fantastic plastic

MobileRead compares the specs of the recently announced iRex Iliad (December 2005) and the Sony Reader (January 2006, successor to the Librie):

Dimensions:
Sony: 6.9″ by 4.9″ by .5″
iRex: 6.1″ by 8.5″ by .63″

Weight:
Sony: 8.8 ounces
iRex: 13.7 ounces

Screen:
Sony: 6-inch SVGA 800X600 4 grey scales (same like the Sony Librie)
iRex: 8.1-inch XGA 1024×768 16 grey scales

Internal memory:
Sony: ? “approximately 80 unillustrated books”
iRex: 64MB RAM, 224MB FLASH

Expansion slots:
Sony: SD, Memory Stick
iRex: SD, CF II

Support e-book formats:
Sony: BBeB Book (Sony Librie), Adobe PDF, JPEG, MP3
iRex: Adobe PDF, XHTML, TXT, MP3, others in near future

Others interfaces:
Sony: headphone jack
iRex: headphone jack, WiFi 802.11b, 10/100Mb Ethernet

Price:
Sony: USD $299-$399
iRex: ?

The iRex packs more features into a slightly larger device and supports more formats. Seeing as it has WiFi and can render HTML, I hope they include a web browser. E Ink will be perfectly adequate for mainly text-based pages, such as news sites or webmail. Animations or scrolling are not really essential anyway…

Note: iRex is a Philips spin-out. The first electronic ink ebook reader, the Librie, was a collaboration between Philips, Sony, and E Ink.

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UPDATE: the iRex Iliad went on sale in June 2006 for EUR 650; the more affordable/basic Sony reader in September 2006 for USD 350.

This USB flash memory drive features an E Ink storage capacity indicator, made possible by the bistability of the display medium.