Hello, World!

Since I'm just joining this community, I wanted to say hi and introduce myself, and share a little of my first experience with the PE.

I got my pocket eDGe from Woot, so I'm a newcomer to this awesome tab-reader. I got it on Friday, set it up with Ermine, and have been using it for almost everything. I just became the proud owner of my very first house, (my fiancée and I are getting married in 18 days!) and have been using the PE for writing down things we need to furnish and supply it. It's been indispensable for trips to the store, since I can just prop it up in the shopping cart, and cross stuff off as I get it. Also, I've been using it for planning on where to put things, by drawing a map of the floorplan and drawing in the furniture.

I also use it at my job as a math tutor, because it's great for doing algebra on one side, and using the calculator on the other. I've only had it for a few days, so I'm developing new ways to use it in this regard. I will say, that students are way more attentive when I use new technologies in the classroom, which is kind of nice. Also, I was able to use it with YouVersion to take notes in church on Sunday morning, and I've been converting web-pages to ePubs for dual viewing. It's been wonderful!

Two minor issues I had; of course it is difficult to install apps without market support, (and some apps won't install at all... I expected this.) and I had to subscribe to Ermine on a PC because the website on the PE didn't accept my username and password, even after changing it twice.

I've seen posts floating around that the PE has been discontinued. This makes me quite sad, but it seems to happen a lot with tech I buy. (I bought a Nokia N900, which was dropped like a hot potato less than a year afterward.) I will say with my experience with the N900, when the manufacturer abandons a product, if the community is good, they usually step in and make something awesome. I'm looking forward to see what the Entourage community can do with this awesome device.

Finally, I have some extensive experience with beta testing and Linux, so to all the Devs, I'd be happy and able to play around with things and get back to you with my experiences if you want.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys!
-Jesse

Oh, dear, how many projects ahead!
Good luck with the wedding! Send us virtual cake!

Moving to a new house and planning new things, decoration, furniture, that's heaven on earth.
I would say that the PE is the PERFECT match for such a stage in your life, because Edge devices pluck chords of enthusiasm in most of their users.

As for devs, well, one of the issues here is the expectation that Entourage eventually releases the SDK, so that many eager developers can do what they do.
(I am no developer, no I am not).

Some people here have rooted their devices, though Entourage advices not to, and so you will not read much here about rooting the Edges, just fleeting side mentioning.
Another fellow here took photos of his/her Pocket Edge insides, after knocking it down. This was useful to those keen on engineering and on the inside of things.

Most of us are just users and occasionally make a discovery about new uses for applications or the Edge, and solve other's problems by pooling ingenuity, experience and knowledge.

Welcome and enjoy your new home!

Hope you have a happy life with your new wife and home! Congratulations! I see you said you are a Math Tutor. That's very interesting! I am a Math Teacher myself, but I don't know if I'm ready to try to use my edge to assist in tutoring/teaching yet. I'm just not good enough with the journal yet, I might need to get the big one. Do you use a different stylus to write or the original stylus? Also, do you feel that you get a little cramped when trying to write equations and have to go to the next line? IDK.

Anyways, Congratulations to you and your fiancee!

Thank you for the well wishes!

Some people here have rooted their devices, though Entourage advices not to, and so you will not read much here about rooting the Edges, just fleeting side mentioning.

That is something I'm not quite used to, since this is my first Android device and I'm more familiar with distros and such that at least give sudo. I'm contemplating whether or not I should root, I probably won't.

Do you use a different stylus to write or the original stylus? Also, do you feel that you get a little cramped when trying to write equations and have to go to the next line?

Thankfully, I haven't had any equations that have run off the page yet. I'm just getting into quadratic equations with one of my students, and just started basic trigonometry with another. If I do run into an issue with that, I do know that there are landscape ruled pages and graph pages can be used in landscape. I always have a notebook at the ready in case something goes wrong. I've just used the default stylus, which I'm pretty comfortable with, since I've been using tiny styli since the Pocket PC 2003 days.

I will say this: take lots of time getting your calibration just right. Trying to accurately graph co-ordinate pairs when the ink dances out from underneath the tip of your pen is a real aggravation.

Welcome, zibeb!

Thanks for the great first post!

Just wanted to clarify, this isn't me posting as an alter ego (math tutor, Nokia N810, designing floor plans). :P

Welcome, Jesse, and be sure to join us on the MobileRead forum, too. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=218

And best of luck with the upcoming exciting life changes!

Originally Posted by zibeb

Thankfully, I haven't had any equations that have run off the page yet.

Given that you own the smaller PE, that's good. I'm sure you'll need your backup notebook when it comes time for proving trig identities - that's when I always had my students turn their papers landscape.

When I tutored, I was using one of the early Acer Travelmate tablet PCs. I would have found it awkward to let my students write on something smaller (I can deal with a smaller surface, but when the kids are figuring things out, the added real estate is helpful). Do you use your PE just for your writing, or do you let you students write on it, too?

Originally Posted by sarah11918

Do you use your PE just for your writing, or do you let you students write on it, too?

So far I have experimented with both. I'll usually have the student write on the screen (watching carefully, of course) if I'm actively teaching a concept, but if I assign some problems for them to do, they do it on paper. Since I've had this device for less than a week, I'm still looking for that perfect balance.

Oh, my first tablet was an N770, from which I quickly upgraded to an N810. I loved that little thing, it lasted right until the last 3 weeks of Bible school when the screen failed on me. I pre-ordered the N900 the day it was announced.

As a side note, I have discovered something important about Android. When my phone is on silent, alarms still sound through the speakers. When Android is on silent, everything including alarms are redirected to the haptic motor... The PE does not have a haptic motor.

I was a little late to work this morning :P