iRex's iLiad Book Edition e-book reader

Until Amazon decides to pipe up with the Kindle in Europe, I'm reduced using my old Dell Axim to read downloaded John Wyndham novels in the dark and impotently railing in theory against the Kindle's gauche design and bizarro PDF abilities, all the while secretly knowing I'd pick one up in a flash anyway, just for the convenience of being able to download any book I wanted to read, anywhere, at any time.

iRex's new e-book reader, the cleverly titled but stupidly capitalized iLiad Book Edition, is a far better looking device than the Kindle, and even sports some features the Kindle doesn't have, such as native PDF support, a built in Wacomm tablet and... huh... Ethernet, what? Extra points: unlike the Kindle, it's actually available in Europe. But without the killer feature of Amazon's perpetual cellular connection to its archive of digital literature, what's the point, especially at €499? Come on, guys: in the post Kindle age, you at least need to offer wi-fi, which even the original iLiad apparently had (at a €150 premium). No wonder they're not releasing this in the States.

Iliad Book Edition [Mobile Read]

[#1 posted by Brian Carnell , May 7, 2008 11:13 AM]

The iLiad has always been a great option -- just ridiculously expensive.

However...

"Extra points: unlike the Kindle, it's actually available in Europe. But without the killer feature of Amazon's perpetual cellular connection to its archive of digital literature, what's the point,"

Um, why would you want to waste your money on the DRMed crap Amazon is shoveling? I got a Kindle back when they went on sale last year and have yet to visit their online Kindle portal -- DRMed books FTL.

[#2 posted by John Brownlee , May 7, 2008 11:21 AM]

That's a fair point, and in truth, I doubt I would use Kindle's download anywhere abilities much. But I am not so fervently anti-DRM that I wouldn't be willing to make the occasional impulse buy on one.

[#3 posted by Anonymous , May 7, 2008 2:59 PM]

You are overlooking the fact that the iLiad has a bigger (8.1-inch vs 6 inch) and a better screen (which accounts for a large part the higher price) and a built-in wacom digitizer allowing you to make handwritten notes.

[#4 posted by markfrei , May 14, 2008 3:18 PM]

I have an Iliad and love it. I love being able to annotate PDFs on it - or just take notes.

And hey, I even read Moby Dick on it...

[#5 posted by Anonymous , May 28, 2008 12:42 AM]

John Brownlee, you don't know what you are talking about.