A Statement about Froyo

I can almost understand the issues with Android 2.2, as it is not Entourage's own software and Google has expressly said they did not intend it to be used on large screens. But the Edge's Reader app is Entourage's own software using Entourage's own hardware, so it's baffling that the lack of landscape view and the annotation/zoom bug haven't been taken care of yet. If they're really working hard and still unable to fix these issues, it leads one to seek more uncomfortable explanations.

That is a very good point. Perhaps my optimism was getting the better of me.

Maybe Dontpanic, Snow, (or even Boris) can weigh in with new information regarding the status of the reader functionality updates... please...

Well, the ereader actually isn't Entourage's, from what I understand. It's basically Adobe Digital Editions. I asked once about the possibility of adding a feature and was told by tech support that it probably wouldn't be available if you couldn't do it on ADE. So that isn't Entourage's "own" software either. It's modified, as is the OS.

At l;east, that's MY understanding, for what it's worth: nuffin' probably.

Originally Posted by mphoseeko

This is a lame excuse, if your so concerned with getting updates right , you should have done the same before you released the edge. perhaps you need to finish one system before starting on another. there are people watching to see how you handle this. so fare not so good.

Well there is a saying in the IT industry. Real Artists Ship. If a company devotes all of it's time in developing a product that has no bugs, then it probably wouldn't ship at all. Practically every program or IT product you buy is updated after it's been released. Heck, just do a search for Fallout: New Vegas' bugs on Google, a top dollar game that was released with a ton of bugs making it almost unplayable at certain times. There is a bit of compromise when a company releases a new product. It's stable enough that it works well, with limited bugs here and there. It's for the most part fully functional. Updates of the software will add functionality and fix any bugs that will pop up.

Entourage seems to have two lines of OS development (one for Dingo, the other for Froyo). They keep on improving the eDGe with it's current OS, and they're looking to make the eDGe competitive for the near future. Additionally, I did some snooping online, and the eDGe is made by a company with less than 50 employees (naturally not all of them are programmers). So naturally they're not going to move as fast as a company like Samsung, HTC or Motorola in updating their products to the newest OS. And since the eDGe is stretching the capabilities of Android already (unlike most cell phones), the time needed to make a stable enough release of Froyo for the eDGe is higher than the general industry average.

As for better developer tools, APIs, once Froyo is released for the eDGe, the development team should be able to concentrate on working on that. In the meantime just do what all eDGe owners are doing, waiting patiently.

There's a saying in business, too: don't make your customers wait patiently, even if you already have their money. That's a sure-fire way to kill off repeat business and generate bad word of mouth. When people shopping for tablets ask me how I feel about my Edge I'm brutally honest -- it's the only device useful for annotating PDFs, but it has lots of warts that the company doesn't seem terribly interested in and/or capable of fixing.

We're not complaining about bugs a week after the Edge was released. It's been nine months. At some point, a reasonable person begins to wonder what's taking so long. The small startup excuse wears a bit thin after they launch a new product line without fixing the old one.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

It's been nine months.

You mention 9 months, roughly a human pregnancy cycle, as though your expected time span was that of a small mammal. Slow down, mate

Not long ago, until my early 30's or so, I used to measure time the same way. Being closely related as an end user with PCLinuxOS, a Mandriva derived distro based on a rolling release model, has turned me into an impatient grouch who would hunt down the devs if even the most insignificant lib was not up to date. Little I knew about the shortcomings developing "system-level" software entails. Just like a spoiled brat, I wanted the latest no matter what, and preferably now. As my own IT professional career endeavoured and I was put in charge of managing web apps development, rather than assembling / creating them myself, I came to understand how complex certain decision making can be, especially when dealing with a new release of lib A, toolkit Y or CMS Z. Thus, I have learnt to be patient, laid back, and perceive time the way I used to before the Digital Age rush.
I can only guess that the level of complexity Entourage faces is way beyond my witsy-bitsy dilemmas. We are talking about not only a mere update to Froyo, but porting all the tools which make the EE experience quite unique.

Personally, I prefer to wait another 2 years and get a solid replacement for EE's Dingo than to mob the company into releasing a piece of junk riddled with bugs underneath an up to date UI (iPad, anyone?).

Moreover, I do run a custom Froyo ROM on a Nexus One and, although the noticeable improvement over Android 1.6, it's not like it comes equipped with tele-transportation.

Regarding EE, in my opinion and experience, a fluid interaction between the e-reader and the tablet is far more important than the Android version it runs on. Works fine for me as of now and I am not willing to trade proven and tested functionality for shining widgets.

Generally speaking, I think we are all incited to behave like spoiled brats, live too fast, too anxious. We feed on hype and fads.
A gadget is released today only to be deemed vintage tomorrow. It's insane.

By the time Entourage delivers their Froyo spin, Gingerbread will reign supreme. Within nothing, some new version emerges, and the story goes on and on.

My appeal to the dev team is fairly straightforward. Take your time, perform all sorts of QA testing, make sure all the slices of the puzzle fit and keep thrilling us.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

But the Edge's Reader app is Entourage's own software using Entourage's own hardware, so it's baffling that the lack of landscape view and the annotation/zoom bug haven't been taken care of yet.

Actually Chubulor, I believe you may be mistake about this. I get the indication that Entourage is using a port of Xournal, an open source Linux software - I have seen this suggested by a number of web sources. My guess is they do not have a very good grasp on the entire source code given the difficulties they are experiencing in introducing new features (including adding text to the Journal). This is to be expected when porting a large code to a new platform - eink/Android. I can tell you that Entourage's implementation is better that the port on IREX DR800 - but that port is being done by couple of amateurs in their spare time. Unfortunately, one downside of working with ported code is that the ability to add all of the requested features is not a sure bet, (it's kind of like remodeling an old house, every time you open up a wall to do something you encounter 5 new surprises that have to be dealt with as well).

It seems like we're making a lot of hypotheses (and outright guesses) regarding the platform on which these things are being built as well as the time frame for and order of updates. May I suggest that one of us (who knows more about the programming/hardware side of things than I) contact DP or tech services with some of the questions listed here in this thread? Maybe, though, asking these questions would be deemed unreasonable by tech support... I don't know... but it seems worth a shot to me. They have been very responsive in the past. Regardless, it would be nice if we could mitigate the guessing, as I think some of our guesses are being taken as gospel by some Forum readers, leading to more confusion/annoyance/demoralization/etc. Thoughts?

Good idea, but that strategy hasn't worked out too well in the past, to say the least. Back in July there was a flame war here when a developer from Android Police attempted to contact customer service about a certain technical issue and then posted a quite unflattering account of the response on the forums.

However, this event did lead to the creation of the development section of the forums, so it wasn't all bad.

Personally, I prefer to wait another 2 years and get a solid replacement for EE's Dingo than to mob the company into releasing a piece of junk riddled with bugs underneath an up to date UI (iPad, anyone?).

Well, you're obviously a loyal guy and I salute you. However, a delay of even 6 more months in getting 2.2 would be a disaster for EE, as several similarly-sized tablets with Android 2.2 or 3.0 are coming out in the first quarter next year.

Nah, not really a loyal customer. I bought the gadget a month ago, thus there has been no time to build any sort of trust or loyalty.
Just tired and fed up of this "need for speed" suicide bid we are all pushed into.

I feel the same way , enTourage starts a new product before finishing the eDGe. and then give excuses on updates. I work at a shop were we sell the eDGe I no longer push this product. enTourage has lot its edge. How sad for them they are ok with just getting by and not putting out a good product with reasonable update times. I am so frustrated. I wanted so much more for this product.

Hopefully you'll find a product you do enjoy

Ok, I'm going to add my short 2 cents.

I think your complaint that they're developing another device before "finishing" the Edge is ridiculous. Exactly when will the Edge be "finished"? When they update to Froyo? Then they'll need to start working on Gingerbread. When they've updated to Gingerbread? Then they'll have to start working on the next OS. See, here's the thing. Technology never stops evolving, therefore there will never be a time when they're "finished" with the Edge.

Second, all companies develop multiple products. The Adam, which so many people here seem to see as the "answer", is already developing Adam2 (Eve) and Adam hasn't even shipped yet. To criticize Entourage for this is ridiculous. It isn't like they can only develop one device at a time. So be reasonable.

As for reasonable update times, they've made at least 3 major updates in less than a year. They started with whatever "B" stood for, then updated to Coyote and now have released Dingo. And within Dingo, at least (I'm sure it was the same for the other versions too), they've released a bunch of minor updates. So I really don't understand how often you want them to update in order to be "reasonable" for you. Every day?

I have MUCH more to say, but I'll leave it at that. The main problem I see here is people being unreasonable as regards expectations. And I understand "We've been promised Froyo for a long time." The Edge is a unique device. In spite of what some people think, the Edge is not a tablet nor is it an ereader. It is a unique device that integrates both into one device. Nothing else does this. It should come as no surprise that when developing Froyo to work with the Edge, an OS that isn't even designed to work on tablets (if everything we hear is correct), Entourage encounters some unique, difficult and unexpected problems. Be patient. The device hasn't even been out a year, for heaven's sake.

The problem is that the Edge is now so far behind the rest of the Android world that there are now significant numbers of apps being released that won't work on it. You're correct in saying that 2.2 won't finish the Edge any more than it finishes any other product, but it would at least let us catch up to the rest of the platform for a brief time.

And the Edge isn't going to be unique forever. They can't count on that advantage lasting much longer.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

The problem is that the Edge is now so far behind the rest of the Android world that there are now significant numbers of apps being released that won't work on it.

This is probably just another example of my ignorance, but I thought that there were still a lot of devices (maybe the majority) that were not using 2.2 yet.