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- Hacker News
- Interesting to see XTEINK here; hopefully it means they will be more open to community software initiatives.by Mr_Eri_Atlov
- What are the limitations with XTEINK currently? I have an X3 and an X4 and both simply use whatever firmware you give them.
- Please port this OS to older Kindles that Amazon no longer supports.by kapsteur
- Or Kobo, given how shit the stock firmware is and how little the hardware has changed over a considerable period of time. Should be easy-peasy.by KennyBlanken
- Winterbreak covers most of them >2012, https://kindlemodding.org/kindle-models.html
- Just ordered myself the LilyGo T5 E-Paper S3 Pro [1]. The other good options on the hardware tab are sold out [2]. I quite like the idea of having GPS capability, and maybe I can experiment with LoRa gateways. I originally missed out on the M5 Paper and have been looking for an entry since.
My plan is to not use this firmware and use MicroPython instead (based on a high-level OS I already developed that is extremely low battery consumption). I carry around with me an A6 notebook with TODOs for each day - just the other day I temporarily lost it and realized that I actually need to have a backup for this stuff synced with a private VPS.
by bArray - KOReader support (not just KOReader sync) has become my new line in the sand for an e-reader. I'm currently using my jailbroken Kindle PW5 and loving it.
KOReader paired with BookOrbit is my sweetspot and I love having all the data under my control. If my Kindle died today I'd probably grab a Kobo and put KOReader on it.
This project is very interesting to me but they seem to want to "own" the whole software stack, it seems like it won't support things like KOReader? Or am I mistaken?
by joshstrange - Pretty sure all we’re waiting on is someone to put in the effort to port KOReader to the platform.by bunderbunder
- Are there any instances from the closed e-book system (kindle, nook, etc..) where you paid for a book and the book was either updated to a revised version or just removed from the device because of the content in the book?by t1234s
- Sort of.
- I've often bought books with old/traditional covers which I like, but then a movie is made and the cover is "updated" to the movie tie-in version
- I've found at least one typo in pretty much every e-book I've ever read, and usually report them --- they rarely get fixed, which annoys me to no end (esp. if it's a copy were there cover has changed as noted above)
There's also the old news story about the kid who bought the pirated copy of _1984_ took class notes in it, and then had the copy deleted, which presumably is why when Microsoft took the ebook reader functionality out of Edge they issued checks to people who had used the note-taking functionality.
by WillAdams - Are there any serious legislative efforts to fix the ebook market? I know getting rid of DRM entirely isn't likely to happen, but at this point I'd be happy with just vendor-neutral DRM.by criddell
- It's fairly rare - like when 1984 was deleted from amazon when the seller didn't have the rights (and customer was refunded), but https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-c... shows an example where someone's account was deleted and they lost all licenses of books they bought.by ebiester
- There was that famous 2009 case of Amazon remote deleting George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles.
- Yep. The infamous case in my mind were the Roald Dahl updates. I believe there were a few more cases that got news coverage a few years back, but I don't recall, so don't quote me.
https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/ronald-dahl-...
by jjice - Kindle regularly removes sideloaded books if it decides you didn't purchase them from Amazon. Allegedly it's due to an incompatibility between the Kindle DRM and the way Calibre tricks the Kindle into displaying book covers for sideloaded files, but it's still annoying. The solution is to leave the device in airplane mode.by pnw
- Yep, first instance I know of was from back in 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-ki... and the kind of thing keeps happening over the years. It'll continue to happen since you aren't paying for a book. You're paying for a license to read the book for as long as the publisher/owner allows you to do so and they can revoke the permission at any time.
I still find it hilariously ironic that the first instance that was widely reported (as far as I know) was it happening to 1984.
by simcop2387 - Lots of the comments here are about porting to older kindles or eReaders, but the firmware is currently for the ESP32 chipset which none of these use.by boznz
- I really like my Boox e-reader because I can install any android app on it. I run Storyteller on it and it syncs position to my storyteller server. So i can listen to the audiobook on my iPhone and then pick up reading on my Boox from where I was listening.by tcoff91
- I've always wanted something like Storyteller for non-Amazon devices. Thanks!by robbiet480
- I contribute to Storyteller in my free time and I absolutely love using my Boox with it, honestly my dream reading setup.by scratchyone
- I also really like Boox. I'm on my 2nd Boox product now having upgraded from my old Max Lumi so that I could get colours.by mattm
- I find the battery life on boox tablets to be pretty poor. At least with my usage.
Its kind of annoying to have to be charging every other day.
I think I've only had to charge the xteink x4 a couple times since I got it in March. But that's the case for any non-android ereader.
I'd be happy if the boox lasted a week with 2-3ish hours of use a day.
by jerojero - I got an Xteink X 4 a few weeks ago and it's a very cute device. While I'm a fan of the hardware what's been really fun is noodling around with building some custom firmware and sync architecture to optimize content for the device's extremely limited CPU and Memory. That's meant a custom format for images and metadata that match the device's hardware and interface needs and an automatic ingest pipeline for building these files from common book/comic formats. Maybe some day I'll even read a book on the thing!by idle_zealot
- It saddens me that most of the ebook world is leaning towards smaller screen sizes.
My reader is 8", and I think that's just the right size. I like a decent sized font, and I don't like continually scrolling.
Surprisingly, the original promise of "low battery use" isn't panning out. My ereader's battery doesn't last that long, although I can live with it. Once you switch to large size color eink screens, the battery life is poorer than tablets!
by BeetleB - I searched for each of the supported eInk devices and they were all tiny. Anyone know if there is a larger reader (maybe Paperwhite size-ish) that might run this?
- ESP32-S3 is really too underpowered for larger e-ink devices.by IshKebab
- I've never heard of any of them; I guess it's geared toward build-it-yourself or kit-type devices? I can't imagine a serious aftermarket FW not supporting a single Kindle or Kobo device.by mikepurvis
- The "Hardware" link indicates that the BoM specifies a "24-pin SPI e-paper for GoodDisplay panels (3.97″, 4.26″, 7.5″ and up)." A search turns up this: https://www.good-display.com/product/516.htmlby chb
- Are there any off the shelf e-readers which support this firmware? This site seems to be for people who want to solder together their own e-reader from components.
Also, it does a bit misleading to say "Charging, battery protection, an optional frontlight and a 24-pin e-paper interface, all on one PCB you can build for around $60." According to their own parts lists, if you are build 5 of these, you're in for $63.74 (plus shipping?) So if you want just one (like a normal person), it's going to cost more. And that's still just the circuit board and components: no mention of the outer plastic casing. (I can't find any info on their site about how to get that - presumably 3D print, but haven't found plans.)
by stevage - Hey trying to understand this better. Isn't $63 around $60? Maybe I'm missing something