Is this a Sony-beater?

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Whilst I have played and worked with the Sony Reader, and found it to be both very good and poorly lacking at the same time, I was humbled when I heard about the iRex iLiad.

The iLiad takes over from where the Sony Reader stops. Dont’ despair if you’ve got the Sony as it is far the better looking of the two. But looks are not enough to cut it in the arena of academic mLearning.

So, why is this ‘better’? It has many features that the opposition offer (bookmarks, collections, downloads, etc) , but here you can scribble in the margin of the book and save your notes in the eBook (much like the real-world).

“Annotating documents with a stylus, drawing pictures, and even composing music on the iLiad are all possible ” writes Nate Anderson. He continues by saying that writing ” …  means the iLiad is more than an ebook reader. It’s also a notepad on which you can scratch away to your heart’s content.”

Nate does point out one major flaw with the (current) iLiad … “annotations can’t be easily passed back to the PC. Marking up PDF, TXT, or HTML files doesn’t alter the original file, and it doesn’t generate a separate page image with the annotations. Instead, it stores them in an iLiad-compatible format that can’t be read except by specialized PC software.”

This is what differentiates the use of the iLiad … it is not for people going on holiday who want to take 10-100 books with them, this is a far more serious bit of kit ideally placed for eLearning and mLearning.

On the up-side:

  • Annotation works well
  • US/UK charger included
  • USB mass storage device
  • Accepts CF, SD, flash drives, Ethernet, and USB connections
  • Excellent screen

On the down-side:

  • Handwriting recognition software is another cost
  • Not quite as attractive as the Kindle and the Sony Reader

Is it a Sony-beater … ? Yes, but the Sony could be better in the next version if they take on board that eReaders like the iLiad and Kindle are better tools for mLearning than for High Street novels.