25 ms·

E-ink is so Retropunk

• eterps 3y ago
  IMO the Oberon operating system would be a really good fit for this type of hardware. http://www.projectoberon.net/ http://www.projectoberon.net/
  • weinzierl 3y ago
    I love all the things from Niklaus Wirth I know, but I only casually know about Oberon. From a glance I don't see the connection. Could you elaborate why this would be a good fit.
    • eterps 3y ago
      It's a simple and small system that renders directly to a framebuffer (Project Oberon only supports black and white), it's optimized for simple CPU architectures (and that's an understatement), extremely small footprint and doesn't have a lot of resource usage.
    • cyberax 3y ago
      The members of the Oberon Cult just keep pushing it everywhere.
      • eterps 3y ago
        Ah of course, the large number of platforms where the Oberon OS has been pushed to by the many Oberon cult members ;)
    • ekidd 3y ago
      I haven't touched Oberon since the 90s. But it was a fun little system. The language is one of the nicer Pascal descendents. The windowing system was similar to tiling. The entire system was tiny in terms of code. Everything was black and white. One of the nicest features was universally embeddable widgets. You could make a simple clock and embed it in running text, for example. Kind of like what OpenDoc dreamed of, or Google Wave's inline widgets, or what it might be like if you could extend Discord with custom UI in a few hundred lines of code. I wasn't motivated to keep using Oberon—it was honestly too odd and too small to compete with my other desktop options. But I do agree it would be neat to try with an eInk display. It's a small, interesting, black-and-white system with a minimalist UI. Particularly if you customized the UI input layer, it could be a neat tool for building small household dashboards.
  • wchar_t 3y ago
    A FORTH gui would be an interesting project as well
• vpribish 3y ago
  that page lists a few devices they _don't_ recommend (kindle) because they are not openly hackable. what are some ones that are more so? anyone here recommend a cheap, hackable, e-ink reader?
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • Nashooo 3y ago
    They also linked to the Remarkable and Kobo communities.
  • SalimoS 3y ago
    From the same page > Convinced that you should hack on eink devices? Grab a reMarkable or Kobo and get hacking But kindle is The cheapest e-ink afaik
    • ljf 3y ago
      Last time I looked the Nook simple touch (6 inch android eink tablet) was about £30 delivered 2nd hand. Love mine. I spent a long time (a few years ago) setting it up with all sorts of android fun, but now I just use it as a epub reader and it fits that niche perfectly for me.
    • Qwertious 3y ago
      The cheapest e-ink is a $5 2" Waveshare EPD plus an ESP32.
  • extr0pian 3y ago
    The author mentioned them already, but didn't recommend for violating the GPL, but I have an Onyx Boox Poke 3 and Boox Leaf that run Android that I've rooted. They're not very cheap (the Poke runs about $180). They're pretty fun devices to tinker with. https://chuck.is/rooting-onyx/ https://chuck.is/rooting-onyx/ Edit: I also experimented with the Poke 3 by creating a sort of "writerdeck" setup with a bluetooth keyboard and termux, then attaching everything together with velcro and magnets: https://chuck.is/writerdeck/ https://chuck.is/writerdeck/
• gonehome 3y ago
  There are some E-ink fans in the urbit community (disclaimer I work on this stuff) and it really lets you fully extend the retropunk feel. I’ve got my Urbit running on a native planet hardware box (https://martiancomputing.substack.com/p/product-review-native-planet https://martiancomputing.substack.com/p/product-review-nativ...) plugged into my router’s switch that I can access from anywhere. The UI for groups also looks good on e-ink (mostly white and black, nice design) one of the devs has an e-ink phone that shows it off. It’s cool to really own the entire stack. I had the original remarkable tablet mentioned in the post and it was really cool (someone was also using it as a browser to access urbit back then), the new tablet looks better too. There was someone at the first urbit assembly (probably here on HN) working on cool new e-ink style tech that had some advantages without having to engage with all the patent nonsense and vendor lock-in that has plagued (imo seriously stalled) e-ink as a technology.
  • codethief 3y ago
    > I’ve got my Urbit running on a native planet hardware box (https://martiancomputing.substack.com/p/product-review-nativ https://martiancomputing.substack.com/p/product-review-nativ...) plugged into my router’s switch that I can access from anywhere. This is the first time I'm hearing about Urbit and, having spent the past 5-10 minutes browsing their website(s), I still haven't been able to figure out what it is exactly. Could you explain? And what do you use it for?
    • gonehome 3y ago
      It’s a new OS design that runs in a runtime with baked in networking and PKI lookup for encrypted routes between users. I primarily use it today for chat (similar to IRC), and I locally host my own system. Every user is their own server. I wrote up a longer form description here: https://zalberico.com/essay/2022/09/28/tlon-urbit-computing-freedom.html https://zalberico.com/essay/2022/09/28/tlon-urbit-computing-... Hopefully that’s helpful. It’s a little outdated now though. We’re doing free hosting for now at tlon.io to help the network grow (so it’s easy to check it out). The (long) original technical intro to the ideas is here: http://moronlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/urbit-functional-programming-from.html?m=1 http://moronlab.blogspot.com/2010/01/urbit-functional-progra...
• V1ndaar 3y ago
  I was under the impression there were a few big issues with the openness of the reMarkable. Don't remember the details, but at some point I decided it wouldn't be for me. But this seems like I may be wrong? This seems like there should be good ways for a) easy sync and b) OCR without relying on their subscription (that's required, no?).
  • Eeems 3y ago
    You can run your own reverse engineered implementation of their cloud: https://ddvk.github.io/rmfakecloud/ https://ddvk.github.io/rmfakecloud/
  • ethanbond 3y ago
    I would recommend looking at the Supernote. I did a ton of research and the ReMarkable seems very oddly limited. Supernote A5X is one of the best purchases I’ve made in 10 years easily. Idk about hackability and whatnot but as far as a useful e-reader, note book, sketchbook, planner, it’s amazing. Edit: Also unaffiliated with this product but it’s awesome: https://hyperpaper.me/ https://hyperpaper.me/ Configurable, highly linked PDF planner with a very responsive person behind it (I figure he must be around here somewhere :))
    • V1ndaar 3y ago
      Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out!
    • chrisweekly 3y ago
      Alt perspective: my reMarkable 2 is awesome hardware, easy to hack (root is trivial), and hyperpaper.me works great on it. I recommend pairing it w/ a LAMY stylus.
      • Qwertious 3y ago
        The RM2 can't update the screen without Xochitl, though. That's why Parabola-RM hasn't been ported to it, AIUI.
• RicDan 3y ago
  Sadly it seems that the current trend is to throw in android and apps and whatnot to make it a terrible tablet replacement, whilst driving the cost up. It baffles me how android is in any way (apart from installing other reader apps) an improvement for e-readers.
  • eterps 3y ago
    Most public libraries require an Android/iOS app for (controlled) digital lending.
    • duozerk 3y ago
      OK but with libgen offering a much better, non DRM alternative that point is ultimately not an issue IMO
      • eterps 3y ago
        I agree in the case of HN readers, for grandma and grandpa, not so much. In addition to that, lending ebooks from the public library provides (at least some) income to the e-book authors and editors.
      • schroeding 3y ago
        Have to disagree on that for non-english books. libgen / z-lib aren't always amazing for those, in my experience. The local library is the other way around, almost no english content, but plenty in my native tongue. The library also has the current (clickbait-free) print versions of newspapers as e-papers, which the shadow libraries (at least those that I know) have not. They synergize very well, though. :)
  • TheFreim 3y ago
    Supernote is decent in this regard. It's an android base, but the software has been very intentionally designed so as to avoid many of the pitfalls. It's primarily a notetaking e-ink tablet, it excels at writing notes or marking up pdfs/ebooks. If you really want you are able to install other applications, currently not officially supported though they've said they plan on adding support, but it's completely secondary to the primary mostly seamless design.
• foobarqux 3y ago
  It's a shame that Kindles aren't hack-friendly, there are lots of old Kindles lying around that would be great as an always-on display.
  • Sunspark 3y ago
    It is doable though. A bunch of years ago I followed some instructions and set up a dual-boot on one using a Chinese ebook platform firmware. This way if you wanted to read epubs or PDFs you would boot to the other OS. Worked pretty well! Had access to all of the hardware including wifi. So it would be the same basic principle here as what you envision.. boot into that other system, but have it instead launch some other app.
  • Turing_Machine 3y ago
    Though I haven't actually tried this, it probably wouldn't be too hard to use the built-in Kindle web browser to display a constantly updating web page and/or full-screen image from a remote web server.
    • foobarqux 3y ago
      Amazon recently disabled the ability to keep the screen always on so it doesn't really work. It's kind of finicky as well: I would have the network selector pop-up and stay there if there was a temporary disconnection in the WiFi (say if someone used the microwave).
      • Turing_Machine 3y ago
        > Amazon recently disabled the ability to keep the screen always on so it doesn't really work. Too bad. There are probably other use cases for "keep the screen on continuously". > It's kind of finicky as well: I would have the network selector pop-up and stay there if there was a temporary disconnection in the WiFi (say if someone used the microwave). Now this I've never seen. The WiFi is pretty solid here, though... there are 5 WAPs in different parts of the house (primarily so I can get signal out to the edge of the yard -- the house is only medium-sized)..
• SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
  >Linux: as much as I like it, Android is a complicated mess EDIT: misread, I agree
  • samtheprogram 3y ago
    You're being overly pedantic. They meant a GNU/Linux distribution without the Android bits, not an Android distribution. And that's obvious.
  • smeej 3y ago
    I see Linux and Android there, not Arduino?
    • SV_BubbleTime 3y ago
      Yea I’m bad at reading.
• terminous 3y ago
  Retro? Sure. Punk? Not when the patents are tightly held by a greedy patent troll who seems to do everything in their power to stop hobbyists and hackers
  • bloopernova 3y ago
    Looks like some of the patents have expired, but the e-ink company keeps adding more. At least to my layman's eye the new patents don't seem to be particularly revolutionary :/
    • terminous 3y ago
      > At least to my layman's eye the new patents don't seem to be particularly revolutionary It's the same trick that pharmaceutical companies use to extend their patents. Find a slightly new use or way that also covers the old use, and bam, exclusivity for another 20 years.
      • space_fountain 3y ago
        People say this but I’ve never been quite clear. Outside of medicine where you can convince doctors to insist on your new better safer cap or whatever is there anything stopping people from just building a product without the new patents. You still aren’t allowed to patent things with prior art right? So you can’t legally wait till your product is about to loose patent protection and then patent another existing aspect of it
        • couchand 3y ago
          Well the law on the matter really depends on the relative size of your legal team.
          • space_fountain 3y ago
            What does that look like exactly? Patenting something they’re already doing?
• Exuma 3y ago
  Can someone talk me in/out of buying one of these? I've looked at them several times, and I have quite literally no purpose for it (each iPad I buy I end up not using it much, and somehow the next iPad I think will be different. I basically just use it as a painting reference). But I could imagine sitting this on my desk and using it when designing software to draw out diagrams. That said, I also use actual paper and pencil and have notebooks full of sketches... so ultimately I don't know if I would want this or not. Help me decide! EDIT: I bought it so from here forward only rationalize my decision that it was good!
  • picture 3y ago
    I've made similar considerations (as a college student) and honestly, just stick to pen(cil) and paper. Analog stuff are so cheap and so good that you won't come close to paying off the price of a e-paper tablet. The only benefit imo is portability and ease of sharing to computer, but I find my scanner on my printer works perfectly fine and that I have trouble finding things digitally even with effort organizing My opinion against e-paper tablets would definitely change if their price becomes much lower
    • r3trohack3r 3y ago
      Was firmly in this camp, and preferred paper to electronics, until the Remarkable 2. It managed to get close enough in feel (not perfect to be fair) to paper that I don’t mind using it for notes and studying. It’s pretty nice being able to markup text books and research papers as a separate layer I can toggle to de-deface the page, add note pages, etc. And having my whole book collection at hand everywhere I go without lugging around a 50lb backpack. I still prefer paper for desk references. Flipping through a 300pg tome looking for a specific familiar page is still easier with analogue.
  • boesboes 3y ago
    I’ve had a remarkable 2, I found I prefer paper for notes. I don’t read my notes very often, so its more the process of writing them that I ’use’. And although very good, its not the same on a rm2. Not sure waht it is exactly. The latency, the tactile aspect, maybe even the physicality of a note book or just the annoyance of using a device again.. That’s my 50 cents :)
• helf 3y ago
  I love love love eink. I have used eink daily since about 2007 (first gen kindle... who's design I still adore. Talk about punk looking lol). I then switched to an Entourage eDGe briefly (too big) and then to an Entourage eDGe Pocket in ~2011. I still have it and use it (battery amazingly holds all day charge under use). Just got a Boox Tab Ultra C and I am in heaven. The CFA layer over the eink goves really nice muted colors that remind me of 1960s news print and it is so easy on the eyes. The screen refresh speeds are amazing (I actually watch videos using PiP floating (smaller windows refresh better) while doing other things. The Android 11 install is heavily optimized and runs beautifully. If I use it for just tectual data in airplane mode I easy get nearly a month per charge. My dream is a laptop that is 300+ DPI eink @ 13-15" with maybe a clear oled overlay for when you need color. It would be so nice. Or even a laptop with a rotate screen like the old panasonic toughbooks or fujitsu lifebooks that has a 180 hinge. Oled or IPS hiDPI on one side and highres eink on the other. Would be phenomenal. As soon as I have the spare cash I am going to get one of the desktop eink monitors! I am so excited they are finally becoming a thing. I used to run a greyscale NeXT Turbo for years. Was only 68hz but it was a proper monochrome CRT and was easy on my eyes. For whatever reason, color CRTs hurt my eyes unless they are ~85hz or higher. Anyways, enough ranting. Suffice to say eink is a dream for people like me and I can only hope it contonues getting better <3
• krabizzwainch 3y ago
  I’m a little disappointed that this doesn’t go into the off the shelf screens from waveshare. That’s where the fun really is for me at least. I wrote an epub reader in Python and built an eReader with a raspberry pi. I guess it’s a little less hacking and more so developing.
  • sigil 3y ago
    Sounds cool! Did you publish code or a writeup somewhere?
    • krabizzwainch 3y ago
      At one point I had a post on reddit about it, but I ended up deleting that. However my post did get scraped by hackster.io so here is the link to their post. https://www.hackster.io/news/diy-e-reader-incorporates-mechanical-key-switches-7755045a3c3c https://www.hackster.io/news/diy-e-reader-incorporates-mecha... and here is my github. https://github.com/bwkrayb/37reader https://github.com/bwkrayb/37reader Doing a write up has been a plan of mine for a while now lol I bought a 3d printer to move on from the gutted airpods box and a case has been in a half printed state just waiting for me to design the rest of it. I've run into a creative wall and haven't gotten much further.
  • ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    Or anywhere, really. This statement: "Grab a reMarkable or Kobo and get hacking" isn't realistic to me. I don't run out and buy current products that cost $300 to "get hacking." Hacking on a panel scrounged from a discontinued product, or a bare one, sure. But when you're spending multiple hundreds of dollars for a new part, I don't consider that the hacker realm. Nothing against the author; I've been looking at E-ink for a long time and this page is inspiring. But in the end, the cost turns me away yet again. Also the pitiful refresh rates I've seen...
    • II2II 3y ago
      Look for a second hand device then? I don't know what the situation is like for Remarkable, but Kobo has been around for over a decade and used ones are floating around the second hand market. (The Kobo Touch was introduced over a decade ago and is hackable.) If you're willing to scavange just the screen, there are even more options since you don't have to worry about the device itself being locked down. The drawback with scavenging screens is you have to figure out how to interface to the screen, which is quite the barrier to entry.
• tambourine_man 3y ago
  > They are a return to the magical feeling of computers of the 80s and 90s. It’s a world where Microsoft and Apple never existed and we don’t have to suffer with abstractions on top of abstractions. It’s DOS for the 2020s Does the author know who wrote DOS? Microsoft and Apple were essencial to the magic of that era of computing. It’s a genuine question, someone born in the 2000s is 23 now and will have only experienced that age indirectly.
  • edent 3y ago
    Do you know who originally wrote DOS? Hint: it wasn't Microsoft!
    • stavros 3y ago
      Looks like it was, though, unless you mean the "jointly developed by Microsoft and IBM" bit. Edit: to clarify, when people say "DOS", 99.999% of the time they mean MS-DOS, not the generic "disk operating system", which is a category and wasn't developed by anyone in particular.
      • beej71 3y ago
        86-DOS was purchased by Microsoft and renamed MS-DOS.
        • stavros 3y ago
          Huh, Wikipedia buries that lede in the "history" section, thanks.
          • Fordec 3y ago
            Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, including a Microsoft PR intern.
    • gizajob 3y ago
      Whoever wrote ProDOS that they purchased?
• cimm 3y ago
  I got myself a https://paperd.ink https://paperd.ink: a 4.2″ screen with battery in a printed case for $90. I wrote a small calendar application for it to replace the paper calendar at home: https://suffix.be/blog/eink-calendar https://suffix.be/blog/eink-calendar
  • konschubert 3y ago
    For others who see this and don’t want to build something themselves: I make and sell an eink calendar (and smart display) for $149, complete with mobile apps and google calendar sync. https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-calendar https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale... The display is 7.5 inch. This is still a side project for me though I am thinking of ways to turn this into a self-sustaining business.
    • joelthelion 3y ago
      Why does it need a power cable? To me the main selling point of e-ink displays is that they should be able to last weeks if not months on a single charge...
      • konschubert 3y ago
        I want to make a version with a battery. But I don't know when I will get this done. My goal is to make it last at least half a year. 6 months I think is the minimum standard for a thing that is supposed to hang on the wall and not be a hassle to babysit. A battery adds a lot of complexity and cost for testing, certification and shipping. And it adds another failure mode. So I decided against it for the current version.
        • joelthelion 3y ago
          Thanks for your answer! Let me know when the battery version is ready :-)
    • vogt 3y ago
• yoavm 3y ago
  shameless plug: I'm loving my PostmarketOS powered Kobo and even built a small interface for it: https://github.com/bjesus/air https://github.com/bjesus/air and would highly recommend it to fellow hackers. I use it pretty much daily for reading, and occasionally for all sorts of hacking fun.
• caligarn 3y ago
  Better link for remarkable discord server: https://discord.com/invite/qEnCVcd https://discord.com/invite/qEnCVcd
  • Eeems 3y ago
    Better in what way?
• kepano 3y ago
  I really wonder what would have happened in the e-ink patents didn't get locked up, and the technology had a chance to evolve for a couple more decades like LCD has. I'm working on an e-ink theme for Obsidian[1]. So far it's working on Boox devices, but I wish I could get it running on reMarkable. I'm not as clued into the reMarkable ecosystem, does anyone know if they will eventually add an app store or better tools for developers? [1]: https://minimal.guide/features/eink https://minimal.guide/features/eink
  • shreyshnaccount 3y ago
    You should check out hyperpaper, and maybe let's build an obsidian plugin with similar functionality. The problem right now with obsidian is pen input lag atleast on my Onyx device.
    • funksta 3y ago
      Hey, hyperpaper creator here! One of my long term dreams for the project is to make those pdfs usable as an input source for PKMs like Obsidian. I love the promise of full-featured PKMs (searchability, long-term retention) but I don't want to be on a laptop for hours curating and typing into them. An eInk tablet is my preferred note-taking and thinking device. The idea I want to eventually pursue is set up a service where you could sync your pdf (or send specific pages via email), have them OCRed (including dates and titles specifically since they already live in well-defined parts of the pages), and then ingest them into your PKM for long-term storage and recall Unfortunately Obsidian Cloud doesn't seem to have an API to support this at present, but I think it's theoretically feasible with Notion at least. Let me know if you build something like this :)
      • shreyshnaccount 3y ago
        That's actually really similar to the digital infrastructure I'm building for myself. It's deceptively hard. I also want automatic tagging and two way updating between PDFs and the filesystem on my laptop. You can contact me at shreyssecondbrain at gmail
  • deleted 3y ago
• 23B1 3y ago
  It's bonkers to me how the whole hardware/software world seems to miss the actual best feature of e-ink: it's visible in sunlight. It chaps my ass every day that it's only possible to sit in a semi-dark room if for my working hours – during the day no less! YES I am aware there are ways to hook an e-ink screen to my laptop. But that's such a kludge! How is it that there are so few options, how is it nobody is thinking about the health benefits of knowledge workers being able to spend half their day in the sun? Sorry for the rant, it's just big tech brain that very few product developers think in this way. Humans are meant to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine, not locked to a damn screen all day.
  • kylebenzle 3y ago
    We have the technology we have, there is no conspiracy to keep e-ink down other than a conspiracy of dunces.
  • MichaelZuo 3y ago
    If you believe in it, then start your own company and make it? Your on HN after all.
  • alcover 3y ago
    That is my dream too. I would be SO happy to sit outside and think and code for many hours without worrying on battery life. No need for a powerful CPU. I just need to edit my code, see if it works and take notes. I want to hack on my compiler while the cows graze around me !
    • paulmd 3y ago
      yes, I've been thinking about this too, and I've talked to other people who have had the same fever dream. the children yearn for the dumb terminal. this isn't a hardware product (people here have mentioned an e-ink tablet that can sideload, that plus a keyboard plus a battery, or ESP32-S3 etc) but rather a software product. and that software is the glorious resurrection of vt320/vt330 buffered/paged terminals. because that's what's going to minimize your terminal's power consumption. you need to brutally minimize the number of bytes you transmit, which means having relatively small working set for any assist features (eg things like debugging might be nicer with a local variable cache). A large persistent eMMC or flash storage (but optimized for doing some decent writes) might be nice for those things. 32GB or 64GB goes a long way in a dumb-terminal context, you can use that like a portion of your RAM load if you code carefully. btle can do some active data transmission in realtime and it has the basic "beacon, I'm still here" etc, and you can use the notification-push thing for server-side async ops. And ideally you'd use your phone as a BTLE client that routes packets/data or provides your server-side api. This can be done even on apple with the Bluetooth Browser thingy, your self-hosted website can interact with your BT device and that'll be your relay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_Low_Energy#Applications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_Low_Energy#Applicati... in an interactive scenario with an IDE-ish thing and a larger working set maybe you use more power but if you're running a nano/pico clone onboard that's dirt simple and can be done with simple buffer flush etc. And most of the ESP32-S3s come with 8MB of external SRAM. The other major power draw is the USB, I think you could bring that down a lot with an actual hardware circuit wired right to the ESP32. Again like, the e-ink tablet with an external KB is simple and lets you get tinkering with the editing experience in that kind of form factor! but I also think you can cut power way below that if you use something like the ESP32-S3 and BTLE with aggressive onboard caching. Don't forget to minimize power in idledown mode, and idledown as aggressively as possible. Running the keyboard as an interrupt-driven thing could cut power a lot if you can idle down between keypresses.
• bullen 3y ago
  Vision Five 2 is moving decently fast. The latest release handles most things without locking. I got my 3 MMOs working on it (Java, Java+LWJGL and C+), the impressive part is both OpenGL 1 and OpenGL ES 3 work as expected, but much too slow still. Raspberry 4 and Vision Five 2 are the contenders for relatively open and passively cooled 100% gaming. Even if the TH1250 and RK3588 promise more juice they also consume ~10W and make more heat that in most cases require fan or very large heat sink.
• bawolff 3y ago
  Wow, the interactive fiction interpreter looks so cool. https://github.com/bkirwi/folly https://github.com/bkirwi/folly i think i want one
• emodendroket 3y ago
  I have to say I actually find it kind of frustrating how low the specs are because you sometimes find the stupid thing chugging. While trying to display plain text. In a way a tablet is better.
• imiric 3y ago
  I'd really like to have a large e-ink display on my wall showing various dashboards, but I can't justify the exorbitant cost. It would be really elegant to have a low powered programmable setup with an Arduino and a battery, but I'm tempted to just buy a large LCD display and connect it to mains instead. It's a shame that this technology is kept artifically out of reach to hobbyists. I've seen the Waveshare displays, but they're too small and limited in features (monochrome or few colors, very high refresh rate, etc.).
  • echelon 3y ago
    > It's a shame that this technology is kept artifically out of reach to hobbyists. This is still an issue where a single company controls the entire tech, right? When do the relevant patents expire?
    • 3pt14159 3y ago
      Expiry isn't the issue. In America (and Canada I'm pretty sure) you have the right to use a patent at a fair cost determined by a court. Or you can try to just use the patent anyway and wait for the court case to come to you.
      • sjs382 3y ago
        Nope. A patent is an exclusive right yo an invention. They aren't forced to license it to you or anyone else.
        • generic92034 3y ago
          The exception would be standard essential patents, as far as I know.
          • stonogo 3y ago
            The standards bodies can encourage FRAND licensing, but there is no legal requirement backing it beyond the patent holder agreeing to it.
• ryandv 3y ago
  As much as I love the hacker spirit of cracking open hardware and software and bending it to your will (whether or not it was designed towards that end), I enjoy my reMarkable precisely because I can get away from the ubiquity of computing and needing to constantly tinker with and repair software. I've fucked with Gentoo and Arch for so long that sometimes I just want a break from it all. No dependency hell, no bugs, esoteric stack traces, nor popups, advertisements, notifications, nor distractions. Just some pen and paper, except without the eraser shavings or ink blots. Not having to scan your notes to digitize them is a nice bonus as well. Especially since the pandemic and in the WFH era it's nice to get away from the omnipresent touchscreen or mouse and keyboard interfaces and deal with something a little more tactile; something reminiscent of a less perpetually online era. I'm tired of being hyperconnected to everything. Not to mention all the problems from staring at LED monitors all day long. Sometimes I don't want to troubleshoot software; I've done enough of that already.
  • blowski 3y ago
    I'm with you. I want to buy things that don't need constant fiddling to keep them working. I want them to silently do their thing, supporting me in the background while I focus on mine. But it's great knowing that I _could_ drop down a layer at any time. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable about relying on an ecosystem to know that it has redundancy in the support layer. For example, if Remarkable themselves go out of business, will I still have access to my documents? Will they still receive updates? Will I still be able to buy replacement parts?
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • ryandv 3y ago
      Yes, yes. It just works, but if I need to I can pop open the hood and shell in, and then I'm back at home with Linux.
  • locusofself 3y ago
    Precisely why I have not used Linux on my laptop/desktop since like 15 years ago. I love to tinker and troubleshoot but I prefer to to be getting paid for it.
• fidotron 3y ago
  The killer problem with e-ink is the pricing betrays that the yield absolutely tanks as the area increases, which is true of semiconductors and other display technologies, but in the case of e-ink seems to be that much worse. Part of the success of things like GPUs is their ability to degrade gracefully in the presence of one or two errors which would otherwise render the whole thing unusable.
  • pclmulqdq 3y ago
    LCDs are incredibly simple to manufacture compared to e-ink displays. Also, the best cleanroom technology in the world goes to LCD manufacturing facilities thanks to the incredible economies of scale available.
    • coder543 3y ago
      > Also, the best cleanroom technology in the world goes to LCD manufacturing facilities Better than cutting edge semiconductor fabs? Why would LCDs need such cleanroom facilities?
      • pclmulqdq 3y ago
        One dust particle per 12" square loses you 1 of 100 CPUs. It loses you 100% of your 50" TVs. Also, CPU manufacturing facilities keep the insides of the machines cleaner than the facility, containing the wafers in transit between machines, and LCD manufacturers do not have the same luxury.
        • justinclift 3y ago
          That lost CPU would still have potentially been worth several times as much as the 50" TV though. Intel server CPUs especially. Entry level laptop CPUs not so much. ;)
          • asddubs 3y ago
            you can't just go by retail price though, it becomes a question of whether it's cheaper to implement a better clean room or to just slightly scale up production to account for breakage
• yoyopa 3y ago
  how retropunk is it?
  • zvmaz 3y ago
    It's a new technology (in that sense, it's not "retro"), and "punk"? I don't know what the author means.
    • layer8 3y ago
      It’s not new, the first Kindle was released in 2007.
      • PurpleRamen 3y ago
        That's just 16 years, not much. From the POV of retro, this is new. Especially as we are talking about a still used and evolving technology, not something dead which was rediscovered and revived.
• thelazyone 3y ago
  I wonder what kind of interesting applications could be done on e-ink harnessing the advantages of the long battery life and not suffering by the slow refresh rate. Sure, porting doom or implementing a terminal is an interesting and probably challenging feat, but still it's applications that don't shine on an e-ink device. Maybe some "slow" strategy game, that updates upon certain events but might remain unmodified for hours at a time? Or - more in general - an application that is required to be on for a long time but really doesnt' change often.
  • wchar_t 3y ago
    A traditional roguelike, in the line of TGGW/Cogmind/Nethack/Brogue/DCSS, would probably be nice. Not really a "slow strategy game", granted, but the fact that animations/colors aren't necessary makes it a good fit IMO
  • NeoTar 3y ago
    I think eInk price labels are now getting to be quite a common thing in some stores - while it's probably not fair/legal to change prices while the store is open, it means prices can be updated very easily overnight.
• clnq 3y ago
  I’ve been dreaming of a truly programmable (not just apps) e-ink watch with 4g or at least WiFi for a while. A week-long battery life, cellular connectivity, visibility in the sunlight, and it should be cheap if it’s cost+ priced. Oh the things I’d put on it. I could host an API on my server where I’d ask GPT to summarise recent events or my email metadata and calendar events. I could probably finally ditch my smartphone for good. Its hard to find anything like that, though.
  • devbent 3y ago
    Soon as you add in connectivity, battery life dies. RF is expensive.
    • clnq 3y ago
      There are some LoRa watches that last quite long. So I wonder if WiFi or 4g, at least at intervals, would make a week-long battery with low hundreds or slightly under a hundred of of mAh impossible.
  • Moldoteck 3y ago
    Oh god, somebody should bring pebble back to life. Such a shame pebble time 2 wasn't delivered (
• joemi 3y ago
  Speaking of e-ink devices, is there a more-open equivalent to the amazon/kindle ebook store? Some site you can use to legally purchase and download ebooks for non-kindle devices? Or can you do that via Amazon now?
  • spondylosaurus 3y ago
    Google Play Books is pretty good on any device that runs it. You can also upload your own ebooks quite easily (and then sync progress/annotations across devices), which is great for my collection of .epub files that mysteriously fell off a truck...
  • wilsonnb3 3y ago
    You can download books from the Kobo store. Most of them use Adobe Digital Editions DRM, which is trivial to remove using calibre, but some are DRM free.
  • II2II 3y ago
    This seems to depend upon the author/publisher more than anything else. It also seems to heavily depend upon the type of book (e.g. DRM free computer and science fiction books seem to be the most common). Even when you do find a store that sells DRM free ebooks, you have to be careful about buying books that are labelled as such. Kindle is probably not the best choice for DRM free books since ePub and PDF are the dominant formats (outside of Amazon).
  • fsflover 3y ago
    Here you go (scroll down): https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v13/ https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v13/
    • joemi 3y ago
      Nice. I haven't seen that page on the fsf.org before. That's pretty useful!
• shreyshnaccount 3y ago
  Onyx devices are good, but would be so much better if I could run desktop linux on it :/
  • FouzR 3y ago
    It would be better if they were GPL compliant
  • starman12980 3y ago
    you _can_ use some onyx devices as an external monitor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJIS_amo7TI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJIS_amo7TI
• raisjn 3y ago
  OP here. thanks for all the comments. some more info: rmkit is a library (and group of devs) for creating apps on the rM (and now Kobo). outside of rmkit, people typically use Qt to write apps, but there's many routes[0], including SAS[1]: a solution that uses unix pipes. the rM2 requires a bit more hacking to get working than the rM1 because their framebuffer driver[2] is embedded in their software for rM2 and requires updating rm2fb every time remarkable releases a new update. there's alternative drivers[3] to drive the display in development. i will keep updating the article based on feedback, thank you and keep hacking [0]: https://remarkable.guide/devel/index.html https://remarkable.guide/devel/index.html [1]: https://rmkit.dev/apps/sas https://rmkit.dev/apps/sas [2]: https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer/ https://github.com/ddvk/remarkable2-framebuffer/ [3]: https://github.com/matteodelabre/waved https://github.com/matteodelabre/waved
  • jmspring 3y ago
    On a scale of a PC to having to jail break an iPhone to do custom stuff - how invasive is what you are mentioning for the RM2? I have one, love it for notes/etc. But haven't tried 3rd party software/etc on it.
    • lallysingh 3y ago
      The settings page had the root password and you ssh in over (IIRC) usb
    • Eeems 3y ago
      https://remarkable.guide/ https://remarkable.guide/ has a bunch of current information on the state of hacking your device. You have root access out of the box, which means how invasive it is depends on how you go about it. The community is trying their best to stick to a set of standards that keeps things from being too brittle, and "just works".
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • AlexCoventry 3y ago
    Can you brick your RM2 by playing with this? I'm interested, but the device was a bit pricey for potentially destructive fooling around.
• cryotopippto 3y ago
  Seems rich to recommend the expensive reMarkable which doesn't even encourage external devs. It seems people managed to jailbreak older versions but you will brick your device if it's too new...
  • Eeems 3y ago
    There is no jailbreaking. You are given root access out of box[2]. They don't discourage external developers, they even provide a toolchain[1] to build for the device upon request. Hell, their CTO at the time (not sure if they still are) wrote some non-official software that people can install[4], and helped some of the initial members of the community get their stuff working. They just don't provide official support for external software on the device. As for bricking your device: It will not hard brick, it may only soft-brick[0], as in, the display will not update on the rM2, because the software driving the screen needs to be updated to support the new OS. You can still SSH in and revert the changes and then downgrade. If you were silly enough not to write down your SSH password, or set up an SSH key and can't get into SSH, you can still recover your device[3] on your own. 0. https://remarkable.guide/faqs.html#can-i-install-toltec-before-my-os-version-is-supported https://remarkable.guide/faqs.html#can-i-install-toltec-befo... 1. https://remarkable.guide/devel/toolchains.html https://remarkable.guide/devel/toolchains.html 2. https://remarkable.guide/guide/access/ssh.html https://remarkable.guide/guide/access/ssh.html 3. https://remarkable.guide/tech/recovery.html https://remarkable.guide/tech/recovery.html 4. https://github.com/sandsmark/recrossable https://github.com/sandsmark/recrossable
    • zorrotorro 3y ago
      I didn't know there's different kinds of bricking. It does NOT sound like having root access. This big warning is on the front page: > Warning: Toltec does not support OS builds newer than 2.15.1.1189. You will soft-brick your device if you install before support is released. See remarkable2-recovery for information on how to recover your device if you have done this.
      • Eeems 3y ago
• hiddencost 3y ago
  I wired a WavShare display to a firebeetle ESP32, with a 10 Ah battery. I run it with ESPHome connected to Home Assistant. Fits in a picture, I only update it every 8 hours. Battery is still alive after two months. I'm using Todoist to host a Todo list that I can update from my phone. It gets pushed to the eInk display on my office wall.
  • konschubert 3y ago
    How do you render the todo list? Does todoist provide an API? (I am trying to sell an epaper smart screen as a commercial product. Right now it only has a calendar app and I am looking for apps that I can add.)
• OptCohTomo 3y ago
  E-ink is a fascinating display technology. Here is an account of a non-destructive “teardown” of an E-ink display by optical coherence tomography (OCT): https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1605/1605.05174.pdf https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1605/1605.05174.pdf
• queasypickle 3y ago
  [dead]
• joshe 3y ago
  Add Visionect to hacker unfriendly devices. They forced a change to subscription service. Ask me how I know :-(.
• agentultra 3y ago
  A ReMarkable 2 with the Folio keyboard is almost a whole ass computer. An eMacs-like development environment where buffers also had layers that could intermingle strokes with text and it would be perfect. I’d hack my own but I’m a little paranoid of bricking it with only one hardware button.
  • starman12980 3y ago
    lmao I was just watching a video with this dude making it his whole ass computer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJIS_amo7TI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJIS_amo7TI I think he used a boox tho
  • Qwertious 3y ago
    The ReMarkable 2 needs the proprietary Xochitl binary to update the screen (there's a shim, but it needs to be updated every time Xochitl updates), but the ReMarkable 1 doesn't have this problem, and already has a port of Parabola Linux, Parabola-RM (no WiFi due to Linux-libre, although you can compile it with them included): http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ http://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/ Plus, the ReMarkable 1 has a total of four hardware buttons, and is even 50g lighter! Plus it's power button doesn't get stuck.
    • kjkjadksj 3y ago
      So the remarkable 1 is the objectively better device?
      • Eeems 3y ago
        Half as many cores, half the ram, and way less battery life due to higher power draw during suspend for some reason. It doesn't support the keyboard folio either. Depending on your criteria, one, or the other, is the better device.
    • agentultra 3y ago
      This is why I only hack on my RM1. Unfortunately the Folio keyboard doesn’t work with it. So it’s stuck being a tablet.
• k__ 3y ago
  Would be more punk if nobody would hog all the patents. It's really a shame...
• tomcam 3y ago
  Wait punk started around 1975… isn’t all punk retro? /s Very fun piece.
• gadgetoid 3y ago
  I’d be remiss not to mention that we (Pimoroni) sit right at the hacker end of the E-ink scale with stuff like Badger2040W [1] and Inky Frame [2], both of which pair (small and less small) E-Ink panels with the RP2040 microcontroller so you can BYO software. The biggest roadblock to these being super compelling is update rate. The black/white screen on Badger can be driven pretty hard, but overdriving it (a friend built a continuous E-ink zoetrope [3]) has consequences. Inky Frame’s 7 colour display is awesome for dithered artwork (missing cyan and magenta notwithstanding) but very, very slow to refresh- ~30s after the panels were updated to incorporate an unskippable “clean” phase. Faster, cheaper and bigger all seem mutually exclusive right now, but I share the authors passion for the format. 1. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=40514062188627 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=405... 2. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/inky-frame-7-3?variant=40541882056787 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/inky-frame-7-3?variant=40... 3. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-digital-zoetrope https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-digital-zoetr...
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
• lloydatkinson 3y ago
  This is incredibly insufferable and unnecessary. > It’s a world where Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X never existed and we don’t have to suffer with abstractions on top of abstractions. It’s DOS for the 2020s. It’s graphing calculators for grown-ups.
• t0bia_s 3y ago
  I really want phone with e-ink display. I mean something like Mudita phone without that hipster approach and overpricing.
  • FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Second-hand Motorola F3[1]? Even brand new I paid something like 50 Euros for it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone
    • t0bia_s 3y ago
      Outdated. I need sync for my contacts, notes and email. 2G is no longer possible to use in my country.
• frognumber 3y ago
  No, for it to be retropunk, it would need to just work. Not necessarily work well, but just work. QBasic would be fine. GW-BASIC would be fine. P5.js would be great. Hypercard would be adequate. Heck, even raw assembly code would work. Documentation on jailbreaks, microcontroller versions, ssh, and file systems? Not so much. The whole point was /simplicity/. Simplicity isn't the same as ease-of-use or speed-of-use, but old-school computers might boot into a BASIC interpreter. That was simple. I'd love to have a simple eink solution. I don't care if I'm manually flipping pixels or have high-level APIs, and I don't care if I'm using BASIC, Makecode, Python, or C. I do care that it just works, and I know ahead of time it just works. What I don't want is I buy an old Kobo on eBay, and find out it's not jailbreakable, or requires some library which requires a different version of Ubuntu, or whatnot. I don't need another half-baked project. The actual ultimate here would be an all-in-one which is micro:bit compatible. All-in-one means it includes a case, a reasonable form factor, and works in standard micro:bit programming environments.
  • pdntspa 3y ago
    Any of the e-ink pads that run Linux under the hood and expose SSH can get you to a bash prompt. Which is about as simple as one can get. Why does it have to be /simple/ anyway? With a rich programming environment you can make your own simplicity. The world needs more devices that force you to come to them, not the other way around.
  • aftergibson 3y ago
    Odd, I always considered retropunk as something requiring a specialist skillset. Breaking into systems to bend them to your will etc. Different perspectives I guess.
    • frognumber 3y ago
      I was using the definition from the article: "... we don’t have to suffer with abstractions on top of abstractions. It’s DOS for the 2020s. It’s graphing calculators for grown-ups" Yours is probably a better one, but perhaps less relevant here.
  • 3y ago
• corrigible 3y ago
  I was super interested up until the Discord link :(
  • goodpoint 3y ago
    So much for punk and hacker cultures... discord is the windows of chat platforms :(
  • abawany 3y ago
    They have a mirrored room on Element/Matrix as well but it's just the general chat and not the technical etc. sub-rooms. I quit Discord a while ago, probably for reasons similar to yours, and interact with the community using Element instead.
• orangepurple 3y ago
  I love these throwbacks. It reminds me of my old Palm m500. There is something so comfortable about Palm OS. I can't quite grasp it but the Palm experience is simply exquisite and I have never seen it replicated anywhere.
• snickerbockers 3y ago
  > ARM is a simple architecture with a low instruction count This has not been my experience with ARM assembly. There are several RISC machines with far smaller and simpler instruction counts.
  • croes 3y ago
    Simple and low don't mean simplest and lowest.
  • snvzz 3y ago
    Relative to x86, ARM could be described like that. The standard open ISA RISC-V can be described like that relative to both legacy ISAs.
• random3 3y ago
  I love e-ink and simple interfaces. I don't believe in low-powered hardware, however. This said remarkable 2 is so underpowered it's impractical. I love the paper-like experience, but I never use it for any important notes because I can't find anything ever. For example copying and pasting more than a trivial amount can take minutes (i.e. it blocks for minutes) and scrolling is just painful. Writing is not always accurate and you can get weirdly thick lines, etc. All of this can be fixed with better hardware and more performance, but I suspect the experience vs cost ratio is logarithmic/exponential. While scribbling in Goodnotes an iPad pro is not as "rewarding", actually working is so much better.
• louison11 3y ago
  Can anyone give their feedback on eye strain with e-ink? I feel like my eyes have gotten really tired from over a decade working in the tech industry, and wondering if taking my notes/reading emails/articles on a reMarkable 2 or similar could give my eyes some rest.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • asyx 3y ago
    It's like paper to me.
• quailfarmer 3y ago
  Anyone care to recommend one of the two devices (Kobo Elipsa or RM2) mentioned? It appears the RM2 may have gotten more expensive since release? How is the relative build quality? Any key hardware differences to note?
  • codethief 3y ago
    Having tested the Remarkable 2 for a few weeks, I'd actually recommend another device: The Supernote A5X. The hardware & writing experience are a tad better IMO and the software much more so. Also, the Remarkable devs are notoriously bad when it comes to software updates and sharing their plans for the future with the community. Meanwhile, the Supernote people even share their Trello boards over on Reddit -> https://Reddit.com/r/Supernote https://Reddit.com/r/Supernote The Supernote, admittedly, is not as hackable yet as the Remarkable but 1) official software updates are much more frequent and 2) there are plans to open up the device to 3rd-party Android apps.
    • Eeems 3y ago
      Could you provide a source on the software updates being more frequent, as well as clarify what you mean by rM being bad at updates? rM has been pushing out updates fairly regularly this year, especially if you include their beta channel.
      • codethief 3y ago
        Fair enough, maybe this has changed then. When I last tested and looked into the rM2 in depth (~2 years ago), it was completely different. The software was lacking basic features and there wasn't any communication at all on rM's part.
  • abawany 3y ago
    I've used both for extensive periods and even with the rm2's low storage, I vastly prefer it. The Elipsa's hand-writing experience was just awful - not just laggy but non-deterministically so, their sync/export was clunky, their updates were sometimes buggy (e.g. the recent addition of GDrive import and broken export, the works-now-won't-work-again Overdrive and Pocket integration), and the ad-ridden home page. By contrast, the rm2 is heavenly and it just works well - I was never the journaling type but the rm2 manages to extract a lot of writing out of me daily because of how awesome it is. Re. the rm2 pricing, I believe it has gotten a lot cheaper since its release - 400+usd vs 300usd now, afaik; I use an aftermarket pen with it (staedtler noris jumbo). I use the rm2 for work and for personal stuff and I love it; the elipsa sits idle and powered off.
• GenericDev 3y ago
  E-ink devices are the best. I've been using a Boox device lately to read old comics and I LOVE it. https://shop.boox.com/products/novaairc https://shop.boox.com/products/novaairc The thing is that it makes them feel so retro because of the limited colors they can supply, and it still looks great doing it. My only regret isn't a regret, it's just timing. I purchased the nova air c before the Tab Ultra C had come out. https://shop.boox.com/products/tabultrac https://shop.boox.com/products/tabultrac And its form factor is just so much more pleasant. I can't wait for the coming years of e-ink advancements.
• gadrev 3y ago
  I love e-ink devices. Just back from a reading session in my Kobo, and I sent this article to it of course :) (through Firefox/Pocket). I can even read in the swimming pool (it's water resistant), nothing better than reading in sunglasses halfway in on a sunny day, awesome!!! And it doesn't weigh as much as some books. While I still prefer paper for certain reads, it has definitely helped get back into the habit of reading real books/reading more, so lost to smartphones and social media / "sugar" information type content these days. So convenient in terms of size/weight/number of books you can carry, while being easy on the eyes. No distracting crap, either, as TFA mentions. Long live e-ink, whatever device you like most!!
  • srndpty 3y ago
    “Long live e-ink” i’m always worried it’s just around the corner from outliving its usefulness/profitability to most people. even within my tech/gadget bubble it still feels like a relatively niche thing. this keeps me upgrading my Kindle pretty much anytime a new one comes out because i’m always worried the technology will be discarded. i really love the fact that i can fall asleep reading on it pretty naturally. this DOES NOT happen when i’m in bed on my phone or tablet. i’m glad to see devices like reMarkable and Scribe pushing it further, and i just hope research continues to get the tech to a point where it can refresh quickly without artifacting at near lcd quality. and yeah, it’s nice to have a device where i physically can’t distract myself with inane social media or other silly things. i’m generally of the Alton Brown thought that anything uni-task is unnecessary, but i’ll continue to make a happy exception here.
    • derbOac 3y ago
      I'm someone who had them during the boom around 2010 or so, then found myself giving them away because they didn't seem useful, and now find myself wanting them again. Mostly I've noticed how I like to read in bed at night rather than on my phone, am not happy with the illumination options with real books in that situation, and not happy with the screens on my phone either. I'd probably buy one immediately if I could be guaranteed I could put any pdf on it and have it display flawlessly, and if it were relatively open in terms of compatibility.
• ddingus 3y ago
  I just started with two displays: One from Waveshare, a 10 inch display that I cannot seem to get a current rev data sheet for: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/10.3inch-e-paper-hat.htm https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/10.3inch-... I really want to run it via USB and understand the controller better. Currently using SPI on a Pi 400. And a smaller one, Papirus. I have that one on a Pi hat and have gotten quite a ways with it in python. Love these things and agree with OP on their appeal.
• jakswa 3y ago
  I still have my OG backlit kindle. It's showing its age with a tiny tear that lets backlight through, but I'm still pushing through books on it. I'd be curious how these newer E-ink displays have improved, wonder what the refresh rate (hz?) is on them.
  • fold3 3y ago
    From what I know the improvement is minor but noticable. There is less ghosting, a bit more contrast and it's more reactive to the touch. The newer models can even play videos half decently (i.e. you can somewhat understand what's going on on the screen)
• deleted 3y ago
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• teleforce 3y ago
  This article is talking about hacking existing E-ink ebook readers with custom made software/OS but why stop there? Imagine an open ecosystem whereby we can have low power embedded systems running Linux OS or RTOS for plethora of computing/sensing/IoT useful applications on top low cost MPU that need rudimentary or sophisticated GUI e.g. dashboard, virtual buttons,etc [1]. [1] STM32MP2: ST’s first Linux capable 64-bit MPU with NPU, GPU and TSN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37247763 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37247763
  • justinclift 3y ago
    Have you seen the "Open Book" project? https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book
    • teleforce 3y ago
      This seems to be another efforts in ebook reader direction. It will be good if we can move beyond ebook paradigm, and create an open hardware and software ecosystem, with generic low power and low cost computing applications based on E-ink display.
• noduerme 3y ago
  I bought a Boox despite not trusting the OS - and never getting online with it - because I like to sketch in color. I would've rather bought any other platform, if there was one with sort-of-useful color e-ink. But I actually really like their interface. It's one of the best overlay-interfaces I've ever seen over anything (and this is over full Android, slightly bent). It's a pleasure to use, as long as you keep it airgapped and don't trust it further than you could throw it.
  • idontwantthis 3y ago
    Why did you want e ink for sketching vs an iPad? I tried out the color boox and to me, it looked like the worst of eink and lcd. Bad colors, bad battery life, hard on the eyes, slow, and expensive.
• happytiger 3y ago
  In the sense that they still have 1990s prices absolutely…
• southpawflo 3y ago
  it's funny that this pops up a few days before I return the remarkable 2 (through their 100-day money-back guarantee, otherwise I wouldn't have tried it). to anyone considering buying one, if you are left-hand dominant, skip it. what most people don't understand is that being a lefty doesn't mean that you can use a mirror image of what's served to righties (in this case, the UI) and then everything is fine. don't get me wrong, I'm returning it for several reasons - a few can be inferred from other people's comments here. I'm only putting this out there for all my sinister siblings, 'cause writing english is a pain for us.
• noobermin 3y ago
  ARM being a simple instruction set hardly makes it match say 286 or 386 asm as it was used in the era primarily for the fact it is not intended to be coded by hand but be compiled.
• beefield 3y ago
  I have a kobo libra. What would be the easiest way to get terminal app (with ssh client as a minimum) running on that? I'm thinking it would be a nice really thin client with low energy consumption.
  • pater_ 3y ago
    You should be able to use telnet to connect to the CLI of the device by turning on developer mode. By typing devmode in the search bar. From there you should be able to install a dropbear ssh client to instead be able to connect using ssh. There should be more information online. [1] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323148 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323148
    • kjkjadksj 3y ago
      Would the screens update fast enough to make typing not seem awkward?
• jxdxbx 3y ago
  My nerdiest use for my e-ink Android tablet: I have a whole offline Wikipedia
  • leokennis 3y ago
    So you basically have the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy…does it have some towel storage system as well?
    • jxdxbx 3y ago
      That is the inspiration, yes. I use Kiwis and the Boox Leaf has expandable storage.
  • zacte 3y ago
    There's a cool app that lets you download large knowledge bases called Kiwix on Android
• aa1234556 3y ago
  [dead]
• Labo333 3y ago
  Side note but I really love my Kobo and its hackability. For example, you can create your own sync mechanisms [0]. And when I say hackable, I mean it: I improved the Dropbox features to use the actual API and not a "public folder" (without JS, it only allows to retrieve a few files). [0]: https://github.com/fsantini/KoboCloud https://github.com/fsantini/KoboCloud
• walden789 3y ago
  Would love to have the Zotero mobile-App (an Android Version seems to be in devolpment, iOS one already exists) on an eInk-Devise, ideally waterproof and with long battery life.
  • kjkjadksj 3y ago
    Iirc there are ways you can syncronize your zotero library if pdfs to one of these sorts of devices. It will be more like exposing your pile of pdfs than offering much zotero specific functionality though. Maybe thats fine though, since these devices are about reading and don’t offer much more out of that from their limits.
• queasypickle 3y ago
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• sourcepluck 3y ago
  There is "punk", the mass-produced apolitical corporate aesthetic, and there is "punk", as in, Mark Fisher's k-punk blog, Wikileaks, The Internet Archive, a lot of Aaron Swartz's work, knitting your own hats, DIY and the right to repair, open hardware, cycling everywhere, and so on. I'm not saying this isn't "retropunk" - it's probably a complex mash of the two meanings of the word "punk", in reality. I do hope you push for the latter meaning, however :)
• dancosta0601 3y ago
  I just love e-ink displays
  • dm319 3y ago
    I just got a Swissmicros DM42 this year, and I love the display. My dream is a pocket computer running headless linux with a reasonable keyboard, e-ink display, and vim/mutt/git.
• KenArrari 3y ago
  I love e-ink devices. I'm a big fan of the remarkable tablets (despite the drawbacks) and was a big fan of pebble. E-ink was really the perfect tech for smart watches. Always on but still lasts for days or weeks.
• thenickdude 3y ago
  I'm using a Kobo eReader to run XCSoar, to act as a moving-map/flight computer for a sailplane [0] It's fantastic, as it has a big battery for all-day battery life, and the display is eminently sunlight-readable. It's just a little bit of a bummer that it's tricky to ensure elements always contrast well against the map with the greyscale colour-scheme. [0]: https://www.xcsoar.org/ https://www.xcsoar.org/
• nicman23 3y ago
  i actually just finished making a epaper reader from a waveshare 4.2 display and a esp32. very primitive but works so good. it uses grayscale bmps that i create through calibre so fonts are great and i dump in a sd card that goes in the display. the esp just manages the sleep of the display and the displaying the correct image. with the battery switch that i have, it can last months
• Slava_Propanei 3y ago
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