Questions from a returning student...

I have been reading a lot of the threads in the forum so perhaps my questions may be repetitious. My apologies, I do learn but it takes awhile. I retired two years ago this past Halloween and have returned to college to complete my Bachelors degree. I am tired of carrying a heavy load of paper to class. I take notes the old fashioned way by handwriting and I record the lectures using a MP3 player to make sure I really heard everything correctly. The Edge seems to have most everything I need. But I have some questions before I buy.

I've used one e-textbook from CourseSmart and it went OK. Checking my books for the last 3 semesters against the ones available on the Entourage site and none are available at this time. I expect this to improve with time. If I can use the textbook on my PC, a Windows 7 system, and the publisher doesn't give me a choice of formats odds if it running on the Edge are slim, correct?

Can the Journal notes be converted in to text to become searchable?

I am planning on the purchase next month, so will the system be upgradeable in the future? I see a lot of conversation about Android but very little about updating the e-ink side. E-ink is static and not really an OS in need of an upgrade? I am unfamiliar with Android OS, I gave up my data phone when I retired, haven't missed it yet, but Android being a mobile OS it will keep changing with the technology.

Many of my courses use PDF from the university Library. Can I change an annotation or a highlight without starting all over?

These PDF's are images rather than text is there an app that will convert them to text and does the Android version of Adobe Reader support reading the text as Reader V. 9 does on my PC.

Thanks

The textbooks can be read on the edge IF they don't need a special program to open them and if they are in PDF or EPUB format. Most textbook companies use SPDF format and their own software.
In a roundabout way journal notes are searchable, you have to save as PDF (they save as PDF images), send to your PC, save, paste into Word and send that document to Evernote - which searches and OCR's.
http://www.evernote.com/ There is an Evernote app for android, so you will have easy access.
As far as know eink in itself does not need upgrades but the reader/journal app will get updates from Entourage and the company has promised an OS upgrade to Android eventually.
As far as the library PDF's you can OCR them on your computer with software(although most of it is fairly expensive and not perfect) and yes you can change or erase your highlights and notes at will. The Android version of Adobe reader requires Android 2.1 or higher, it cannot be used on the edge yet. The reader/journal reads PDF files and has search capabilities.
I must add, as a student my edge is indispensable and the most useful purchase I have ever made. I rarely take anything else to class anymore and do a lot of my class and homework on it,m then email to the teacher.

Welcome to the forums, Michael

Given that you're using PDFs, and plan on note-taking, I would suggest you get the full-sized eDGe rather than the smaller Pocket eDGe when you're ready to purchase. The larger unit is closer to standard paper size and lends itself more to academic settings than the smaller "Pocket" eDGe.

Thanks for the quick replies. I appreciate it. I'm planning on purchasing the Edge at semesters end giving me a few weeks of play before turning to work with it. I did send CourseSmart an e-mail asking if they supported the Edge or had an Android app. No reply yet.

Boris, the only one I've been looking at is the full size edition, I like the size at this time. I've been able to test one at the university bookstore.

Cheyennedonna, if an e-textbook were ordered through Amazon or B&N, etc... would the chances of portability increase? I've always found the print version in various stores, but never paid attention to the e-versions. This will be my 1st experience with a reader.

regards

Originally Posted by Michealj

Thanks for the quick replies. I appreciate it. I'm planning on purchasing the Edge at semesters end giving me a few weeks of play before turning to work with it. I did send CourseSmart an e-mail asking if they supported the Edge or had an Android app. No reply yet.

Boris, the only one I've been looking at is the full size edition, I like the size at this time. I've been able to test one at the university bookstore.

Cheyennedonna, if an e-textbook were ordered through Amazon or B&N, etc... would the chances of portability increase? I've always found the print version in various stores, but never paid attention to the e-versions. This will be my 1st experience with a reader.

regards

I'm in the same boat, Michaelj. The ONLY reason I bought the EE was the hope of going completely paperless this Fall semester; but when I found out that NONE of my classes had e-textbooks or e-book versions of the texts, I was praying over and over again that I didn't just buy a fancy paperweight. However, since fielding the EE in class and using it primarily for taking notes, it's given me much versatility. I also learned that more and more publishers are added to the e-textbook lists every month---the ONLY problem with that is, with e-texts/books, you are getting the current edition of the book you purchase/rent. MANY instructors require previous editions of texts/books to be used, which shatters the e-text/book dream because the version you're buying is normally published in 2009/2010, not 2003 or 1987.

If at comes from B&N then it definitely will work on both sides of the edge,(http://www.entourageedge.com/forums/...d+barnes+noble) if it comes from Amazon in Kindle format then only on the LCD side. If it can be found on Amazon in PDF or Epub then yes.

I have emailed Coursesmart as well (twice actually) to see if they would be releasing an Android version. So far, they have not responded. This semester is the first one I have used my eDGe, and I was pretty fortunate that some of my materials was available from either the eDGe store or Sony’s ebookstore. Other materials were either handouts by the instructor or only available via the physical book.

This may be a bit much for some people, but I have actually scanned in materials weekly based on the syllabus and class lectures. The average time is about 30 mins to get everything scanned in a formatted the way I want for my ereader. I found scanning weekly is quite manageable. Since I use Acrobat 9 Professional, all the text is searchable on the eDGe.

Lastly, before I purchased the eDGe, I actually had the iRex Iliad (a device that allowed me to read and take notes in class). I used Cousesmart for my textbook last semester and was able to print materials from Coursesmart as a PDF (about 10 pages at a time) and put them on my ereader. I was able to use Acrobat to consolidate when desired. So that is an option I am more than likely to take advantage of again unless they come out with the Android version.

Thank you. Kemar, I hadn't thought about the printing option to a pdf file. The CourseSmart book I had allowed me to print also, limited to 10 pages at a time.

Thanks for the options and follow up.

Regards

Another side note about books. My school has already released the class schedule for the Spring semester and usually the instructors post the books along with the course schedule. I already knew which courses I wanted so I checked the various sections for each course and reviewed the instructor’s book requirements. I have completed my registration, and for 4 classes, I have 11 books. I managed to find 9 out of the 11 books at the Entourage Books store. I will probably have 10 out of 11 books, I am going to email the instructor to see if the edition at the online book store which is similar to the one he has listed will be acceptable. I also checked out the instructors and luckily they appear to be people I will enjoy taking during the semester.

Originally Posted by kemar

I managed to find 9 out of the 11 books at the Entourage Books store.

That's excellent news. I've noticed since the start of the year that the availability of ebooks in general is increasing rapidly. By this time next year I'm hoping it'll be rare to not be able to find an ebook you want. Hopefully etextbooks will do the same.

Originally Posted by kemar

Another side note about books. My school has already released the class schedule for the Spring semester and usually the instructors post the books along with the course schedule. I already knew which courses I wanted so I checked the various sections for each course and reviewed the instructor’s book requirements. I have completed my registration, and for 4 classes, I have 11 books. I managed to find 9 out of the 11 books at the Entourage Books store. I will probably have 10 out of 11 books, I am going to email the instructor to see if the edition at the online book store which is similar to the one he has listed will be acceptable. I also checked out the instructors and luckily they appear to be people I will enjoy taking during the semester.

Wow, your lucky to have been so successful. I won't be able to register until next week, perhaps sooner as I've just been accepted into a degree program and that should allow me earlier access. The one book for a required course is not available as an e-book anywhere including the publisher. I will look at the book to see what is covered. It is a series of essays, which I should be able to find online and possibly has questions assigned to each essay. I'll buy a very used copy to get the questions if the essays are all available.

Thanks for the input.