Third-party Development
Because of its open Linux operating system, the iLiad is able to run third party applications created for it. Developers and users wishing to create or run third party applications can request shell access from the manufacturer.
Developers have been able to improve on the device's functionality by porting viewers such as FBReader, and programs such as abiword and stardict. Full screen PDF reading is made available by community-supported iPDF releases. Programs for recreation, including audio playback, sudoku, and calendars, are rapidly growing community content available for use on the iLiad. Independent users have also reported successful porting of mobile web browsers to iLiad's Linux platform, although with limited functionality and many bugs.
iRex as a company has had a lukewarm relationship with its Open Source developers. Most of the complaints toward iRex center around speed of release of SDKs and other information. They have, however, also been quite forthcoming on some projects and some of the changes the community has made have been integrated back into the company's software distribution, perhaps the most notable being that of stylus and input calibration, an external development project led by Jay Kuri and published as part of the main distribution in early 2008.
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