Using Ebook Readers for Gaming Books

[Miar]

I keep following the ebook reader thing and would love to lay my hands on one at least to fool with for a bit. Unluckly I'm in Korea and they haven't hit here yet. I'm sure once they do they will be everywhere.

The IRex is one of those I keep looking at but the last review I read on it set me off a bit. iRex Digital Reader DR1000S • Register Hardware

Most of the review is really good the part that makes me not quite so happy is at the bottom of the 2nd page.

"imagine one has finished reading a PDF document and wishes to close it and then delete it. Closing the document involves nine key presses, in the correct order switching between side and bottom buttons, deleting the same document takes another eight: get one wrong and you're back to the start"

Ack!

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Is it b/w?

Can you access the internet from it?

Loading times?

Space on the harddisk?

 

[CapnZapp]

Unfortunately, I think the thing to take away from this is that ebooks aren't yet ready for us gamers.

If the only one capable of handling complex pdfs is the most monstrous on the market, then sorry, but then my conclusion is that it's still too early.

Perhaps in two years time when a thing like yours can be had with 100g shaved off its weight and at half price (at a very maximum!), then perhaps...

But congrats anyway!

 

[drothgery]

Is it b/w?

Can you access the internet from it?

Loading times?

Space on the harddisk?

It's not possible to determine loading times from the specs, but considering there's no mention of Wi-Fi or any other internet capabilities, I'm going to guess no internet access. And it doesn't have a hard disk; it's got an SD card slot (comes with a 1GB card, but you can use a larger one).

Going just by specs, I think it'd be really hard to argue for one of these over Kindle DX unless you really need a touch screen, more than 4GB of storage makes a big difference to you, the slightly larger and higher resolution screen makes a big difference to you, or you have issues with Amazon.com. Or you live outside the US and can't effectively access the Kindle's wireless network.

                Irex DR1000S    Kindle DX
Height          10.56"          10.4"
Width           8.55"           7.2"
Thickness       .47"            .38"
Screen size     10.2"           9.7"
Resolution      1280x1024       1280x824
Touch screen    yes             no
Keyboard        no              yes
Storage         1GB             4 GB
Upgradeable     SD cards        no
  Storage
Wireless        no              yes
  Internet
price (US)      $859            $489

 

[Baron Opal]

...I had just successfully defended my PhD theses...

Congratulations! That's quite an achievement.

Wait. Thesis or theses? How many did you earn..?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm really envious, I wish I could afford something like that...

Could you post a picture of the device displaying a gaming book page, just so that I can die?

A page from GURPS Mass Combat:

Spoiler

A page from Dungeon magazine:

Spoiler

Unfortunately, the lighting was a bit unfavorable for the photo. After all, this is not a back-lit screen.

Most of the review is really good the part that makes me not quite so happy is at the bottom of the 2nd page.

"imagine one has finished reading a PDF document and wishes to close it and then delete it. Closing the document involves nine key presses, in the correct order switching between side and bottom buttons, deleting the same document takes another eight: get one wrong and you're back to the start"

While this is true, it is also somewhat misleading.

First of all, you can use the stylus that comes with it to directly click on the relevant icon.

Secondly, if you click on the "Return to Folder" icon instead of "Close Document", you can effectively do the same with two key presses instead of eight, and this way you can switch between it and other currently open documents.

Thirdly, if you put in a decent memory card (I use a 16 GB one) it will be a long time until you need to delete anything - and if you have established proper folders, large amounts of documents will still remain navigable (unlike with the Kindle, which just puts all documents into a giant list - which makes it sometimes hard to find a specific file...). And if you do want to delete something, it's probably best if you just plug the iRex into your computer and use the computer to delete the relevant files...

Is it b/w?

Yes. There are some electronic ink readers available in Japan which use color, but they are even more expensive and have page refresh times of 30 seconds. I guess we will have to wait a few more years until useful color models become available...

Can you access the internet from it?

Nope.

Loading times?

Loading files to the device: Just like with any other USB device.

Page refresh: Depends on the pages in question. If it is pure text, it will take a second or two. If there are a lot of graphics, it will take longer - and if it's a scanned image document, it can take 30 seconds or so...

Space on the harddisk?

I don't know how much space the internal hard disk has. However, all documents are put on the memory of an SD card. There is an 1 GB card that comes with the device. I've upgraded to a 16 GB card, which should last for a good long while...

Going just by specs, I think it'd be really hard to argue for one of these over Kindle DX unless you really need a touch screen, more than 4GB of storage makes a big difference to you, the slightly larger and higher resolution screen makes a big difference to you, or you have issues with Amazon.com. Or you live outside the US and can't effectively access the Kindle's wireless network.

Well, for me the main issue with the Kindle DX is that at present you cannot annotate PDFs with it. At all.

On the other hand, with the iRex you can do this:

Spoiler

 

[falcarrion]

I have the Kindle Dx and would like to compare notes.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I have the Kindle Dx and would like to compare notes.

Thanks,
Matt

From what I've read, for displaying purposes the Kindle DX should work pretty much the same. The Kindle DX has the advantage of having access to the huge number of ebooks at the Kindle store.

On the other hand, AFAIK the Kindle DX has no way of annotating PDFs, which for me was a deal breaker. See my image above how you can annotate PDFs on the iRex.

 

[falcarrion]

Do you have the ability to add bookmarks on the Irex?
And do bookmarks from pdfs on your computer transfer over when you load it on the Irex?
For example I have the players handbook 4E on pdf. When ran on a computer it has bookmarks for chapters etc. But when it is loaded on the sony e-reader or the Kindle Dx the bookmarks don't carry over.
Is this the same on the Irex?

Please note I'm not trying to start e-reader war.
but I figured we could compare our e-readers to the benefit of everyone here.

We each purchased our units for what we were looking for in an e-reader.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Do you have the ability to add bookmarks on the Irex?
And do bookmarks from pdfs on your computer transfer over when you load it on the Irex?
For example I have the players handbook 4E on pdf. When ran on a computer it has bookmarks for chapters etc. But when it is loaded on the sony e-reader or the Kindle Dx the bookmarks don't carry over.
Is this the same on the Irex?

Pretty much the same, yes. You can add bookmarks and then you can go to a separate view where all the pages with bookmarks are shown as miniature pages. But you can't export them, as far as I am aware - or if you can, I haven't figured it out yet.

You can export the annotations you made with the stylus, though.