Sales questions

I heard about this product from somebody on reddit, and, to put it plainly, I'M HUGELY IMPRESSED! I'm a student, and it seems to have everything I need: A reader, and a netbook all packaged into one! I'm thinking about buying one for next semester, but I have a few questions:

1. Can it connect to Enterprise WPA? My school uses RADIUS authentication on their wireless.
2. I understand it has compatibility with PDFs. If I were to download a PDF, would it a) work well with the reader screen and, if no, b) be easy to convert to the in-house format?
3. Is the response time an issue?
4. How is the e-Textbook deployment going? Will it be ready for fall?
5. Is it possible to mount a Windows SMB share? My school makes heavy use of network shares to store documents
6. Is it possible to install application of my own free will, or do I have to use some store somewhere?
7. Once I have purchased a book, do I retain all rights to the digital copy? If my edge falls down a flight of stairs and explodes, will I be forced to fork out an extra $700 to replace books?
8. Is there any compatibility with windows live messenger? Me and my classmates often use it to coordinate assignments.
9. Terminal emulation--is there an SSH client available? What about plain ol' Telnet? Is it compatible with USB Serial port emulators?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Zylithi

I heard about this product from somebody on reddit, and, to put it plainly, I'M HUGELY IMPRESSED! I'm a student, and it seems to have everything I need: A reader, and a netbook all packaged into one! I'm thinking about buying one for next semester, but I have a few questions:


2. I understand it has compatibility with PDFs. If I were to download a PDF, would it a) work well with the reader screen and, if no, b) be easy to convert to the in-house format?

Shouldn't have a need to convert but Calibre and do this on your computer and the import to the eDGe.

6. Is it possible to install application of my own free will, or do I have to use some store somewhere?

See my site.. answer is yes

7. Once I have purchased a book, do I retain all rights to the digital copy? If my edge falls down a flight of stairs and explodes, will I be forced to fork out an extra $700 to replace books?

Likely yes but not 100% sure. I believe this is up to the book seller. You can get books from other sources like Sony. I know the one book I have purchased still shows up in my account.

8. Is there any compatibility with windows live messenger? Me and my classmates often use it to coordinate assignments.

Not yet but you could install Nimbuzz or Meeboo to do this

That's all I could answer other will contribute I am sure.

Originally Posted by Zylithi

2. I understand it has compatibility with PDFs. If I were to download a PDF, would it a) work well with the reader screen and, if no, b) be easy to convert to the in-house format?

If the PDF is built with reflowable text, I understand it will work the best with the reader. If it is built with text but not set for reflow, you can zoom and scroll. The PDFs that can be the more difficult ones are the ones that have been built as image files. You can zoom and scroll on those as well. But beware of the image base pdfs with hidden text layers. See this thread for more info. http://www.entourageedge.com/forums/...read.php?t=220

I was playing with converting an epub with images to pdf with Calibre the other day and did not have much success. The pdf conversions apparently are the most problematic as they can be built in numerous ways (as stated above) and are generally constricted to more rigid formatting and more styles of formatting than ebook files. I didn't try converting from pdf to epub. I suspect the same problems would come to play.

I think normal pdfs work great. Google Books pdfs don't play well (if they have illustrations) with any of the eReaders. On my Google Books pdfs, I can see and read the text but see no illustrations and I can't zoom. This is *only* Google Book pdfs so far. And, I think it's related to Adobe's eReader software since none of the current eReaders read these well (as I understand).

The non-Google Book pdfs I have opened work just fine, as does ePub. Even the Twilight Zone comic books from my TZ collection DVDs open and look great on the eDGe. The included Docs to Go pdf reader also opens them, with color. I can have the easy on the eye version open at the same time as the color version. As a student, you will make great use of the opportunity to have one reference open on the eReader side and a web site, pdf, Word document or whatever open on the lcd side.