4 ms·

As a Kindle owner; I'm very jealous.

by pmkary 2mo ago

baal80spam 2mo ago
I'm not. I want my Kindle to do ONE job well, not turn into another multi-purpose device.
- adezxc 2mo ago
  the one job that it does well is show you ads lmao (in case you haven't jailbreaked your Kindle yet)
  - kelvinjps10 2mo ago
    Not 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 2mo ago
      Depends 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 2mo ago
  It 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 2mo ago
  I too would like my Kindle to do one single thing well. Sadly, we seem to be waiting for that future to arrive.
  - bigyabai 2mo ago
    Yeah, I was going to say. I only installed KOReader because my Kindle Touch has lackluster ereader functionality.
  - RankingMember 2mo ago
    I 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 2mo ago
      You don't need to jailbreak it. Swipe from the top and press the big button labelled "dark mode".
      - DoctorDabadedoo 2mo ago
        It 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 2mo ago
        It 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 2mo ago
        I don't have this option, though admittedly I haven't updated in a while to leave the option for jailbreaking open.
- toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  Your 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 2mo ago
    Along 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 2mo ago
  That'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 2mo ago
  I 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 2mo ago
  I'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 2mo ago
  So... don't use it, idk?
SpecialistK 2mo ago
You 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 2mo ago
Give Rakuten your money!
kioleanu 2mo ago
You 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 2mo ago
I 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 2mo ago
That's because you don't actually own the kindle.
adriaanm 2mo ago
I 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.

As a Kindle owner; I'm very jealous.

by pmkary 2mo ago

As a Kindle owner; I'm very jealous.

baal80spam 2mo ago

I'm not. I want my Kindle to do ONE job well, not turn into another multi-purpose device.

adezxc 2mo ago
the one job that it does well is show you ads lmao (in case you haven't jailbreaked your Kindle yet)
- kelvinjps10 2mo ago
  Not 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 2mo ago
    Depends 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 2mo ago
It 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 2mo ago
I too would like my Kindle to do one single thing well. Sadly, we seem to be waiting for that future to arrive.
- bigyabai 2mo ago
  Yeah, I was going to say. I only installed KOReader because my Kindle Touch has lackluster ereader functionality.
- RankingMember 2mo ago
  I 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 2mo ago
    You don't need to jailbreak it. Swipe from the top and press the big button labelled "dark mode".
    - DoctorDabadedoo 2mo ago
      It 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 2mo ago
        It 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 2mo ago
      I don't have this option, though admittedly I haven't updated in a while to leave the option for jailbreaking open.
toomuchtodo 2mo ago
Your 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 2mo ago
  Along 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 2mo ago
That'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 2mo ago
I 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 2mo ago
I'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 2mo ago
So... don't use it, idk?

SpecialistK 2mo ago

You 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 2mo ago

Give Rakuten your money!

kioleanu 2mo ago

You 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 2mo ago

I 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 2mo ago

That's because you don't actually own the kindle.

adriaanm 2mo ago

I 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.