31 ms·

My Life in E-Ink

282 points by HaoZeke 6y ago

ggm 6y ago
Org mode on remarkable2 would have me there in seconds, especially if pen input to org mode worked right. Or maybe onyx boox?
- neolog 6y ago
  Boox runs Android and has good pen input.
- Qwertious 6y ago
  AIUI the RM2 still only has the official OS, which has no promises not to break APIs. There's Parabola-RM (ported by Davis R, see www.davisr.me) which gets you e.g. Xfce, but I don't know how well it works with the hardware (e.g. battery life, proper use of the RM screen's partial refresh) or unofficial RM apps (rmkit.dev and libremarkable-baswd apps right now AIUI). Avoid Onyx Boox, they explicitly refused to honor the GPL. https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_using_recent_antichina_movement_as_excuse_to/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_usin... If you're looking for non-RM alternatives, I'd start by evaluating (I haven't) the Quirklogic Papyr. Personally, I don't think the RM is a good long-term partner for the Free Software community - half the reason the modding community exists is because the RM team refuses to provide some basic features in the name of "simplicity". They'll never want to support a wide variety of use-cases, they want to be like Apple. I imagine the solution here is making an RM-specific distro (and community explicitly segmented from the "RM OS with mods" community), adding support for other ewriters, then deemphasizing the RM.
  - ggm 6y ago
    Good, but sad info. Thanks for sharing
  - spijdar 6y ago
    Every so often I have an itch to find a good eInk tablet, and each time I come away disappointed. Outside the remarkable and a few locked in reader only tablets, the market gets really sketchy (no pun intended) real fast. Lots of questionable companies and brands like Boox, which is disappointing as feature wise the Boox hardware seems more ideal and hackable than the comparatively (and intentionally!) primitive/restricted remarkable kit. There are a few sort of decent companies with okay products, some even publish their modded kernel sources, but in the end I've never been able to pull the trigger on these $300+ devices that often have both severe hardware and software limitations. eInk is cool, but it's hard to toss that kind of cash around with so many strings attached...
  - stewbrew 6y ago
    Koreader is said to run on the rm2. The ddvk hacks are pretty good either. I don't know about the state of alternative launchers though. The onyx boox have bluetooth and you can connect as keyboard to it and since they have access to the play store you could probably also run vim on it. This is something I miss on the rm2.
- adiM 6y ago
  One of the next few updates of SuperNote is supposed to have a working markdown editor ... not sure how pen input would work.
dannyw 6y ago
Ask HN: what would you recommend as a hackable e-ink reader? Partly reading my own archivable, un-DRM’d books; partly playing with e-ink.
- gh02t 6y ago
  How DIY are you looking for? The Open Book reader is a pretty neat project. https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
- Naac 6y ago
  Remarkable 1. Cheaper than most other e-readers for what you get. Fully unlocked and ready for you to SSH into. Lively, polite, and active hacker community.
  - dannyw 6y ago
    In Australia this costs A$499, a bit more than the A$200-$300 budget I was willing to spend! Any (perhaps subsidised) alternatives that I can jailbreak?
    - leppr 6y ago
      People have been developing apps and alternative shells for the Kobo for a long time. It's a bit more involved than the Remarkable but nothing close to jailbreaking a walled garden device.
  - strogonoff 6y ago
    I was considering getting Remarkable 2 when I am in a country they deliver to. Do you know whether it preserves the qualities of Remarkable 1 you mentioned, apart from the price?
    - _ph_ 6y ago
      I have the reMarkable 2 and it is fully unocked and you can just ssh into it.
1MachineElf 6y ago
Would love to have something like this but with a HN client.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  I believe Calibre had a client to generate ePub from RSS or something.
- adiM 6y ago
  With an android tablet like Boox, you can install any android HN client.
drcode 6y ago
All I want is an ereader that shows up as a printer on my network, so I can just "print" to it.
- gravypod 6y ago
  Something like this exists for the reMarkable: https://github.com/Evidlo/remarkable_printer https://github.com/Evidlo/remarkable_printer
  - _ph_ 6y ago
    Did you get it to work? I tried to install it on my remarkable and print to it with my Mac, but my Mac sends Postscript files which the software doesn't recognize.
  - sammorrowdrums 6y ago
    Yeah, it works well, and Onyx Boox has a similar extension. I have both, and.I have used it on both and found the experience great. Much preferred to pocket style save for later. If an online article is too long for me to get throug, and I want to, I will always send to a device.
    - gravypod 6y ago
      I would LOVE to hear your comparison of the both. If you have time my email is in the profile.
      - sammorrowdrums 6y ago
        I will do so on Monday, but I'll message now so you can ask Qs. I'm sorry that I haven't posted comparison review yet, I realise it has been over a month since I told you I would!
    - FlyingSnake 6y ago
      > Onyx Boox has a similar extension Could you please share the source? I’ve got a Boox Note air and would love to have this.
mikeho1999 6y ago
Maybe this is just way too niche, but I've been wondering why there hasn't been any e-ink based laptops with a powerful enough of a processor (e.g. 10th/11th gen core i7 would be great) and ability to put enough RAM (e.g. 16GB) to run a development environment. Something like that would be oh so light and great/easy to carry around. And something purely used for dev doesn't need to have the ability to play videos, etc. (that would just be distracting anyway, right? =) I know there have been a few tablet/reader-based devices that use e-ink and have the ability to run Linux, but of the ones I've seen, none of them seem to have powerful enough of a CPU (and definitely not enough RAM).
- PurpleFoxy 6y ago
  Because programming on e paper would be horrible. You can’t scroll text properly. You would be limited to page up/down. And then it takes a second or few to do that. And then the e paper panel costs a bunch so what would be a $1000 laptop becomes $4000 and is strictly worse for the vast majority of users.
  - fouc 6y ago
    There are e-ink displays with higher refresh rates where scrolling is possible, like Dasung's new e-ink monitor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9qrURPAtnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9qrURPAtnY
    - marvindanig 6y ago
      e-ink screens are objectively worse for our eyes than an IPS panel screen. I mean, this is besides the fact that e-paper screens are also more expensive and less capable than the standard iridescent screen that we spend 24 hours on daily.
      - fouc 6y ago
        > e-ink screens are objectively worse for our eyes than an IPS panel screen. That's not actually true. I have glasses explicitly to prevent eye-strain for when I'm working on the computer, even when it is an IPS/retina display with 2X pixel scaling. However I don't need glasses at all when reading books on a kindle or kobo.
karthink 6y ago
I own the BOOX Note 2, it's an android tablet with some E-Ink friendly modifications. It's the best electronic reading experience I've ever had: - It's 10.3", perfect for reading PDFs like scientific papers without being too large to carry around. - The included reader is stellar, with special modes for reading PDFs, comicbooks, etc. - The included note-taking app is pretty good and fully featured. It integrates with the reader and there's a side-by-side mode. - It supports every open format I've tried: PDFs, DJVU, epub, mobi and more. (Haven't tried PS.) - I can scribble on all document types, including ebooks. - I can install apps from the app store. In particular this means I can read my Kindle library and Wallabag feed, and... - with Syncthing syncing is set and forget. When I download a PDF or book on my computer, I simply pick up the tablet and start reading it. Any notes I make are synced back to my laptop. - Of course, the above is in addition to the standard E-Ink features you'd expect: It lasts for weeks on a charge, the reading experience in bright sunlight is fantastic, it's lighter than an iPad, zero eye strain, etc. I installed only the software I need for reading and syncing, but there's a lot more you could do with it since the play store and F-droid are available. You can use it as an external monitor, for instance.
- hyperpallium2 6y ago
  The BOOX tablets seem really interesting. I'm wondering if you or anyone has tried a terminal app (e.g. termux)? Is the refresh rate fast enough?
  - fake-name 6y ago
    It's usable, but only just, and you have to fiddle with your colorscheme (most of the defaults are unusable for some colors). My major problem with basically all the BOOX devices is they're violating the GPL by not releasing their kernel/uboot sources.[1] [1]: http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/install-linux-or-alternate-os-and-gpl2-kernel-source/698/2 http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/install-linux-or-alterna...
  - sammorrowdrums 6y ago
    My Max Lumi can be used as a monitor, and it is possible to work on it, but visual feedback is sluggish and you have to accept a lot of artifacts for the sake of speed. I do hope to try coding in the sun with it some time. Got it in winter though, so haven't yet.
ryzvonusef 6y ago
offtopic, but color e-ink is getting better, there is already a second version for the Kaleido screens and we are getting bigger screens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6K53j1k1vY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6K53j1k1vY
- emgo 6y ago
  That would be amazing for comic books! Although I image you'd need a significantly larger storage to store all sorts of high quality images, which shouldn't be an issue given how cheap storage has become.
  - ryzvonusef 6y ago
    yeah, I guess even 64 gb ought to be enough for everyone (/billgates ;p) Memory is cheap, and you could always buy a bigger SD card afterwards, but processing power is what's relevant, if the correct SoC and Ram combo is not present, especially in e-readers that are essentially just android tablets with color e-ink screens (allowing you to sideload apps) then that will be a major drawback just because your screen refreshes slow doesn't mean the actual app can run on 2gb ram
dont__panic 6y ago
I'm currently using an older Kindle (the Touch, which sadly doesn't include a backlight at all) with a booklight cover, but it's getting very slow thanks to what I assume is storage degradation after 12 years of use. I'd really like to upgrade to a better ereading solution, but I'm at a loss right now. Here are my requirements: - Bigger screen than my Touch (7" would be about perfect, I suspect, but I'm not too picky) - Backlight with warmness adjustability (my current light keeps my girlfriend up at night because it's not embedded) - The ability to take notes on device would be a nice add, I like to annotate PDFs and such - Ample storage to use for another 10ish years. I don't need many bells and whistles. Unfortunately the Kobo series looks like it's a bit out of date right now, or I would just get one of those. Any recommendations?
- amval 6y ago
  What do you find outdated about Kobos? I find them pretty much perfect. And the constant software updates make them even better. Mine is a couple years old and has an embedded light that automatically adapts warmness throughout the day.
  - dont__panic 6y ago
    I think most of their models haven't been updated since 2018-2019. That might not be a huge deal for an ereader that I'd keep offline all the time anyway, but I would definitely be a bit sad if I paid $300 for the top-tier big-screen ereader with 32GB of memory only to have a better model come out in a couple of months, or to have them stop supporting that model soon after.
- f1refly 6y ago
  The Kobo Aura One with Koreader is the way to go. It just works after you turn off automatic software updates for the kobo firmware.
- awiesenhofer 6y ago
  I have an Onyx Boox Nova 3, it should perfectly fit your bill: 8", warm backlight (color and brightness are individually adjustable), comes with a pen in the box, 32gb storage (no SD card slot though), doesnt break the bank. Fast SoC and full Android as nice extras. Not affiliated in any way, just really like mine. Reviewed here for example: https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/onyx-boox-nova-3-review https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/onyx-boox-nova-3-review
hemantv 6y ago
Color eink is around the corner. Looking forward to those. Pretty happy with kindle Oasis for now
- hemantv 6y ago
  TCL nextpaper seems like good contender with kladieo 2
  - arendtio 6y ago
    Actually, I wonder how much better it will be compared to the now ancient PixelQi screens. I mean, those were black and white in reflective mode, but could display colors when used with backlight and had decent refresh rates already. However, they typically had some glass front, which caused a lot of reflections and were somewhat dark compared to e-ink displays. I hope the NXTPapers will be a step forward, but so far, most solutions were just considering different trade-offs.
tyler109 6y ago
Reposted in the eink subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/lo3ibm/my_life_in_eink/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/lo3ibm/my_life_in_ein...
deng 6y ago
I can only violently agree with the author: koreader is incredible. When I look for ebook readers, running koreader is an absolute must. The nicest thing about it is how hackable it is, since most of it is written in Lua. When I got my Kobo Aura One, koreader did not yet support the colored background LEDs, and adding support for that was actually pretty easy. The koreader developers are incredibly helpful and it's just a great project.
- JetSetWilly 6y ago
  Koreader is excellent. On kobo the default nickel is very wasteful of space with huge margins. And for some reason ereaders all hate left justification, even though that’s the norm on printed books. Koreader solves all of that. I love the “style hacks” section that lets you very precisely override many layout details in the book, or even define your own. Even its status bar is much more information dense and useful than on other readers. They don’t cater to the lowest common denominator user so it isn’t for everyone, but if you are unafraid of slightly more complex and powerful software it is superb.
- politelemon 6y ago
  If I'm understanding this correctly, koreader will let me read epubs on an Amazon Kindle. Am I right to be excited?
  - cube2222 6y ago
    I think you can do this with a stock Kindle, by sending the epub to the email address of your Kindle (which you can find in your account settings).
    - mellosouls 6y ago
      No, epubs - presumably as a competitor format - are not supported. You can do it (email "conversion" - often just a horrible mish-mash of text and images) with PDFs and text etc. Epubs need to be converted first by a third party service, eg calibre.
Tepix 6y ago
Are there any eBook readers with wireless charging? I'd like a reader with zero ports that will survive a salt water environment.
- captn3m0 6y ago
  The latest Paperwhite Kindles are IPX8 rated (it can survive in two meters of water for up to an hour at a time)
  - Tepix 6y ago
    That doesn't mean it will last long in an environment with a lot of salt water, does it?
ZeroGravitas 6y ago
I nearly went down this route, with an old, cheap, hacked, reader-only e-ink device with all the cleverness done on a different machine and the output pre-optimised for the specific target device. However, when I looked into it, I found that buying a Boox with a recent version of Android on it, meant that I could replace most of that with apps on the device itself, including borrowing DRM'd books from my local library, which is handy sometimes. And the price difference didn't actually seem that bad, once I took into account my desire for a warm backlight. Maybe if I already owned a simpler device with that feature, I'd have hacked it instead. Having said that, I don't have quite the same aversion to short length reading on e-ink, so I also use Pocket and even a browser (Firefox mobile with DarkMode addon in "light" mode) and so I'm probably getting more use out of that side of things for my money. I have heard very good things about KOReader, but the standard Boox reader is also pretty great, and integrates with the device well (e.g. the default launcher lists books from that reader) so I've not had reason to try anything different. As someone else has mentioned, the only bad thing about Boox I've found so far is that they seems to be withholding their Linux modifications. Doesn't affect me directly in practical terms at the moment, but it's the principle of the thing. Oh remembered, one other potential bad thing, there are apparently core apps that phone home. People have workarounds involving fake VPN apps that block specific urls.
- Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
  Plus you can also use a boox as an HDMI screen from any output.
  - ZeroGravitas 6y ago
    My particular Boox is a small 6 inches, so it's not ideal for that use case, and I think there's only one model that has an actual physical HDMI input but yeah I'm pleased enough with the reading experience that I may upgrade to a larger one that can be used as a coding screen, pen input tablet etc. Again, with screensharing apps, or terminal apps as others talk about in this story, it's possible to do certain things of this nature without the HDMI cable too.
- bbarnett 6y ago
imagine99 6y ago
I've long wrestled with myself whether to buy a remarkable (2) and have finally decided against it because I expect that I will own another technical device that will be obsolete and an expensive door stopper in a couple years time (made that mistake with a 1st gen Kindle). Also, while it's extremely sleek, my main use for paper & pen these days is for editing and it's just no fun without a red pen ;-) My expectation (and sincere hope, ngl) is that we will see a major innovation push in e-Ink displays and devices over the next year(s) and I have now resolved to buy a remarkable 3 (or 4) which will hopefully be available in color (and fully usable without any mandatory public cloud tethering). And maybe with some saner pricing options. I mean, a cover for $150? That makes it clear that this is a veblen good, not a workhorse for a wide audience (like schools, students etc.) - or it's Apple-monitor-stand-style consumer rip-off, who knows. I'd much prefer a faux-leather option anyway (not too comfortable with wrapping my tablet in dead cow skin, but don't like the $79 grey option either) but they unfortunately don't offer that.
- Bakary 6y ago
  There are plenty of non-Veblen alternatives to the remarkable with higher functionality (Dasung, Boox, etc.) but the price will still be high because of the stranglehold of e-ink patents
  - robinsoh 6y ago
    > the price will still be high because of the stranglehold of e-ink patents This mistaken claim keeps getting repeated again and again. Patents are not what keeps prices high. Volume. Volume. Volume. E-Ink displays used to be 100x even more expensive in 2006 until a bunch of buyers, Sony, Amazon, came in and put down big orders that caused the product to reach the next level of scale when EInk managed to repurpose existing LCD production lines for their products. If you want Eink displays to be as cheap as LCD, then there's a really simple way. Make an order big enough to get some vendor to build a dedicated Eink factory instead of repurposed LCD builds. Or... you can keep believing there's a magical stranglehold of patents. You can prove that to yourself by asking yourself the simple question of which exact patents need to expire to magically cause the industry to suddenly all start manufacturing Eink displays. And yes, saying all of them, or patent thicket proves the claimant is not involved in the actual industry.
iFreilicht 6y ago
Where does everyone get their books from? From what I could tell, all books you can buy commercially come with proprietary (Amazon) or Adobe (everyone else) DRM, making them impossible to read on koreader. It seems like you always have to buy into someone's ecosystem, or am I missins something?
- ulysses 6y ago
  If it's a book that's only available DRM, I buy it on the Kindle. I'm not fond of buying DRMed books, but most are only available that way, and Amazon is the most likely to still be around in the future. For non-DRM: Tor Books are no longer DRMed. Baen Books -- https://www.baen.com/ https://www.baen.com/ -- don't have DRM, and you can buy directly from the publisher, and manage your library on their site, and download as many times as you like. You can also often purchase eArc versions, and they have a monthly subscription bundle were you can read parts of the book as it comes out, and then you get the complete book when it's done. If you're interested in translated Japanese light novels, there's J Novel Club -- https://j-novel.club/ https://j-novel.club/ -- for a monthly subscription, you can read book parts for free as they're being translated. Once they're fully translated, you can then purchase the final epub directly from their site. Books are interesting in that they both are and aren't fungible. If, say, I want to read the next Martha Wells Murderbot book, or the next Julie McGalliard Rougarou book, I have to buy that particular book. But if I'm just looking for another book to read, I always check Tor, Baen, and J Novel Club first.
- dunnevens 6y ago
  I personally use Amazon. But I rarely download directly to my Kindle. I download to my PC. Use Calibre with the DeDRM plugin. Then put it on my Kindle. Or read it on my iPad. That way I’m not locked into any one ecosystem. I get to own the books for as long as I can keep the data. I’ve heard DeDRM also works well with Adobe’s protected epubs. But I don’t have direct experience. If Amazon ever makes it impossible to strip the DRM, then I’ll probably switch to buying physical books and getting files from LibGen. Or just using the library more.
- captn3m0 6y ago
  Buy off Amazon, rip the DRM using https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/releases https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/releases, and then read with KOReader on Kindle.
bcoughlan 6y ago
I can't read anything long on a computer screen, so I use a Firefox plugin to send articles to my Kindle to read later. It also gives me an excuse to break away from the office and screen to do some in-depth reading on whatever I'm working on.

282 points by HaoZeke 6y ago

ggm 6y ago

Org mode on remarkable2 would have me there in seconds, especially if pen input to org mode worked right. Or maybe onyx boox?

neolog 6y ago
Boox runs Android and has good pen input.
Qwertious 6y ago
AIUI the RM2 still only has the official OS, which has no promises not to break APIs. There's Parabola-RM (ported by Davis R, see www.davisr.me) which gets you e.g. Xfce, but I don't know how well it works with the hardware (e.g. battery life, proper use of the RM screen's partial refresh) or unofficial RM apps (rmkit.dev and libremarkable-baswd apps right now AIUI). Avoid Onyx Boox, they explicitly refused to honor the GPL. https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_using_recent_antichina_movement_as_excuse_to/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_usin... If you're looking for non-RM alternatives, I'd start by evaluating (I haven't) the Quirklogic Papyr. Personally, I don't think the RM is a good long-term partner for the Free Software community - half the reason the modding community exists is because the RM team refuses to provide some basic features in the name of "simplicity". They'll never want to support a wide variety of use-cases, they want to be like Apple. I imagine the solution here is making an RM-specific distro (and community explicitly segmented from the "RM OS with mods" community), adding support for other ewriters, then deemphasizing the RM.
- ggm 6y ago
  Good, but sad info. Thanks for sharing
- spijdar 6y ago
  Every so often I have an itch to find a good eInk tablet, and each time I come away disappointed. Outside the remarkable and a few locked in reader only tablets, the market gets really sketchy (no pun intended) real fast. Lots of questionable companies and brands like Boox, which is disappointing as feature wise the Boox hardware seems more ideal and hackable than the comparatively (and intentionally!) primitive/restricted remarkable kit. There are a few sort of decent companies with okay products, some even publish their modded kernel sources, but in the end I've never been able to pull the trigger on these $300+ devices that often have both severe hardware and software limitations. eInk is cool, but it's hard to toss that kind of cash around with so many strings attached...
- stewbrew 6y ago
  Koreader is said to run on the rm2. The ddvk hacks are pretty good either. I don't know about the state of alternative launchers though. The onyx boox have bluetooth and you can connect as keyboard to it and since they have access to the play store you could probably also run vim on it. This is something I miss on the rm2.
adiM 6y ago
One of the next few updates of SuperNote is supposed to have a working markdown editor ... not sure how pen input would work.

dannyw 6y ago

Ask HN: what would you recommend as a hackable e-ink reader? Partly reading my own archivable, un-DRM’d books; partly playing with e-ink.

gh02t 6y ago
How DIY are you looking for? The Open Book reader is a pretty neat project. https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
Naac 6y ago
Remarkable 1. Cheaper than most other e-readers for what you get. Fully unlocked and ready for you to SSH into. Lively, polite, and active hacker community.
- dannyw 6y ago
  In Australia this costs A$499, a bit more than the A$200-$300 budget I was willing to spend! Any (perhaps subsidised) alternatives that I can jailbreak?
  - leppr 6y ago
    People have been developing apps and alternative shells for the Kobo for a long time. It's a bit more involved than the Remarkable but nothing close to jailbreaking a walled garden device.
- strogonoff 6y ago
  I was considering getting Remarkable 2 when I am in a country they deliver to. Do you know whether it preserves the qualities of Remarkable 1 you mentioned, apart from the price?
  - _ph_ 6y ago
    I have the reMarkable 2 and it is fully unocked and you can just ssh into it.

1MachineElf 6y ago

Would love to have something like this but with a HN client.

qwerty456127 6y ago
I believe Calibre had a client to generate ePub from RSS or something.
adiM 6y ago
With an android tablet like Boox, you can install any android HN client.

drcode 6y ago

All I want is an ereader that shows up as a printer on my network, so I can just "print" to it.

gravypod 6y ago
Something like this exists for the reMarkable: https://github.com/Evidlo/remarkable_printer https://github.com/Evidlo/remarkable_printer
- _ph_ 6y ago
  Did you get it to work? I tried to install it on my remarkable and print to it with my Mac, but my Mac sends Postscript files which the software doesn't recognize.
- sammorrowdrums 6y ago
  Yeah, it works well, and Onyx Boox has a similar extension. I have both, and.I have used it on both and found the experience great. Much preferred to pocket style save for later. If an online article is too long for me to get throug, and I want to, I will always send to a device.
  - gravypod 6y ago
    I would LOVE to hear your comparison of the both. If you have time my email is in the profile.
    - sammorrowdrums 6y ago
      I will do so on Monday, but I'll message now so you can ask Qs. I'm sorry that I haven't posted comparison review yet, I realise it has been over a month since I told you I would!
  - FlyingSnake 6y ago
    > Onyx Boox has a similar extension Could you please share the source? I’ve got a Boox Note air and would love to have this.

mikeho1999 6y ago

Maybe this is just way too niche, but I've been wondering why there hasn't been any e-ink based laptops with a powerful enough of a processor (e.g. 10th/11th gen core i7 would be great) and ability to put enough RAM (e.g. 16GB) to run a development environment. Something like that would be oh so light and great/easy to carry around. And something purely used for dev doesn't need to have the ability to play videos, etc. (that would just be distracting anyway, right? =) I know there have been a few tablet/reader-based devices that use e-ink and have the ability to run Linux, but of the ones I've seen, none of them seem to have powerful enough of a CPU (and definitely not enough RAM).

PurpleFoxy 6y ago
Because programming on e paper would be horrible. You can’t scroll text properly. You would be limited to page up/down. And then it takes a second or few to do that. And then the e paper panel costs a bunch so what would be a $1000 laptop becomes $4000 and is strictly worse for the vast majority of users.
- fouc 6y ago
  There are e-ink displays with higher refresh rates where scrolling is possible, like Dasung's new e-ink monitor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9qrURPAtnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9qrURPAtnY
  - marvindanig 6y ago
    e-ink screens are objectively worse for our eyes than an IPS panel screen. I mean, this is besides the fact that e-paper screens are also more expensive and less capable than the standard iridescent screen that we spend 24 hours on daily.
    - fouc 6y ago
      > e-ink screens are objectively worse for our eyes than an IPS panel screen. That's not actually true. I have glasses explicitly to prevent eye-strain for when I'm working on the computer, even when it is an IPS/retina display with 2X pixel scaling. However I don't need glasses at all when reading books on a kindle or kobo.

karthink 6y ago

I own the BOOX Note 2, it's an android tablet with some E-Ink friendly modifications. It's the best electronic reading experience I've ever had: - It's 10.3", perfect for reading PDFs like scientific papers without being too large to carry around. - The included reader is stellar, with special modes for reading PDFs, comicbooks, etc. - The included note-taking app is pretty good and fully featured. It integrates with the reader and there's a side-by-side mode. - It supports every open format I've tried: PDFs, DJVU, epub, mobi and more. (Haven't tried PS.) - I can scribble on all document types, including ebooks. - I can install apps from the app store. In particular this means I can read my Kindle library and Wallabag feed, and... - with Syncthing syncing is set and forget. When I download a PDF or book on my computer, I simply pick up the tablet and start reading it. Any notes I make are synced back to my laptop. - Of course, the above is in addition to the standard E-Ink features you'd expect: It lasts for weeks on a charge, the reading experience in bright sunlight is fantastic, it's lighter than an iPad, zero eye strain, etc. I installed only the software I need for reading and syncing, but there's a lot more you could do with it since the play store and F-droid are available. You can use it as an external monitor, for instance.

hyperpallium2 6y ago
The BOOX tablets seem really interesting. I'm wondering if you or anyone has tried a terminal app (e.g. termux)? Is the refresh rate fast enough?
- fake-name 6y ago
  It's usable, but only just, and you have to fiddle with your colorscheme (most of the defaults are unusable for some colors). My major problem with basically all the BOOX devices is they're violating the GPL by not releasing their kernel/uboot sources.[1] [1]: http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/install-linux-or-alternate-os-and-gpl2-kernel-source/698/2 http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/install-linux-or-alterna...
- sammorrowdrums 6y ago
  My Max Lumi can be used as a monitor, and it is possible to work on it, but visual feedback is sluggish and you have to accept a lot of artifacts for the sake of speed. I do hope to try coding in the sun with it some time. Got it in winter though, so haven't yet.

ryzvonusef 6y ago

offtopic, but color e-ink is getting better, there is already a second version for the Kaleido screens and we are getting bigger screens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6K53j1k1vY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6K53j1k1vY

emgo 6y ago
That would be amazing for comic books! Although I image you'd need a significantly larger storage to store all sorts of high quality images, which shouldn't be an issue given how cheap storage has become.
- ryzvonusef 6y ago
  yeah, I guess even 64 gb ought to be enough for everyone (/billgates ;p) Memory is cheap, and you could always buy a bigger SD card afterwards, but processing power is what's relevant, if the correct SoC and Ram combo is not present, especially in e-readers that are essentially just android tablets with color e-ink screens (allowing you to sideload apps) then that will be a major drawback just because your screen refreshes slow doesn't mean the actual app can run on 2gb ram

dont__panic 6y ago

I'm currently using an older Kindle (the Touch, which sadly doesn't include a backlight at all) with a booklight cover, but it's getting very slow thanks to what I assume is storage degradation after 12 years of use. I'd really like to upgrade to a better ereading solution, but I'm at a loss right now. Here are my requirements: - Bigger screen than my Touch (7" would be about perfect, I suspect, but I'm not too picky) - Backlight with warmness adjustability (my current light keeps my girlfriend up at night because it's not embedded) - The ability to take notes on device would be a nice add, I like to annotate PDFs and such - Ample storage to use for another 10ish years. I don't need many bells and whistles. Unfortunately the Kobo series looks like it's a bit out of date right now, or I would just get one of those. Any recommendations?

amval 6y ago
What do you find outdated about Kobos? I find them pretty much perfect. And the constant software updates make them even better. Mine is a couple years old and has an embedded light that automatically adapts warmness throughout the day.
- dont__panic 6y ago
  I think most of their models haven't been updated since 2018-2019. That might not be a huge deal for an ereader that I'd keep offline all the time anyway, but I would definitely be a bit sad if I paid $300 for the top-tier big-screen ereader with 32GB of memory only to have a better model come out in a couple of months, or to have them stop supporting that model soon after.
f1refly 6y ago
The Kobo Aura One with Koreader is the way to go. It just works after you turn off automatic software updates for the kobo firmware.
awiesenhofer 6y ago
I have an Onyx Boox Nova 3, it should perfectly fit your bill: 8", warm backlight (color and brightness are individually adjustable), comes with a pen in the box, 32gb storage (no SD card slot though), doesnt break the bank. Fast SoC and full Android as nice extras. Not affiliated in any way, just really like mine. Reviewed here for example: https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/onyx-boox-nova-3-review https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/onyx-boox-nova-3-review

hemantv 6y ago

Color eink is around the corner. Looking forward to those. Pretty happy with kindle Oasis for now

hemantv 6y ago
TCL nextpaper seems like good contender with kladieo 2
- arendtio 6y ago
  Actually, I wonder how much better it will be compared to the now ancient PixelQi screens. I mean, those were black and white in reflective mode, but could display colors when used with backlight and had decent refresh rates already. However, they typically had some glass front, which caused a lot of reflections and were somewhat dark compared to e-ink displays. I hope the NXTPapers will be a step forward, but so far, most solutions were just considering different trade-offs.

tyler109 6y ago

Reposted in the eink subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/lo3ibm/my_life_in_eink/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/lo3ibm/my_life_in_ein...

deng 6y ago

I can only violently agree with the author: koreader is incredible. When I look for ebook readers, running koreader is an absolute must. The nicest thing about it is how hackable it is, since most of it is written in Lua. When I got my Kobo Aura One, koreader did not yet support the colored background LEDs, and adding support for that was actually pretty easy. The koreader developers are incredibly helpful and it's just a great project.

JetSetWilly 6y ago
Koreader is excellent. On kobo the default nickel is very wasteful of space with huge margins. And for some reason ereaders all hate left justification, even though that’s the norm on printed books. Koreader solves all of that. I love the “style hacks” section that lets you very precisely override many layout details in the book, or even define your own. Even its status bar is much more information dense and useful than on other readers. They don’t cater to the lowest common denominator user so it isn’t for everyone, but if you are unafraid of slightly more complex and powerful software it is superb.
politelemon 6y ago
If I'm understanding this correctly, koreader will let me read epubs on an Amazon Kindle. Am I right to be excited?
- cube2222 6y ago
  I think you can do this with a stock Kindle, by sending the epub to the email address of your Kindle (which you can find in your account settings).
  - mellosouls 6y ago
    No, epubs - presumably as a competitor format - are not supported. You can do it (email "conversion" - often just a horrible mish-mash of text and images) with PDFs and text etc. Epubs need to be converted first by a third party service, eg calibre.

Tepix 6y ago

Are there any eBook readers with wireless charging? I'd like a reader with zero ports that will survive a salt water environment.

captn3m0 6y ago
The latest Paperwhite Kindles are IPX8 rated (it can survive in two meters of water for up to an hour at a time)
- Tepix 6y ago
  That doesn't mean it will last long in an environment with a lot of salt water, does it?

ZeroGravitas 6y ago

I nearly went down this route, with an old, cheap, hacked, reader-only e-ink device with all the cleverness done on a different machine and the output pre-optimised for the specific target device. However, when I looked into it, I found that buying a Boox with a recent version of Android on it, meant that I could replace most of that with apps on the device itself, including borrowing DRM'd books from my local library, which is handy sometimes. And the price difference didn't actually seem that bad, once I took into account my desire for a warm backlight. Maybe if I already owned a simpler device with that feature, I'd have hacked it instead. Having said that, I don't have quite the same aversion to short length reading on e-ink, so I also use Pocket and even a browser (Firefox mobile with DarkMode addon in "light" mode) and so I'm probably getting more use out of that side of things for my money. I have heard very good things about KOReader, but the standard Boox reader is also pretty great, and integrates with the device well (e.g. the default launcher lists books from that reader) so I've not had reason to try anything different. As someone else has mentioned, the only bad thing about Boox I've found so far is that they seems to be withholding their Linux modifications. Doesn't affect me directly in practical terms at the moment, but it's the principle of the thing. Oh remembered, one other potential bad thing, there are apparently core apps that phone home. People have workarounds involving fake VPN apps that block specific urls.

Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
Plus you can also use a boox as an HDMI screen from any output.
- ZeroGravitas 6y ago
  My particular Boox is a small 6 inches, so it's not ideal for that use case, and I think there's only one model that has an actual physical HDMI input but yeah I'm pleased enough with the reading experience that I may upgrade to a larger one that can be used as a coding screen, pen input tablet etc. Again, with screensharing apps, or terminal apps as others talk about in this story, it's possible to do certain things of this nature without the HDMI cable too.
bbarnett 6y ago

imagine99 6y ago

I've long wrestled with myself whether to buy a remarkable (2) and have finally decided against it because I expect that I will own another technical device that will be obsolete and an expensive door stopper in a couple years time (made that mistake with a 1st gen Kindle). Also, while it's extremely sleek, my main use for paper & pen these days is for editing and it's just no fun without a red pen ;-) My expectation (and sincere hope, ngl) is that we will see a major innovation push in e-Ink displays and devices over the next year(s) and I have now resolved to buy a remarkable 3 (or 4) which will hopefully be available in color (and fully usable without any mandatory public cloud tethering). And maybe with some saner pricing options. I mean, a cover for $150? That makes it clear that this is a veblen good, not a workhorse for a wide audience (like schools, students etc.) - or it's Apple-monitor-stand-style consumer rip-off, who knows. I'd much prefer a faux-leather option anyway (not too comfortable with wrapping my tablet in dead cow skin, but don't like the $79 grey option either) but they unfortunately don't offer that.

Bakary 6y ago
There are plenty of non-Veblen alternatives to the remarkable with higher functionality (Dasung, Boox, etc.) but the price will still be high because of the stranglehold of e-ink patents
- robinsoh 6y ago
  > the price will still be high because of the stranglehold of e-ink patents This mistaken claim keeps getting repeated again and again. Patents are not what keeps prices high. Volume. Volume. Volume. E-Ink displays used to be 100x even more expensive in 2006 until a bunch of buyers, Sony, Amazon, came in and put down big orders that caused the product to reach the next level of scale when EInk managed to repurpose existing LCD production lines for their products. If you want Eink displays to be as cheap as LCD, then there's a really simple way. Make an order big enough to get some vendor to build a dedicated Eink factory instead of repurposed LCD builds. Or... you can keep believing there's a magical stranglehold of patents. You can prove that to yourself by asking yourself the simple question of which exact patents need to expire to magically cause the industry to suddenly all start manufacturing Eink displays. And yes, saying all of them, or patent thicket proves the claimant is not involved in the actual industry.

iFreilicht 6y ago

Where does everyone get their books from? From what I could tell, all books you can buy commercially come with proprietary (Amazon) or Adobe (everyone else) DRM, making them impossible to read on koreader. It seems like you always have to buy into someone's ecosystem, or am I missins something?

ulysses 6y ago
If it's a book that's only available DRM, I buy it on the Kindle. I'm not fond of buying DRMed books, but most are only available that way, and Amazon is the most likely to still be around in the future. For non-DRM: Tor Books are no longer DRMed. Baen Books -- https://www.baen.com/ https://www.baen.com/ -- don't have DRM, and you can buy directly from the publisher, and manage your library on their site, and download as many times as you like. You can also often purchase eArc versions, and they have a monthly subscription bundle were you can read parts of the book as it comes out, and then you get the complete book when it's done. If you're interested in translated Japanese light novels, there's J Novel Club -- https://j-novel.club/ https://j-novel.club/ -- for a monthly subscription, you can read book parts for free as they're being translated. Once they're fully translated, you can then purchase the final epub directly from their site. Books are interesting in that they both are and aren't fungible. If, say, I want to read the next Martha Wells Murderbot book, or the next Julie McGalliard Rougarou book, I have to buy that particular book. But if I'm just looking for another book to read, I always check Tor, Baen, and J Novel Club first.
dunnevens 6y ago
I personally use Amazon. But I rarely download directly to my Kindle. I download to my PC. Use Calibre with the DeDRM plugin. Then put it on my Kindle. Or read it on my iPad. That way I’m not locked into any one ecosystem. I get to own the books for as long as I can keep the data. I’ve heard DeDRM also works well with Adobe’s protected epubs. But I don’t have direct experience. If Amazon ever makes it impossible to strip the DRM, then I’ll probably switch to buying physical books and getting files from LibGen. Or just using the library more.
captn3m0 6y ago
Buy off Amazon, rip the DRM using https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/releases https://github.com/apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools/releases, and then read with KOReader on Kindle.

bcoughlan 6y ago

I can't read anything long on a computer screen, so I use a Firefox plugin to send articles to my Kindle to read later. It also gives me an excuse to break away from the office and screen to do some in-depth reading on whatever I'm working on.