Irex DR800SG Review Update – New Firmware no comments
Irex recently announced that a public beta of the 2.0 firmware update for the DR800 ereaders was available. I have installed it and have been using it for a few days. The fixes as reported on the Irex blog:
- 3G Connection Setup time improved by using Qualcomm Network Driver
- Show 3G signal strength on status bar while connected
- Add Notepad application
- Add Advanced Settings, allowing:
- Scribble on PDF documents
- Zoom in PDF documents
- Enable folder-browsing of your SD card
- Adobe 9.1 RMSDK based rendering of PDF and EPUB, including B&N EPUB support and image dithering
- Integrated B&N Creditcard input dialog into the document open flow (ask only if needed)
- Support EPUBs without embedded fonts for e.g. Greek, Polish, Russian
- Add “Go To Page” function to document viewer
- Move Continue Reading to the first position of the Home screen
- Automatic indexing of Thumbnails and Title/Author metadata (can be disabled in Advanced Settings)
- Added Time Zone selection to the Date/Time Settings
- View Book Information menu function that shows more details for PDF and EPUB
- Fixed issues with EPUB rendering when GUI language is non-English
- Fixed a bug where the Power Management would fail and the battery would drain quickly (related to pagination of PDB and TXT documents)
- Many other bugfixes
So far I have not encountered any problems using the new firmware. It was very easy to install – just unzip the download and you will have an Update folder which you place in your System folder on the DR800’s SD card. The ereader will find it when you disconnect it from your computer and the rest is pretty much automatic. The blog post linked to above has instructions and a link to the patch. Make sure you get the correct version for your ereader (DR800S for the European version or DR800SG for the US 3G version).
I have not seen a lot of difference with the 3G connection in my case. The 3G on the DR800SG ereader is only on when you open the eBook Mall, so each time it needs to find a network and connect which takes some time. Irex has not yet added any new ebook sellers to the “Mall”, so it is still rather empty, the only stores being Barnes & Noble, Newspapers Direct and Irex’s own periodical shop.
I just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so I went to Barnes & Noble and purchased book two of the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. No problems encountered here, but I had to input my info (making sure that I used the same credit card that B&N already associates with my account as that is the key they use for their DRM). Hopefully with the new firmware I won’t have to enter those details again.
Purchasing an ebook on the DR800 from Barnes & Noble is more complicated and has more clicks involved than buying and downloading a book on the Kindle ereader from Amazon. Maybe one reason for this is that Amazon has patented the 1-click checkout system, and in fact sued B&N for infringing this patent in 1999. At any rate the 3G does work, albeit not instantly, but I hope Irex will add more stores to the “Mall” as it is still rather empty, and it would be nice to be able to access more ebook stores from the ereader.
The note taking feature lets you make handwritten notes or draw pictures, 
and could be quite useful. There are five different pen sizes and an eraser. The eraser is a bit confusing at first because the erasure won’t take effect until the next screen refresh.
The problem with the note taking feature at the moment (keep in mind this is still a beta) is that if you are reading a book and want to make some notes, you will first need to open the menu, exit the book and go to the Home screen and then to the Notes screen. When you are finished and want to go back to your book you need to go again to the Home page, then to books and find the book you were reading. After using the note pad the Continue Reading tab shows your just opened notes rather than the book you were reading. Not very hassle-free.
To enable zoom and the scribble in PDF documents functions you will need to go to the advanced settings and check off the appropriate check boxes. To use the zoom you circle the area you wish to enlarge with the stylus. This works pretty well. When in this mode the flipbar advances you to the other parts of the enlarged page rather than turning the page. There is also a Fit To Page zooming option, but that feature seems to not be working yet.
In order to pan you need to again open the menu and select the pan option. The whole pan and zoom thing is a bit clumsy at the moment. I think it would really help if Irex were to put icons for the various operations on the status bar at the bottom of the page.
The Go To Page feature is much appreciated and works as expected.
The new firmware will definitely be a step in the right direction, especially if iRex uses the public beta to further refine the new features. But Irex needs to do more. While I have noted before how much I like reading on the DR800’s screen, Irex’s new ereader is still feature poor for the price, especially after the release of the iPad.
Some other features I would like to see: how about being able to scribble on ePubs? and a dictionary would be nice as well. Right now when I need to look up a word from something I am reading on the DR800 I use the Dictionary.com app (free) on my iPad, which I keep close at hand for that reason, as well as to listen to Pandora Radio while I am reading. After all, life is not just about finding new books to read – discovering new music is important too!
£149.00
£109
