Impressions of the owner of all E-ink devices. Now you can read Habr on E-ink.
It so happened that the author of these lines became the happy owner of all the devices available today for reading books with E-ink monitors and not only. But the reason for the small report and great enthusiasm was the recent opportunity to subscribe and read RSS in Russian on the largest and probably most convenient them Irex Iliad <irex iliad.> Http://irextechnologies.com </ irex iliad> Of course you can read RSS and with Sony Reader www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader </ Sony Reader> but so far, alas, only in English and only from the Sony list of Sony e-books stores.
The first device for reading books on electronic paper, which appeared in my collection, was the LBook www.lbook.com.ua . As it turned out, a very nice device with its own undeniable advantages, still not accessible to competitors. At first glance, there should be no differences in the Lbook screen itself and competitors using the same type of screen, but it turned out to be not so simple.
The first and most pleasant feature of the Lbook is low power consumption and the ability to read Russian texts in 1251 encoding made from any material with the help of the simple Save as txt function without any problems. As I filled up my Lbook with books, I realized that a significant advantage over the same Sony Reader is the clear structure of folders that you can create with only three levels (for example, 1. Fantasy, 2. Stanislav Lem 3. "Solaris") which is most likely due to the type of file system used by the device, but this turned out to be quite enough to conveniently use a library of almost 5 thousand books. That is how much can fit in a simple text format on the SD card 2Gb, the maximum possible to use Lbook. Larger size cards are not supported.
')
Another thing Sony Reader is a whiter “paper” (as it turned out not much, just an optical illusion because of the black color of the device itself), supports cards without volume limits, in any case MS DUO 4Gb exactly, but it has an extremely awkward interface for storage of large libraries, does not support the folder structure and with a memory card eats up its battery about five times faster. You should not wait for the promised 10 thousand pages, this will not happen, but let Scartaine turn over 2000 pages if they are in his native lrf format. If you read the PDF files, then no charge of the battery, and even more likely, no patience to wait, when he turns the page is not enough already for the 200th page.
However, after a month of active use of the Reader, I developed a habit of not using a memory card, there is enough internal space for more than a hundred books, and you can navigate by the author in alphabetical order, or distributing books on the shelves using the native software supplied in the kit. What is nice is that Sony, after registering the device on the company's website, donated $ 50, which can be spent on buying books in English. There are even comics and manga not badly designed and readable for familiarization. There is also the possibility, as mentioned earlier, to use the aggregator integrated into the RSS program, it is a pity that only in English and only from the list offered by Connect-Reader. However, among those RSS, which I found there is a lot of interesting things, especially the news HI_TECH first hand.
But most of all I was pleased with IRex Iliad, its screen is not produced by the PVI company at its Chinese factory, as in its two predecessors, but by another entirely Japanese company, which is only known to be located in Kobe city (Japan). Ilad, who not only has the largest screen of all the monitored devices - already 8 inches diagonally with a resolution of 1024 * 768, but also from the first days of May began to support * .prc files and was integrated into www.mobipocket.com . For many, this service with a free book reading program for many devices, including smartphones, has long been familiar. For example, I have been using it for a long time to prepare and read e-books on my Sony-Ericson M600i smartphone, but none of the electronic ink solutions gives such convenience to reading news from the Internet via an RSS subscription. Firstly, there are no problems with reading Russian-language news, and secondly, they don’t even need to be searched for - the interface of the program provides for adding RSS from the list in Russian, as well as adding its own fields. All the images are also imported into the Iliad and are clearly embedded. By the way, in the list of RSS feeds there is also Habrahabr. Now your eyes will thank you if you have to read a lot on the Internet or use a large number of PDF files. Although Adobe recommends at least 10 inches of screen for reading PDF, some non-scanned files in this format read quite well.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Iliad is far from exhausted all its possibilities. For example, I found people who have already ported an Internet browser and email client to the device, wrote some number of games, of which the most successful chess game seems to me. The craftsmen screwed the usual USB keyboard and use the device like a typewriter. Yes, in addition, the device has input using a stylus and touchscreen. The presence of a network card and Wi-Fi on board suggests a much more widespread use of the device.
The company - the manufacturer has recently hosted an SDK on its website, which works great for example on Ubuntu, and you can think of a lot more for this device if you are familiar with Linux and are friends with it. The only obstacle to its rapid spread in Russia is price. On the manufacturer's website for buyers from countries outside the EU, its price is $ 699, sending another $ 50, but our wonderful customs will offer you to pay another 6,500 rubles, together with a customs broker commission, totaling a little more than $ 1,000. What is not so expensive in principle, if you read a lot, love Linux, experiment, and take care of your health.
The first device for reading books on electronic paper, which appeared in my collection, was the LBook www.lbook.com.ua . As it turned out, a very nice device with its own undeniable advantages, still not accessible to competitors. At first glance, there should be no differences in the Lbook screen itself and competitors using the same type of screen, but it turned out to be not so simple.
The first and most pleasant feature of the Lbook is low power consumption and the ability to read Russian texts in 1251 encoding made from any material with the help of the simple Save as txt function without any problems. As I filled up my Lbook with books, I realized that a significant advantage over the same Sony Reader is the clear structure of folders that you can create with only three levels (for example, 1. Fantasy, 2. Stanislav Lem 3. "Solaris") which is most likely due to the type of file system used by the device, but this turned out to be quite enough to conveniently use a library of almost 5 thousand books. That is how much can fit in a simple text format on the SD card 2Gb, the maximum possible to use Lbook. Larger size cards are not supported.
')
Another thing Sony Reader is a whiter “paper” (as it turned out not much, just an optical illusion because of the black color of the device itself), supports cards without volume limits, in any case MS DUO 4Gb exactly, but it has an extremely awkward interface for storage of large libraries, does not support the folder structure and with a memory card eats up its battery about five times faster. You should not wait for the promised 10 thousand pages, this will not happen, but let Scartaine turn over 2000 pages if they are in his native lrf format. If you read the PDF files, then no charge of the battery, and even more likely, no patience to wait, when he turns the page is not enough already for the 200th page.
However, after a month of active use of the Reader, I developed a habit of not using a memory card, there is enough internal space for more than a hundred books, and you can navigate by the author in alphabetical order, or distributing books on the shelves using the native software supplied in the kit. What is nice is that Sony, after registering the device on the company's website, donated $ 50, which can be spent on buying books in English. There are even comics and manga not badly designed and readable for familiarization. There is also the possibility, as mentioned earlier, to use the aggregator integrated into the RSS program, it is a pity that only in English and only from the list offered by Connect-Reader. However, among those RSS, which I found there is a lot of interesting things, especially the news HI_TECH first hand.
But most of all I was pleased with IRex Iliad, its screen is not produced by the PVI company at its Chinese factory, as in its two predecessors, but by another entirely Japanese company, which is only known to be located in Kobe city (Japan). Ilad, who not only has the largest screen of all the monitored devices - already 8 inches diagonally with a resolution of 1024 * 768, but also from the first days of May began to support * .prc files and was integrated into www.mobipocket.com . For many, this service with a free book reading program for many devices, including smartphones, has long been familiar. For example, I have been using it for a long time to prepare and read e-books on my Sony-Ericson M600i smartphone, but none of the electronic ink solutions gives such convenience to reading news from the Internet via an RSS subscription. Firstly, there are no problems with reading Russian-language news, and secondly, they don’t even need to be searched for - the interface of the program provides for adding RSS from the list in Russian, as well as adding its own fields. All the images are also imported into the Iliad and are clearly embedded. By the way, in the list of RSS feeds there is also Habrahabr. Now your eyes will thank you if you have to read a lot on the Internet or use a large number of PDF files. Although Adobe recommends at least 10 inches of screen for reading PDF, some non-scanned files in this format read quite well.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Iliad is far from exhausted all its possibilities. For example, I found people who have already ported an Internet browser and email client to the device, wrote some number of games, of which the most successful chess game seems to me. The craftsmen screwed the usual USB keyboard and use the device like a typewriter. Yes, in addition, the device has input using a stylus and touchscreen. The presence of a network card and Wi-Fi on board suggests a much more widespread use of the device.
The company - the manufacturer has recently hosted an SDK on its website, which works great for example on Ubuntu, and you can think of a lot more for this device if you are familiar with Linux and are friends with it. The only obstacle to its rapid spread in Russia is price. On the manufacturer's website for buyers from countries outside the EU, its price is $ 699, sending another $ 50, but our wonderful customs will offer you to pay another 6,500 rubles, together with a customs broker commission, totaling a little more than $ 1,000. What is not so expensive in principle, if you read a lot, love Linux, experiment, and take care of your health.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/8365/
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