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I got an Xteink X4 a few weeks ago and love it. I've tried out a few different firmwares but haven't settled on one yet. I love the screen and how simple the in
by imzadi 3mo ago
I got an Xteink X4 a few weeks ago and love it. I've tried out a few different firmwares but haven't settled on one yet. I love the screen and how simple the interface is. It's kind of a pain in the butt getting my Kindle books on there, but worth the effort. It's also encouraging me to buy books outside of the Amazon ecosystem. I've been getting more stuff from Humble lately.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- mootdentures 3mo agoI also got one a few weeks ago! I love how pocketable it is. I tried different firmwares too and ended up settling on CrossPoint. So far it's been the most stable and the UI feels more intuitive than the others (for me at least)
- fastball 3mo agoDid you try FreeInk? I was debating which (between CrossPoint and this) to flash my new X3 with.
- mirrir 3mo agofrom what i understand this is CrossPoint.
- fastball 3mo agoOh yeah, indeed. Which is the rebrand haha
- itsthisjustin 3mo agoCrossInk is a fork of CrossPoint but Julia is a major maintainer of CrossPoint. FreeInk's SDK powers both
- sushid 3mo agoNot parent commenter but I've been loving CrossInk after trying CrossPoint for a few days
- mootdentures 3mo agoI hadn't heard of CrossInk but it looks nice! I'll check it out
- itsthisjustin 3mo agoFreeink is just the SDK powering crosspoint fyi
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- timw4mail 3mo agoMy favorite at this point is Witch reader (https://github.com/jpirnay/witchhunt-reader https://github.com/jpirnay/witchhunt-reader). All the features of Cross-point, with better book rendering, and more features. I've tried a lot of the various alternatives, and keep coming back. If you want all your book series displayed together, AALU (https://github.com/dawsonfi/aalu https://github.com/dawsonfi/aalu) might be worth a look. And Crosspoint OS itself is still really nice.
- exhumet 3mo agoany that support custom fonts without jumping through hoops? none of them support atkinson hyperlegible for my adhd ass lol
- imzadi 3mo agoI use an accessible font myself. There are steps to getting the font installed, but you only have to do it once. You basically just download it, convert it, and then upload it to a specific folder. The upload part is the main hassle, because it doesn't attach to the PC like a drive. You have to remove the SD card, open the SD card on the PC or phone and move the font (or book) to the SD card, then put the SD card back into the reader.
- mzd348 3mo agoIt's much easier to connect the X4 to wifi and then upload fonts via the web interface. Apart from the initial hassle of entering your wifi password using the buttons (only has to be done once).
- timw4mail 3mo agoThere's a font manager in Crosspoint and Witch, you can download that font directly from the device.
- Rebelgecko 3mo agoIs there a non-annoying way to get Libby books onto it? It's a step or two with a Kindle, but it would be cool to have them on a more portable device
- timw4mail 3mo agoI have not seen any support on the mini readers.
- Infiniti20 3mo agoIt’s just ACSM files. You can crack it using calibre to get epub which all these readers support
- imzadi 3mo agoNo. You would have to get it onto your kindle and then break DRM. I personally wouldn't go that far, since the library is paying for it and not me. I feel like if I pay for something, I have the right to back it up how I see fit, whether the law agrees or not, but if I didn't pay for it, it is not mine.
- colordrops 3mo agoHow do you get your kindle books on it?
- Brian_K_White 3mo agoSame way you get your ios apps on it.
- jerojero 3mo agoyou'd have to take the DRM out of the books, convert them to epubs and then transfer them. its an involved process but that's always going to be that way on any e-reader that's not a kindle (or android based, where you can install the kindle app).
- imzadi 3mo agoLook into Calibre.
- Denkel 3mo agoI see a lot of people recommending removing the DRM, honestly, if you bought the book in Amazon (or Kobo or Barnes & Noble) I don't see an ethical issue with sailing the high seas to get a DRM-free version of it that you can properly backup and read anywhere.
- andrewmutz 3mo agoIs the only way to use it to break the DRM? I wish there was a path to being able to use all these devices with kindle ebooks legally
- jwrallie 3mo agoYou need Android in that case, but that defeats the simplicity of these devices.
- Brian_K_White 3mo agoWhat are you suggesting exactly? That the maker of this hardware should do whatever it takes so that there is some official Kindle app like on Android? I want to access my books on random devices too, which is why I never bought a frikkn Kindle book. I did buy a bunch of Audible books, starting way back when there was nothing else, and I knew the deal when buying, so I simply went through the grief on my end to strip them (easy these days) and don't care about the legality (or rather, am willing to fight and defend the legality). But buying something from Amazon and then complaining to anyone but Amazon that you want something Amazon doesn't provide or even allow, I don't get that. This wish for this thing that you want should be directed at Amazon, and if you recognize that that would be pointless, well, correct, that's why you shouldn't buy a book from Amazon in the first place. Or you should decide you don't recognize any legal conflict and help write software to uncrappify your property.
- andrewmutz 3mo agoThis issue isn't specific to the Kindle, you can go and buy books on Apple or Google or Kobo or Barnes and Noble and its the same story. Many books can only be bought this way. Publishers don't want to sell books through platforms that don't have DRM, because they are scared of piracy. It would be great if we could have open ebook reader software that could display these books. eReaders like the Xteink X4 are beautiful but lots of books are impossible to legally read on it. Yes, I know that I can break the DRM, but I think its sad that this is the only path for legitimate purchases.
- 3mo ago
- crossroadsguy 3mo agoLove the idea and goal being all this but what an interesting time to be in. Phones are becoming bigger and bigger while the palm, neck, eye, head, etc sizes haven't really buzzed. Digital book readers are getting smaller and smaller while the book sizes… argh… I give up. It's pointless to try and make sense of digital/device trends at this point, or any modern trend for that matter.
- kokada 3mo ago> Digital book readers are getting smaller and smaller I am not sure this is true. Yes, Xteink is investing in small eReader devices to fill a particular niche, but I am not sure any other company also creating small eReaders, and especially from the big known names like Kindle/Kobo/PocketBook the minimum size they generally have is around 6'' to 7''. Also nowadays we have a big market for Note-style eInk devices, like the Kindle Scrible or Remarkable that fills the niche of "I want a really big eInk device".
- nehal3m 3mo agoSeems cool, ordered one. I like my Kobo but the ability to shove it in a pocket seems sweet.
- stevesimmons 3mo agoI got an Xteink X4 a month ago. It's perfect: none of the distractions of a phone, battery life measured in weeks, small enough to carry everywhere, cheap enough that I don't worry about anything happening to it. So far I have only read one book on it. But that is Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (361 chapters, 1300 pages in paper editions), which I'd never managed to read more than a few tens of pages of before. Which is pretty solid proof of how nice the X4 is.
- stevesimmons 3mo agoBy the way, I'm in the UK. I bought it on eBay UK from a guy named "Reliable Trove" who imports them and reflashes them with CrossPoint. I know it's not hard to do, but I needed it to work first time before my summer holiday, couldn't wait for a Chinese import, and had no spare time to mess around with putting new firmware on it.
- imzadi 3mo agoJust FYI for anyone reading this. "Easy to do" is an understatement. It's merely a matter of connecting the reader to the PC with a USB cable and then click the button on the webpage. The whole process is automated and done over the web.
- kstrauser 3mo agoI use it for my daily commute, spending my ride reading instead of doomscrolling. I just finished “A Confederacy of Dunces” and now I’m on “Lonesome Dove”. I didn’t imagine how much I’d use a tiny, pocketable reader. I love it.
- 542354234235 3mo agoI just got the X3 and i love it for all those reasons. I have a card holder wallet that it fits right onto so I have it everywhere. I am reading so much more instead of checking my phone to fill random down time. I wondered if the small size would be annoying to read on, but since page turns are so quick and easy, I have zero issues. I'm actually starting to prefer it to my Kindle for longer reading because it is so light, I can hold it longer or in more random reading positions without any hand fatigue (as minor as that is with a Kindle).
- Eueudhsbsj32 3mo agoThe newly announced pro version with a front light looks prerfect for me. Do you use it with a dictionary? I like the full 1 GB English wiktionary loaded in Aard2 on my Boox. It has etymology and can look up Latin and other non-English words. But I imagine it may be too heavy for a ESP32 device..
- insane_dreamer 3mo agocan you use Calibre to put files on it?
- theshrike79 3mo agoYes, but there are better ways depending on the firmware.