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Bee · 11-12-2010, 08:16 AM

I'm a super newbie to these forums, too! I hope to find it a welcoming site that doesn't look down it's nose at non-tech members. I'm not saying that it is, at all, I'm just crossing my fingers that "ordinary folks" can learn from this forum and not be cut down.

Okay, here's my detailed thoughts on the pocket Edge. Please indulge me as I provide a bit of background as to WHY I bought the pocket Edge and how I plan to utilize it.

1) I'm a landscape architect and have been lugging my 17" SONY Vaio around with me for each appointment and showing. Ugh! Great presentation but what a &$#% to worry about! I'm always terrified of car break-ins when I must carry it around and the thought of actually bringing the computer bag to an active job site, to make sure that it was "safe", also terrified me. We deal in dirt, dust, and water on an hourly basis; plus, if I spaced on remembering to bring the computer bag back into the pick-up at the end of the day, I created my own worst nightmare of losing it.

When the iPad launched, I coveted it! However, I did not want an Apple product because none of my other tech tools are Apple. I have an original November 2007 launch Zune which is performing flawlessly and the Zune Pass keeps my monthly budget to $15.00, total. All three of my laptops are SONY as is my digital camera. I am a Microsoft girl and I didn't want to relearn for Apple. I am NOT anti-Apple!!!! I just want to stay with what I know!

2) I subscribe to both cnet.com and tablet.com, to keep current on the latest tablet technology. Some how, the edge product line escaped me.

I'm a hard-core HSN shopper; have been for over 10 years. Their "No Questions Asked" return policy is phenominal and has been put to the test, many times! Plus, with Interest Free Flex Pay, it's a No Brainer to buy things. Regarding buying electronic devices from HSN, I've gotten three laptops, all my digital cameras, flat screen tv and printer/scanner through HSN. I always get the extended warranty for every product.

Because I subscribe to so many HSN alerts, I was aware (at launch time) of this never-before-heard-of-product, "The Edge" coming up for a special introductory price of $399.00 plus Flex Pay. There wasn't even any video on it, yet! I spent the next 4 hours, online, doing research from youtube, cnet, tablet.com and the actual Entourage website, educating myself to the product. I finally hit "Add to Bag" at 1:04 am, confident that for how I wanted to use this in my job, it was the PERFECT solution!

3) HSN's tentative delivery time was November 12th, today, but I actually received mine on the 5th of November. Opening the box, I was initially pretty disappointed! WHY?????? Because...HSN's tag line for this product did NOT advertize this as the pocket Edge, but just "enTourage Edge". Buried waaaaaay below, was the term "pocket". So, I had done research and was expecting the larger product. I actually had to go back to Entourage's website to see if there even was anything called "the pocket Edge" and sure enough, there was.

Okay. I got what I paid for. I put on my Big Girl Pants and forged ahead, following the simple card instructions to "Charge Unit First."

4) NO REVIEWS of the pocket Edge had been posted, yet, at HSN so that had me a bit worried. I had a very, very hectic Monday through Wednesday at the job sites, so the pocket Edge was just sitting on the counter, plump and ready for me to try it when I had time.

In the meantime, between Monday the 8th and Wednesday the 10th, SEVEN PAGES OF REVIEWS appeared on HSN and they sucked!!! Almost every single reviewer gave it ONE star and were promptly returning it, with only three reviewers giving it five stars and keeping it. Laugh at me all that you want to, but after reading them all, I just burst into tears! Here I was, not even having started up the darn thing and 100's of HSN viewers were telling each other to "return this!" I literally didn't know what to do: do I return it, never having even turned it on or do I suck it up, turn it on and see if I had the same problems that all the other member's had with the pocket Edge? Well, I sucked it up, based solely on HSN's return policy and the fact that I have until January 31, 2011 to return it.

5) I'm going to now list what people hated about the pocket Edge and my revised thinking about their complaints. After I got over the initial shock of reading so much negativity, I was able to take a step back and process everything.

a) A vast amount of people thought that the e-reader should be "back lit". I've owned a SONY Reader since it was introduced in 2007 and very, very few e-readers have any internal lighting. That's the whole point of e-ink: soft on the eyes; increased battery use because of the low power draw; it's just LIKE A BOOK and no book has an internal light!!!! Of the few models of e-books that have internal lighting, the battery life plummets and many people find it irritating.

So, I'm chalking this complaint up to ignorance on the consumer's part of just what a normal e-book is like. Score one "plus sign" for the Edge.

b) Another host of complainers sent their pocket Edge back because "it requires Wi-Fi". Well, D'ah!!! How in the heck do they think that a portable device works????? 500 miles of internet cable is supposed to come with a wireless anything???

Again, I chalked up these complaints to people SO new to technology that they were clueless about Wi-Fi. Score two points for the pocket Edge!

c) The real deal-breaker, however, is when the 3rd reviewer mentioned that "the pocket Edge does NOT have a replaceable battery!" That created a mass panic on the HSN review site, with people whole-handedly returning their device because of that fact!!! Review after review mentioned how "I tried calling the number for Tech Support, just got voice mail, left a message and after three days, never received an answer. Back it goes! I don't need to spend $400.00 for a "toy" that can't get a new battery!"

I must admit, this was almost a deal breaker for me, too, until I did some online research with my other e-devices and found out that half of them also didn't allow for a new battery, except by a service tech. Now, the way that the reviewers were posting at HSN, it came across that THERE WAS NO WAY THAT A NEW BATTERY COULD BE INSTALLED IN THE POCKET EDGE...not by a lay person or by the offical website. THAT scared a lot of people away from the pocket Edge! I gave myself until this weekend, to decide if the "non-replaceable" battery was a deal breaker...until I found this forum and found out that it, indeed, can be replaced, by sending it into the company.

d) A vast amount of members had EXTREME difficulty setting up the Edge, with it taking hours and never being fully set up. Once I had commited to being my "own person" and taking a chance to see if the pocket Edge worked for me, I turned it on, and set the entire thing up in 12 minutes, flat! I have NO IDEA if the new downloads went through or not; I really wasn't paying that much attention.

e) Many of the complaints were multi-layered, meaning that if they complained about the Wi-Fi or e-ink, they also brought up other issues. Another very common complaint was the utter lack of a manual!!!!! That was a HUGE complaint among people: they did NOT want to have to go online to learn about this device but wanted a manual that they could read to learn about all the different features. Honestly, I think companies are selling their consumer's short by not including manuals any longer. I just bought a Kodak digital camera for a friend and it was the same thing: absolutely NO manual....everything was online to learn about the camera. My friend had me send it back, simply because of that fact. As he explained, after you learn the very basic parts of the camera's operation, he wanted to take the time to learn about the advanced features, at his leisure. That meant, reading a paper manual at night, in bed, or on vacation, when you want to shoot various new treatments. He felt "forced" to be wed to a computer, to learn about the various features.

6) Today, I went to HSN to read more reviews, hoping that they had turned around and there isn't even a link to the pocket Edge, any longer. It's just GONE! But, with seven pages of mostly negative reviews that gave 1 stars, the average rating for this device was 2.3 stars, not good at all. But, if you've read everything that I mentioned, so far, you'll note that a very high percentage of the dissatisfaction with the Edge had NOTHING to do with it: it was member's who didn't understand e-ink or Wi-Fi technology!

So, how did I find this forum and why am I not sending my pocket Edge back? Because, some extremely helpful soul left a review for the pocket Edge in the review column of the little protective case that HSN is selling; bless their soul for posting what they did! They loved their pocket Edge and mentioned not only this forum but also a pdf file that you could download, 85 pages of information on how to use this device!!! Coming HERE< and finding the pdf file and this forum has made a HUGE change in attitude towards the pocket Edge and Entourage as a company. At least, I feel that spending the next three days reading the e-manual and visiting this forum will help me decide if I keep it or not.

Phew! I apologize to all the member's that I bored to death! But, you wanted an honest post about both HSN and the new pocket Edge and so here it is, warts and all! And I'm sorry about any and all spelling mistakes; I'm too pooped writing this review to go back and fix any of them!

Oh, and by the way, I ordered the gorgeous Race Car RED, which is siimply stunning!!!

11-12-2010, 08:16 AM	#60
Bee Edge User	My take on the pocket Edge from HSN I'm a super newbie to these forums, too! I hope to find it a welcoming site that doesn't look down it's nose at non-tech members. I'm not saying that it is, at all, I'm just crossing my fingers that "ordinary folks" can learn from this forum and not be cut down. Okay, here's my detailed thoughts on the pocket Edge. Please indulge me as I provide a bit of background as to WHY I bought the pocket Edge and how I plan to utilize it. 1) I'm a landscape architect and have been lugging my 17" SONY Vaio around with me for each appointment and showing. Ugh! Great presentation but what a &$#% to worry about! I'm always terrified of car break-ins when I must carry it around and the thought of actually bringing the computer bag to an active job site, to make sure that it was "safe", also terrified me. We deal in dirt, dust, and water on an hourly basis; plus, if I spaced on remembering to bring the computer bag back into the pick-up at the end of the day, I created my own worst nightmare of losing it. When the iPad launched, I coveted it! However, I did not want an Apple product because none of my other tech tools are Apple. I have an original November 2007 launch Zune which is performing flawlessly and the Zune Pass keeps my monthly budget to $15.00, total. All three of my laptops are SONY as is my digital camera. I am a Microsoft girl and I didn't want to relearn for Apple. I am NOT anti-Apple!!!! I just want to stay with what I know! 2) I subscribe to both cnet.com and tablet.com, to keep current on the latest tablet technology. Some how, the edge product line escaped me. I'm a hard-core HSN shopper; have been for over 10 years. Their "No Questions Asked" return policy is phenominal and has been put to the test, many times! Plus, with Interest Free Flex Pay, it's a No Brainer to buy things. Regarding buying electronic devices from HSN, I've gotten three laptops, all my digital cameras, flat screen tv and printer/scanner through HSN. I always get the extended warranty for every product. Because I subscribe to so many HSN alerts, I was aware (at launch time) of this never-before-heard-of-product, "The Edge" coming up for a special introductory price of $399.00 plus Flex Pay. There wasn't even any video on it, yet! I spent the next 4 hours, online, doing research from youtube, cnet, tablet.com and the actual Entourage website, educating myself to the product. I finally hit "Add to Bag" at 1:04 am, confident that for how I wanted to use this in my job, it was the PERFECT solution! 3) HSN's tentative delivery time was November 12th, today, but I actually received mine on the 5th of November. Opening the box, I was initially pretty disappointed! WHY?????? Because...HSN's tag line for this product did NOT advertize this as the pocket Edge, but just "enTourage Edge". Buried waaaaaay below, was the term "pocket". So, I had done research and was expecting the larger product. I actually had to go back to Entourage's website to see if there even was anything called "the pocket Edge" and sure enough, there was. Okay. I got what I paid for. I put on my Big Girl Pants and forged ahead, following the simple card instructions to "Charge Unit First." 4) NO REVIEWS of the pocket Edge had been posted, yet, at HSN so that had me a bit worried. I had a very, very hectic Monday through Wednesday at the job sites, so the pocket Edge was just sitting on the counter, plump and ready for me to try it when I had time. In the meantime, between Monday the 8th and Wednesday the 10th, SEVEN PAGES OF REVIEWS appeared on HSN and they sucked!!! Almost every single reviewer gave it ONE star and were promptly returning it, with only three reviewers giving it five stars and keeping it. Laugh at me all that you want to, but after reading them all, I just burst into tears! Here I was, not even having started up the darn thing and 100's of HSN viewers were telling each other to "return this!" I literally didn't know what to do: do I return it, never having even turned it on or do I suck it up, turn it on and see if I had the same problems that all the other member's had with the pocket Edge? Well, I sucked it up, based solely on HSN's return policy and the fact that I have until January 31, 2011 to return it. 5) I'm going to now list what people hated about the pocket Edge and my revised thinking about their complaints. After I got over the initial shock of reading so much negativity, I was able to take a step back and process everything. a) A vast amount of people thought that the e-reader should be "back lit". I've owned a SONY Reader since it was introduced in 2007 and very, very few e-readers have any internal lighting. That's the whole point of e-ink: soft on the eyes; increased battery use because of the low power draw; it's just LIKE A BOOK and no book has an internal light!!!! Of the few models of e-books that have internal lighting, the battery life plummets and many people find it irritating. So, I'm chalking this complaint up to ignorance on the consumer's part of just what a normal e-book is like. Score one "plus sign" for the Edge. b) Another host of complainers sent their pocket Edge back because "it requires Wi-Fi". Well, D'ah!!! How in the heck do they think that a portable device works????? 500 miles of internet cable is supposed to come with a wireless anything??? Again, I chalked up these complaints to people SO new to technology that they were clueless about Wi-Fi. Score two points for the pocket Edge! c) The real deal-breaker, however, is when the 3rd reviewer mentioned that "the pocket Edge does NOT have a replaceable battery!" That created a mass panic on the HSN review site, with people whole-handedly returning their device because of that fact!!! Review after review mentioned how "I tried calling the number for Tech Support, just got voice mail, left a message and after three days, never received an answer. Back it goes! I don't need to spend $400.00 for a "toy" that can't get a new battery!" I must admit, this was almost a deal breaker for me, too, until I did some online research with my other e-devices and found out that half of them also didn't allow for a new battery, except by a service tech. Now, the way that the reviewers were posting at HSN, it came across that THERE WAS NO WAY THAT A NEW BATTERY COULD BE INSTALLED IN THE POCKET EDGE...not by a lay person or by the offical website. THAT scared a lot of people away from the pocket Edge! I gave myself until this weekend, to decide if the "non-replaceable" battery was a deal breaker...until I found this forum and found out that it, indeed, can be replaced, by sending it into the company. d) A vast amount of members had EXTREME difficulty setting up the Edge, with it taking hours and never being fully set up. Once I had commited to being my "own person" and taking a chance to see if the pocket Edge worked for me, I turned it on, and set the entire thing up in 12 minutes, flat! I have NO IDEA if the new downloads went through or not; I really wasn't paying that much attention. e) Many of the complaints were multi-layered, meaning that if they complained about the Wi-Fi or e-ink, they also brought up other issues. Another very common complaint was the utter lack of a manual!!!!! That was a HUGE complaint among people: they did NOT want to have to go online to learn about this device but wanted a manual that they could read to learn about all the different features. Honestly, I think companies are selling their consumer's short by not including manuals any longer. I just bought a Kodak digital camera for a friend and it was the same thing: absolutely NO manual....everything was online to learn about the camera. My friend had me send it back, simply because of that fact. As he explained, after you learn the very basic parts of the camera's operation, he wanted to take the time to learn about the advanced features, at his leisure. That meant, reading a paper manual at night, in bed, or on vacation, when you want to shoot various new treatments. He felt "forced" to be wed to a computer, to learn about the various features. 6) Today, I went to HSN to read more reviews, hoping that they had turned around and there isn't even a link to the pocket Edge, any longer. It's just GONE! But, with seven pages of mostly negative reviews that gave 1 stars, the average rating for this device was 2.3 stars, not good at all. But, if you've read everything that I mentioned, so far, you'll note that a very high percentage of the dissatisfaction with the Edge had NOTHING to do with it: it was member's who didn't understand e-ink or Wi-Fi technology! So, how did I find this forum and why am I not sending my pocket Edge back? Because, some extremely helpful soul left a review for the pocket Edge in the review column of the little protective case that HSN is selling; bless their soul for posting what they did! They loved their pocket Edge and mentioned not only this forum but also a pdf file that you could download, 85 pages of information on how to use this device!!! Coming HERE< and finding the pdf file and this forum has made a HUGE change in attitude towards the pocket Edge and Entourage as a company. At least, I feel that spending the next three days reading the e-manual and visiting this forum will help me decide if I keep it or not. Phew! I apologize to all the member's that I bored to death! But, you wanted an honest post about both HSN and the new pocket Edge and so here it is, warts and all! And I'm sorry about any and all spelling mistakes; I'm too pooped writing this review to go back and fix any of them! Oh, and by the way, I ordered the gorgeous Race Car RED, which is siimply stunning!!!