage in the fiercely competitive consumer electronics market, it’s totally beyond me why iRex would want to restrict access to the software development of its reader. Related Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader, Build an eink reader, iRex Iliad will be available for around 400 Euro [...]