Reading e-books on a netbook is a nuisance, right? But e-readers are a pain because they’re a single-function device, which means your man-bag gets filled with yet-another-specialty-gadget. Behold the enTourage eDGe: “the world’s first dualbook, combining the functions of an e-reader, netbook, notepad, and audio/video recorder and player in one.” Get it? Dualbook?
This Frankenstein handheld is half 9.7″ 1200 x 825 e-reader, half 10.1″ 1024 x 600 netbook. It runs Android, has a touchscreen display, WiFi networking, 3GB of usable memory, a six hour battery life, etc etc. Unlike the Amazon Kindle, cellular networking is not supported internally, but it can be accessed with the help of an external modem.
The enTourage eDGe™ is the world’s first dualbook, combining the functions of an e-reader, netbook, notepad, and audio/video recorder and player in one. It’s a comprehensive device that lets you read e-books, surf the Internet, take digital notes, send emails and instant messages, watch movies and listen to music anywhere, at any time. This is nothing you’ve ever seen before! Get books wirelessly, move files onto your enTourage eDGe™ using an SD card or a USB flash drive. And with a netbook built in, you can forget the limitations of other e-readers, the enTourage eDGe™ does it all!
This thing ships February 2010, but you can pre-order now! It’s $490 USD for the midnight blue model, shown above. An extra $40 will fetch the sporty Ruby Red, Glacier White, or Ice Blue colors.
enTourage eDGe™ Specifications
- Dimensions: 8.25″ x 10.75″ by 1.0″ (closed)
- Weight: 2.5 lbs.
- Internal Memory: 4 GB (3 GB for user) up to 3000 books
- E-reader File Formats: ePub, PDF
- LCD Touchscreen Display Size: 1024 x 600 (10.1″)
- E-paper Display Size: 9.7″ e-Ink®(1200 x 825), 16 shades of gray
- E-paper Input: Wacom® Penabled®
- Operating System: Linux with Google® Android®
- Connectivity: 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth capability
- Battery Life: Up to 6 hours
- Battery Type: Lithium-ion polymer
- Mobile Modem (optional): EVDO or HSDPA
- External Memory: SD card slot, 2 USB ports
- Audio and Microphone Jack: 3.5 mm each. Includes internal microphone and speakers.
- Audio playback: MP3
- Video playback: MP4, 3GP
- Input: Stylus input on e-paper and touchscreen. Virtual keyboard. Bluetooth keyboard (optional)
This could be an interesting device, if it’s usable. At That price you can’t hardly go wrong.
Decent idea, needs a redesign. It’s pretty fugly looking. But other than that, not too bad. It would be cool to have an attachable keyboard with places over the screen where each key basically acts like a miniature stylus. Just an idea, anyways.
Wasn’t there a company developing a screen that is both a color screen and e-ink? That they then placed into a netbook? I can’t seem to remember what that company was called, but they have a bunch of videos. I wonder whatever happened with that?
Wait, found it. Google “Pixel Qi”.
what does it do?
Why doesn’t somebody take a $220 touchscreen netbook and make the hinge work so it folds back on itself, disable the keyboard in this mode? Why oh why!?
Low price, dual purpose, no embedded DRM hell.
2.5lbs, 6 hour battery life, $490 – forget it!!
Wow – all that, and it will be right around the price that the CrunchPad was supposed to be at…
I might have a new favorite gadget…. Sorry Arrington, you had your chance….
Certainly a waste of money. I had two different ebook readers and both failed well within the warranty period.
I bought a used tablet PC and now have over 700 ebooks on it, videos, pictures and a regular PC when I need it.
2.5lbs? Ouch. That’s a lot to hold up for reading.