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More On enTourage's Dual-screen E-Book Reader
Barence writes with some more information on a device mentioned in passing earlier today: "The enTourage eDGe eBook reader was the highlight of the CES Unveiled event, which gives journalists a sneak preview of what’s set to appear this year’s show. It has a 9.7in e-paper display on one side and a 10.1in LCD screen on the other, both of which are touchscreens, allowing you to annotate eBooks with handwritten notes or scan through web pages with the flick of a finger on the LCD screen. In a brief hands-on demonstration, the eDGe showed several clever touches, such as allowing you to perform a Google search on the term using the built-in web browser, and then link the search results to the eBook page, which is a great research tool for students reading academic texts. It's an Android device, too."
Who defines what the highlight is? I've never been to anything CES and don't know a ton about it (aside from reading about it every year), so I don't know if maybe they actually do pick one item as a highlight... or this it the highlight according to the submitter :)
I am seriously dating myself here. I've always wanted the computer book used by Penny from the Inspector Gadget cartoon. I always thought that was the ideal form factor for a PDA/computer. The closest thing I ever found was the HP-28 calculator, but that's been out of production for over a decade. Now finally! we are getting it.
No vendor lock in. Priced less than an Apple. Lame.
...it is a very ugly piece of hardware. The silver plastic looks cheap, and the wide frame surrounding the screens is a major step backwards in display design. I would be shocked if this ugly mid-90's looking DS tablet sells well at all.
Design is important in hardware sales because it creates the emotional response in the potential customer. Even if logic dictates that this is a "good" piece of hardware, emotion will over rule it by saying, "yeah, but it's kind of ugly, so it can't be that good...". And emotion is always what wins over the masses.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Might sell; will probably be too pricey to be successful. I have one question: with a touchscreen on each side, how does it keep from scratching one screen up while you are using the other? Also, although I'm sure an eInk display is a big win in terms of power consumption, I'm still not convinced it is that much more readable than a color LCD. Resolution is good, contrast not so much... maybe I'm just bothered by the slow page update time.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The TFA didn't point to the full-spec page:
enTourage eDGe
Battery should last 16 hours using E-reader alone. Not exactly a record breaker, but usable. The right side is a complete netbook attached to the E-reader. Not a bad combination for travelers. I kind of like the idea, whether this particular implementation is perfect or not. For what it offers, the price is not bad, either.
Just fixed the f****** capitalization of it, fer crying out loud. Is the intended market teenage mallrats?
End anonymous moderation and posting on
not really. I have several thousand PDF files I'd kill to carry around. 300 from the Crestron library on their own. I dont want to read some silly escapism story, I want a functional display to view important Docs and texts. If I could find a good one that actually did really good PDF rendering and had upgradeable storage (The sony reader FAILS with it's paltry non upgradeable storage) and I dont want to pay for a 3G connection that I will not use.
Give me a non DRM, non crappy eink reader with a 8.5X11 display. I'll be all over it as well as millions of other professionals and students.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The problem with linking a google search to a page of an academic text is that the web is dynamic. Today's search hits won't be around tomorrow, or might be edited, have a changed layout etc, whereas an academic text is timeless. As a student, you're much better off going to the library to look up the references directly rather than relying on web clippings as if they were real notes.
The sony reader FAILS with it's paltry non upgradeable storage
Sony has 3 models out all but one (the cheapest) support Memory Stick and SD cards.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
One of the nuisances of reading a paper book is holding the thing open, now we get that inconvenience in an ebook too!
I'll stick with one page thanks.