The Digital Reader

I just found the first review of the new Story e-reader that Iriver announced about a month ago. Befroe you ask, no I don’t think I’ll ever get my hands on it. I do have the email for iriver’s media contact but he’s not allowed to ship the review units outside the UK.

This is a pretty good review (not the subject but the review itself). I’d say that this reviewer really knew what he was talking about.

Here’s an excerpt:

A dedicated link to the WHSmith e-book store appears on the main menu. Clicking this initiates a wireless connection and launches the store application. This is functional rather than flashy, but the main problem is the lack of a navigation paddle or cursor.

Instead, you have to jump between poorly highlighted tabs and links using the four arrow keys. You also need to create an account, which is again a fiddly process using small input boxes and tiny fonts.

A zoom function in these areas would improve matters, but a complete redesign to suit a screen of this size would be more appropriate. The store is run separately from WHSmith’s main web site, and accounts are not linked between the two. You can’t buy physical books from the Wi-Fi Story, which seems like a missed opportunity.