We fully expect Barnes & Noble to unveil a new e-reader today (follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-second updates), but in the meantime enjoy the just-announced Entourage Edge e-reader/notepad… thingie (technically it's spelled enTourage eDGe, but trust me, guys, we're doing you a big favor by throwing out your crap gimmicky spelling).

The Edge aims to be much more than an e-reader. It's also said to be a netbook, notepad and digital media player/recorder. How does it do all that? More detail — along with price and availability info — after the jump.

The Edge unfolds just like a laptop, but instead of a monitor and keyboard, it sports a 10.1-inch touchscreen LCD on one side and a 9.7-inch e-paper screen on the other. The e-paper side is touch-sensitive, too, but you'll need to use a stylus to draw on it. Its best feature, however, may be the fact that it runs on Android, letting you download apps via Wi-Fi (3G connectivity is optional) to the 4GB of internal storage (SD and USB ports are there for more).

We like the design of the Edge, but it's not taking anywhere near full advantage of it; with dual screens, the potential is there for an all-touchscreen netbook, sort of like that theoretical OLPC we saw awhile back. As it stands, the gadget strikes us as trying to do too much, especially since the price ($490) is higher than many netbooks with actual keyboards. But we'll reserve final judgment until we've had a chance to play with one, which should be early next year — Entourage says it'll be shipping in February.

Via Entourage