As you know, if you have been following my blog recently, I have been following some of the new tablet genre devices that are on the horizon, such as the Crunchpad, Apple’s rumored tablet and the mysterious Microsoft Courier. Today I am going to take a look at another interesting cross over product called the eDGe Dualbook, by enTourage.
The eDGe (not to be confused with the LG Edge phone) is half e-reader,, and half tablet pc (which is why the folks ate enTourage dubbed it the Dualbook). Although not out yet, it was recently panned by Gizmodo’s Matt Buchannon, Ross Miller form Engadget, and Scott Merrill of Crunchgear. In all three articles the writers slam the door on the eDGe. In Matt Buchannan’s article he slams it not on the specs, but rather on how it looks, referring to it as “Hideous” and “ugly little mutant”.
I’m sorry Matt. I don’t see the ugly here. It resembles the mill netbooks out today until you open it up, but then, that is the point, isn’t it? The picture below shows a nice shot of the eDGe in ice blue. It will also come in white and red for an additional fee. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I will let you judge for yourselves.
Unlike Matt, Ross and Scott I see the emergence of devices like this as a necessary part of the continuing innovation in the personal electronics industry. Part of innovating is the trial and error process to create a product that fills a need in a way that other products fall short of. Some ideas never make it off the drawing board, some fail during the development phase, and some make it to market only to find that they fell short of the mark in some way. But that is part of the chaotic process that innovation is. There is no telling today which of the quickly growing number of proposed devices will make it across the chasm that Rogers talks about in the “5 stages of innovation adaption”.
I think that what the folks over at Entourage are putting forward as the next generation of netbook style devices is representative of a step in the right direction towards getting the buy in of the innovators and early adapters (such as myself). As someone who comes from a strong IT background. I am always looking for a portable device that can easily handle the host of PDF references and white papers that I am either reading or keeping for reference, my generally extensive list of books that I am reading, and be able to use it in place of a laptop or netbook for web research, document creation, note taking, and whatever else I can get it to do to help me get the job done day in and day out.
Will the eDGe be the one? I can only hope so, and wait for it to come out.
Tags: Android, Dualbook, eDGe, enTourage, Innovation, Tablet, Tablet Computing, Tablet PC
Hello Brian – I hope you don’t mind me popping in! I’m a British author and a fellow Bookblogs member and my next novel, Thaw, will be published online next year after its physical publication. I wanted to invite you (and your readers) to participate in my Blogsplash – there’s more information at http://www.fionarobyn.com/thawblogsplash.htm. Thanks for listening!
Thanks for stopping by..
Looks like an interesting project. I’ll be sure to pass it along.
Hey Brian – thanks for your post on Planting Words – would you mind sending me a quick email fiona@fionarobyn.com so I can add you to the list? Ta!
Back to the future in some ways for these tablets, as they attempt to replicate what the Newton could do, in many cases, 12 years ago: E-book reader/calendar/e-mail/web browser/notepad w/handwriting recognition/language translation app/etc. (Since being discontinued, the Newton tribe has taken over software development/hardware hacks, and it can now be used as a phone, too.) These new products demonstrate the continuing interest in a hand-held computer (as opposed to a smartphone) that can handle most basic tasks. I hope that these efforts are successful, and that the price puts them within reach of the average would-be user, both here and in the rest of the world.
-ssgconway