A Statement about Froyo

Honestly, I could care less about Froyo. If Gingerbread is the tablet friendly release I'll wait for that.

Now, why doesn't Entourage take a couple of their engineers away from polishing the Froyo turd and address the number one feature request on this forum (eink landscape view). I'm pretty sure that fix only involves in-house software.

Oh and by the way, how is that SDK coming along?

Originally Posted by alefor

I agree. Lots of anger. Due to unmet expectations. This could all be avoided with information provided at reasonable intervals. I also agree that a stable Dingo 1.6 is better than an unstable Froyo. In my opinion, enTourage could do a better job at managing expectations. The last thing we heard about Froyo was a "fall release" and that was over the summer.

This could also be avoided with realistic expectations from customers. They said it would be available in the Fall. It's not half way through the Fall and people were already whining. We get a message telling us what's going on and what the problem is well before the promised deadline, and that STILL isn't good enough.

Anyone who has dealt with technology products knows that this is extremely normal. Predictions are made, deadlines are announced, problems are encountered and deadlines are pushed back. This happens every day with software, hardware, with all things technological. For those who scream and yell about how much better the Adam will be, you should note that they have gone through the SAME THING to a far worse degree with their release date and other issues.

So everyone please, CHILL! I promised myself I wouldn't respond to all this, but I just can't hold it in. I'm really tired of the whining. You act like you've never bought technology products before.

I have found the customer support at Entourage very friendly and open, which I find extremely unusual.

And I agree with jedfrechette, I'd rather wait for Gingerbread.

I've just purchased a pocket eDGe, but i'm with you that have the original. But let me tell you a little story, from earlier this summer --

When my Motorola Droid was supposed to get Froyo, Verizon teased and leaked multiple times that the date was imminent, and even dropped it OTA to some customers much earlier than I got it - and even then, there were phone-busting bugs in it when i finallly got it that essentially bricked my device for a few days.

My point is that although the allure of 2.2's specs (Flash support and improved Java performance were what got me...) are enticing, it is better to let these things be truly tested and that the neccessary QA happen BEFORE they start releasing it into the wild.

It should be expected that a product like this, being fairly unique, should take a bit longer to wedge a new operating system that will require significant optimization. The eDGe isn't simply a phone or a tablet that you can just drop a new OS on to and basically get the full functionality that you had before due to the dual touch screens, e-ink display, non-standard mouse, screen resolution, microphone configuration.

Companies can learn to be more responsible though and never leak more than seasons until the final version has passed every internal inspection.

while i have generally defended entourage; my resolve is quickly fading. I am curious on why you ignored your base customers to make a mini edge? should resources of not gone to us first? after all, it is because of your initial buyers you even got to the point of a pocket edge. I am starting to see a pattern here, a pattern of ignoring the first edge to move on to bigger and better things; while i am sure that's a good business practice; it is very disappointing. I for one will not even consider purchasing even a book from you until i start to see some results from this company; your updates, while interesting, have proven little use to me and really haven't added any functionality. My brothers latest android phone can do everything my edge can do and more; except the e-ink screen and this cost him 250.00.

Originally Posted by pat.indie

I must say I am disappointed. However, I would rather run a stable fast 1.6 than an unstable 2.2
Also, there is a LOT of room for improvement in 1.6

Although I do feel a little betrayed reading about 'Pocket Edge' getting 2.2. That to me does not sound very fair. May be Entourage decided to focus on the pocket edge and went easy on 2.2 development for the full-sized edge?

I should clarify that the Pocket eDGe is not being launched with Froyo. It will ship from the factory with 1.6 and be upgraded out of the box for some minor bug fixes to a 1.7. We hope to follow within a month or two with a Froyo release, and some time after we can get the performance right with a Froyo release for the large eDGe. If all goes as planned, the two products should be running the same software loads, if only for efficiency sake.
TC

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

I agree that I would rather have a stable operating system than a buggy update

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that the current eDGe, with Android 1.6, is quite functional and works very well. Room for improvement and bug fixes? Always. But it's not like our current eDGe is unusable

It seems to me like the work being done to get the Pocket Edge running on Froyo will only help us get it on our current edges. I think it makes perfect sense to use the smaller screen version to get the kinks worked out with the custom software, then simply worry about how to get Froyo to play nicely with a larger tablet screen. This is consistent with what I've read about Froyo and its lack of love for larger screen devices.

It may be a disappointing statement with respect to the timeliness of an update, but I don't think it sounds unreasonable. If I had two devices, one with a previously stated obstacle to running Froyo and one without, but both of which ran the same custom software, I'd absolutely get the "easier" one working first, then tackle the one major difference (screen size) so that I was working on an isolated problem.

It's not like my edge all of the sudden *lost* functionality because an update is further away. I was pleased with it before, and I'm still pleased with it. (And, I did just spend 6 weeks with it as my only computer, so while I may not use as many functions as some people here with their edges, I certainly made it up in time spent and expectations of stability and basic performance.)

The only question I have is whether Gingerbread is *so* far off (from being a reality on the edge) that it does make sense to get Froyo working on our current edges first, or whether their resources could be better spent on targeting Gingerbread and skipping Froyo entirely.

Originally Posted by dontpanic

I should clarify that the Pocket eDGe is not being launched with Froyo. It will ship from the factory with 1.6 and be upgraded out of the box for some minor bug fixes to a 1.7. We hope to follow within a month or two with a Froyo release, and some time after we can get the performance right with a Froyo release for the large eDGe. If all goes as planned, the two products should be running the same software loads, if only for efficiency sake.
TC

That is good to know.

Ditto comment No. 22 from Sarah.

I know that this was probably covered in another post, but will the Pocket edge have access to the Market with Froyo, or will it still be hamstrung because it is not technically a phone?

Probably no market, but that has nothing to do with Entourage.

I have to agree with Sarah. At this point, why not wait until Gingerbread? It seems like it would be a logical step away from 1.6 if it's better for tablets*. And besides, everyone likes the newest software.

*as rumored... if it is true, it would make it better for the devs AND for the users.

A couple of points:

1. The Edge was released before Android 2.2 even existed. There is no way Entourage could be expected to inform buyers of potential problems with upgrading to 2.2 back when the device first shipped.

2. There are supposed to be other similar-sized tablets coming out over the next couple of months running 2.2 (yes, I have the Adam in mind). Perhaps the performance of those other tablets (or lack thereof) will give insights as to whether 2.2 is as inherently tablet-hostile as is claimed.

A couple of point's:

1. To be able to (currently) access the google app market a device has to have certain features that tge eDGe does not have. A 3g radio and accelerometers

2. Android Gingerbread requires a minimum hardware spec which includes a 1Ghz cpu.
the eDGe does meet that, but it is underclocked. If it remains underclocked, gingerbread will jot be an option.

andy.

Originally Posted by Chubulor

A couple of points:

1. The Edge was released before Android 2.2 even existed. There is no way Entourage could be expected to inform buyers of potential problems with upgrading to 2.2 back when the device first shipped.

2. There are supposed to be other similar-sized tablets coming out over the next couple of months running 2.2 (yes, I have the Adam in mind). Perhaps the performance of those other tablets (or lack thereof) will give insights as to whether 2.2 is as inherently tablet-hostile as is claimed.

Who are you and what have you done with our Chubulor? It is true that Android Market access is still a challenge, even with 2.2, as Google, when you can get them to actually talk to you, is claiming a ridiculous backlog on device licensing. As for the Open Handset Alliance, anyone wonder why they only have 20 device manufacturer vendors as members?

TC