6 ms·
Kobo can run apps now
- pmkary 1mo agoAs a Kindle owner; I'm very jealous.
- baal80spam 1mo agoI'm not. I want my Kindle to do ONE job well, not turn into another multi-purpose device.
- adezxc 1mo agothe one job that it does well is show you ads lmao (in case you haven't jailbreaked your Kindle yet)
- kelvinjps10 1mo agoNot to defend amazon but you can remove the ads by paying to remove them, they sell one model ad supported and another that doesn't have ads if you buy the ads supported you can remove it later.
- necovek 1mo agoDepends on what you consider "ads": I have always been paying for ad-free experience, but I regularly end up on the screen where there are ads for books I do not care about (they probably say that's just the store homepage, but I do my shopping on the laptop).
- utopiah 1mo agoIt is totally different to be able to do something versus actually doing it. It is not because you can install and run apps that you have to.
- speak_plainly 1mo agoI too would like my Kindle to do one single thing well. Sadly, we seem to be waiting for that future to arrive.
- bigyabai 1mo agoYeah, I was going to say. I only installed KOReader because my Kindle Touch has lackluster ereader functionality.
- RankingMember 1mo agoI remember when my PaperWhite glitched while I was attempting to jailbreak it and got stuck with the screen inverted. It was great! I can't believe I have to jailbreak a reader to get that simple functionality for better in-the-dark reading. (epilogue: I let it run out of battery and the inversion was gone upon boot)
- LiamPowell 1mo agoYou don't need to jailbreak it. Swipe from the top and press the big button labelled "dark mode".
- DoctorDabadedoo 1mo agoIt is a somewhat newish feature, I think pre-2020 models don't have dark mode, afaik (and I have no idea how are old devices supported on kindle, I assume launch and forget, could be wrong though).
- necovek 1mo agoIt seems Amazon has financial and legal incentive to keep older Kindles (it is so many of them still) updated to avoid them getting jailbroken and not having Kindle store at their fingertips :) Not sure if they cut it off at some point, but they can surely keep updating 10 yo devices.
- RankingMember 1mo ago
- toomuchtodo 1mo agoYour Kindle is an appliance you have little control over, the Kobo in this scope is a multitool. More choice is better than less choice as it relates to device ownership and control, imho. https://www.fulu.org/ https://www.fulu.org/ HN Search: enshittification - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=enshittification&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- rjrjrjrj 1mo agoAlong with choice comes complexity. More things to break, security problems, distractions, etc. Purpose-built devices like the Kindle and Switch do one thing well; this looks like it does a lot more things but mostly poorly. Everyone already has at least one multitool, the smartphone. Most also have a tablet and/or a laptop. While this project looks like a cool hack, I don't see much practical use for another multitool with a weak CPU, laggy screen, and poor input.
- NewJazz 1mo agoThat's what's great about open hardware. You still have the ability to do that. Even if the original vendor of the device tries to decide differently.
- RattlesnakeJake 1mo agoI still miss the UI on my old Kindle Keyboard, which only showed the book list without an attempt at curation/upselling. I can simulate it by staying on the "Library" tab, but it tends to forget halfway frequently.
- pmkary 1mo agoI'm like yours, But there are things that makes me angry. I cannot for example read Farsi books. I cannot put a new e-pub into my kindle and I have to send it over the web; there are many things like these. And so I just want to have a nicer reader that I myself control.
- poopbutt16 1mo agoSo... don't use it, idk?
- SpecialistK 1mo agoYou can do a lot of the same things with a jailbroken Kindle and KindleForge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZliC82RtA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZliC82RtA
- MathMonkeyMan 1mo agoGive Rakuten your money!
- kioleanu 1mo agoYou can jailbreak your kindle and get similar functionality through KOReader plugins https://omer-faruq.github.io/appstore.koplugin/ https://omer-faruq.github.io/appstore.koplugin/
- cs3f16 1mo agoI used KOReader for my Kindle and I never looked back. The software that Amazon ships is simply insulting. It's like when I installed Linux on my laptop instead of Windows. KOReader is a massive upgrade for any Kindle.
- xandrius 1mo agoThat's because you don't actually own the kindle.
- adriaanm 1mo agoI was too, so I used Claude to port Plato to my Paperwhite 3: https://github.com/adriaanm/plato https://github.com/adriaanm/plato It also has a cli to let you push docs over WiFi. Oh, and a HN reader. I have another repo with the user space I use, but need to clean that up before making it public.
- rglover 1mo agoWow. This is rad, well done. I've been trying to find an alt OS for my Clara Colour and this looks great. Being able to author apps means I can finally add a way to review my highlights/quotes and search them with ease. Edit: damn, just saw the BW note. It looks like the Clara Colour would be blocked by Cobalt...
- mkagenius 1mo agoI see a recent merge for Elips 2E support, hopefully color gets tested soon
- the-grump 1mo agoYou can already do that. Look into NickelMenu.
- kavith 1mo ago[dead]
- thefunnyman 1mo agoFwiw koreader can be installed very easily. Bit clunky to get used to but extremely powerful and worthwhile ime
- plutokras 1mo agoThe SimpleUI plugin helps a lot with the clunkiness.
- allthetime 1mo agoTry Plato
- jasongi 1mo agoAmazing. Hopefully Kobo don't ruin this by locking it down.
- jaimex2 1mo agoUnlikely. Being open is why they are recommended over Amazon
- sa-code 1mo agoWould this also work on a Tolino?
- oynqr 1mo agoThe Tolino Shine 5 is the same hardware. You can even install the kobo firmware.
- BoingBoomTschak 1mo agoVibecoded, from what I see in the git log.
- code-blooded 1mo agoI think so too. I wish all projects had a tag with amount of AI usage. It's not that vibe coding is bad on its own, but it makes me worried about project's future (ease come, easy go).
- emerongi 1mo agoEasy go where? It’s open source, fork it.
- code-blooded 1mo agoI can't and don't want to maintain all software I use. I need to be picky. There's a big difference between putting money or time into a community of builders and learning in the process (myself or growing others) and maintaining a vibe coded project. That's why I want to know right away which projects are vibe coded so that I don't put any effort into them. You're free to apply different criteria to software you use, but we're talking about having information to make an informed decision here.
- necovek 1mo agoI am actually hoping this is a future where it does become possible. At least on top of what is generally more-than-good-enough (Linux kernel, base GNU system with the compiler toolchain, basic desktop environment...). So I'd like to have fully reproducible builts for a dozen or two apps I use seemlessly integrated into my laptop and phone update mechanisms. And yes, my smart TV, router, ereader and note-taking apps... However, infinite forking also means harder to benefit from others' improvements.
- code-blooded 1mo ago
- jhack 1mo agoThis is incredible and super useful. More reasons to use my e-reader around the house instead of my phone.
- necovek 1mo agoThough also a reminder to not enter the same usage patterns or there is no point ;)
- conqrr 1mo agoVery cool and definitely useful. I'm not the audience but I'll say: I like my ereader to just have books that sync. That is all. It's my library room and peace time, the last thing I need is Claude to distract me.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- GlenTheMachine 1mo agoI vote for Zotero integration!
- far_focus 1mo agoSo cool. I have this exact model. Might try to build something
- Artgor 1mo agoIsn't the whole point of Kindle (or other ebook readers) being able to read books without distractions?
- NewJazz 1mo agoSome people came for the compact package containing an eink screen, a moderately powered application board, and a reasonable amount of battery and storage. For some, it may be the perfect thin client.
- unethical_ban 1mo agoThat's what I want from my e-reader device too. Yet being able to turn a $140 e-ink tablet into a general purpose tool is really neat.
- AdmiralAsshat 1mo agoThere's a contingent of enthusiasts who, once they find out a device runs Linux or can run Linux, seems determined to expose a terminal on it. I don't know why someone needs to SSH into their toaster, but damned if they're not gonna do it, just because they can. Me personally, I just want a reliable toaster.
- RattlesnakeJake 1mo agoI always assume it's more for the challenge and accomplishment than anything practical. The results are always neat, but rarely anything you'd actually use for general-purpose computing.
- MYEUHD 1mo agoObviously you ssh into your toaster so you can host a website on it, or run DOOM
- 9dev 1mo agoWhat worth is a toaster if it can't run DOOM? What worth is life if you never even find out??
- the-grump 1mo agoFor the unaware, there is an existing solution that integrates with Kobo's native software (Nickel). It has been maintained for years, and it supports every Kobo AFAIK. It's called NickelMenu, and it's great. I'm in the Kobo ecosystem because of NickelMenu and Plato. One note if you're thinking about getting a kobo due its relative openness: consider getting a two-core device. I did not do my homework and got a Clara BW because I don't want the color display. Later I found out that color is the only one with the two-core CPU.
- post-it 1mo agoI also have the Clara BW and haven't done any modding on it but it's been on my todo list. Would you be willing to briefly describe issues you've run into with it?
- the-grump 1mo ago0 issues using nickelmenu out of the box. I recommend enabling ssh (native kobo feature) so it's easier to modify the config without needing to plug in, though obviously this is optional. If you connect over SSH, I would recommend not touching system files. The new kobos don't have a removable SD card so if you corrupt the system files and it can't boot, you need to either do some PCB surgery or get a new mainboard.
- hamdingers 1mo agoWhat does the two-core CPU get you? I'm very satisfied with my BW with KOReader, haven't noticed any shortcomings but I only read books on it.
- the-grump 1mo agoI encounter freezes mostly when I enable Bluetooth/wifi. Haven't tried on a multi-core kobo but I imagine the UI thread can keep running there. When reading, agree on it being more than sufficient. My recommendation is partially because the price can be identical when they have a sale. That was the case when I got a BW--it was the same price as the color. I should also mention I run quite a few things on my kobo: boringtun to connect to my home network, a fetcher to sync my books and feeds, Plato and its article fetcher whenever I update my Wallabag articles. I'm beyond pleased with my reader experience. The extra processing power would just be icing on the cake.
- erelong 1mo agoNoting again that postmarketos exists and works on some kobos (and potentially could be ported to more?)
- wbxp99 1mo ago>These are photographs of the device, not simulator captures Thanks for the clarification Claude
- m463 1mo agois claude the new sherlock?
- danilocesar 1mo ago"confubabulating.... You're definetely right"
- xearl 1mo agothe copy on OP's pages is so full of claude-isms that it quickly became unbearable, for me. the claude-ism you quote above at least made me laugh.
- QwenGlazer9000 1mo agoFor most of the use cases I would need an app for, koreader's plugin system works just fine for it. You'd be surprised the gems you can find for koreader.
- bellowsgulch 1mo agopoob has it for you
- teddyh 1mo agoThe only “Kobo” I know of is a game which was popular around 1993, a remake for X11/Unix of the old 1981 Bosconian arcade game. A recent active fork can still be installed on modern systems as “Kobo Deluxe”.
- podgietaru 1mo agoPreviously I built something using NickelHook https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter It took a lot of messing around trying to figure out how nickel fit together. This is much more … impressive.
- dylandodds 1mo agoJust bought a kobo bw after reading this article
- onemoresoop 1mo agoSame here.
- yoavm 1mo agoFWIW, some Kobos can run PostmarketOS. I built this UI for my Clara - https://www.github.com/bjesus/air https://www.github.com/bjesus/air . It runs Firefox, Syncthing, KOReader, and basically anything else you can run on Linux.
- nosioptar 1mo agoThat's really cool. I've contemplated awesome for a tablet for similar reasons.
- VariousPrograms 1mo agoI am enjoying the recently trendy Xteink e-readers that can't do anything but read books. An app store and the internet would just make an e-reader feel like a "worse phone" to me.
- onemoresoop 1mo agoIt can read books quite okay if it’s mostly text. With photos it’s sluggish. I personally like it but there are other better optionsnout there for a little extra $.
- 5G_activated 1mo agoI find LLM copywriting revolting, especially Claude's and it is pretty obvious that it is Claude, and even though I might find the software interesting since I own a Clara 2E, it puts such a sour taste in my mouth that I don't want to touch this thing with a 10 foot pole. If your software is mostly written by the slop machine, fine. I don't have to be upset about it unless I think about contributing and then notice the uncanny nature of the source code. But a website and a README is directly user facing and it is a major disservice, and in my opinion, lack of respect, to generate your website copy with an LLM.
- zuzululu 1mo ago[flagged]
- hk__2 1mo ago> much prefer ai assisted development than someone who does it by hand, prone to errors and lacking in features. You prefer AI-assisted development with errors and lacking features rather than something done by hand with errors and lacking features?
- nosioptar 1mo agoThat can all be addressed by adding "make no mistakes" and "implement all feature" to the prompt, or so I'm told.
- zuzululu 1mo agoare you saying that you can do a better job than frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic and Google when it comes to coding something that is free from zero days and exploits while matching its ability to ship feature at the rate a competent SWE with agents can? not sure why you are being so cynical, lot of seasoned SWE use AI assisted development now. I think a lot of people still have this caricature vibe coder image but competent and serious engineering companies and big and large have embraced agentic coding. you certainly would not get hired and would come across as highly egoistical if you insisted on writing every piece of code by hand in 2026.
- ee334y5rthsrth 1mo agoI need OTP for loging to ssh and meshtastic
- hn5595p698 1mo ago[dead]
- dopetrailer 1mo ago[dead]
- khalic 1mo agoVery cool project, will try to make it run on my device
- zuzululu 1mo agonow if something like this released for amazon kindle i would dust it off and start actually using the device again
- luciana1u 1mo ago[flagged]
- juleiie 1mo agoI don't know for who this is honestly I mean I got a laptop, e ink laptop would be cool but this certainly isn't it and who needs a book with Claude code agent? You either read or you do what exactly with that linux pc on a book hardcover? Just grab your laptop like a normal civilized person
- bragr 1mo agoIf someone made a Libby client for this, it would essentially be perfect for my uses.
- snov 1mo agocan it run Doom?
- brailsafe 1mo agoThis is something I've considered wanting, and I'm glad it exists, but after some thought it's absolutely not at all what I want my Kobo to do. Much like how I wouldn't bring headphones or a Bluetooth speaker with me on a hike, or a laptop with me camping, I don't even want the option of games or anything other than a good reading experience when I'm using my e-reader. I'd assume this is a redundant take, but I don't even know if my Kobo can produce sounds, and I'd like to keep it that way. What's tricky is that although I don't want it to be an unconstrained app platform, I do want the ability to integrate with services that host my things to read. Karakeep, RSS, Google Play Books or Internet Archive, etc.. but I think that could be handled in a more narrow fashion.
- mattcasmith 1mo agoI agree. One of the things I love about my Kindle is that it’s a single-use device, functionally equivalent to holding a paperback in my hands. There’s nothing to distract me or tempt me away from reading. Apps would risk breaking that spell.
- TheFunkyMonk 1mo agoYeah, the fact that my Kindle can't do anything other than read books is its best feature. Same with my Remarkable for focused writing.
- rbits 1mo agoYup. I was tempted to even just install KOReader on my Kobo so I could sync progress with my phone, but I realised I would just get distracted tinkering with it and it's meant to be my distraction-free device.
- antii 1mo ago[dead]
- locusofself 1mo agoIt would be very cool to have an Obsidian viewer or something. On many occasions I have compiled notes, sometimes manually created sometimes LLM curated, and put them into a .epub file to send to my kindle so I can read as I am out walking. It would be cool to skip a few steps there, and have "live" documents at the ready, particularly in markdown if possible, without having to sync/publish etc
- facepalmz 1mo agoButWhy.jpg
- nocchedure 1mo agoI suspect it won't be long before we have Anna's / Z-Library fully integrated
- ricardobeat 1mo ago> Install it once over USB. Every app after that installs, updates and removes on the reader itself, over Wi-Fi. A reboot returns to the stock Kobo reader. Jesus christ folks. Is it really a big effort to have a human proofread the first paragraph in your product launch?
- msephton 1mo agoWebsite copy seems to have been changed already. You're comment will remain forever.
- saejox 1mo agoI still use my Kobo Glo. I must been working at least 10 years now. I have finished countless books on it. I like that is a durable single use device. I wouldnt use it as general use computer at all. Even my old kobo has experimental features like wifi and a web browser. They have been trying to break in to that market since forever.
- jcul 1mo agoI'm still using my kobo clara hd that I bought 8 years ago. What a great device.
- quasarj 1mo agoI wish there was more interest in bringing new things like this to the ReMarkable 2. There are some projects, but they are not great, and mostly I just want to get a good book-reading experience. Maybe I should try it myself, or well, have Claude try.
- lai7th_0 1mo agodoes this only work on a kabo device? like im kind of understanding this to be kind oflike an opperating system. do you have it for kindle? or am i mistaken? Thanks!
- lai7th_0 1mo agok
- luciana1u 1mo ago[flagged]
- inatreecrown2 1mo agoWould it be possible to support the Anki app on this?
- onemoresoop 1mo agoYou could probably even vibe code your own anki app for it. I just ordered a clara bw to play with.
- platesmead 1mo agoI have a Kobo Clara. I'd one day like to mod this. Is there any indication that I need to avoid updates to prevent updates locking it down?
- arialdomartini 1mo agoI’ve got only 1 big complain about Kobo: there’s no way to control the tickness of the pencil when writing on PDFs, and the size is too tick to take notes. There’s for epub but not for PDF. Suppprt told me they are not going to fix that. Do you know of any alternative?
- mawise 1mo agoHas anyone built a dedicated OPDS client for the Kobo? I've experimented some with the Kobo ecosystem since I got my Clara BW, I've played with NickleMenu, Plato, and KOReader. KOReader has a built-in OPDS client, but KOReader is a bit heavyweight and it would be really nice to have a dedicated stand-alone client (especially one that supports credentialed OPDS feeds like calibre-web exposes)
- thepoet 1mo agoThis project has an OPDS client implemented as an app example here, tested on Gutenberg's OPDS and standard eBooks. https://github.com/BandarLabs/Cobalt/tree/main/examples/gutenbird https://github.com/BandarLabs/Cobalt/tree/main/examples/gute...
- orsenthil 1mo agoThis project inspires me to buy a Kobo. I am gravitating towards Kobo Libra color. Would that be a good choice ?
- jaimex2 1mo agoI have one and love it. I got the colour one as my kids are learning to read and illustrations are a big part.
- keyle 1mo agoI see terminal there, is there someone working in vim yet?
- Method5440 1mo agoThis is excellent - I’ve been looking for a reliable way to get a manga reader onto my Kobo for a while now, specifically one that can directly connect to sources like MangaDex. The alternative I’ve settled on is to download to my PC, bundle with KCC into a cbz, upload to Dropbox and then download onto the device’s local storage. It takes far too long. I’ve been considering writing something myself but I’m not familiar with the device hardware or OS… this is definitely going to save me a ton of time. I don’t care if this was created with LLM assistance, I’m just happy to have a viable alternative in an approximately closed ecosystem.
- Method5440 1mo agoRead the porting document - do we think this would be a difficult port to the Libra Color? I’m reluctant to order a Clara BW in addition, but also not sure I know enough about the ecosystem to contribute a working port. Anyone interesting in teaming up to take a crack at it?
- thepoet 1mo agoI can help to port it for your device if you can help by testing it on your Color.
- Method5440 1mo agoGladly - I don’t think the differences are substantial, seems mostly to be config specific to the screen parameters. Would be happy to help test.
- thepoet 1mo agoHey, we have merged support for the Color devices, actual colorful displays still testing. Let me know if you would like to test it. Happy to get any feedback on this.
- Method5440 1mo agoThanks for taking this up. I’ve been following along on GitHub and I see the newly supported models. I’ve also picked up a b&w model for testing, should arrive in a few days. Is the Libra build in a separate dev branch? Are folks generally communicating via issues?
- thepoet 1mo agoPerfect! BW should work the best as it is the one I test on. We have merged the Libra branch to main, it will still show grayscale but should work. I am working with contributors on adding Color support to the UI components. Yes, issues is where we are talking currently, though we have started a sub on Reddit too for those who are not on GitHub and want to share suggestions, bugs, app requests /r/CobaltForKobo Current priority is a stable SDK, support for oauth and token for adding apps like Dropbox, read later ones etc. and a larger app ecosystem eventually.
- mplewis 1mo agoPretty insulting to not mention Koreader anywhere in your Claude-written marketing copy.
- mastazi 1mo ago> A reboot returns to the stock Kobo reader. so it's not something you can daily drive just yet? Is this because of technical issues that prevent it from surviving a reboot?
- cfferrys 1mo agolooks great!
- satireguff 1mo agoThis looks great. Wish I could use this on my PocketBook!
- piloto_ciego 1mo agoThis rules. I want this so bad, I might install this when I get back from my cabin build-site and replace my smart phone with my kobo and a flip phone
- theokrueger 1mo agoAs a flip phone enthusiast: you get much better mileage with just dumbing-down your current phone. Modern flip phones are riddled with the kind of headaches that don't actually benefit the minimalism aspect.
- piloto_ciego 1mo agoThe thing is that I kind of hate my smart phone? Like, it's fine I suppose, but yeah, I'd much rather just not have it? But at the same time getting a cab or whatever is a lot easier with it, and I'm ssh-ing over tailscale into my dev rig all the time with it... so there are advantages? But if it has a real browser and it's in my pocket, I'm kind of wanting to be done with it. It's just too easy to get sucked into the vortices that spin out of attention seeking internet. With my kobo any time I am bored I just read another few pages on a book or whatever? But I feel like the Soviet citizen with analysis paralysis when I go into a grocery store and can't decide which of the 32 types of bread I want to buy.
- theokrueger 1mo agoid also prefer to not need one. still, ios MDM or android ADB on your existing device can restrict it to your liking without needing to buy more hardware. greyscale screen, strict timelimits on the sometimes essential browser, inability to even open the appstores, removal of tracking apps, etc. needs just as much self control as any other dumbphone, and genuinely less painful to set up.
- msephton 1mo agoCool, this is the Kobo model I have. I did install some homebrew on it in the past to get Koreader, but quickly realised I prefer the no frills integration of the official reader. I still use Koreader to read old magazines on an old Android tablet.
- harhargange 1mo agoHaving done all sorts of experiments with android in the past, i now prefer not touching my devices and getting into a rabbit hole. The optimisations never end and you get confused what you’re meant to do on your device. In this sense Apple does a good thing by locking down certain capabilities on the device that developers didn’t intend to.
- KaiserPro 1mo agoMy wife bought a kobo as it allows her to use the local libraries ebook collection, rather than spending hundreds of pounds at amazon for the kindle. It was starting to die and had screenglitches. After a bit of debug, it turns out that hacking the kobo is dirt simple. You open up the back, and replace the SD card. thats it. There is a large community that have created toolchains and guides. there is of course a port of koreader (https://koreader.rocks/ https://koreader.rocks/) which has a lua interface for making your own apps.
- CretinDesAlpes 1mo agoKOReader is amazing, I had an old Kobo Clara HD that I almost had given up on, and after installing KOReader I use it almost daily as I read a lot of documents on it. You can ssh it, so you can easily scp kobo to send/receive documents, like epubs, pdf or retrieving highlights you've made on the kobo. Plus, it is installed on top of the normal kobo operating system via NickelMenu, so it's not really messing up with anything.
- hdra 1mo agocool project. not familiar with such projects, but whats the constraints on making it run on other kobo models?
- hnvd8v0o2d 1mo agoCopying this into my notes
- laptoprabbit 1mo agoreminds me of the good old days of jailbreaking the TI-NSpire with Ndless https://tiplanet.org/forum/ndl3ss.php https://tiplanet.org/forum/ndl3ss.php
- martin82 1mo agoDoes Kobo still crash regularly? Mine crashed several times daily on my Kobo reader and I gave up on the app and the device and moved on to Supernote and just reading PDFs on it.