Got the pocket edge from HSN today

Well mine has not shipped yet. If it gets on the truck today, should have it Monday.

Just chatted with HSN Cust care. They said these are shipping out directly from the manufacturer. So if 14,000 were sold, I guess they may be a little overwhelmed at the moment....

Originally Posted by DanJG

Should I wait until Monday, Nov 8 (official release date) before giving my thoughts and experience with it?

By all means, post your review as soon as you get it

Hello Everyone, I am a long time reader first time poster! I must admit when I first bookmarked this site quite some time ago, I figured it would be longer for me to actually purchase a unit. This all changed today as I received my Pocket Edge from HSN!

Quick notes as it sits faithfully updating in its new perch beside me at my desk (home office)
I got the black one, but it is not a matte black, it has depth of color it sparkles, its nice, I want to put it in case to protect it, but it looks very elegant and is of course shiny, still very nice.
It feels good in the hand, ok no it does not feel like an uber high end electronic gadget, but as far as I know it is not trying to say that it is, it is substantial and does not feel cheap. The heft and compact design gives it an aire of toughness, which is nice.
My wife has a kindle 2g for comparison, the e-Ink screen is less detailed, but I have to admit that I like her kindle, and do NOT feel like the edge got the short end of the stick.
a Personal note, I am 6'4 with hands to match so I wanted the larger unit for obvious reasons, this one became available at a better price point and we were able to work it out, so it is here. It's size is no longer of any real concern to me, in fact it will be much more portable and easier to take around (my 9.7lbs circa 2003 Compaq laptop phases me not in the least in daily travel, so this is almost pocketable...pun NOT intended)
ok, set up which I am sure you all are much more used to than I, honestly is not done yet! I could not wait, however I will say that so far it has been a snap it found my wifi, took my key and started its download with minimal fuss from myself.
ok ok enough it asks for me to return, so I shall, and I will do my best to get back on and give more updates, hopefully one of the more seasoned members around here will get to it very soon!

Welcome to the forums, Bigtop305. Thanks for posting those initial impressions (I, for one, probably won't get one for a couple of weeks as it turns out). Can you clarify: did you find the eInk more detailed on the Kindle or the Pocket eDGe? Something I found with eInk is that it can take a few hours of use to "break in" and give optimal results.

Originally Posted by borisb

Welcome to the forums, Bigtop305. Thanks for posting those initial impressions (I, for one, probably won't get one for a couple of weeks as it turns out). Can you clarify: did you find the eInk more detailed on the Kindle or the Pocket eDGe? Something I found with eInk is that it can take a few hours of use to "break in" and give optimal results.

It does appear less detailed, it is very legible however and on its own is a very nice panel. Only side by side with the Kindle does it show less detail. incidentally when reading I actually like the Edge better as the background seems "whiter" if that is a correct explanation. I will have to see about the usage if that equals out over time!

More quick thoughts:
That glossy black cover sure looks great...and is a fingerprint magnet! so get a cover if you will want to keep it clean.

downloading is a bit sower on my network than my closet comparator which would be my Evo (both on wifi, not the highfalutin 4G of course) currently. But not so much that I am dying or feel like it is a step down in technology OR capability.

I had very little issues adjusting to the capacitive screen in use, there were a few gaffes but they are mostly due to excitement on my part honestly and not the panel, oh and HUGE Fingers! However, as my last phone was an Instinct with the same type of panel and my Evo is barely a month old, so there I am good! Also the stylus was a BREEZE on both panels actually, I have not looked to see how most use them..but it will see a lot of hand time, it greatly increased speed and accuracy!

On that panel:
The colors seem to wash out a bit when turning up the brightness on the panel to max, but seeing as how that drains the battery faster I have no real compelling reason to do so. It is not hard to read in any event and is responsive enough.

One last note, folded backwards my hands are large enough to hold it comfortably resting away from either off-side panel so again I am really liking the form factor more and more! More later I really need to get unpacked from work!

Still very pleased as punch at this early Christmas present/Work tool!

Well mine has shipped! Depending on where is is shipping from might get it Monday. I will post pic's when I receive it. Congrats Bigtop!

Welcome and thanks for sharing your excitement, BigTop! A little bummed that I'm going to be unconnected for a week just as everyone's getting and posting about the new pocket edges. (Can't complain as we'll be on a cruise, but refusing to pay cruise ship wifi access charges means I'll be out of touch with what's happening here.)

I look forward to many new reviews, pics, questions and answers when I get back. So congrats and welcome to everyone posting this coming week!

OK! It's arrived!

First impression on taking the package from Mr. UPS Man; wow, awfully small package.

If you got it from HSN keep the packing list taped on the outside. You'll need it in case of any unfortunate return needs. Inside the packing case was an envelope with "Instructions to download apps from entourage store and google e books" printed on the outside and the promised instructions inside; a software cd with throw away PC programs and the nicely packaged Pocket eDGe.
But, nothing about subscription to Wired Magazine or the 3 year replacement plan. Maybe that'll come later.

Opening the Pocket eDGe box you find the eDGe, a mini usb to usb cable (quite short), wall charger and a quick start guide printed on nice card stock.
No micro sd card.
No need to insert battery, it's built in and can't be removed. Hence, I believe I will need a car charger: 12 V ~ 1.0 A

I plugged it in first off so it would charge while I looked it over and made its acquaintance. A green light started a slow long blink. Charging!

The PE fits very nicely in my hand. Surprised though how hefty 1.4 pounds feels. I thought I could hold it like a small book at the bottom of the spine. That would help avoid inadvertently pushing buttons.
It's shiny black with white sparkles in the paint. Protected in packing wrap bag plus sticky plastic to peel off the front and back cover. Cracking it open I found plastic covering the speakers and the Android screen. These were tabbed for easy peeling. But the bit of plastic covering the camera had no tab and I used tweezers to peel that off... carefully!
The reader screen had Pocket eDGe welcome screen on it. That didn't peel off. It's in the screen.
The stylus is fit neatly in a slot at the top of the eDGe, or is that the bottom?
Stylus!! Maybe I mean toothpick?
Micro SD slot has a cover = good.
Solid feeling build for an all plastic device.

Charged!! It only took about 80 minutes for the power LED to stop blinking.
Turned it on and was greeted; "Welcome to your Pocket eDGe. Touch anywhere on this screen to get started."
It claimed the setup process would take only about ten minutes....well, not quite.
11 easy steps.
First step was to search for a nearby wi-fi network. It easily found two in my house. I touched on mine and a screen came up to enter my WEP key. I touched in the text box and the keyboard popped up. It took my key and I was in! EASY.
Then set the timezone.
Now for my big surprise, I didn't have to stop and manually start an update process. It went automatically to search for and download updates! Not what I expected from reading the forums.
Gave a nice animation and progress report for the download process.
Again suggested it would be Approx. 10 minutes. Nope it was actually 20 minutes........ for the first download. REBOOTED automatically and started another update download. Again 20 minutes for that update. Then a THIRD update download = 25 minutes.
After that I had Dingo 1.7 on the new shiny Pocket eDGe.

Ripples in the Android screen when I hold it by edge on the reader side.
Played a music video on Youtube easily and nicely. Good sound, fuzzy video.
Download and installing apps and books from Entourage is a snap.
The flashing of the reader screen as it refreshes or turns pages is not as annoying as I thought it would be and actually seems to be not happening as often as at first use.
The touch screen on the Android side is surprisingly responsive. I haven't had to use my finger nails at all to tap anything. It works with the pads of my fingers to swipe and tap. Very nice, except I have to touch forcefully to get pages to scroll and that leads to inadvertent activation of links. Annoying.

I don't think I will be using the journal to do my daily journal keeping. I had hoped to do so, but writing on this Wacom screen is not easy. I calibrated it three different times from different angles and it is still "off".

I was afraid, before I got it, that the reader screen would be too small and I would be constantly scrolling or turning pages. Not to worry. It holds a good amount of text and is clear with font sizes even my old eyes can read.

All in all, I like it!

Thanks for the detailed post. Makes it that much harder for me to wait for my own Pocket eDGe

The update process you experienced is something new enTourage has rolled out for the first fresh-from-the-factory update. In subsequent updates, you'll likely see what you've been reading about in the forums - that you have to first wait for the update to download, and then do the second step of actually installing it.

The update process you experienced is something new enTourage has rolled out for the first fresh-from-the-factory update. In subsequent updates, you'll likely see what you've been reading about in the forums - that you have to first wait for the update to download, and then do the second step of actually installing it.

Good to know that in advance, Boris.
I was mostly concerned with reading about people having trouble registering before doing an update. So, I was ready to interrupt the the setup process. Glad I didn't have to.

I love the Logo for enTourage eDGe.
Looks like the Aleph. Either as the Hebrew letter or as the Mathematical symbol for the infinite cardinality in set theory.
Either way, looks very stylish and professional and I'm not covering it up with any sticky skins.
Just my taste, eh?

I always thought the logo looks like the Visitors' logo in the 1980s V miniseries. Of course that was modeled on the swastika, so the associations in my mind may not be as positive.

I always thought the logo looks like the Visitors' logo in the 1980s V miniseries

If my Pocket eDGe starts swallowing rodents...... !

Further Thoughts:

First up DanJ great account, my initial box opening was pretty much identical, thanks!

I did have one strange occurrence last night: The PE froze up on me while sleeping and would not wake until I hit the reset pinhole. It came back without protest and has come back from stand by several times successfully since then, so not too worried about it, but it is hard to ignore ANY little quirks in new technology.

The more I handle the unit the more I like the weight and feel of it, the hinge is nice and stiff, but not the "I'm new" stiff, but feels more of the " I was designed this way on purpose" stiffness. Which of course is both essential and welcomed in a product relying on it so heavily. Of course only time will tell as to its real durableness.

The speaker embedded in that hinge is actually surprisingly good. Its clear if a bit tinny, and does a fair job reproducing pretty complex music, if only that the notes on the low end are present, but of course you will not feel them. This speaker overall is a plus in my book, I will not be using it THAT often to be honest, but to know that it is there is certainly nice perk. While it is far and away better than every other mobile phone speaker I have heard, and as good as some newer, mid-low to low end laptop speakers, it is not the ideal solution. The volume is satisfactory and even when turned up there was no distortion to speak of on the tracks I used to test: Jazz Christmas tracks, Harry Connick Jr., Ellis Marsalis, Marlon Jordon. Some Nightmares on Wax for the electronic selections and my girl Sade for some Soul R&B/Vocal. That girl can make ANY speaker sound fine! Finally I listened to some Israel and New Breed for more R&B with a Gospel flavor, and Choir backing, it was all clear and crisp, again not really any warmth to speak of or any bass, but again a nice option to have if I can listen to music and have NO other options available, it more than allows for the job to get done, but closer to the unit you can actually ENJOY your tunes over that speaker (to some small degree). The fact that you can start a music selection and then go and do other things within the OS, while not new to this type of device, is always welcome. One small note here, when waking the machine up, manipulating any menu buttons or the first press of the volume button while music is playing a slight electronic "pop" can be heard, THAT one is a bit more disconcerting, and I will be watching it closer.

A quick aside on my music files, I use NO mp3 compressed audio, I only take archival quality rips of my music, the files are of course huge, but I cannot stand the depressed, compressed sound that is MP3, so your mileage may vary, depending on the level of compression of your music, or lack thereof.

I have been able to see some stuttering within the stock OS speaking of that multitasking, and not just when music was playing in the background, nothing earth shattering, but noticeable lag when the screen pull down animations start, in a few places. Browsing both on the stock and the somewhat limited Opera mini 5.1 is pretty straightforward. Opera though full screen defaults to HUGE blocky images, but this can be adjusted somewhat within that software, and on my wi-fi at least, it seems a bit behind the stock browser in terms of raw speed, again no deal breaker, but worth mentioning. It will stay on the unit if but for the option, and in case they get around to enabling that wonderful sync feature I can get at all my bookmarks that I maintain an opera install on my desktop expressly for.

SD performance was pretty transparent, I took a test card right out of my now boxed and shelved Instinct and popped it right in. No fanfare, but music and all pics pulled right up! For a non android device (who knows WHAT OS that phone was running?) I was impressed, it read ALL my song data as created on my pc, and grouped my pics correctly! I even popped the card in my EVO and grabbed a few shots in retro camera which makes its own folder, and when back in the PE, Voila! it found the extra folder and happily displayed all content. That is a plus!

A word about the App market or lack thereof: I am baffled on a consumer level as to why Google has not capitalized on the non phone app market scene, but from a Company line perspective I at least understand their sticking to what they said they would do. Having said that, yes I love the app store on my phone. Also I do not miss it on the PE, with Entourage's own store and then access via the forums to no less than TWO others, I in no way feel "left out" other than the need of a higher version of android for some of the apps (Which I will not add to the cries for here, by the way) direct downloading of APK's and these two markets have me with more choices than I will ever really need, so I am more than satisfied there!

I have to run out this early afternoon so I will take the EE on its first sojourn with me, might as well get it used to its new life on the go! A note on the music, no I have not paired it with my BT headphones yet or listened through my TWO other sets of earphones that I use on the road, one in ear bud with increased Bass (Sony) and a pair of Samsung standard in ear, non bud for when I need to hear the world around me. My bag will be cleared for PE and it will take its place among all my other gear and I will utilize these tools in their intended environment.

More to come on setting up and using the unit out in the wild, the journal and e-reader out in the open, and if I am feeling daring...connecting to an open wi-fi network later on!