Entourage Edge hands on

[paulckennedy]

Originally Posted by Ignatz Mouse

Still searching my first device ( buying date between march & june )...

I was hesitating between Sony prs 600 and the future Bookeen Orizon, and within 2 days 2 great devices are announced on the european market :
- Irex DR800S
- Entourage Edge

I don't really need 3G ( perhaps Wifi, but not sure ) and price is not so important for me.

One thing is sure : I need TXT reading ( The Project Gutenberg ebooks of US copyright renewals are all in TXT )

Does the Edge read TXT ? there's nothing on their site except epub and pdf ( I need these, too ).

The thing about the Edge is that it is Android. It is able to add free applications to it. I am certain that a TXT reader, etc can be enabled for the LCD side. I am certain that once the Edge SDK is released that several people around the world will be looking at finding interesting ways of utilizing the E-Eink side of the Edge for more than EPub and PDF. I was just thinking that apps that would allow conversion from say txt to pdf would work. That concept if HIGHLY doable.

Dataviz and Entourage just got into an agreement with respect to Documents-To-Go. From the following link,
Native Document Support
I believe that anything other than EPub and PDF would utilize the Documents-To-Go application and be displayed on the LCD side of the device.

[jim5467]

Originally Posted by paulckennedy

I fully understand. The 3G would be a nice option but I now don't have my DX so waiting till summer is a no-go. I'll probably buy the 3G device next year and give the first gen to my daughter to use in college.

There are enough hot spots for me to be functional. I want the annotation capabilities more than anything else.

Interestingly, I received an e-mail from a sales representative at Edge and, even though the later versions of the Edge will have a 3G modem, I will still need to purchase a data package as the Edge will not be like "other e-reader" devices. So the 3G becomes a non-issue for me as I will buy a MIFI device and have greater flexibility.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jim5467

So the 3G becomes a non-issue for me as I will buy a MIFI device and have greater flexibility.

Great idea!!!

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by Ignatz Mouse

(snip)

One thing is sure : I need TXT reading ( The Project Gutenberg ebooks of US copyright renewals are all in TXT )

Does the Edge read TXT ? there's nothing on their site except epub and pdf ( I need these, too ).

If you need .txt for other things, that's perfectly valid. But you do know that all the Project Gutenberg books are available free from manybooks.net in just about any format you can imagine, right? I have a Kindle and I just go to manybooks and download the PG books in unsecured .mobi.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by jim5467

Interestingly, I received an e-mail from a sales representative at Edge and, even though the later versions of the Edge will have a 3G modem, I will still need to purchase a data package as the Edge will not be like "other e-reader" devices. So the 3G becomes a non-issue for me as I will buy a MIFI device and have greater flexibility.

good info about the 3G in the future. For anyone in the US looking for an unlimited 3G data plan not linked to a cell plan, I can highly recommend a company called Millenicom because for $50/mo yuo get truly unlimited mobile broadband. I used them for over a year and only cancelled my service because I have had to stop travelling as much for a while and get by just fine with wifi.

Anyway, welcome to MR...it's a fun place....mostly... hehehehe.... ...seriously it really is a nice place to learn about ebooks and ereading devices.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by brecklundin

good info about the 3G in the future. For anyone in the US looking for an unlimited 3G data plan not linked to a cell plan, I can highly recommend a company called Millenicom because for $50/mo yuo get truly unlimited mobile broadband. I used them for over a year and only cancelled my service because I have had to stop travelling as much for a while and get by just fine with wifi.

Anyway, welcome to MR...it's a fun place....mostly... hehehehe.... ...seriously it really is a nice place to learn about ebooks and ereading devices.

Americans save on ebooks, but you pay through your noses for cell and data phone service, lol. $50 a months for truly unlimited, that doesn't sound like a good deal to me, it sounds like highway robbery.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Americans save on ebooks, but you pay through your noses for cell and data phone service, lol. $50 a months for truly unlimited, that doesn't sound like a good deal to me, it sounds like highway robbery.

Sounds like a good deal to me as well... A truly unlimited plan here is around €60... For €35 you have a 1Gb download limit, after which the speed will be dropped.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Sounds like a good deal to me as well... A truly unlimited plan here is around €60... For €35 you have a 1Gb download limit, after which the speed will be dropped.

I would pay around $30.- for truly unlimited data. But I don't take unlimited because I have WiFi at home, in the office, at many coffee shops, restaurants, and hotels. So we pay about $12-15 a month for voice and data.

[EowynCarter]

I would pay around $30.- for truly unlimited data

Yeah. We pay 30E for "illimited". True illimited, i don't think it exists in france.
Trouble is, there no other offer in france. 100Mg would have done fine with me.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

I would pay around $30.- for truly unlimited data. But I don't take unlimited because I have WiFi at home, in the office, at many coffee shops, restaurants, and hotels. So we pay about $12-15 a month for voice and data.

Most of our internet is wired (we've one of the highest penetration of broadband internet in Europe) and mobile internet is fairly new here. Why switch to mobile internet when you have a perfect, stable and fast wired connection (either Cable or ADSL) (unlimited).

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Most of our internet is wired (we've one of the highest penetration of broadband internet in Europe) and mobile internet is fairly new here. Why switch to mobile internet when you have a perfect, stable and fast wired connection (either Cable or ADSL) (unlimited).

The ones I mentioned are all wired connections made wireless by WiFi routers. Either my own (home, office) or in the mentioned places of business to attract customers. Of course, you can also have HSDPA/HSUPA fully mobile internet from the phone companies. But those are only 3.6 M, and there are dead spots in many buildings.

[catharsis]

In Finland, an unlimited data plan starts at 10€ (128 kpbs i suppose, don't know exactly, but you get up to 40-50 kB/s at download) and a faster plan (1 Mbps) is 40 euros. 50$ sounds like robbery if it's not high speed.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by catharsis

In Finland, an unlimited data plan starts at 10€ (128 kpbs i suppose, don't know exactly, but you get up to 40-50 kB/s at download) and a faster plan (1 Mbps) is 40 euros. 50$ sounds like robbery if it's not high speed.

Download: up to 7.2 Mb per second.
Upload: up to 2.0 Mb per second.
No datalimit
€60 per month

Download: up to 3.6 Mb per second
Upload: up to 768 Kb per second
Datalimit at 1Gb after which the speed will be lowered to 384 / 64 Kb/s.
€35 per month

Download: up to 1.8 Mb per second
Upload: up to 384 Kb per second
Datalimit at 400 MB after which the speed will be lowered to 384 / 64 Kb/s.
€20 per month.

These are from one provider, but the rest is comparable. Most providers will not charge extra if you pass your datalimit, but rather lower the speed.

[random50]

It's interesting that there's such a wide variation in pricing for internet and phone packages in different countries. Are the infrastructure costs really that different? Considering the countries where the price is relatively high, such as America and Australia, I'm thinking that the costs depend far more on land area covered by a network than the number of customers served. Population density could be the key variable.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by random50

It's interesting that there's such a wide variation in pricing for internet and phone packages in different countries. Are the infrastructure costs really that different? Considering the countries where the price is relatively high, such as America and Australia, I'm thinking that the costs depend far more on land area covered by a network than the number of customers served. Population density could be the key variable.

I think it's more a question of the Law of the handicap of a head start. As I already mentioned, our broadband wired network is one of the highest in Europe, if not the world. Also, our distances for travel are not such that having a mobile internet is almost a requirement if you want to stay online. It's only fairly recent that mobile internet is growing (for example, my mother has had mobile internet longer than it is available for consumers here and my mother lives in Hungary). If you don't have a good wired broadband already, it's easier to step into the mobile internet right away, as it is easier to "lay down". Especially if you have a lot of address without either cable or phone lines.