Dr Wise, Iliad After A Couple Of Months

[garlin]

Dr. Wise, you have had the Iliad for a couple of months now and I would like to know if you still think it is a good deal and does everything it's supposed to do? The reason I ask is I would consider buying one but the price tag is a bit rich for me. It might come down to personal preference or how deep the pockets are but I believe you would know if it's good investment. I read a lot and books are a bit of a pain to handle. I would appreciate your input.

Thank you
garlin

[Wise Young]

Garlin,

Indeed, I have been using the Iliad for the last three months, almost every day and carry it everywhere with me. For me it was a good investment, even at $600, although it did not do everything that I had originally hoped it could do. Let me start with what is great, what is good, and what has been disappointing.

What is great.
• It has a big clear screen with white background at a resolution of 768 x 1024 (160 dip), bigger than the Sony. If you have aging eye-sight, you really appreciate the clarity of the display and the ability to increase the font size with a single tap of a screen pen. It is very readable in bright light. Their default font is some kind of Helvetica and it is good for many hours of reading without eye straing.
• The battery is reasonably long-lasting (I can used it for much of a 15.5-hour flight from Newark to Hong Kong and still had enough battery to0 spare to use for during the 2-hour flight from Hong Kong to Taipei... without a recharge) and can be charged while reading. I don't think that I have ever run out of juice before having some access to a power source.
• The navigational controls are very intuitive and works. I particularly like the page turning lever.
• The size and weight are just perfect. It has sufficient heft so that it feels solid but not so much that it adds significant weight to my backpack. After buying the Iliad, I bought the well-designed leather portfolio that holds it.
• It can read about every commercial memory device. It has about 254 Mb of internal Flash RAM on it, more than sufficient to hold several hundred ebooks. It has slots for the Mini SDRAM (up to 4 Gb), Sony memory stick, USB, and another slot for a big RAM unit.

What is so so .
• Page-turning, while acceptable, is not snappy. It takes a second or two.
• The icons for the buttons are not that intuitive.
• Booting up of the device is slow, can takes as much as 5 minutes to get from a cold-start to the time you are reading.
• Its reading of pdf with figures is slow.

What is not good.
• Occasional hiccup. The Iliad will occasionally misreads the file, so that it goes 20-30 pages when you turn one page. It is annoying and happens at least once book (e.g. once every 300-400 pages).
• Navigation to a specific page is very slow. You can guestimate the page that you go to but going directly to a specific page often takes several tries at 5 seconds each.
• Wifi or internet connection system. The Iliad has capacity for wireless communication but I have not been able to get this to work at all. I think that the concept is that that people would be able to download books directly with the Iliad. Perhaps it works in Europe but not in the U.S. or Asia.
• There is no sleep mode. This is my only pet peeve. When you have stopped reading and you want to do something else for a couple hours, there is no sleep mode that you can put the device into that would save battery. If you turn it off, it takes 1-2 minutes to turn it back on and for the whole system to reboot. If you leave it on, it will drain the battery. So, for example in a 15-hour airplane ride, I may turn the device on and off about two dozen times.

I have to admit that the price is steep. At nearly $600, it is more costly than an iPhone. It is more expensive that its nearly competitor, the Sony Reader. The Sony reader has a smaller screen that is not touch sensitive. Morover, the Illiad can read more types of files than the Sony. I have had no trouble reading pdf files, ereader files, and mobipocket files (both secure and non-secure). I recommend it, if you can afford it.

Wise.

[garlin]

Thank you Dr. Wise for your reply. I have ordered the Iliad with a cover and a stand. The cheapest price I found was $700 at http://www.ereaderoutfitters.com/ . The guy I dealt with was most helpful and thought he could get me a cover that straps to a leg (pilots use them) to keep it from falling and breaking.
I am really looking forward to receiving it. BTW the salesman said they were out of them at this time but would have some next week. I took it that the Iliad is a hot moving item.
Thanks again,

garlin

[Wise Young]

Thank you Dr. Wise for your reply. I have ordered the Iliad with a cover and a stand. The cheapest price I found was $700 at http://www.ereaderoutfitters.com/ . The guy I dealt with was most helpful and thought he could get me a cover that straps to a leg (pilots use them) to keep it from falling and breaking.
I am really looking forward to receiving it. BTW the salesman said they were out of them at this time but would have some next week. I took it that the Iliad is a hot moving item.
Thanks again,

garlin

My memory failed me. It is indeed $699. Sorry.

Wise.

[garlin]

My memory failed me. It is indeed $699. Sorry.

Wise.

It's hell gettin old ain't it?:D

garlin