4 ms·

There are a couple of e-ink readers that run Android eg Onyx BOOX, MIDIA, Icarus. However they're all tiny vendors, often no play store by default, and old vers

by rb808 10y ago

There are a couple of e-ink readers that run Android eg Onyx BOOX, MIDIA, Icarus. However they're all tiny vendors, often no play store by default, and old versions of android. I'd love a good quality eink tablet that runs recent stock versions of Android with play store. Ideally I wouldn't have to jailbreak. Surely there is a big market for this - there are hundreds of color screen tablets like - surely a few eink ones are possible? Any suggestions?

brokenmachine 10y ago
The kobo readers run linux and seem to be pretty hackable. You can put Android on them (I only saw Android v2.3 with a quick google though, not sure if they'll run something more recent). I bought a Kobo Glo (which I'm very happy with, incidentally), intending to hack in a hardware page-turn key (or even a cordless wifi one using an ESP8266 if possible), but I could never work out how I would be able to do it. The ebook reader companies, like most corporations, want the consumer to be locked into their ecosystem. I assume some of the cost of the reader is offset by the profit from ebook sales. So it would be against their business model to sell one where you could just easily install any software you want.
- abawany 10y ago
  I currently use a Kobo Aura HD (same display as the Onyx Lynx T68 but no Android). Replaced the Kobo firmware with Kobo Start Menu and KOReader [1] and I now have about as perfect of a barebones reader that I have been able to find in my quest so far. I was very unhappy with the stock Kobo firmware: the scanning on startup to build a sql-lite DB of my books was insane when there are 15+ GB of books to scan. The alternative firmware provides a file manager and an excellent e-reader application and that's all I have ever wanted in a basic e-reader. I have yet to see an "indexing" solution work well and I dread seeing them in action now given how absolute time sinks they have been for me over the years. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/3h83ls/how_much_does_the_kobo_glo_hd_phone_home_any/ https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/3h83ls/how_much_does_...
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    Can you think of any way to get KOReader to respond to a hardware page turn button? I'd like to hack one into my kobo, I'm good with hardware but not sure where to start with getting the software to respond. I know that there's a serial port inside most kobos, I wonder if there's a way to get it to turn pages with a command through serial. If that was possible I could use an attiny, and that would probably fit inside the case.
    - abawany 10y ago
      Unfortunately, I don't have any good ideas there. It seems to me that emulating the IR sensor trigger for a mid-right or mid-left touch is the first approach I would try. My next attempt would comprise of adding a cheap device to the USB port and look into writing a driver to interact with it. Mobileread.com/forums has an active Kobo forum and I suspect they might be able to help better.
xbmcuser 10y ago
There are quite a few eink readers these days that have Google play preinstalled. Most are at android 4.2 though. With eink the oem's only update to the latest version of Android when new eink tech comes out. Nook latest eink reader is on 4.4 but need to root it to install Google play.
abawany 10y ago
I had a Boox Lynx T68, which ran Android 4.0.3 (and now 4.4.x? beta supported by ereader-store.de). It had Google Play, which was generally convenient. However, there were two issues: the processor was so weak that the apps that I wanted to use (Google Play Magazines and Zinio) didn't run very well. However, the ability to run most of the Play apps was a good bonus. I am looking at the Onyx Boox Max as well - it also has the same OS version support but perhaps a better processor. The price has kept me away but I window shop it often :).

by rb808 10y ago

brokenmachine 10y ago

The kobo readers run linux and seem to be pretty hackable. You can put Android on them (I only saw Android v2.3 with a quick google though, not sure if they'll run something more recent). I bought a Kobo Glo (which I'm very happy with, incidentally), intending to hack in a hardware page-turn key (or even a cordless wifi one using an ESP8266 if possible), but I could never work out how I would be able to do it. The ebook reader companies, like most corporations, want the consumer to be locked into their ecosystem. I assume some of the cost of the reader is offset by the profit from ebook sales. So it would be against their business model to sell one where you could just easily install any software you want.

abawany 10y ago
I currently use a Kobo Aura HD (same display as the Onyx Lynx T68 but no Android). Replaced the Kobo firmware with Kobo Start Menu and KOReader [1] and I now have about as perfect of a barebones reader that I have been able to find in my quest so far. I was very unhappy with the stock Kobo firmware: the scanning on startup to build a sql-lite DB of my books was insane when there are 15+ GB of books to scan. The alternative firmware provides a file manager and an excellent e-reader application and that's all I have ever wanted in a basic e-reader. I have yet to see an "indexing" solution work well and I dread seeing them in action now given how absolute time sinks they have been for me over the years. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/3h83ls/how_much_does_the_kobo_glo_hd_phone_home_any/ https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/3h83ls/how_much_does_...
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  Can you think of any way to get KOReader to respond to a hardware page turn button? I'd like to hack one into my kobo, I'm good with hardware but not sure where to start with getting the software to respond. I know that there's a serial port inside most kobos, I wonder if there's a way to get it to turn pages with a command through serial. If that was possible I could use an attiny, and that would probably fit inside the case.
  - abawany 10y ago
    Unfortunately, I don't have any good ideas there. It seems to me that emulating the IR sensor trigger for a mid-right or mid-left touch is the first approach I would try. My next attempt would comprise of adding a cheap device to the USB port and look into writing a driver to interact with it. Mobileread.com/forums has an active Kobo forum and I suspect they might be able to help better.

xbmcuser 10y ago

There are quite a few eink readers these days that have Google play preinstalled. Most are at android 4.2 though. With eink the oem's only update to the latest version of Android when new eink tech comes out. Nook latest eink reader is on 4.4 but need to root it to install Google play.

abawany 10y ago

I had a Boox Lynx T68, which ran Android 4.0.3 (and now 4.4.x? beta supported by ereader-store.de). It had Google Play, which was generally convenient. However, there were two issues: the processor was so weak that the apps that I wanted to use (Google Play Magazines and Zinio) didn't run very well. However, the ability to run most of the Play apps was a good bonus. I am looking at the Onyx Boox Max as well - it also has the same OS version support but perhaps a better processor. The price has kept me away but I window shop it often :).