The Unboxing

[Dellaster]

My eDGe arrived safely. There's nothing I can do until it charges, so I'll spend a few moments sharing first impressions and some pics.

• No external damage to the shipping box. It only traveled about 25 miles in under 24 hours, so I guess nobody at FedEx had time to play bowli ball with it.
• Cats like empty boxes.
• Nice finish and feel to the eDGe. Fingerprints do not show up on the white. Weight about the same as my now-deceased Asus Eee PC netbook.
• Cat hair does show up on the white.
• Sheesh, this thing dwarfs my other ebook readers, especially when open. Look at all that screen real estate!
• Cats will nonchalantly walk across delicate screens if not prevented. Good thing I saw her coming.

And, well, not much else to say until it charges up.

[borisb]

That's a beautiful cat I've observed the same behaviour in mine

[maynard]

Na. You can turn the thing on immediately once you've got it plugged in. It should take about three hours to charge.

EDIT: Actually, let us know what you think of the browser and Android environment. Especially if you are able to browse using the touchscreen with your fingers. I can't use it at all. I do, however, consider the eink screen with Wacom input a bargain given that the DR1K is still $850/unit.

[Dellaster]

Originally Posted by borisb

That's a beautiful cat I've observed the same behaviour in mine

Thanks. She's a 14-year-old Maine Coon Cat that's still bright-eyed and playful when she's not sleeping.

Originally Posted by maynard

Na. You can turn the thing on immediately once you've got it plugged in. It should take about three hours to charge.

EDIT: Actually, let us know what you think of the browser and Android environment. Especially if you are able to browse using the touchscreen with your fingers. I can't use it at all. I do, however, consider the eink screen with Wacom input a bargain given that the DR1K is still $850/unit.

The green light stopped blinking after less than two hours. I didn't use it plugged-in because I needed to walk it over to the business center to update on the free wireless (my wifi router arrives tomorrow).

Checked for updates. Hm, it said it was up to date -- did they install the latest stuff before shipping mine? Anyway, registration went without a hitch and I re-downloaded to the eDGe a previously purchased DRM PDF from enTourage's bookstore. No problem.

The Android interface is a super improvement over what I have to use in the SDK emulator. I was surprised. The eDGe also boots up two or three times faster than the Android 1.6 emulator.

No issues with navigation except it being more sensitive and faster-reacting than in the emulator, so I "overshot" when scrolling and such. Android's keyboard is NOT multi-touch so any attempt at speed would result in frustration. I just tapped with the stylus.

I'm pleased so far, but maybe my expectations were low? I've never used an iPod Touch or iPhone so perhaps I just don't know what a fantastic interface is like?

[borisb]

I think expectations are probably important. I bought the eDGe with the following expectations:
- two screens in a book-like form factor
- eReader for reading all manners of eBooks and PDFs, with markup capability
- low powered netbook for quick browsing and email
- fanless (i.e., noiseless)
- decent music player

I had no expectations regarding speed, and I considered a 5-6 hour full-use battery life adequate for my needs, and was expecting to use AC overnight and while at my desk. Weight wasn't a worry, as I considered anything under 4 lbs (my previous experience with a tablet PC) just fine.

As such, I was very happy with the eDGe.

I've never used or held an eReader (like the Kindle) before, and was worried about that flash when you change pages, but quickly realized it was no worse than the flicker of a paper page being turned.

So, Dellaster, no doubt you'll be happy with it, although we need to be a bit forgiving about the rougher edges (no pun indended) while enTourage works on the various software updates.

[sarah11918]

Congrats! Nice pictures for comparison. Hubby is now looking for an ebook reader (he doesn't need all the features of the edge, so he's looking at more basic ereaders) so it was nice to see the comparison with your other devices.

[carlobee]

The cat is as excited too!

Great pictures! Congratulations by the way.

[Dellaster]

Thanks for the congrats.

After a couple more hours with the eDGe I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the interface. One key thing was figuring out how to scroll with my thumb on the right part of the LCD touchscreen, and grabbing the knob/thumb thingie that pops out to scroll in larger increments. Very handy in the dictionary and on the SD card after I put over 300 ePubs on it.

Happy to see that reports of needing to add things to the library (onboard storage) in order to use them is not the case. I can open up books or video directly from the 16 GB SD card. (Though, darn, .mkv video isn't supported by the default player.)

I'd prefer more increments of zoom/font size in both PDF and ePub. I run into the same problem as on the iRex: Medium a bit too small but Large much too big (for example). My Cybook Gen3 has something like 16 increments in ePub, so it's not a limitation of Adobe-compatible ebooks.

Overall I'm liking it so far.

[soilwork]

Congratulation on getting your eDGe.

Originally Posted by Dellaster

Happy to see that reports of needing to add things to the library (onboard storage) in order to use them is not the case. I can open up books or video directly from the 16 GB SD card. (Though, darn, .mkv video isn't supported by the default player.)

It is true that you can read all documents on SD card but you still need to add documents to the library in order to highlight, attach memos, and scribble on documents.

[Dellaster]

Originally Posted by soilwork

Congratulation on getting your eDGe.



It is true that you can read all documents on SD card but you still need to add documents to the library in order to highlight, attach memos, and scribble on documents.

Yeah, I thought of that after posting. There are all kinds of neat things you can do with documents in your library, but on the SD card all you can do is sort by file name. Still, at least you don't have to load up the limited on-board storage with things like TV shows. Because it doesn't take very many of those to fill up the 3 GB user-available memory.