price bottom falling out!

The PE is unbeatable for portable convenience, Sarah. So much so that my EE sits unused most of the time unless I need to read a PDF (which admittedly rather infrequent).

Originally Posted by sarah11918

Stop tempting me!

Seriously, though, I can't help but think that the PE will feel just a little too small to use, even if nicer to carry. For my $199, maybe I can get in on another device no one's heard of (the Eee Note) later this year. My collection seems to be one of breadth, not depth, anyway.

Seems I'm not the only one under the grip of "gadget opium" . I'm considering getting the BlackBerry PlayBook, but only if I can avoid tethering charges (it's been heard of, but far from a sure thing, I guess.) I'm doing some research on e-technology in the classroom, so I suppose I can rationalize the costs that way, to some degree. Plus, nobody's promised tomorrow, so I'm told, and there's much worse addictions one could endure...

Originally Posted by sarah11918

Stop tempting me!

Seriously, though, I can't help but think that the PE will feel just a little too small to use, even if nicer to carry. For my $199, maybe I can get in on another device no one's heard of (the Eee Note) later this year. My collection seems to be one of breadth, not depth, anyway.

I love them both! The PE is too small (for me) for real PDF annotation work, or for creating the kinds of notes I tend to create for Evernote. But I use it as my bedtime reader, and the item I travel with (great for watching movies on the plane, reading, playing sudoku, etc). I've had the EE about 2 weeks now and love it too! With that I do most of my PDF annotation, journal writing, calendar annotating, and evernoting. I am seriously tempted to buy a 2nd PE just because they're so cheap. But really, I'm holding out for an Eee Note as well).

You people are a bad influence! I also grabbed one of the cheapie Amazon PEs -- in theory. At least two or three people here put in orders, but Worldwide Distributors (yeesh, could you pick a more fly-by-night-sounding name?) still lists "7 in stock," so who knows whether I'll actually score one in reality. If it does materialize, I'm sure it'll come in handy for something.

Originally Posted by Batman Jr.

Seems I'm not the only one under the grip of "gadget opium" . I'm considering getting the BlackBerry PlayBook, but only if I can avoid tethering charges...

Same here, but I'm really tempted to pick up a PE for my teen.

Wow, that price is tempting. I love my full size Edge but...

Thanks for sharing this info. It really does seem to line up with what many of where thinking.

Originally Posted by JBrondos

I purchased my EE from a major nation-wide distributor with whom our school has a personal sales rep. Through that agent, on an "official" level, a representative of the distributor contacted enTourage. You can take this at face value or not -- I just thought I'd throw it into the mix.

Here's what came back to me today as a report from the distributor via my sales rep: "enTourage is not officially going out of business, but I think there is a matter of time. They have stopped manufacturing the products. We did release the Android 2.2 OS update, but it will not automatically update on the device. The customer needs to log into their enTourage account and access the server to update their eDGe. Great concept, great product, but I believe that enTourage as having difficulty with some of their manufacturing partners in keeping up with the technology. So rather than continue to lose money, they are stopping going forward. I do not have an official statement from enTourage at this time."

It is the same contact I had when I perhaps prematurely but not inaccurately relayed the information that the Android 2.2 update would be made available by March 31 - and it was.

Given the situation, I am wondering two things:

1) IF (some might say "when") enTourage goes out of business, do you think Android Marketplace would reconsider its stance regarding Entourage products?

I don't think I have a clear understanding about how it came to be that the eDGe is excluded from the Android Market site. In any case, if this situation could be "rectified" before or after enTourage rolls up the carpet and locks the doors, wouldn't that be helpful for the sake of enTourage owners?

2) IF there comes a time when there is no longer any official support for our eDGes, do you think that a "rooted" eDGe would perform any better or differently than an eDGe as currently configured with Ermine?

Regarding 1, nothing would change. Google simply isn't allowing Market access to these types of devices yet.

Regarding 2, rooting has no performance improvement or difference. Rooting is only required to make changes that the manufacturer doesn't want you making.

Originally Posted by sarah11918

Stop tempting me!

Seriously, though, I can't help but think that the PE will feel just a little too small to use, even if nicer to carry. For my $199, maybe I can get in on another device no one's heard of (the Eee Note) later this year. My collection seems to be one of breadth, not depth, anyway.

The PE is a far superior product to what the EEE Note is likely to be. 7" LCD touchscreen + 7" eink + Android + 5 months on the market > 8" grayscale LCD + stylus input only + unknown OS + new to the market

Of course I got my second 10" EE for less than that on eBay during the depths of communal despair last month.

Originally Posted by Adiposius Maximus

7" LCD touchscreen + 7" eink + Android + 5 months on the market > 8" grayscale LCD + stylus input only + unknown OS + new to the market

But... lighter, more compact, longer battery life. And the OS is linux. There's already a really active tiny community who have taken over the insides, written new apps, turned the Chinese devices into English ones... and they're doing something new every day.

Plus it's something new to figure out.

But yes, now that they could conceivably be the same price, that does potentially change things.

Originally Posted by borisb

Regarding 1, nothing would change. Google simply isn't allowing Market access to these types of devices yet.

I"m pleading ignorance here, hoping not to cause offense, but what do you mean by "these types of devices"? I have another cheap generic Android tablet running 2.2 which accesses Android Market easily. So I know that tablets can access Android Market. Are you referring to certain hardware specifications which some tablets have but not others -- or do you mean that there is something in particular with the eDGe which renders it impossible to sync with Android Market? What specifically does the eDGe lack in terms of hardware that my cheapo generic tablet has so that I can't access Android Market with my eDGe, but I can access it with a $150 generic tablet? Apologies for my dim-wittedness.

Originally Posted by borisb

Rooting is only required to make changes that the manufacturer doesn't want you making.

What changes doesn't the manufacturer want us making?

Does the manufacturer not want us making those changes because it would complicate things, render the device inoperable, give us access to trademark secrets, or what? What I hear you saying is that the changes which the manufacturer doesn't want us making would not give us any greater benefit or control of our devices.

In any case, I guess I'd be more leery of rooting the eDGe because of the fact that it is a dualbook. While one might deal with the LCD side in a root, I'd be afraid that I'd ruin the e-ink side or the relationship between the two.

I hope I haven't worn your patience too thin.

Originally Posted by JBrondos

I"m pleading ignorance here, hoping not to cause offense, but what do you mean by "these types of devices"? I have another cheap generic Android tablet running 2.2 which accesses Android Market easily. So I know that tablets can access Android Market. Are you referring to certain hardware specifications which some tablets have but not others -- or do you mean that there is something in particular with the eDGe which renders it impossible to sync with Android Market? What specifically does the eDGe lack in terms of hardware that my cheapo generic tablet has so that I can't access Android Market with my eDGe, but I can access it with a $150 generic tablet? Apologies for my dim-wittedness.

That's a straight-from-China $150 generic tablet, right? Those don't count because they're grey market. "Legitimate" "western" devices basically need to be phones, have a built-in GPS, and have an accelerometer for the Android Market app to work, and even then, Google must specifically license the manufacturer to bundle the Android Market app on their device. Someone posted a link in the forums somewhere to the Google documents that specify the requirements for Android Market. Note that clever developers (not from the company) can often hack a version of the Android Market app to work on a device, but the app is specific to each device (i.e., you can't take an HTC market app and run it on a Samsung). Since the eDGe lacks GPS, if nothing else, that alone will prevent the Android Market app from running on Froyo on it. There's some uncertainty if Google is lifting all restrictions with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

If I've confused anything, please someone that has a better understanding come and clarify it.

Originally Posted by JBrondos

What changes doesn't the manufacturer want us making?

Does the manufacturer not want us making those changes because it would complicate things, render the device inoperable, give us access to trademark secrets, or what? What I hear you saying is that the changes which the manufacturer doesn't want us making would not give us any greater benefit or control of our devices.

Changes like deleting system files, updating system files, etc. If you make system level changes, tech support will no longer have a baseline to work off, and may end up wasting time to determine that you screwed something up you shouldn't have (hence the typical voiding of the warranty). Or, you could overclock the device, thereby overheating the CPU and damaging the hardware. Etc. Lot's of "could"s, true, but with a rooted unit you're able to anything, so it's hard to predict what might go wrong.

Originally Posted by JBrondos

In any case, I guess I'd be more leery of rooting the eDGe because of the fact that it is a dualbook. While one might deal with the LCD side in a root, I'd be afraid that I'd ruin the e-ink side or the relationship between the two.

The eInk and LCD are not two devices, they're two monitors on the same CPU. Rooting would not break the relationship between the two, as that relationship isn't intrinsic but rather a manifestation of what the Reader/Journal/Library apps know about the second screen. It's not any different from a desktop PC with dual monitors and apps talking among themselves and displaying stuff in a window on Monitor A or Monitor B.

Before reading this thread
1. What will take the place of this forum WHEN Entourage shuts it down?
2. Who will replace PE batteries when Entourage shuts down?

While reading used 2nd monitor to do one-click amazon order for PE. (Price reduction and PE praises unresistable)

1. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=218
2. Santa Clause