The update can be downloaded automatically using the IREX companion software or you can manually install it by downloading and extracting the content of this file to the root of the SD card.

For detailed download and installation instructions visit our support website.

One evident challenge is the growing cost of educating students. According to the College Board, the average costs for books and supplies for private, four-year colleges in the U.S. for the 2008-9 academic year was $1054.00. This cost places quite a burden on students each year, or school districts if you are looking at K-12 textbook costs, so it is not surprising there has been a buzz regarding the use of eReaders in the classroom, which could ultimately result in the dramatic reduction or even the end of traditional textbooks.

The benefits are evident – lower textbook prices for students and schools, access to up-to-date information as textbooks are edited and a solution for the growing paper waste problem. With students and school districts being tasked with doing more with less, and still exceeding expectation, eReaders could be the answer that everyone has been looking for. This turns attention to whether a key e-reader demographic – students – will adopt the technology to read textbooks? According to Forrester research, there are about 5 million gadget-loving frequent book buyers who are the primary U.S. market for e-readers, but there are also 13 million college students in the U.S., which creates an instant market for e-reader vendors.

As with many other eReader vendors, we are in the process of researching the usability of eReaders in the education sector by putting a variety of devices in the hands of college and university students in Europe. Here is a some insight into our current findings:

• According to students, the ability to add notes or highlight text is Students strongly preferred a larger screen that more closely resembles the size of a textbook.
• Students said that the readability, weight and size of eReaders are strong, but that battery life and the speed of turning pages need improvement.
• Students strongly preferred reading on an e-reader rather than a laptop / netbook.

So the next question on everyone’s minds is – where is the content coming from? As trials are completed and educational institutions learn how eReaders can be incorporated into the daily lives of students, textbook publishers will begin to migrate to a digital format to meet the growing need of adoption. eReaders pose an interesting benefit to educators as they provide a two-way, secure avenue to disseminate information to students. With the right wireless infrastructure in place, educators could send students chapters of books when needed, personalized packages of information, and exams could be taken and returned.

But there are many hurdles for this technology to jump before it becomes an integral part of the day-to-day lives of students. While schools will see the immediate benefits of the technology, the cost to implement the wireless infrastructure needed to realize the full value is expensive and may impede the roll out. In addition, students have used hard-copy textbooks for years, so there will be some that prefer this medium and may be resistant to the use of digital content. Lastly, publishers are just starting to understand the advantages of making electronic content available to schools and students.

With the implementation of any new technology into a specific sector, the adoption rate varies. The benefits of eReaders in the classroom, as far as we can see, may alleviate some of the challenges currently facing educational institutions. This is a hot topic and I’m sure there is still much more to come!

Hans Brons

CEO
iRex Technologies

Concerns about readability when it comes to eReaders are valid and, we’ve found, a major decision point for people purchasing these devices. And this is exactly why all IREX devices, and the new DR800SG in particular, are carefully designed with the reader and the content in mind. It’s less about having a shiny device that slices, dices and chops, it’s first and foremost about a natural reading experience. голова болит секс

To get technical for a second, we’ve been working for more than nine years to get our screen brightness level to where it is today. Our testing has enabled us to determine what the right brightness is for a natural reading experience. There are some devices on the market right now that have a finger-touch screen. What they don’t tell you is that to enable finger-touch, an extra screen is required on top of the eInk layer which is highly-reflective and ultimately dulls the brightness and the crispness of the words. So you can touch the screen with your finger, but you’ll feel like you’re reading your computer screen. Considering how often you actually interface with the eReader screen – very little! – it seems like a big trade-off. And that’s why our touchscreen has a stylus.

We think the DR800SG device is just-the-right-size for reading books, newspapers and magazines – the right balance between readability and portability. And when you lose yourself in the content, the fact that you’re holding an electronic device and not turning the pages of an actual book will hardly matter.

Willem Endhoven VP Marketing & Business Development iRex Technologies

The IREX device is supported by key partner Barnes & Noble, Inc, Best Buy, Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless, which together provide access to the content, retail presence and the most reliable wireless network in the US, setting the IREX DR800SG apart in an increasingly competitive market.

Key Product Specifications:

• Big screen, compact design – some competitie devices offer a similarly-sized device but with a much smaller display area. IREX’s 8.1-inch screen is ideal for books, magazines and newspapers with detailed graphics.
• Purpose-built device – the DR800SG uses the latest electronic paper display technology to deliver an experience that is closer to reading ordinary paper than possible with a netbook or tablet device. It also has longer battery life and is lightweight.
• Easy navigation – the device turns pages faster than competing products, and navigation is easy with an interactive touch screen and straightforward buttons. Users can search their library or add a bookmark with a tap of a stylus or skim an eBook with a touch of a thumb.
• Customized reading – users can enlarge or reduce text size and margin widths or select portrait or landscape mode to suit their preferences.

The IREX DR800SG with a leather cover will be available in October at select Best Buy locations. The device has a MSRP of $399.00. Wireless access to download content is included in the cost of the DR800SG and no contract is required.

IREX is talking with several parties in Europe that are interested to work together and at the Frankfurt Book Fair later this year you can expect a statement about the plans for Europe.

In the meantime if you like to stay up to date with the latest news,  make sure to join us on Facebook page or follow our Twitter.

In reality we have been just as eager as you to get the new Adobe PDF engine working on the IREX DR1000S. Although it has been very busy these past months, we feel this is an important step and are committed to release this  firmware update later this year in Q4.

IREX has always and continues to promote an open/standard DRM solution. We believe that consumers should be able to purchase books, magazines and newspapers from a variety of stores and should be able to take that content from one device to another.

Unfortunately the relationship of Adobe and Mobipocket DRM’s is an exclusive one, and both can not be supported on one device at the same time. In order to ensure that our customers are not limited in any way from obtaining the content they desire to view on their eReader,  we have decided to keep the old firmware with Mobipocket DRM available. This means that you as a customer can decide if you like to run Mobipocket or Adobe DRM on your device.

In terms of product specs, here’s what I can tell you so far: the device will include an 8.1-inch screen and 3G wireless connectivity. As you saw with the Barnes & Nobles news, we’re putting the content partnership in place and you’ll hear more about network infrastructure and retail presence soon. It’s going to be an exciting few months, so stay tuned!.

Kevin Hamilton, CEO IREX North America.

IREX press release

In this first IREX podcast, we discuss  Kevin’s participation in the panel and IREX’s plan for the e-reader space.

Download

The ultimate goal of electronic paper displays is to mimic the appearance of pigment on paper. This means more than just bright color, the relfection also has to be diffuse.  By stacking three ultra-thin single layer panels on top of a white reflector, with each of the layers containing a switchable primary ink color (cyan, magenta and yellow) it is possible to make different combinations of the three inks and produce a wide range of colours in high resolution with a magazine quality.

Current color solutions for electrophoretic displays employ additive color mixing techniques and filters that comprise the reading quality of the display. The new iRex solution will be based on subtractive color mixing similar to physical printing which will offer three times the brightness of current color prototypes.  iRex expects to launch its next generation of full color digital readers mid 2011.

Press Release

This new release will introduce an improved and unobtrusive ‘Standby Mode’.  The device will not longer indicate the ‘zZz’ icon on the toolbar, but it will just go into ‘Standby Mode’ after a number of seconds predefined by the user.  With a tap on the sensors or with the stylus on the touchscreen, the device will immediatly wake up. It also allowed us to save another 10 to 15% on the Battery life.

In addition to the improved ‘Standby Mode’, this release will also include the PressReader V2 application from NewspaperDirect, which comes with enhanced navigation features, easy-to-read text views, article hyperlinks and interactive tables of content.

For a one month free trail and unlimited access to the 1020 eNewspapers from PressDisplay on your iRex Digital Reader, users can register at PressDisplay.com using the offer code: iRex.

Release Notes 1.6 (PDF)

To enter the contest is easy:

1. Upload your video (60 seconds or less) portraying “what could you do with 1000 Newspapers?” to YouTube.com.
2. Fill out the contest entry form here and include the link to your video.
3. Tell your friends and family to rate your video. The highest rated videos will win the top prizes.

The first prize is an iRex Digital Reader 1000s , second prize an iPhone and third a Flip HD Camera. The top 10 will also receive an unlimited one-year membership to PressDisplay.com.

For more info see:

Contest page

NewspaperDirect Blog

Twitter

Youtube Channel