A first look at the Irex Iliad
Photo: the Irex Technologies building.
Eindhoven, in the South of the Netherlands, is Philips’ town. When Gerard Philips started his light bulb plant in 1891, the Netherlands was going through a patentless period. This meant that Thomas Edison could not secure a monopoly on light bulbs in the country, so that Philips, and the small town of Eindhoven could blossom. Soon the latter would turn into the country’s only boomtown.
In the South of Eindhoven is Philips’ “High Tech Campus”, formerly known as Natlab. Irex Technologies, makers of the E Ink based Iliad e-book reader, are housed here in a couple of rooms of a four story building.
I was welcomed by Willem Endhoven (press guy), Jan van de Kamer (founder, technical guy) and Angel Ancin (marketing). After a short introduction I was shown a working demo model of the Iliad.
The Iliad is a rugged device with a glass plate protecting the E Ink layer. According to Irex it was designed with normal usage in mind; you should be able to chuck it in your backpack without breaking the glass, but if you throw it at the wall, all bets are off. Jan van de Kamer joked: “You should be able to swat a fly with it, just like you would with a regular newspaper.” The tablet is pretty rigid, so that the glass plate won’t break when you try to bend it, and in order to further protect it the display is lower than the edge of the tablet.
Photo: the Irex Iliad and its travel hub.
The reason Irex use glass instead of plastic is because the latter is not quite waterproof, and water can damage the E Ink layer. But just because it has a glass plate does not mean you could drop it in the tub.
All Iliads will include a “travel-hub” which plugs into the bottom of the device. This travel-hub contains a socket for the power supply (also included), and both an RJ-45 (Ethernet) and USB port, so that you can use it both to recharge the built-in Lithium-Ion battery and to exchange files between the device and a PC. An additional cradle should eventually become available as an add-on.
Photo: The eInk based Irex Iliad compared to an LCD-based Palm Zire.
The four metallic buttons at the front (bottom) of the device are used to access “content areas”. The round button top-right is used to try and synchronize the Iliad with the iRex Technologies Delivery Service (IDS) via the built-in wifi connection.
Typically you will select the document you wish to use by tapping the stylus onto the menu item or image representing the document, but you can also use the up and down arrows and bullet (bottom-left).
I thought the screen rendered slowly. The device seemed to take two seconds to render a new page; one to render it in memory, and the second to refresh the E Ink layer. When I compared this with Weasel Reader on my Palm, the difference was noticeable (from instantaneous to a wait). The Irex folks were a bit dismayed when I told them my opinion, and asked me to consider that this device should not be regarded as a computer, but as a competitor to paper; and just as it would take time to turn a paper page, so it takes time to “turn” a page on the Iliad.
I understand the sentiment, but the answer didn’t satisfy me. When asked why this is, I initially came up with the answer that I know there is a computer underneath all that paperness, and that I cannot unknow this. Once you know there is a computer, you expect computer-like speed.
Illustration: my guess of what a cross-section of the Iliad’s page flipping control looks like.
The long metalic bar on the left hand side of the front of the Iliad is used to leaf through a document. With your thumb you can push it left or right; push it left, and you will go the next page. Push it right, and you will go a page back.
I was surprised that “left” meant “forward,” having expected the opposite (and getting it wrong the first few times), but the explanation was simple; the movement of the bar is supposed to mimic the movement of a page. You turn a page from right to left to go to the next one, and from left to right to go back.
The Iliad uses “viewers” that are associated with file types. If you ask the device to open a PDF file, it will look for a PDF viewer. If it cannot find such a viewer, the device will try and contact the IDS to download an appropriate viewer.
Irex Technologies will provide the viewers for the most common formats, but will not make these themselves; the companies behind the formats are expected to deliver the viewers. For HTML and PDF, Irex produced viewers based on open source tools. For instance, the PDF viewer is based on xpdf.
Below are the rest of the photos I took. A second and third installment of this article are likely to follow after the weekend. In these I will discuss the questions you asked, the developer documentation (yes, Irex is considering to release this documentation to the public), and the challenges of making a device that shouldn’t look (and work) like a device, but like paper.
Edit: meanwhile, two follow-up articles have appeared: Your questions to Irex Technologies (26 March 2006) and Irex Iliad and the e-paper paradigm (8 April 2006).
Photo: The bottom of the Iliad; from left to right a stereo headphone connection, the port for the cradle/travel-hub and the on/off switch.
Photo: The top of the Iliad.
Photo: The back of the Iliad with the stylus slightly pulled out, and what looks like a small speaker.
Photo: A viewer program can control both the hard- and software buttons.
Photo: The software buttons. A viewer program can control these, but cannot change or delete them.
Photo: A close-up of the Iliad travel-hub, which is supplied with each device. The charger displayed has a generic power-plug; the actual power-plug will be mounted on top of this and will of course be different per country.
March 25th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
wel…thanks for the info so far.
One thing that strikes me as odd is the “unfinished” look of the backside…why make it all curvy and uneven instead of straight black-plastik as you would expect.
Not a major show-stopper but still a bit weird…
I’m looking forward to the rest of your Review!
March 25th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Will it read chm files…?
March 25th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
What a beautiful article, Branko, including the background you offered at the start, and I appreciated the photos as well. Many thanks!. Too bad about the iLiad’s two-second delay between the pages. It would be interesting to see if the Sony Reader has a similar delay. Can anyone tell us? My since-sold Librie certainly took too long to refresh pages, even when I set it for the least delay. Regardless of that shortcoming in the iLiad, the iRex machine continues to be of interest. Surely future generations of E Ink will address this problem. Meanwhile you are absolutely right to identify it as one.
I was surprised that “left” meant “forward,” having expected the opposite (and getting it wrong the first few times), but the explanation was simple; the movement of the bar is supposed to mimic the movement of a page. You turn a page from right to left to go to the next one, and from left to right to go back.
Another problem! But it’s easily fixable. iRex could simply add a software switch to reverse the directions.
Separately a reminder to all: Branko has his own policies toward the spelling of “E Ink,” “iLiad” and other trademarked names. I myself prefer the vendors’ usages within reason, since it’s healthy for people to be able distinguish their products from others–just so they don’t stretch this. Each case is different. I do not think that the USPTO should have granted Microsoft the right to use “Windows,” given that it was so generic. I use Windows with a cap W only out of deference to popular usage. The usual IANAL disclaimer. Please note that this is an aside. Let’s keep the main focus here on the iLiad, not trademarks. I may well do a separate post on that issue.
Thanks,
David
March 25th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Given that the iliad uses open source software, I would be interested to know the degree to which it is customizable by the user. Allowing users to edit and add to the Iliad’s operating software would be a huge advantage in my opinion. The open source software community is capable in some truely impressive things.
March 25th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
@Joel: from what I understand, not many formats will be included out of the box, and of those only the most popular ones. For proprietary formats, Irex expects the manufacturer to create a viewer, and for open formats they hope hobbyists will create them. From what I understand, they are planning to make at least some developer documentation available. (More about this in a later installment.) I have heard no particular mention of .chm.
@David: two seconds is perhaps not the right phrase; I did not count them. Two beats would be a better aproximation of the word I had in mind. (The Dutch word “tel”, anyone?)
“Another problem!” ["left" means "next"]
I am not sure that it is problem. Once they explained it to me, it made perfect sense; as apparently it did to the test subjects they asked about this.
re: naming conventions. The reason I normalize names (within limits) is because manufacturers tend to try and turn names into fully lit Christmas trees, which is their own business; but so are my articles mine. E Ink actually confuses me, because in the official spelling it uses a middle dot, so I do not rightly know where to normalize it too. I guess E Ink is as good a spelling as any.
My spelling policy has nothing to do with trademarks though.
March 25th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Thank you Branko! I have had my eye on the iLiad for a long time and I want one of these very badly. At work I often have to read large documents (100 pages+) and mark them up, so the iLiad looks very interesting to me. I also love the idea of a newspaper subscription on an iLiad. My big concern is that I’d also like to use it to read ebooks (of course) and for unencrypted formats that’s great but many of them are sold in MS Reader or encrypted PDF format. From what I’m understanding, I don’t think the iLiad is going to be able to read these. Or have I perhaps misunderstood?
March 25th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
@The other Matthew: As I wrote, the Iliad will be shipped with a limited number of “viewers,” the availability of which will depend on the manufacturer behind the format. From what I understood (unfortunately I forgot to write this down, so I am working from memory now) Adobe is working on its own viewer for the Iliad. Presumably that viewer would work with Adobe’s encryption.
Viewers that are not included with the device should be available from IDS, but can also be uploaded to the Iliad by the user.
BTW, the article was published in a bit of a hurry, because I knew people were waiting for it, so my apologies for any typos or other errors you might see.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:33 am
Great article, nice to find someone who knows something about this device. Anyway, I have three questions:
1. Any idea of what is in the complete “package”? Is there a carrying case, what kind of software does it come with, etc?
2. I keep hearing April 2006 as a release “date” but is that just for Europe or the States too? (i.e.) when is the exact date if you know.
3. Price, Price, Price!!! Preferably in dollars. Thanks
March 26th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Trey, when I asked “what included?” they showed me the travel hub. They have had a box designed for the webshop customers and the few corporate customers who actually want a box.
As far as I know, consumers will either be able to buy from Irex directly, through the webshop, or from third parties that will bundle an Iliad with a service. The webshop will open in April, but no exact date was given. Irex did not want to give out much information about any third parties, reasoning it was up to these parties to come out with their plans, but from what I understood they are in talks with three major e-book providers, one from East Asia, one from Europe, and the third I forgot.
Your best bet to find out of the Iliad will be pertinent to you, would be to contact your e-book providers and ask them if the will support the device. If and when you do, please report back to us here. I would do it myself, but A) do not have the time, and B) as someone who uses his Palm mainly to read Public Domain books I am blissfully unaware which companies exist.
As for price, I did not ask (yes, I should have), but I mentioned to them the 650 US$ price that has been rumoured on the web, and they did not deny it.
Their webshop is aimed at early adopters and gadget lovers, and the Iliads sold through it will be fairly sober. Their main business, as they see it, is to sell to third parties. So their business model is more like Jinke’s, it seems, and unlike Sony’s.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Branko, thanks for sharing your visit at iRex with us!
Regarding price, I was told directly by iRex that the price of the iLiad will be EURO 549,00, inclusive VAT, exclusive transport costs.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Thanks for the confirmation. According to Google, that’s 660 in US$ at the moment. BTW, I loved the E Ink e-book matrix you guys put up.
Edit: speaking of which, Irex confirmed number of pages per fully charged battery at 10,000+, and is seriously considering putting up some form of developer documentation. Their take is that they will not support individual developers (unless they are somehow partnered), but will make information available that will let developers do their own thing.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:32 am
10000+?
This is the best new I have heard for months!!!
I have been worried about the battery-life thing fo a while now…but if that number is correc then I’ll be getting the Iliad even if it is rahter expensive at 550Euro.
Thanks for that info!!!
March 26th, 2006 at 11:04 am
hmmm…I just went through the Iliad Specs again…and either they were changed or I read incorrectly before.
The internal storage is now given as 128MB…wasn’t it 220 or something before?
The Memory cards are now given as “MMC and CF”, was there not some mention of SD cards before? I thought so…but maybe I’m mistaken.
The Battery life is still given in hoours (about 21 apparently) in the spec sheet…which is incompatible with the number 10000+ pageturns in my opinion…can you shed any light on these facts branko?
Thanks.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:13 am
Thanks Branko, this will break my pocketbook but I’m going to have to get me one of these. Unfortunately, most of the books I have now are in .lit format for MS Reader so I’ll have to convert them but that only takes a few. Native support for .pdf’s and .html is just as crucial.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
2 Roland Rohde:
You are right, they changed their pdf )) First one was of december 2005, now - march 2006. I have both of them and can compare.
december 2005 version:
CONTENT FORMATS SUPPORTED
PDF
XHTML
TXT
MP3
Other formats will be supported in the near future
INTERFACES
USB type A connector for USB memory stick.
CF type II slot for memory extension or other applications.
SD/MMC slot for SD/MMC memory cards.
3.5mm stereo audio jack for headset.
WIFI 802.11b wireless LAN.
10/100MB wired LAN.
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
400MHz INTEL X-Scale Processor.
64Mb Ram
224MB free* internal FLASH memory for storing content (sufficient for 1 month of newspapers, 30 books and many other documents).
Touch sensor input using stylus.
Rechargeable battery.
Cradle and travel charger available.
Dimensions (wxhxd): 155×216x16 mm.
Weight: 390 grams.
Operating temperature is 0°C to 50°C.
Storage temperature is -20°C to 70°C. (* depends on amount of installed fonts)
march 2006 version:
CONTENT FORMATS SUPPORTED
PDF
XHTML
TXT
APABI
OEB*
MP3*
Optional: Customization to support customer specific content format
INTERFACES
USB type A connector for USB memory stick.
CF type II slot for memory extension or other applications.
MMC slot for MMC memory cards.
3.5mm stereo audio jack for headset.
WIFI 802.11g wireless LAN.
10/100MB wired LAN.
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
400MHz INTEL X-Scale Processor.
128MB free internal FLASH memory for storing content, extendable via external slots.
Touch sensor input using stylus.
Rechargeable battery.
Travel hub included, connecting to wired LAN, power adapter and PC using USB.
Dimensions (wxhxd): 155×216x16 mm.
Weight: 390 grams.
Operating temperature is 0°C to 50°C.
Storage temperature is -20°C to 70°C.
*: Will become on line available in coming months via iDS (remote update to all Iliads already in the market)
March 26th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Branko:
Thanks for the excellent review, it’s good to start getting some
really solid details about the device!
One thing I’m interested in is the usability of the annotations
feature, and how effective the device would be for taking
notes. One application I’m interested in beyond a simple
reader is an ‘electronic notepad’. I can envision packing a
2 or 4 GB memory card with technical references, and keeping
this by my desk; I could use it to read and annotate references
and take notes; for myself, I find a notepad is often more flexible for
brainstorming notes and outlining algorithms than a typical
window on my monitor, but a sheet of paper provides other
limitations — a way of melding the two could be quite powerful.
(I have a tablet computer that helped me understand the feasability
of the concept, but it has reliability issues that prevent me
from using it as a primary work tool).
I am definitely eager to get my hands on one; it still strikes me
as the most promising of this next generation of devices, though
not quite acheiving the status of ‘perfect device for my needs’…
Incidentally, regarding ‘left-to-right’ vs ‘right-to-left’ for page
flips; naturally, that depends entirely on what you are reading.
If you are reading Japanese manga (even translated), your page
flips are right-to-left. So I would claim that the argument is
somewhat specious, but that a person could readily adapt
to either way.
–John N.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
I use webzip to download news sites, usually one to two links deep within the site and have been reading them on while away from home on my Cybook hwen I have no internet connection. Clicking the stored link to any particular article. Will the iLiad have the same ability? I know it can display xhtml, I was just curious if it you can click on links if those links are stored on a CF or SD card.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
thanks for posting the side-by-side comparison of the old and new specs!
Now…can anyone shed any light on this hours/page-turns business?
I just can’t imagine 21 hours reading and 10000 page-turns being in any way compatible…
March 26th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for the info… I’m a developer so I’ll be interested in what their docs are. If there isn’t a chm reader I’ll write one…! Its only compiled html, anyway…
March 26th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
I think the battery life is hard to define clearly for the iLiad as opposed to other players because WiFi is a power hungry feature that can bite off hours of usage when used. So page turns can’t be accurate themselves to tell how much the battery endures. I’d guess the 10000 page turns are probably assuming no wireless usage, so the 21 hours might include some use of the WiFi device.
And, thanks, Branko.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
well…iRex said “about a week of usage with about 3 hours of reading a day”
That does not sound like Wifi and other usage to me…
March 26th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Irex’s main business is not selling to end-users, but rather letting third-parties bundle the device with some kind of subscription. So three hours of reading a day probably includes using wifi at least once a day to contact the IDS in order to get the reading materials the user is subscribed to. But I am just guessing here.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:44 am
I too would prefer a smoother back. Also to me the right edge seems a little longer than the left. Giving the top a slope right to left. A style thing no doubt, but one I don’t care for.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:20 am
“I thought the screen rendered slowly. The device seemed to take two seconds to render a new page; one to render it in memory, and the second to refresh the E Ink layer.”
Pre-render the next page in the background!
I know these are only rough estimates, but it’s unfortunate if there’s a delay due to rendering in memory. This is a powerful machine with 64MB of RAM, plenty of room for page bufferring - hopefully the viewer software will be smart enough to pre-render at least the next page in the background (you wouldn’t want it to pre-render too many due to battery considerations, but the next page is, to me, a no-brainer). It’s kind of a joke to think how much technical effort must have gone into optimising the hardware for screen refresh, only to have the delay further increased by a dumb software algorithm.
I don’t know what kind of API IRex provides to viewer manufacturers, so it’s impossible to say whose responsibility it is to perform such pre-rendering. But whoever it is, I can only hope they’re sane enough to ensure the delay is due to hardware.
April 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Well it is April 2nd and no sign of the webshop being open for business.
I would also be interested in it supporting chm files as well, but I guess I’ll just have to find a MacOS converter which will take chm files and convert them to pdf documents.
The rendering delay seems odd to me as well. That is something they should do in the background, or at least give a preference to do so, if it somehow impacts battery life. That is the kind of approach the late Jef Raskin would have taken with this from a UI standpoint.
I wonder what 3rd parties they expect to adopt this? There don’t seem to be provisions for doing things like bar code scannning or RFID reading that might suit this device for say route accounting or inventory kinds of transactions. So which vertical business markets do they think are waiting for this?
It really was more attractive to me to have a device with a large enough screen to read books on without having to lug a laptop around. The PDA scene is just TOO small a screen for reading comfortably. This actuallly looks like something Apple might have been good at coming out with as a vertical market for document reading, ie the rPod.
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:55 am
well…april is a long month…and as much as I would love to see the store open from the 1st of april onwards…we all know that the 30th is just as likely.
And they might even postpone the launch…seeing that the touchscreen problems were apparently solved just about a week ago…the Newspaper (De Tijd) trial seems to be online now…so maybe we’ll get some more input from the lucky 100 (or was it 200) subscribers who use this special service now.
April 4th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
look at the specsheet…it’s now dated September 2005…the specs are back to the December 2005 specs…I wonder what’s going on there..
April 8th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
I’ve been looking at both the Sony and iRex units. Neither answers a question I have. Local library uses .pdf with DRM plug in so books ‘expire’ in 21 days. Will the xpdf handle the DRM correctly so I can read library books?
April 8th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I’m not sure…I think the iRex iliad could be “made” capable of doing so, but wel’ll have to wait and see what happens. The launch is only 1-3 weeks away, so we should find out soon.
I’ll probably buy the Iliad, so I’ll be able to try it…maybe.
How about Branko Collins? Maybe he knows more about this? We’re still waiting for the third part of his Iliad “review”.
*hint, hint*
April 8th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
The xpdf homepage mentions it allows locking a file, but I believe that’s pretty standard PDF behaviour that has little to do with DRM. (Hm, the decryption page on that site seems to suggest otherwise?) I seem to remember the Irex folks telling me that Adobe was working on a PDF viewer for the Iliad, but unfortunately I cannot find such mention in my notes.
As with all viewer questions, it is best to ask the manufacturer of the format.
BTW, the third installment took longer because life intervened. I have a draft ready, but need to edit it first.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
So slow and so disturbing… “I thought the screen rendered slowly. The device seemed to take two seconds to render a new page; one to render it in memory, and the second to refresh the E Ink layer.”
When will they put the 100Hz “electrowetting” display technology to the real consumer product?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3136250.stm
April 17th, 2006 at 11:31 am
[...] Sometime during the next two weeks Philips spin-off Irex Technologies should come out with its A5-sized (1024×768 pixels) Iliad e-book reader. That makes three E Ink based readers announced for this year. These devices have screens that look like paper, are paperback sized and run thousands of pages off a single charge. Is this going to be the year of the e-book? [...]
April 25th, 2006 at 10:20 am
[...] Iliad. This is a Dutch based production. There is an unconfirmed rumor that the Iliad is in talks with Mobipocket so that this device will read Mobipockets natively (and maybe even come preloaded with Mobipocket reader). This device has a 8.1″ screen, rechargeable battery, SD and CF Card storage built in wi fi connection, Teleread has a first look at this device. My concern would be the lag in turning the page. I think that would be irritating. It’s also purported be costly, exceeding the $500 mark, at least. [...]
May 7th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Please tell us how the touchscreen notes taking application and the content delivery are! That’s what’s going to make or break this device for me!
July 18th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Well, it is out now. When I did the euro conversion, the price to US buyers comes out to $811. Without shipping.
I think I will wait for Sony.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
[...] You can read a comparative review of the two at MobileRead.com. It is interesting to glimpse the emerging battle in an arena of critical importance to writers. For an interesting discussion about these readers, take a look at this posting at Engadget, reading down through the comments. Go here for a longer review. For more information about the iLiad, go to the iRex Homepage. [...]
April 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
For those of use who still use a Rocket e-book, it’s deja vu all over again
July 26th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I still have a Rocket e-book. I’m using it as a doorstop, and am scared to death to buy a Sony or an iLiad, for that exact reason.
According to the reviews I’ve read the Sony has the same pause while you turn the page. I think it’s just the E ink technology and not the brand of the reader.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Cheryl, it’ll be interesting to see how much the new E Ink technology helps the delay problem. It’s supposed to. See the Cybook press release just posted today. As for your doorstop, I assume that the scarcity of new DRMed books in Rocketbook format is one source of frustration. Let’s hope that the IDPF will not just do an e-book standard but also a DRM standard for publishers insisting on “protection” (of course the best DRM is none). Thanks. David
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:08 am
[...] A first look at the Irex Iliad [...]
September 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Wanna dream?
http://index.10rocker.cn
index
Funny))
September 20th, 2007 at 5:05 am
The second version iLiad has been released. It has now a few improvements. Firstly a bigger battery. Approx. 20% more capacity. Then the casing has been revised. The back has changed to provide more stability while scribbling and the interior has been improved to better stabilize the screen to prevent dammage by pressure. It also comes with a protective pouch now and the smaller travel hub.
My personal experience with it so far. While the first iLiad was a bit squiky the the newer one is tight and feels more solid.
I am also very excited to see a Cybook. It will probably be a great tool, if you do not need the pen or the larger screen. Cant wait to compare the Vizplex screen to the iLiads.
Regards,
Falk Kühnel
http://www.justread.de
May 4th, 2009 at 7:32 am
It’s nice to see that 2 years after Branko’s post iLiad is still quite successfully competes with such big players like Sony and Amazon. Nothing bad regarding PRS or Kindle, but always better for us to have options to chose from. A monopoly would be harmful for new technology.