Please help me decide - a few questions about EnTourage eDGe features

I am about to go on an unexpected trip and it's important that I be able to bring a bunch of PDFs and Kindle eBooks with me for reading. I was about to get an iPad when I found out that it would be difficult to read in bright outdoor light. I then started thinking about a hardware Kindle and then came across the EnTourage eDGe which might be the best of both worlds. I have to make this decision in a few days. Can someone please enlighten me, since I'm new to the EnTourage eDGe world:

1) can the tablet side be shut off and folded back when reading the e paper side? how's the battery life under those conditions?

2) does the e paper side view PDFs? How are they transferred to the device?

3) does the e paper side read Kindle content? I saw a post about it but are there step-by-step instructions and how well does this work? I don't know much about the Android world.

4) is either side able to do read-out-loud from PDFs or Kindle content?

thank you very much in advance.

Mike

1) The LCD screen can be turned off as can the wifi, both of which will boost battery time but not as much as putting the eDGe to "sleep" (by closing it). Since the same CPU powers both sides, you can't turn one side "off" completely. The two sides can be position a full 360 degrees.

2) Yes. You can transfer them by email, Dropbox, USB memory stick, external hard drive, SD card, etc.

3) No. You need to install the Kindle for Android app on the LCD side, which works great.

4) Not on the eInk side. There is some text-to-speech support you can install, but not sure if it works with the Kindle reader. You may need to install another reader app on the LCD side that has text to speech support built-in.

1) If you need more than 8 - 10 hours of battery life with wifi and the LCD screen off, you might want to consider getting a second battery. It would be difficult to imagine a reasonable situation where you'd need more than 2 full battery uses before recharging. +$60, I think? (Note: this refers to the larger edge only. the Pocket Edge has a smaller battery and is non-removable)

2) I think the consensus is there's not another e-reader out in the market today that handles PDF better. I use more PDFs than ebooks, so this was important to me. That's not to say that the edge can't get better in how it handles pdfs, just that you'd be hard pressed to find a machine that compares other than a full-blown tablet PC.

3) Some people use a program called Calibre to manage all their e-reader content (ePub, PDF, paid and free sources of books) and I believe this program can convert material you own (so I would think that includes Kindle books) into a format that can be used on the e-ink side. I know the mobileread.com forum has an entire forum section devoted to Calibre. But there's no native support for it on the edge. So that may be worth checking out if you really prefer to have a kindle book on the e-ink side instead of just using the Kindle for Android app on the LCD side.

Hi there! Good questions.

I use Calibre (on my laptop, haven't transfered any books to my PE yet), and my husband has a Kindle, so we buy Kindle books. Before you can convert them in Calibre -- an easy and effective process -- you have to strip the DRM from Kindle books, which is ethically questionable (we figure we own the books so we do it ) and not super easy. Once you have the right programs and information, stripping the DRM takes a few steps for each book. Then you can add the books to your Calibre library and convert them all at once. (I'm not sure exactly how many titles you can convert at a time.)

In addition to .mobi format (which Kindle can read), Calibre converts .pdf, .epub, .rtf, .txt and a bunch of other formats. So if you have a Word document you want to read as a .pdf or .epub (for instance) you can do it. However, you'd have to convert it on your PC and transfer it over to your EE before you leave .

For help with Calibre and hints on stripping DRM, go to www.mobileread.com, as Sarah suggested.

Good luck! Let us know what you decide.

Ok, well I had written something but Filark seems better informed.

eep! You never know! I may just think I'm well informed!

I finally plugged my PE into my PC and discovered that Calibre recognizes my device (as an Entourage Edge) and will send books over directly. You can also see from within Calibre which books are on your eDGe. I'm very pleased!

Thanks everyone!!! I'll post my experience if I get a chance to try this device out.

Mike