EBook reader : The iLiad (iRex)

With all the stuff you can do on the iLiad you may never want to stop using it. Fortunately, your iLiad will allow you to read and write for up to 15 hours* without recharging the battery. This means the pages keep on turning whether you’re reading your newspaper at breakfast, catching up on your selection of RSS feeds over lunch, making notes during your business meetings or reading a few chapters of your latest novel, the iLiad might just outlast you.

Read… and Write

The iLiad is not merely about reading… it is about writing too. Thanks to the integrated Wacom Penabled technology you can use the stylus to make notes, underline text and write comments in documents do your favorite crossword or Sudoku puzzles or even sketches and draw.

The stylus can also be used to quickly and easily navigate your way through the iLiad menu and your documents with a whole library at the tip of your stylus.

Тechnical Specifications

The iLiad ( iRex -голландское подразделение Philips)

Display

8.1-inch (diagonal) Electronic Paper Display
768 x 1024 pixels resolution, 160 DPI.

(Это всё ещё неполиграфическое разрешение.Для сравнения, в типичном цветном журнале разрешение иллюстраций составляет 300 точек на дюйм. Разрешение текста, разумеется выше.)

16 levels of grey-scale
Touch sensor input
Integrated Wacom® Penabled® sensor board
Stylus (Wacom® Slim Pen)

Processor and memory

Intel® 400MHz XScale™ processor
64 MB RAM

Устройство не имеет собственного видеоконтроллера, поэтому системные ресурсы тратяться на отрисовку довольно таки внушительного разрешения экрана

1024х768.

Storage and expansion

Power and battery

Audio

Communication

Built-in Wi-Fi® 802.11B/G wireless networking
Optional external 10/100MB Ethernet networking via Travel hub.

Size and Weight

Supported Formats

File formats supported : PDF / HTML / TXT / JPG / BMP/ PNG / PRC (Mobipocket)
Additional formats supported in the future.

Хотя Adobe и рекомендует как минимум 10 дюймов экрана для чтения PDF, но некторые не отсканированные файлы в этом формате читаются вполне прилично.

Languages

Environmental Requirements

Included in the box

iLiad
Stylus
Travel hub
USB cable
Power adapter
Quick start card

Technology

The iLiad is unique because of many of it's technological features. The iRex electronic paper display is the largest available in the market today with its 8-inch diameter and features 16 levels of grey where the industry standard is 4 levels of grey. In addition, the display is the only writable electronic paper display that is commercially available, enabling a whole range of new features like annotating, writing and an advanced user interface.

iRex Electronic Paper Display

The iRex iLiad features an Electronic Paper Display which is a significant improvement over CRT and LCD technology with regards to reading and writing. Instead of rows of glowing cells, e-Ink® microcapsules actually appear as either black or white pixels depending on a positive or negative charge determined by the content. All the pixels together create an image.

The result is a reading experience that’s similar to paper - high contrast high resolution, viewable in direct sunlight and at a nearly 180-degree angle, with no power required to maintain the image.

In contrast to CRT and LCD displays, the Electronic paper display projects a stable image which results in less strain on the eyes; however this also means that the Electronic paper display technology has a slower refresh rate and is not suited for video applications.

WACOM Penabled®

The iRex iLiad has a WACOM sensor board integrated into its design. This WACOM sensor board utilizes EMR® (Electro-Magnetic Resonance) Technology.

Thanks to the EMR technology there is no need for any cable or built-in battery-based power supply at all. Upon removal of the Stylus from the socket, the sensor board surface will generate a magnetic field, the Stylus’ resonant circuit then makes use of this energy to return a magnetic signal to the sensor board surface.
By repeating this movement, the board detects information on the pen’s coordinate position and angle, as well as on its general operating condition like speed and motion.
The result is a very precise and easy way to navigate through the iLiad interface or interact with the content and a very natural writing experience when making notes or annotations on your iLiad.

Content

With enough room for your favourite books, newspapers, crossword puzzles, sudoku and a virtual never ending notebook, the iLiad has to offer something for everybody.

Books

Finding and reading a book on the iLiad is simple. You can use the stylus to navigate through books, adjust font size or browse the book menu by author or title. The flipbar for turning pages is intuitive and incredibly convenient to use. You can hold the iLiad and turn a page with one hand, while holding a cup of coffee in the other.

Once you are through with reading, the iLiad automatically records where you left off reading and bookmarks your place for the next time you wish to continue reading.
The digital bookshelves of the online E-book resellers are stocked with thousands of book titles. From the classics to latest bestsellers, download what you want, transfer it to your iLiad and catch up on your reading.

Currently the iLiad supports the following eBook formats: PDF, PRC (Mobipocket), HTML and TXT.Support for additional E-book formats will become available over the coming months.

PC Companion Software Release Notes v2.10.2 (PDF)

Free eBooks

There are plenty of websites that offer free ebooks, probably the best known of these is Project Gutenberg : an online library of 17000 free ebooks.

Other interesting sources of free ebooks are manybooks.net and feedbooks.com both offers ebooks in PDF or PRC format already optimized for the iLiad format.

  The Project Gutenberg EBook

Mobipocket eBooks

The iLiad supports the popular Mobipocket format allowing you access to over 49.000 of eBook titles. You'll find all the latest bestsellers as well as vast catalog of books in every category - fiction, non-fiction, dictionaries, encyclopedias and many more.
The Mobipocket Reader software works seamless with the iLiad. You can download, manage and transfer your eBooks directly on to your iLiad.

You can download the latest Mobipocket Reader software for free from the Mobipocket website .

Newspapers

Subscribe to any of the international newspapers and receive your copy daily on your iLiad at the press of a button. The iLiad's large display with its 16 grey scales is the perfect trade off between display size and reading comfort. The display will provide crisp text accompanied by sharp images to give you the best possible view on the news.

The front page of the newspaper will give you an overview of the news of the day and with a tap of the stylus you can select an article or directly skip to the sport or business section. It has never been so easy to read a newspaper.

Comics

The iLiad is also ideal for reading comic strips, Manga or a graphic novels; the impressive 8.1 inch display boosts a sharp image with an excellent contrast.

Not everything is black and white. Thanks to the 16 grey scales of the electronic paper display, even most comic strips in color will look good on the iLiad.

Notes

The iLiad is not just for reading; it is also a notepad or sketchbook and can easily store hundred of pages with notes and drawings. Use the stylus to make notes, annotations, drawings or sketches.

With a selection of different colors and pen sizes you can let your creativity loose, and if you don’t like the results, erase it and restart, without wasting a single sheet of paper.

But there is more, the iLiad is perfect for Sudoku, crosswords puzzles and the like. Using the stylus you can scribble in and erase whatever you like.

With the help of an additional software package: Myscript Notes, you can convert those handwritten notes you made on your iLiad during a lecture or meeting into digital text on your PC to be used with other applications like MS Word or MS Outlook.

RSS Feeds

There’s always something good to read on the internet. With the Mobipocket Reader Software you will be able to search, browse and discover thousands of RRS feeds from your favorite websites and blogs, subscribe and sync them to your iLiad and read them whenever you want

Mobipocket Reader eNews

With the Mobipocket Reader software installed on your PC, searching or browsing for RSS feeds via the eNews Store is simple and easy. With hunderds of thousands RSS feeds to choose from and subscribe to, you're sure to find something that pique your interest.

Subscribe and sync your RSS feeds to your iLiad and read them whenever you want, it's simple as that.

All your RSS feeds appear in their own menu on your iLiad so you can navigate them easily using the stylus.

Такого удобства чтения новостей из интернета через RSS подписку, не дает, пожалуй, ни одно из решений на электронных чернилах. Во-первых, нет никаких проблем с чтением русскоязычных новостей, во-вторых их даже искать не надо - в интерфейсе программы предусмотрено добавление RSS из списка на русском языке, а также добавление своих полей. Все картинки при этом тоже импортируются в Илиад и четко встраиваются.

Очумелые ручки уже портировали интернет-браузер и почтовый клиент на устройство, открытый DjVu вьюер , написали какое то количество игр, из которых самой удачной мне кажется игра в шахматы. Умельцы прикрутили обычную USB клавиатуру и пользуются устройством, как печатной машинкой.

Компания - производитель у себя на сайте недавно разместила SDK, который прекрасно работает например на Ubuntu, и можно много чего еще придумать для этого устройства, если Вы знакомы с Линуксом и дружите с ним. Единственным препятствием к его быстрому распространению в России я вляется цена. На сайте производителя для покупателей из стран за пределами ЕС его цена $699, пересылка еще $50, но наша замечательная таможня предложит вам заплатить еще 6500 рублей вместе с комиссией таможенного брокера , итого получится чуть больше $1000.

Iliad Software

• 1 Shell Access Package [1st must-do-step]
• 2 Notes for packaging your own applications
• 3 Document Viewers
  • 3.1 All in One iPDF
  • 3.2 FBReader
  • 3.3 Gargoyle
  • 3.4 DJVU and CBZ viewer
• 4 Audio
  • 4.1 jukebox [mp3, ogg, mpc, mikmod, wav, flac]
  • 4.2 madplay
• 5 Games
  • 5.1 XBoard 4.2.7 iLiad 0.2
  • 5.2 Xmahjongg
  • 5.3 XSkat
  • 5.4 The Ace of Penguins
• 6 Calculators
  • 6.1 x48
  • 6.2 Calcoo
• 7 Web Browsers
  • 7.1 dillo
  • 7.2 Minimo
• 8 Connecting to iLiad
  • 8.1 SSH (Secure SH)
  • 8.2 Attach USB input device
• 9 PDA
  • 9.1 Organiser Package
• 10 File Management
  • 10.1 Midnight Commander 4.6.1
  • 10.2 EmelFM2
• 11 System
  • 11.1 mb-applet-clock
  • 11.2 SetTimeZone
  • 11.3 Stardict
  • 11.4 fbshot
  • 11.5 Mrxvt
    • 11.5.1 Unrar and Zip
  • 11.6 JavaVM
  • 11.7 Python
  • 11.8 Update BusyBox
• 12 File Editor
  • 12.1 Beaver
• 13 Convert file for iLiad
  • 13.1 JE-Comics
• 14 Mobipocket format
• 15 Developer Uploads
• 16 Install CJK font without iDS
• 17 SWAP memory on iLiad

Liad FBReader

Main features:

• Supported formats are
  • fb2 e-book format (style attributes are not supported yet).
  • HTML format (tables are not supported).
  • CHM format (tables are not supported).
  • plucker format (embedded images are supported, tables are not supported).
  • Palmdoc (aportis doc).
  • zTxt (Weasel format).
  • TCR (psion text) format.
  • RTF format (stylesheets and tables are not supported).
  • OEB format (css and tables are not supported).
  • OpenReader format (css and tables are not supported).
  • Non-DRM'ed mobipocket format (tables are not supported).
  • Plain text format.
• Direct reading from tar, zip, gzip and bzip2 archives. (Multiple books in one archive are supported.)
• Supported encodings: utf-8, us-ascii, windows-1251, windows-1252, koi8-r, ibm866, iso-8859-*, Big5, GBK. Automatic encoding detection is supported.
• Automatically generated contents table.
• Embedded images support.
• Footnotes/hyperlinks support.
• Position indicator.
• Keeps the last open book and the last read positions for all opened books between runs.
• List of last opened books.
• Automatic hyphenations. Liang's algorithm is used. The same algorithm is used in TeX, and TeX hyphenation patterns are used in FBReader. Patterns for Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German and Russian are included in the current version.
• Text search.
• Full-screen mode.
• Screen rotation by 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

Ресурс по EBook & EReader