Development Custom firmware

just as an idea. can be the lcd used as a kind of mouse for the e-ink, with the backlight off? having the unit closed but touching its back to control the e-ink side?
or having it like a laptop, virtual keyboard on lcd and viewing the word processor on the e-ink? it would be perfect for students. BTW I do not think Edge will answer, will recognized the defeat of the internal team and I do not think they are in the hiring and firing season, also they may not afford you?! so what about setting a customized firmware website where we can buy a 50 bucks customised firmware from you? the money will allow further development and offer an alternative to Edge roms. eventually dual boot in the future to ubuntu?

Originally Posted by MichaelV

just as an idea. can be the lcd used as a kind of mouse for the e-ink, with the backlight off? having the unit closed but touching its back to control the e-ink side?

It's possible, but I don't see any points in it 'cos you don't see where you clicking on LCD.

Originally Posted by MichaelV

or having it like a laptop, virtual keyboard on lcd and viewing the word processor on the e-ink? it would be perfect for students.

It's also possible, but only if e-ink will use non Android apps (trully it's possible even with android app, but will requre even more work to do it possible). The opposite (keyboard on e-ink and office app on LCD) is much easy to do.

Originally Posted by MichaelV

BTW I do not think Edge will answer, will recognized the defeat of the internal team and I do not think they are in the hiring and firing season, also they may not afford you?!

I have not talked to them about the hiring or the sale of software, yet. So we did not discuss money matters. I simply asked about their attitudes toward possible collaboration. And they were very skeptical, but nonetheless interested in some of the developments regarding energy consumption. The problem is that even though I have reached success relatively small power consumption, a more serious modification requires the hardware documentation (developer manual's which are commonly under an non disclosere agreement), and may requre the changes not only in the kernel, but in the BIOS, which is impossible without a source, or at least the instructions from the manufacturer. I can try to make the necessary changes by "hacking", but there is tremendous risk to destroy hardware. So at the moment we are in a difficult situation when both sides are waiting for some results or guarantees from the other side, but do not want (or can not) do something for the other side. On Wednesday, I sent them some information about what has been allready successfully tested, and what will needs to be done to reduce energy consumption (without publication of specific source code to achieve the goal). But so far, no response received.

Which brings me back to the 50 bucks firmware from you!

Robot, are you going to make your Custom firmware available? what about the root method?

I repeat my wish (maybe some developer finds it interesting and wants to make it!):
I am not expert in development of Linux and Android systems so i don´t want to try to root (don´t want to break my EE!). But... I think that EE have a lot of possibilities!!! I saw a video in Youtube "How to Install Ubuntu Linux on your Nexus One or Android phone!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN4c61ETCWg :
Could you install Ubuntu Netbook Remix for ARM Processors in our Edge Entourage (in USB-Stick, dual-boot... maybe)? You could use your EDGE as a real netbook, with Firefox, Openoffice, and thousands of other programs. And i think that there is an application in Ubuntu to run Android applications too (to control E-ink Reader, or other Android Applications that you just use , for example). You could use mouse, keyboard, external DVD, external hard disk, printer, scanner and other external interfaces (USB tv card...). I am 31 (old man) and i cannot use properly Touchscreen, I need mouse. I tried a USB-Mouse connected to Edge Entourage, and it works, but it´s very sensitive and I cannot use it (in Opera-Mini-fullscreen there is mouse pointer and it works! try it too!). I am from Spain and I need a keyboard with Ñ !!! Please, think in Europe inhabitants, who speak English very bad!
I would like to read other formats in the e-ink side (txt, fb2, MsWord, lit, ppt, pdb... as Hanlin V3 do!) and a better zooming tool, which can move you around the text (as Irex Dr1000 do)
Android is good, but sometimes I think it´s a System for Mobilephones, not for netbooks.
Maybe I am dreaming, but it would be cool!
Please, do it... :-))) Thank you!

supermarkitos,

please refrain from posting the same post in multiple threads. your post will be read so don't worry about no one seeing it. thank you

Android is being targeted at more than just mobile phones. The x86 builds are shaping up quite nicely (Im currently dual booting between eclair and win7 on my Viliv S5), and with the added ram and processing power of full cisc cpu's, its quite snappy. Its viability as a desktop platform is going to be measured by the same standards as any other OS, namely by what applications it has available, and how well they scale between the different platforms. Despite google's statements about android not being fragmented, I think every eDGe owner can agree, that it clearly is. I believe this is what is leading this "idea" that android is just a cellphone OS, and is preventing it from being recognized as what it really is.

point well taken, and I didn't want to sound argumentative. I am just a huge fan of android and linux (debian is my baby). For as long as the eDGe keeps my attention, I intend to see it get closer to its real potential, hopefully in collaboration with robot

that will be a real bummer. Buying the eDGe last night, and then seeing what gets released only half a year later. Here's hoping this eDGe manages to stay relevant during the Gingerbread era...

sooorry! but I have modifified my first post a little bit...!

So far, I didn't received replay from EE, so let think, that from now, we are by our own.

So from next week I'll start to working on easy install method of custom firmware (so you'll not need to reupdate or void your warranty).
Also probably with jcase we'll be able to built Froyo (will talk with him later) or made another custom software (will make pull which features are you most interested in)

Also as suggested by forum's members I create moneybookers account 17939037 (include your nickname and features which you'd like to see in firmware), so if you can made donation in the form of money (or some hardware, 'cos i'm interested in PixelQ installation to EE and some other stuff which I can't order from russia, so if you would like to help -- PM me).

Robot, your pm emailbox seems to be full.
Tryed to pm you but got this error messages:

robot has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space

Will try later again,

Jos

robot and jcase: you are men amongst children. by that, i mean YOU ROCK.

Originally Posted by robot

So far, I didn't received replay from EE, so let think, that from now, we are by our own.

So from next week I'll start to working on easy install method of custom firmware (so you'll not need to reupdate or void your warranty).
Also probably with jcase we'll be able to built Froyo (will talk with him later) or made another custom software (will make pull which features are you most interested in)

Also as suggested by forum's members I create moneybookers account 17939037 (include your nickname and features which you'd like to see in firmware), so if you can made donation in the form of money (or some hardware, 'cos i'm interested in PixelQ installation to EE and some other stuff which I can't order from russia, so if you would like to help -- PM me).

Sounds good! ^_^

Only thing about moneybookers is that people in the USA can't send donations. -_- Does anybody know a workaround?

Sorry, winter update is pretty late from Entourage. Thanks giving is bringing the Notion Ink Adam, with 2.2 android. So they are pretty late and functionality will be still missing, I bet. So I am afraid Robot way is the only way. Robot, people will need your email to send money by moneybookers