The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode (called "side-load mode" or something like that) and I can transfer my ebooks directly via USB. I use the Kobo most of the time now since most of my reading lately has been independently published ebooks, but I still use the Kindle for books I purchase via Amazon directly.
With all that said, I personally think the Kindle Paperwhite is already the perfect size. It fits snuggly in my back pocket and strikes the perfect balance between screen size being large, but not too large to hold for my average male hands. I'd be a bit concerned about the size increase for my personal use case, but Amazon does a great job with the Kindle in general so I'd like to see some reviews.
As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some reviews. The color Kobos that came out earlier this year got some mixed reviews for colors, but I'm not sure if that's just the nature of color e-ink or not.
You can sideload your books over USB too, using Calibre for instance.
I own a few Kindle models and a Kobo Forma as well. The Kindles do have some quirks and bugs (e.g., disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts…). But my Kobo Forma’s battery completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device became completely unreliable. After that experience, I’ve resigned myself to live with the Kindle’s problems.
Thinking hard if I ever want to get another Kindle when Amazon can just screw around with what I put on my Kindle ...
I find it easier than converting to Kindle format and then copying over USB.
Convert your book to .azw3 in Calibre
Instead of sending it to the device in Calibre, locate the azw3 file (Right click -> Open book folder).
Copy the file to your Kindle, but not to the "documents" folder (where Calibre usually puts it) but rather into Downloads->Items
This folder is where books go when you buy them from Amazon or receive them after using the Send to Kindle feature. I have only tried this with azw3 so far but it might also work with .mobi format.
At what point do we stop giving the benefit of the doubt that it's a "bug"?
They're perfectly happy to let you email books to the kindle that you bought at other stores (or stole), as well as sync your progress with those books, backup those books to their servers, and generally have the full reading experience with all the benefits of the kindle ecosystem even if you didn't buy the book through kindle. If they didn't want to encourage the use of third-party files, surely they'd make it more difficult than a bug that randomly deletes books off some people's kindles sometimes.
Also by emailing books or loading through their servers, they can still track and get that sweet sweet data/metadata that Amazon thrives on. When you sideload, you don't even have to connect it to the internet, which makes analytics more challenging.
if they want people to buy books from their store, why do they make it so easy to not buy books from their store?
bugs happen. not every bug is part of jeff bezos' nefarious plan.
Multiple times I have picked up the device to find it completely dead, while it was at full battery less than a day ago. I haven't quite narrowed down the cause yet -- since I did install KOReader and Nickel right after getting the device, it's not running stock software, so I'm not certain if the issue is hardware or software related.
It definitely seems to be doing something in sleep mode that's draining the battery, even with wifi turned off. This really shouldn't be the case -- I'd expect close to 0 power being used when not actively refreshing a page. I've recently turned to mitigating the issue by setting the device to turn off completely after an hour... which is not ideal, but having to wait for the thing to boot up is definitely preferable to waiting for it to charge.
It's annoying because otherwise this thing is pretty close to perfect for me -- the form factor is excellent, extremely lightweight, and I can connect to my Calibre-web server and download any ebook I have on demand. I'd seriously consider buying an extra one to crack open and install my own battery if I knew that would fix the issue.
Edit: Lastly, I have a sneaking suspicion that "refurbished" does not mean "replaced with a new battery", which, honestly, should probably be illegal to advertise a device that way vs "used".
Funny that I got the exact same issue but with Kindle instead. I swore I would never buy a Kindle again https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177
Shame to hear about your Kobo's battery. FWIW, they have great repairability (in newer models at least). That said, the Kindle's battery does smash the Kobo's in my experience as well.
Is this a poor Calibre configuration or are there real limitations to reading books side-loaded on Kindles?
The Paperwhite is too small for PDFs, but great for fiction and portability. The Scribe is excellent for PDFs, but it makes my books disappear sometimes, and it does not work well with sideloaded fonts. The Forma is a middle ground in terms of portability, but its battery died after a couple years and nowadays I only use it near a power outlet.
I find it to be a good combination. Like you said, the paperwhite is amazing for laying in bed at night (really like the backlight) or on the couch or traveling to read. But it is too small for PDFs or serious notetaking. The Remarkable is perfect for those things. The remarkable also gives you full control over your files to do whatever you want. You can connect it to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc and/or just manage files directly on device (plug it in via usb-c and it shows up as a USB mass storage device).
The two tools compliment themselves nicely. Just my 2 cents.
She's also one of those folks who sideloads with Calibre as well as purchasing through Amazon.
I think the only thing that has been discontinued is the free 3G internet all over the world that they apparently figured was too expensive.
I wish it were less destructible! I upgraded to a Paperwhite (2021) when the Voyage's power button broke. Water resistance is nice, but having to get the "signature" edition for a light sensor and an easily scratched plastic display is quite disappointing.
Opted for a pocketbook this time though. Physical buttons and small 6-inch form factor? And respect for your privacy? Count me the fuck in!
Sadly, Amazon’s support is not far behind, considering its inability to fix certain persistent Kindle bugs. But I’ve never seen the hardware itself fail.
Interestingly, I switched from Kindle to Kobo because it was lacking various basic features that made it not feel premium.
* Kobo epubs can show "pages in chapter" progress so I know how much longer there is until a nice stopping point, while Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless.
* Kobo had blue light blocking night shift before Kindle Paperwhite (I think both have it now?)
* Kobo had a convenient feature where you slide your finger along the side of the screen to change brightness, instead of having to go into multiple menus to do this.
It's possible these things have been remedied, but especially the chapter progress thing put such a bad taste in my mouth that I never wanted to touch Kindle again.
The kindle recomputes your reading pace as you go, so unless you prefer to do that math in your head and track your own pages-per-minute moving average, I don't see how it's functionally useless
The ecosystem is amazing and unbeatable.
The software was fine on the original Kindles (well, I had a keyboard), and despite gaining a few features is largely the same since 10+ years ago.
But don’t worry, they added ads to the device that they used to sell you books and they’ve managed not to speed it up one bit!
I've noticed that when I read on my Kobo I run into issue with ebook files. When I use Calibre to send .epub files I'll have lots of reliability issues; books will freeze up, pages won't turn, whole sections of the book wind up being unreadable, stuff like that. Having Calibre reformat books in the kobo epub format seems to help some, but I still have page turn issues from time to time.
Have you see any of this behavior before? As far as I'm concerned this would be the perfect ereader if it were just more reliable.
No, you can sideload books using USB mass storage. It's pretty easy. Kindle Paperwhite is still a great experience even without using the Amazon book ecosystem.
I switched to a Poke 5P (Onyx) and was surprised at the tons of features. No ads, no DRM and reads basically all formats. Win.
I downloaded all my Amazon-bought books, so I can still read them on PC, but otherwise I'm done with their product.
But as other commenters noted, if you sideload ebooks which do not already have DRM on them, the Kindle will certainly not add any sort of DRM to the files. This is true both if you sideload via USB or even if you use the "email to Kindle" feature.
Not true and never has been. The Kindle will make no changes to sideloaded files.
Text crispness, page turning speed, battery life, physical dimensions are all much bigger factors in an ereader IMO.
I then went to investigate, how all this is done and found this:
https://itstillworks.com/kindle-drm-17841.html
As for the side-loaded books - I still can't open them on any other device (did the DRM check work the same on Paperwhite 1st gen?). No idea why.
Use EPUB file format and your books will work on all devices, including Kindle.
My Kindle won't open EPUB files, only AZW3. But it is easy to convert with Calibre.
The rest is true in my experience. Loading non-DRM AZW3 books works fine; Kindle doesn't magically add DRM to them nor delete them.
If you're getting books from Amazon with DRM, you don't need to sideload them!
Here's a hands-on Kindle Colorsoft review, Amazon's first color Kindle is the e-reader of my dreams,
https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft...
submitted earlier:
Had a funny experience once with a fellow (who was in his third year of computer science at a reputable university), where we just so happened to get on to the topic of ebooks. I told him how I operate my little machine, which I'd only started using. He was shocked, and stated clearly that he thinks it's unethical towards authors to use a "jailbroken" device like that and not get books through the Amazon store...
Sigh.
Scale makes it seem pretty straightforward to me.
Why don't you want to support Amazon?
And does Jeff Bezos hoard money or wealth? Also not sure how he is ghoulish but you are of course entitled to your opinion.
I still have a paperwhite which is ok.
My favorite device right now is a boox Go6, smallish, cheap, android. I don't use many apps on it other than the reader but threw a copy of Kiwix on there, and use it as a writing deck using a bluetooth keyboard, hits a lot of semi-offline use cases for me.
I managed to jailbreak my "Kindle Oasis 3" and install KOreader [1] and Syncthing on it (the process of achieving this, as described on mobileread.com/forums was quite horrible by the way.) Very happy with the result though, books are just synced automatically with my Macbook via Syncthing.
Hopefully somehow a similar setup will be possible with the new Kindles, if they can also be jailbroken.
PS. The Kindle Oasis 3 is still great in 2024, it even automatically adjusts brightness with its light sensor.
Most important! The yoga cover is great for laying on either side, so I can toss and turn in bed and keep reading. Literally no e-reader I have seen since has a symmetrical stand-cover that can be used sideways both ways.
As for Kobo, I just looked the other day and saw they have some great prices for e-readers that have similar features, plus they advertise being completely repairable! And you're not in the Amazon ecosystem. My only gripe years ago was the don't rendering on side loaded books wasn't as good as Amazon, and that Calibre couldn't De-DRM Kobo books as well as Amazon. I think the game has changed a bit, though, and I haven't tested anything in a while.
If Kobo books are crackable, my next e-reader will likely take me away from Amazon. I want that USB-C in my life.
Paperwhite 5: 124.6 x 174.2 x 8.1 mm
Paperwhite 6: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm
Admittedly I have big pockets.
(I want / need it to run KOReader because I wrote a small Lua plugin for it that syncs reading stats (words per minute, minutes read per year, etc) to a centralized server.)
The resolution and size just nails it, and my favourite feature is the warm backlighting for reading at night. Battery lasts forever, and I can just put it on my Samsung phone stand for wireless charging once in a blue moon - not once have I run out of battery.
I fall asleep so easily to this, currently on the Eisenhorn 40k Omnibus book - and a 184 week reading streak.
I used to be excited about new Kindle releases, have had one since the mammoth DXG - but no more, I'm good now with this, so don't see myself forking out $400 AUD for the new one (with a leather cover).
Also bought one (also a SE) for my son, with a different colour magnetic leather cover. :-)
Really? I had to make an account to "activate" my Kobo, but it wouldn't let me make one because I already had an old account with one of their partner websites, whose auth servers were malfunctioning, so it took like two hours to be able to "activate" the device.
Is there a way to bypass that?
I have a first generation Kindle Oasis, which is a great device, in no small part because of its asymmetric design and page turn buttons. The newer Oasis (still last refreshed in 2022) have better lighting (temperature adjustable) and inverse text mode, which are both nice but have not been enough to get me to upgrade. It lacks the battery cover of the original oasis, which while kind of a pain was nice because it gave a very natural way to hold the device.
I'm sad to see that the Oasis line is not mentioned here. I have little to no interest in using my kindle as a writing device, and honestly would prefer that the touchscreen was as little used as possible -- an unresponsive or slow screen is the worst case for a touchscreen, since the feedback loop is terrible.
I don't know if they'll have an OS update to go along with this. I have found successive updates to be worse and worse -- my pages are all crammed with ads (not actual ads since I paid to have them removed, but "recommended books") and large page covers. I can barely fit five titles from my library on a screen; I would much prefer to have just the title/author/progress and fit twenty on a page.
The integration with the Amazon ecosystem is probably the best selling point, but until somebody shuts down Libby I've switched my habits to be almost entirely rent-based rather than buying books.
The PocketBook cloud is just as seamless as the syncing with Amazon if that is something you use. Only time I notice problems is during the weekly maintenance window which just looks like an outage. It has bidirectional sync for your progress as well as syncing new books and has a web interface and a phone app. Also offers the same email endpoint service as Kindle and you can set up Adobe DRM to use with library borrowing as well as other places that distribute ascm. The builtin store probably doesn't have the same availability of titles as Amazon but I haven't used it since I manage my library with Calibre and buy my books from various stores.
Best of all is the customizability. Don't want to use their store or cloud? You can turn off (really just not setup and hide) all the features and integrations individualy to make it an "offline" reader but still bring it online for things like Wikipedia lookup and web searches. You don't even need an account to set it up. You can also load additional dictionaries, fonts, and even applications on it. It has a healthy if small development scene.
There is a new color version but if you don't read things that require color I would get the original; Based on reviews it has the the same downside as Kobo and others that use the Kalaido screen where it's relatively dimmer in ambient light compared to the B/W one and so needs a higher average backlight level to compensate.
Overall I've been really happy with my switch and can't see myself going back to Kindle.
I've considered doing a sweep to download all of my kindle books and de-DRM them so that I have an archive, but this is a tortuous process if your library has over a thousand titles, as mine does.
The process is really not bad at all if you use the desktop Kindle app to download your library before importing to Calibre. Each step is fully automated with the only manual parts being setting it up and doing each step in sequence for the whole library but not each individual book.
The workarounds mostly involve getting Amazon to give you the book in an older format, but then you lose the typography improvements that KFX gets you.
Apple's DRM format (Fairplay?) has never been cracked but I believe Adobe's has. Buying from the Google store of Kobo store is probably the best bet.
The book DRM problem requires a legislative solution.
I second buying from Google Play. Outside of a period of time last year where they had a bug that prevented exporting many titles in their catalog (some error in their backend service), I have never had an issue with purchases from there. I will happily continue getting my books from sources that allow true ownership after purchase regardless of any touted benefits Amazon adds to future DRM schemes, just need the words on the page.
For me, the kerning, hyphenation, and spacing improvements in KFX are pretty big. I also like that I can choose justified or ragged right.
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/viqxjj/heres_the_fo...
Regardless, my point was that: A - most of the books already in the library were likely enjoyed/acquired without knowledge of hypothetical improvements from Amazon rolling out a new ebook format and DRM scheme. And B - even if there is some magic that Amazon had to include in KFX to support the improvements you listed and can't be reproduced without them; I personally would not consider those or most any improvements to be worth losing ownership of books that I purchase. The most valuable part of an ebook is the text and ownership of a copy of that is what I'm paying for. It is fairly easy for me to be principaled on only buying ebooks that I know I can own a copy of due to the diverse distribution that exists for most titles. Even when I had an Oasis, I didn't purchase anything through Amazon and loaded all my books over USB.
Seems like that's how it should work, but it doesn't. Maybe that's by design or maybe it's fallout from poor choices Amazon made earlier in Kindle history. I really don't know.
So no, I wouldn't say you missed anything obvious, which is a feature not a bug as far as Amazon is concerned.
There is no PB Cloud support but it uses Dropbox, however that means no syncing progress like with kindle.
It takes a few seconds to start since it's Android and fully turns off.
And highlighting is very clunky.
The software situation with that company is pretty sketchy. From their website both mine and yours are listed as the same OS but seem totally different.
You do have to setup and login to a PocketBook account to use the cloud synchronization. I have not tried the Dropbox integration, but it only supports a synchronized file folder.
In the user manual for the Verse Pro[1], the setup for PB Cloud starts on page 79 and isn't grouped with the Dropbox sync or email endpoint earlier on in the manual.
The only controversy related to PB Software that I am aware of is that it used to be even more open with a published SDK. It was many years ago that they stopped actively maintaining tne SDK. That doesn't seem to have stopped people from continuing to develop for PB devices, and as far as I'm aware PB have not done anything to prevent this or lock down their devices beyond not continuing public development of the SDK. Certainly theur current lineup of devices allow you to run 3rd party applications and are simple to get root shell access on.
[1]https://support.pocketbook-int.com/fw/634/u/6.8.3796/manual/...
Maybe it's a regional thing.
I also would have been disappointed with my Era if it didn't have PocketBook Cloud syncronization as advertised since it is functionality I care about. That being said, if it is something locked out of your region you could always install Koreader and setup sync through that.
The manual on my device also mentions the cloud, but it is just wrong. I think they have regional partners with ebook stores that customize it.
Though I think you are right it isn't Android and I misremembered. I thought thats why it has a dual core cpu and make wonder why it's so slow after boot until it's ready to turn pages.
I can't speak to how their distribution is resulting in selling devices that don't have advertised features enabled. It is weird they would allow this while keeping their branding and same device name (maybe they are working around some trade restrictions?) So that is not good, but I don't know how widespread that issue is. And as I pointed out in my response before the edit, this seems straightforward to resolve if you buy from somewhere that has this issue.
Not to belabor the point, but in my original post I mentioned how PocketBook devices are specifically not Android as an advantage in terms of battery life.
I suspect that what you are experiencing with regards to it being "slow" to resume an in progress book and allow navigation may be due to your settings. The PocketBook has a sleep mode that allows quick resume for reading. How long after it goes to sleep before it powers all the way down is fully configurable from disabling it to waiting your choice of many options between 10 minutes and 48 hours. IMO the cold boot time is acceptable and I did not notice a difference from my 1st Gen Oasis. The power loss if you fully disable its auto power off is still great, although I haven't used it that way much beyond when I first got mine so I don't have a comparison to my Oasis.
That being said, I don't have the same model as you so maybe there is a significant difference between them in performance, but it would be easy enough to check independent reviews if I was trying to decide between them.
You're entitled to your opinion, but it seems easily solvable based on a 3 second Google search: https://old.reddit.com/r/ereader/comments/1dvwnb8/pocketbook...
1. Android (privacy...)
2. No light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness to surroundings
(i currently have the Kindle Oasis 3, jailbroken, running KOreader.)
As for the second, if that is a requirement then at least the Era doesn't have an ambient light sensor. I don't have any issue without it because I just have the front light off entirely by default since it is e-ink. Obviously if I need to use it in the dark I turn it on, but that is easy without having to navigate a screen I can't see since you can configure a hardware shortcut to toggle the front light (it is set to long press on the home button by default). While it does support automatic screen brightness and temperature (individually toggled), these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones.
> PocketBook devices do NOT run Android
Well actually some _do_ run Android, but good to see also some of them (like the Era) do not...
> these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones Yea, i don't really like that unfortunately, as it doesn't properly work inside when lighting changes.
I'll patiently wait on a next release, hoping for a non-Android and light sensor included device :-)
I was unaware of this. Looks like they have a couple devices that are "e-note" devices, are larger, and support stylus input that are Android devices. Maybe also a couple readers from a long time ago, saw an article mentioning one running KitKat 4.4.
Thanks for letting me know!
I'm in the U.S. and a search for "oasis" has nothing but eye drops in its top results. You have to scroll down to find a listing for the "International Version — Kindle Oasis", selling at just $135 [1], but which Amazon refuses to ship if your address is in the U.S.
[0] https://www.thestreet.com/retail/amazon-quietly-discontinues...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Oasis-now-with-adjustable-warm...
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24272009/amazon-disconti...
I don't love boox but mine hasn't died yet and it's decently competent at my use case.
Other than that I'm a real fan: latest update delivered dark mode (black background, white text) and like I said above: no ads, no Amazon-DRM, all formats, cloud storage (if you want to), TTS, annotations that are really comfortable to handle, bluetooth.
Looks like I've got to build my own.
Oh well, at least my Voyage still works and fits in most pockets (and has cool origami cover), the only downside is that if not in airplane mode, it uses up battery in 2-3 days. In airplane mode I can read 2-3 weeks.
I agree in principle (slow feedback is the bane of my existence) but I had one of those 10 inch Kindle DX without touch, and it was a pretty bad experience compared to the Paperwhite.
Physical buttons (and possibly the orientation sensor?) were definitely nice to have though.
"The Colorsoft is based on E Ink’s Kaleido technology but uses an entirely new display stack for Kindles, all the way back to a newly designed oxide backplane that makes it easier for E Ink panel’s tiny bits of ink to move around quickly. The E Ink world has been working on similar tech for a while, and Amazon thinks it’s the key to making color work well. The Colorsoft has new LED pixels, and a new way of shining light through them individually to enhance colors. It’s also brighter than ever, to help the whole thing feel more vivid. Some of this tech also helped the new Paperwhite turn pages faster and easier, but it was designed to make Colorsoft work."
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/kindle-color-specs-...
"...Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition packs a suite of innovations that make every hue and shade pop.
Those include custom formulated coatings between the display layers to enhance the color, a light guide with micro-deflectors to minimize stray light, and an ultra-thin coating in the display stack to improve optical performance. We built the display on an oxide backplane for sharper contrast, faster page turns, and better image quality."
I'm also impressed by the improvements to Gallery 3 displays used in the latests reMarkable. Gallery 3 has typically had much better colours, contrast and brightness when compared to Kaleido 3. Now I'm very curious for the reviews.
In the rm pro the colors are still what I consider to be pretty muted. I had a laugh of what "red" looks like then I tried it. I don't care too much about it, for the purpose it's a great addition, but it's also darker than the rm2, which instead turned out to bother me a lot.
I can use the rm2 everywhere, but the rm3 is only saved, in my eyes, by some amount of backlight, which brings it closer, but still not exacly equal to the rm2. And by the way the rm2 is also, by far, not "white". If I consider rm2 to be some shade of ivory, the rm3 is downright gray.
Grayscale rendering on the rm2 display is also better. I do notice the dithering on the rm pro, and there's some color fringing in the ghosting.
If I need color for some reason I have a phone, tablet, laptop etc that do the job better than e-ink presently can.
It's great for page flips, turning the backlight on and off, opening the top menu. Sadly it doesn't work for turning power off and on, but I suspect that can be fixed.
That being said the rm3 is usable without backlight indoors if the place is decently lit (for example, in most offices), but requires some backlight otherwise. The rm2 is usable also in poorly lit conditions.
Finally the physical page turn buttons are great as well as the bevel on the back for holding it with one hand.
If not traveling, getting to read an open paperback, two pages side by side, on Kindle Scribe is super enjoyable, then turn it to portrait to read white papers or textbooks.
Both are features that complement each other. If I can’t read in the rain I don’t want it. This means disabling the touch screen and using the physical buttons to page turn, otherwise you are using hacks like putting it inside a plastic baggie. Haptic buttons would be fine as well, and likely solve some of the waterproof issues along with an update to USB-C charging.
Pondering having someone mule me the last of the Oasis International editions available for sale for when my current Oasis finally dies. I really don’t want to go back to the dark ages of touchscreen only.
I really wish UX designers for handheld devices optimized for, you know, ergonomics of actually holding it, rather than just trying to minimize the physical size.
I did know of its drawbacks beforehand — e.g. no physical buttons, not waterproof. The page-turning response/refresh time is noticeably better, but I'm left feeling pretty meh by the overall experience. I haven't had much need to scribble notes so as of now, the Scribe is basically an iPad-sized device with the limited feature set of the Paperwhite.
The size is good for textbook-type material, but not enough to make me pick it over an iPad if I'm traveling. The Oasis is small enough that I can carry it in a coat pocket.
But the buttons really are the killer feature. Being able to disable the touchscreen — especially when I'm anywhere where moisture is an issue (at the beach or gym) — easily makes the Oasis worth bringing even if I could read on my phone. I would have easily gone for a new version of the Oasis but I guess consumers haven't shown enough interest in paying extra for a button interface.
The joke was the same, we had a board game, then we made a mobile video game based on the board game, now they are selling a board game based on the video game that was based on the board game.
That's like saying confortable cars have been present since their inception, and then present as a example a royal coach.
True, you technically had colors in books. Just like you had books with hardbacks with gold inlays. The fact is that the bulk of the books being published were not color books because that costs a premium to make and moreso to buy. Hence the default stabilized in softcover books with B/W print on flimsy paper.
With e-readers you do not get higher production costs, and you can just download your books and benefit from that. Some ebooks even ship with high resolution images where you can zoom in all you want or need.
Might be a scroll or a codex, but it might even be on a wall.
> it's not movable
I don't know what to say here. This is obviously false. Why did you say this?
What do you think is the difference between a "book" and a "codex"? Why do you think ancient texts are divided into "books"?
According to wikipedia:
"The codex (pl.: codices /ˈkoʊdɪsiːz/)[1] was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term "codex" is now reserved for older manuscript books, which mostly used sheets of vellum, parchment, or papyrus, rather than paper.[2] "
I would say a codex is a book yes, you are right there. The defining characteristic for me is the binding method, the flippable pages and the bookiness factor of the book.
That said, unbound scrolls that are scrolled into scrolls of scroll are definitely scrolls and not books.
So 2 to 1, gg.
The portability of a Paperwhite combined with the note-taking ability of a Scribe… there’s probably a market for that.
Edit: also, holding the device semi-opened, hands on its back, seems much more comfortable than holding it by the bezels as we currently do.
There are already erasable notebooks that allow you to scan your notes and send the document to a storage of your choosing. Even BIC sells one of them.
<https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/readmoo-to-l...>
<https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/10/21361545/folding-e-ink-re...>
(I'm not even remotely saying this would be a Good Thing. I recently saw my first foldable smartphone. And it was broken.)
Especially for things like reading contracts which I find miserable on a screen
>much closer to just having a reading light on
First of all, that contradicts the evidence from my eyes, but second of all, even if it were true, you'd have to persuade me that reading an old-fashion paper book with a reading light is any better at helping me get to sleep at night than reading from an iPad. I'm not buying that one either mainly because a reading light is going to throw more light onto the ceiling, where of course it gets reflected down again, and neuroscientists know (and the Scandinavian tradition "knew" in practice decades ago) that light from the top of the field of vision is more disruptive to sleep than light coming straight into the eye or from the sides or bottom of the visual field.
(I do prefer an eReader over a tablet, but I don’t think the light is magically better.)
What are you a peasant?
Everybody knows that the modern scholar obtains information from the world through papers, either from google scholar or from the latest libgen domain.
apart from the physical buttons the paperwhite signature has all of these.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazons-first-color-...
> In addition to the monochrome e-readers, Amazon introduced its first color e-reader today. The new Kindle Colorsoft, covered in more detail here, looks almost identical to the new Paperwhite and launches on October 30 for $279.99.
Comics are unreadable on a 7" kindle's tiny screen anyway. What's up with the marketing?
Why advertise a function that you know your device can't fulfill?
jailbreaking sure but what is the issue with sideloading on kindles? You can either email them which is very practical for third party services that support it (I have a digital magazine subscription that supports this for example) or just drag and drop via USB or a manager like calibre.
I have never had any issues getting documents on the Kindle.
https://www.giga.de/artikel/onleihe-mit-amazon-kindle-nutzen...
So the rule of thumb is that Kindles work well with Amazon books and very badly with everything else. Vice versa for non-kindle e-readers
Amazon boasts "up to 8 weeks on a single charge" in all their selling points, then, in the fine print states "A single charge lasts up to eight (8) weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 13".
So, it has 28 hours of actual use time, got it. Why not just say that?
I used to not care but beware if you get yourself a Note Air 3C the BSR can drain your battery at an alarming rate.
That said, I do think they should just give the number in terms of page refreshes and let the users figure it out from there.
> So, it has 28 hours of actual use time, got it.
Reminds me of when Quorn sold 3 sausage rolls but labelled them as 12, arguing that if you cut each one in 4 you get 12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42251481
The "Up to 33 hours of video playback" for the iPhone Pro Max[0] for instance is an absolutely insane use case (nobody's letting their phone passively play local videos for a day and a half), and gives little insight into how long it can stay in sheer standby, do video meetings or handle slack.
It's a hard class of devices to give any sort of reasonable battery life length.
Regardless, the battery on these devices even back in 2012 was already good enough.
I have a 10+ year old Kindle Paperwhite (I think first gen). I use it daily and it’s still just nearly a perfect device. It’s withstood rough treatment, battery life is still ~2 books long, and it has never been made obsolete by a software update.
No other electronic device I’ve ever bought has had this kind of longevity and it’s not even close.
Cool to think that if I do upgrade now that $159 will probably get me to 2035.
Rooting it was a hassle, but it was worth it.
The excellent hardware (display, enclosure) combined with Koreader makes it really joyful to read technical books and documents, especially when combined with Calibre.
As one of those books was about Lisp, i also installed Kterm, tmux, the joe editor and tinysheme, which served as a decent Scheme Playground/IDE while i was on vacation!
Either way, sad there's no Oasis refresh. I'm not super attached to the physical buttons, but I'd prefer it to not. Oh well.
It seemed like if you wanted a large ebook reader AND occasional note taking, it's probably great. For my use, I would have been just as happy with just a spiral notebook, probably happier. I used it every day for work notes and todos.
I sold it on ebay and got an Boox Note Air3, similar cost, and the writing experience is not nearly as good as the Scribe, but it is a much more capable device with many more features in the notebook. However, I've fallen out of the habit of using it, I think just because the writing experience isn't as good.
It's fine for reading PDFs, I guess.
I'd really like some comments there. There's a lot that goes into writing and drawing, and all the online reviews I've seen seem just to praise it.
I used most digital writing devices starting from wacom tables (first intuos series), to laptops with foldable screens and currently using the rm2/rm3.
I agree that nothing still has the precision of a real pen or pencil. I can lazily fill and shade even with a micron fineliner when I want, and simply can't replicate the same precision with anything else I tried. I could buy a lifetime supply of the best pens and paper with the cost of the rm3.
Writing is mostly fine, but when drawing I notice immediately the precision just isn't there. But still, at least on the rm (both 2 and pro), the digitizer is well calibrated, and the feel is good, the pen is actually like a pen and not the sucky abomination what wacom like to call "pens" or the tiny unusable styluses of the samsung "note" or lenovo yoga series. The show distance between tip and display is very good, and even though it seems ridicolous, the slighltly shorter one on the rm3 makes a difference. The rm2 is still requires a bit too much pressure for my taste (I have a light touch being used to mechanical pencils, fineliners and tech drawing); the rm3 seems slightly improved.
I can still tell instantly that lines are occasionally wobbly due to the digitizer's grid and pen position.
That being said I got the rm2 at some point, and it's the first e-notebook I actually stuck with because it's effectively "endless paper" and has reached the "good enough" feeling for me. I used to have tons of sheets of paper with notes, now I have somewhat less ;).
Remarkable, as a newer, smaller company, needs to seriously differentiate itself. Amazon can play it safer.
Having said that, I think the white bezel and introducing a professional looking colour to the Scribe, is so much better looking than my current Gen 1.
I normally wouldn't care, I didn't feel my scribe was ugly, until I saw the new one. I'm half considering passing mine to my mother, and buying the new version.
But a bigger difference is that Gallery 3 uses CMYW pigments; there's no black pigment, rather the microcapsules themselves are tinted black on one end, so the black ultimately ends up a little impure. Also there are only 4 shades of grey for antialiasing rather than 16.
It wish it was A4/Letter size to read PDFs at full size. There are a few devices like that out there (I've heard the Fujitsu Quaderno is nice), but none of them can be used with books purchased at Amazon.
And yes, I know about Calibre and the DeDRM tools. They don't work on KFX files and the workarounds degrade the book (you lose typography improvements that are only in KFX).
I'm also disappointed by the Oasis being discontinued. I wanted to trade mine in for a USB-C version.
I'd like to see one because I'm a little skeptical about the screen. Is it as readable in sunlight as the Kindle?
I have the newest paperwhite (prior to the one announced here) and it is incredibly fast and zippy compared to the kindles of old. And they claim the new one is even 25% faster.
I bought a colour Kobo. Super responsive by comparison. The colour isn't wonderful, I like that it's there.
Also, physical buttons! Such things are only available on the most expensive Kindle, I didn't realize how much I'd missed them.
Or the old ones you can get for $10 on eBay :) I use exclusively old models that have physical buttons for Kindles because they're just insanely cheap and still perfectly reliable (the battery too) even a decade later.
I went through a phase of buying used 4th gen ones off ebay so that I could have physical buttons to turn the page, but within a couple of months they would always end up up with cracked screens
They would be stored in my bag next to my laptop (and in a case) but at some point I would end up pulling it out to read and find a cracked screen
I think I went through 4 of them before I called it quits, my current paperwhite is still going strong (just no buttons sadly)
- the authors are unfairly compensated by amazon and the public libraries due to publisher issues with ebooks already. OP is hardly contributing to this disparity.
- I choose to purchase expensive copies of books I love - but the digital copy is the one I read.
And sure, if you’re buying some copy of the book and downloading a convenient second copy, that’s totally different. I was responding to the OP being pleased about not having spent anything at all (except on the kindle itself presumably).
In fact, if everyone used a shadow library but mailed the author cash, then Amazon would go bankrupt but the authors would be fine (and wouldn't need to use Amazon in the first place).
Worth noting though that it’s not just Amazon and the author in the picture - you would be stiffing the publishers in this scenario, and they paid to get the book printed (and edited, and designed, and shipped to physical stores, and maybe some publicity, and probably gave the author an advance).
You might think “who cares?”, but if the author didn’t (traditionally) sell any of the books they published then they wouldn’t ever get another publishing deal, so you’re harming their career. They could self-publish, sure, but worth keeping in mind the author doesn’t necessarily want that, because of the benefits publishers bring (if they didn’t bring any benefits, people wouldn’t use them - they’re not idiots).
It’s very complicated, and I would argue that people using shadow libraries “for authors’ benefit” ought to be speaking to more authors about whether they want that kind of help. But I agree your plan is much more honest than paying nobody, even if it has some potentially negative effects at scale without more coordinated action.
I get that the idea is "if everyone opted out the writer would get nothing instead of peanuts!" Or maybe the company shafting the writer would go under and direct sales would happen instead?
If everyone opted out you could force major change, sure, but in that case you shouldn’t be reading the book. That’s a true boycott. Reading without paying isn’t principled - it’s just cheap. And if you don’t actually organise it achieves nothing - except stiffing the author.
I had hope at one point to set up a Kindle with large fonts on a treadmill, but that was just totally hopeless. I tried again with a music stand next to the treadmill, but it was too far away, badly angled, and touching the device to flip pages could still turn it off.
And it's not just the accidental power-off, it's also the accidental power-on. I slip the Kindle into a tight pocket in my backpack, and it sometimes turns on by itself. Further, inserting it into the pocket can sometimes reproduce the swipe motion, so it can be on and active (and sometimes randomly page-flipping) inside my backpack.
I've bought an ipad since and just read book from my ipad. at least my old ipad doesn't break even after 8 years
For me at least, issues with an e-ink device simply mean moving on to another device, or another manufacturer/brand, instead of switching to tablets.
I think this has gotten a free replacement Kindle on 2 of 3 times that I’ve tried it.
Were the quality standards just different back then?
I can’t imagine replacing my Oasis. I don’t know what it is they have against the buttons. I might’ve bought the color thing today if it had buttons.
I guess I just can’t upgrade until my device dies and then I’ll have to figure something out.
I was disappointed at first the Scribe didn't have buttons, but now I don't care.
- You have to move the position of your thumb/hand for every page turn (to the screen, and back off of it). I disagree with "more energy required with the physical button"
- You have to obstruct text with your thumb/hand to turn the page
- It's very easy to accidentally turn the page by grazing the edge of the screen while you're reading
For one-handed reading especially, that alone makes physical buttons significantly more ergonomic, provided that they're placed such that your thumb rests on them naturally when holding the device.
I don’t love Amazon, but this may be the best device I’ve ever owned. It does one thing really, really well.
Maybe other devices have been more life changing but their trade offs have all been greater than the Kindles.
I'm on my third device now, and I have a couple of them which just won't clear. Not the end of the world but eventually there will be so many that reading is just a pain.
Pros - Lightweight, I can even fit it into a holder on the side of a chair or bed so I don't have to hold it.
- I don't have to physically manipulate the 1000 page book to try and get to certain pages.
- No dust.
Cons - I can't tell you the authors or names of most of the books I've read on it. When you have a physical book you're confronted by the book and author's name, along with an image to burn the combination into your mind. As a kid going to the library I knew whether I had read a book just from the jacket.
- Amazon shenanigans.
- Battery won't last forever and you'll need to replace the whole unit.
- The standby screen is the book cover of your most recent read.
- No amazon shenanigans. Works just fine with calibre or the local library (onleihe).
- I bought my kobo aura hd in 2013 IIRC. Battery is still fine. Apparently newer models even have an ifixit partnership https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/21137184146071-Repai...
That said, there are some additional drawbacks which make me like physical books still:
- For physical books you have an intuitive understand and memory where in the book something happened, e.g. in the first quarter or on an earmarked page. On an ereader every book and every page feels the same.
- Easy multi page view and crossref. For instance, I can have two textbooks about the same subject open and easily compare different sections by just using bookmarks and spreading them on my desk. For that I would need multiple ereaders. Same reason a tablet with pen is nice but feels limiting.
- DRM is annoying enough to be basically an ad for piracy. Get the ebook, download, add it to adobe software, connect cable, transfer to ereader, disconnect cable, still doesn't work, reauthorize device, maybe it works. Meanwhile without drm: add to calibre, get book via wifi, done.
- Maybe better with newer tech, but eink was still somewhat lower resolution and contrast compared to a printed book. Also, page turning is fast enough but not seamless.
Its battery has degraded over time, but even at half the original length its not a problem.
It broke because I had it in my back pocket and I sat on it. Bought a new one immediately.
I've yet to have any measurable battery degradation on either and I read 1-3 books a month. (Including 1000+ page monsters by Brandon Sanderson).
Of course, the situation reverses when you’re trying to search a word rather than a page. It’s too convenient to use a global search function on e-readers.
You need a word of caution here. These devices are very good for writing but absolutely suck at rendering ebooks. I was on the market for a new e-reader/writer ultimately decided to go for the Boox Note Air 3 (no backlight on the Go was a deal breaker) and I think remarkable really dropped the ball by releasing the Paper Pro with a pen that needs a battery. Coming from years of using a Kobo Ellipsa, this was a huge deal breaker. The Remarkable 2 is a bit old and underpowered not to mention the limited amount of storage space.
I’ve also got an issue where the latest software update is causing frequent hangs when opening new books (literally 5+ minutes) and I quite often get stuck in books, unable to summon the menu to go back to my library. Seems to be a fairly common problem judging by Reddit.
I ended up buying a Kobo Libra Colour just this week. So far I’m very happy with it. Performance is better and it’s compatible with a lot more stuff.
However, I have been experiencing annoying software bugs with both my Paperwhite and my Kindle Scribe. Unresponsiveness, disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts… the devices’ software quality has greatly diminished lately.
It’s one of my favorite purchases, because now I can actually fall asleep while reading the kindle since I’m not activating my arm muscles to turn every page.
This is the item (my kindle is one of the earliest versions, from 2011, if that matters): https://amzn.eu/d/aJaesjd
I understand that people would prefer if it were built into the device but in all honesty it isn't really that much of an inconvenience when you're already only using it while it's stationary.
Connecting a Bluetooth remote to the Paperwhite or using the Scribe's pen to turn pages remotely would be fantastic.
I can't understand why remote page-turning capabilities are not being included.
There are multiple listings on Amazon for the clip on remotes that have 10,000 reviews. The use-case is common.
"Will my kid see ads while using this device? Kindle Paperwhite Kids is automatically set up for your kid to enjoy an ad-free experience. However, if you exit Amazon Kids using a passcode, sponsored screensavers will be displayed on the device's lockscreen."
Is this something people value in an ereader? As long as its fast enough, idk why speed would be the thing they promote in the sub heading. I read on an ipad mini all the time but I don’t understand this.
It’s weird messaging. Who in amazons product and marketing teams decided that this is the most important thing to mention?
Ah. So it's just the color filter that basically everyone (except ReMarkable) has done.
I'm kinda curious to see it in person, to see if they are doing it better, but other brands' results have not been appealing at all to me. Washed out, worse contrast, and a consistently pixelated / screen-door look.
Kobos are mostly just arm linux machines. You can install KOReader on them for a better reading experience.
I did rename the ota binary. I'm aware that there's always the possibility of Amazon maybe having some other way to push an update, but I haven't had any issues so far.
Which Kobo do you use, and how has your experience been?
Kobo you can put custom scripts on to run stuff like koreader which is nice.
2022: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SWV3BYH
2024: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNV9F72P
Kindle Kids Warranty (2 years vs 1 year): https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
After experimenting with larger e-ink screen sizes from other vendors I realized I also miss the snappiness of reading a real book. So in the end I settled for the cheapest 12-inch Chinese tablet I could get. Since I spend ca. 40-70 minutes a day reading, it's the best experience for me: the text is crisp, the contrast is perfect, and I can browse pages very quickly (not like in a real book, though, but the best experience so far).
Edit: it looks like the TCL option the other person mentioned is better because of screen glare (I use mine indoors only but probably it would get uncomfortable in full sunlight).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5QRVHSexJQ
But it seems something one would better test in person especially regarding the contrast/crispness of text hence my question how it works in the 11 model.
Remarkable 2 and rmfakecloud does the trick for me. Private, stable, no ads, and I can load books over Wi-Fi.
They are, needless to say, not the most common formats. A search on google for "computing filetype:[X]", with "[X]" being replaced by pdf, epub, mobi, txt, and azw3 (prc produced seemingly no relevant results) has about 174 results for Kindle-supported files (done by going to the last page as Google's counter is more accurate there), 120 of which were .txt. The non-Kindle supported searches, epub and pdf, had 356 results, 67 of which were epub files. But Google's engine doesn't do great for finding books. A much better database is LibGen. As I couldn't figure out an analysis of all LibGen files, I searched for "Astronomy" (unless noted all LibGen searches are in nonfiction) which yielded 2,550 results, sorted by extension, and counted.
Results:
4 things in .zip format, 0.15 percent 3 in .rar, 0.11 percent 2144 in .pdf, 84 percent 11 in mobi, 0.43 percent 1 in mdf, lit, gz and bz2, 0.039 percent each 214 in epub, 8.39 percent. 156 in djvu, 6.1 percent 3 in azw3, 0.11 percent 8 in 7z, 0.31 percent 2 in chm, 0.078 percent.
In my experience that's rather skewed (I'd never seen a 7z one before, or at least not noticed one). But the general idea - PDF most common, then EPUB, then something else (often MOBI, distantly) - remains. The fact that Kindle can't go from 14 downloadable things to 228 (actually, many legal open access ebooks are published in just pdf or pdf+epub, it's rare to get mobi or azw3) by letting you download an already existent format it kind of supports is a bit ridiculous and has always struck me as odd.
But I am very curious how the color kindle works on the web browser, as noncolor Kindles have the background bleed a bit if you scroll. I imagine you'd end up with this sludgy mess of a background, but I'm not sure.
Every one has a pretty big tradeoff if you are looking to use the e-reader as a general study tool (i.e. using it with Anki for language learning)
- boox devices run Android 11, illegally violate the GPL, and have poor customer service
- meebook devices are too underpowered and also run Android 11
- Kindles are too restrictive and anti-consumer; also does not have an Android option
- Kobo is probably the best, but still no Android option
- PineNote or Linux options are too expensive and unstable
Bro I can wake up my Kindle, buy essentially any book I want to read for less than $20 and be reading it in less than 30 seconds.
The Kindle has been one of the most amazing and consumer friendly devices I’ve ever used. I think I spent like $2k on books last year on it.
I have been considering Boox Air 3C. PDFs are important for me.
Thanks.
One way to fix the margins issue is to use the “Send to Kindle” feature, which converts PDFs to the Print Replica format and trims their margins in the process. Sideloaded PDFs actually appear with more margins (thus reduced font sizes) than books sent through Amazon’s servers.
If it weren't for the way Amazon has this option to yank back things you bought I would probably be a much more avid kindle user. As it is I've got a big chunk of my reference library digitized and installed on the ReMarkable.
Of note, the screen seems slower to update when waking up or going to the home screen and keyboard touch points seem slightly off and I'm not sure why that is.
I used to use a Kindle Oasis, but I like Kobo's software better than Amazon's, so I switched.
I always wonder how they implement write-in-books. Never found a FOSS version. I wanted to add it to an android e reader maybe so at least I could try write in books on various Android tablets or a zfold. Failed at that too!
None of the later version have peeked my interest, because I don't gain anything, compared to my 12 year old Kindle. Prices have gone up, but I've lost the physical button, so I pay more to lose a feature I really like.
Amazon could have more or less stopped Kindle development in 2012 and just worked on reducing the cost ever since and it would still have been a great e-reader.
No more plugging it to my laptop, connect to the site from both, type the code and the epub is sent and even converted to kepub. Works like magic
It’s my understanding that you can’t easily get Amazon books onto anything else than Kindle, is that not true?
I also love how they’re mentioning sustainability just below a picture of someone using a kindle on a plane… and what’s sustainable about the kindle? That it’s box is made of recycled cardboard. Times like these I think our species is doomed.
It's almost a pocketbook form-factor. I overlooked it initially because who wants a basic model? but the only thing I miss in practice is waterproofing. That, and the Oasis OEM cover which was unexpectedly nice, like a leather-bound pocketbook.
Funny, because I'd like a larger one.
When e-readers first started, one of the big companies offered a machine that would display an entire page of The New York Times on it large enough to be able to skim the headlines, then you'd tap on the article and it would take you to that part of the page.
Back then, I didn't have the money for it. Now I do, and the only options seem to be too small.
What does that mean?
remarkable pro is well and good but its price does not justify its utility imho.
It's particularly frustrating for manga, which Amazon sells plenty, as it's common to have a full 2 page scene during the most intense parts of the story.
Same of course for many research PDFs with graphs and schemas that are just so much more legible near the A4 size.
That was my main use case for the iPad Pro, which can now be covered by the air as well. The Surface Pro line is also around 13". I think there's really no reason to shy away from the full A4 size, especially when people are ready to pay for the screen real estate.
A Kobo device? Colorsoft? Scribe? Paperwhite?
If you need an eReader, something with an LCD screen will refresh faster than something with an eInk display.
For example, it would be very cool to just highlight a character's name, and the AI reminds you who that character is, when they were introduced, and what they've done so far in the book.
Some books have an X-ray feature that allows embedded, hyperlinked concordance and index material within the book. It would be cool if they took that technology one step further with LLMs.
On current devices (especially Kindle, but from what I've seen of screenshots online, also other readers), the font selection is extremely limited and the rendering is atrocious. Nobody seems to have spent any time on kerning, word breaking, or anything else relating to typography and layout.
Even after 20+ years of ebooks, they still don't have the visual quality of paper books. Headings, drop caps, quotations, illustrations — all the beautiful stylistic choices that a paper book makes is just wasted on an ebook.
Anyone have a happy story to tell here? Like some niche device that actually has high resolution and beautiful font rendering?
[1] https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F5...
A further difficulty is the file formats being used --- ages ago, I tried to argue for an ebook format which specifically noted markup and content as being decorative or semantic and looking over the specification I don't see that that was ever really worked up.
That said, a further difficulty is even if a feature is in the spec, it's not certain if the various hardware and readers would actually be implemented.
One back-burner project I've had for a while is to take a publication, make it into an ePub, then use the ePub as the source for a nicely typeset version (or more likely, series of versions) --- gotta finish a bunch of other projects first.
FWIW, it seems to me that a lot of the effort into nice typography/appearance is going into the "coffee table" sort of books which these days are stand-alone apps such as:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...
and it seems to me that there is a lot of potential for such documents which is as-of-yet only poorly explored --- some examples which seem to be reaching towards this:
- Bembo's Zoo --- this used to be a Flash-based website which was delightful: https://jilltxt.net/bembos-zoo/ --- it really needs to be brought back
- Euclid’s Elements Joyce's Java Version --- https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm... --- I refer to and link to this version by preference
- Motion Mountain: The free physics textbook --- https://www.motionmountain.net/ --- if this would read well in a PDF viewer on the Kindle Colorsoft, I'd get one --- as it is, I've been reading through it on my Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and it's done a lot to help my understanding of physics
- various CD-ROMs and other multimedia efforts --- "The Manhole" became Myst which became a franchise unto itself, Broderbund's "Living Books" are now a popular line of apps, the Voyager series which was _amazing_ and I'd dearly love to see revisited https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/01/02/t...
- Leonardo da Vinci CD-ROM which was a wonderful interface for exploring the "Codex Leicester" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci_(video_game)
I'd be very interested in other texts which explore this space and which have the potential for nice typography.
That said, I am fine with just reading ebooks on my Kindle w/ flush-left, ragged-right and having the ability to report the (apparently inevitable) typo.
Obviously, publishers also need to make a better efforts in producing ebooks, but I'm not super familiar with EPUB and don't know where the technology is lacking.
- download the text of a book from Project Gutenberg
- work up a set of settings/options for a LaTeX document to typeset it as you wish: https://tug.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/memman.pdf
- typeset the document, look through each paragraph for bad breaks/poor spacing, and if concerned about a 2-up option, check the page breaks to make sure pages are even, and adjust as necessary
The problem is it's _hard_ to detect bad breaks, and problems such as "stacks"
the instance of the same word appearing at the left or right edge of a paragraph,
the paragraph shown here has a four word stack forced to occur at the left of
the text as currently written when shown at a reasonable width on a display
are very, very hard to address while maintaining even spacing, esp. if the text
is fully justified.
I hope Scribe note sharing is improved from "email yourself a PDF".
And come on, still no physical page turn buttons?
I also want a Kindle Scribe with a scroll display: a high-refresh-rate LCD touchscreen that sits just below the bottom of the eink screen. Use case being: swipe to a bookmark or page very quickly. It would stay off until touched and would be about 2cm tall, with the same width as the eink screen.
I use a Remarkable tablet (the Scribe's competitor) for the exact reason that it doesn't come with apps for email or web browsing or an app store or a weather app. It writes really really well (the scribe does too) and lets you focus on that. It doesn't try to be the 4th version of a smart device when you already have so many.
The simplicity of it is a feature not a bug.
I hope Kobo releases a new Elipsa. I waited for the new reMarkable, but it is full of subscription garbage.
If you had separate paths for each language, most links would have an unnecessary /en/.
Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).
The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.
I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.
The reading experience is a little more bare bones, but good enough, and still offers things a physical book does not.
It looks like earlier this year they moved the option out of Settings > Device Options and it's now located in Settings > Screen & Brightness. Which ironically doesn't seem to be documented anywhere that I can find.
- I typically stop reading at the end of chapters
- The so-called screen saver creates dark and light points wherever there are dark and light points on the book's cover
- The screen needs to be refreshed to return these points to homogeneity
Outcome: most of the times the screen is refreshed, I get no use of it. Most of the time I spend reading, the screen needs to be refreshed.
In fact, with respect to the e-ink readers, a "screen saver" that turns on automatically is a bad idea that removes useful functionality - being able to keep the same page up for hours without interacting with the device is a feature, as it allows you to use it as a reference, like you'd do with a paper printout.
I guess they could add some indication on the screen it’s in ”sleep” mode though, like a frame or icon somewhere…
I'm sure I'm underestimating the complexities of the problem, but the first idea that pops into my head is to add some flash storage that's, say, 5x the size of the framebuffer, and always keep in it the current page + next two and previous two pages (swapping pointers to avoid unnecessary writes), and have an extra microcontroller that would wake on button press, read the appropriate page from the flash buffer, and send it to the display controller. The whole process could take a fraction of the second (+ screen redraw time), all while the main OS wakes up (or boots up) in the background, and the user would experience no delays if all they're trying to do is read their book page by page. Once ready, the OS would update the flash buffer and stay active for a short while, in case the user decides they want to flip pages quickly.
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[0] - Gosh, I keep forgetting the readers only have touchscreens now. Another reason for superiority of hardware buttons for page turning.
Kobo still has a reader with buttons thankfully. I don’t understand how people tolerate touchscreen on e-readers. It’s extremely distracting compared to just pressing.
Buttons were absolutely perfect for this use case, on a dedicated e-reader—less so, say, an iPad mini that also does other stuff, but also those nicer touchscreens don't accidentally trigger as often so it's not as big a problem. Touch screen is nice for navigating menus but should be disabled when reading.
Since I don't want to pay extra to disable the ads, the trick I figured out is to buy the Kindle for Kids. It comes with a cover, no ads, and a 2 year warranty. You can turn off the kids stuff with one switch, and then it's just a normal Kindle.
If you buy it on Black Friday or one of their other sale days, you should be able to get it for the same price or less than the regular edition would be when not on sale.
They closed that loophole. Kindles for Kids now show ads when not in Kids mode.
When did that start being a thing? I've been using a kindle for about 14 years, my current one is a few years old. I've been thinking about upgrading, but it works perfectly fine, and I've never had it display ads, and haven't had to pay anything for that "privilege".
It sounds like this will be my last Kindle device if I now have to pay extra for no ads, on a device I've already paid for, to read books I also pay for.
When will the madness stop!?
You can get a Kindle for $110 with ads, or for $130 without ads.
Creating a different experience around reading books for those who have and those who have not is also a problem, given how important literacy and the printing press are to the development of our society.
The first or last pages of books are still frequently used to sell other books from the same author or from the same publisher. Not that long ago they'd come with cut-out cards to mail in for your order for more of the publisher's books from the partial catalog printed in your book (nobody orders by mail any more, is the only reason the stopped that, I assume). Some of my books when I was a kid would have the first chapter of another book from the same anthology series at the end, to sell it (Goosebumps did this, for example).
As much as I hate advertising, this is as good as it gets
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html
It's not far off a hack. And not OP but personally I've got very few problems with getting one over on massive corporations like Amazon.
Likewise, businesses lose money on people who habitually return things. People who behave reasonably subsidize the "ingenious" minority. Generous warranty and return policies can only exist when most people behave reasonably.
This is actually a good description the behaviour of megacorps like Amazon. They are constantly looking for new ways to increase and consolidate market share, pushing or breaking the boundaries of anti-trust regulations, at the expense of the consumer.
I wouldn't advocate this sort of behaviour towards individuals or small businesses, only megacorps. Highly dubious that this would actually cause harm to the average person. If anything it would hasten the enshittification process, open the field up to competition, and be a net positive for society.
I am likely coming at this from an entirely different mindset to you. In my mind, the current economic structure implies that sufficiently large corporations are pitched in a battle against ordinary people.
I have both an old Kindle Paperwhite 2nd Gen I think and a Kobo Clara.
The kindle 'lives' in the car and the Kobo at home so I always have something to read.
I use Calibre to sync to both.
Rather than directly accessing Amazon from the Kindle I download bought books to my PC then strip the DRM - so I can read the same book on both the Clara and Kindle.
See: https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
I'd say that the initial awkwardness is from deliberately not connecting the Kobo or Kindle to the internet to stop them from 'phoning home' when you set them up. The Kindle is easy - just don't connect it, the Kobo seems to insist but there's a simple step-by-step to bypass the enforced sign up on the Clara I use.
See: https://yingtongli.me/blog/2018/07/30/kobo-rego.html - basically SQL commands.
and you can get firmware updates for the Kobo devices via
https://pgaskin.net/KoboStuff/kobofirmware.html
and they are easy to apply - drag / drop.
I don't get books from Kobo's site as it used to be hard if not impossible to strip the DRM from them - which meant I couldn't read them on my Kindle.
Hope that helps.
2021.
People have certainly been asking for it for at least the last decade. Jail breaking doesn't count.
It's not a new thing that journalists cover old features as if they've just been added, because they just found out about it and feel they're newsworthy
It's likely you are just lucky to buy a KPW with that feature just rolled out.
I only added my experience because bongobingo said 2021 and cited a tabloid "article" as proof.
The feature definitely predates April 2021, how long? I have no idea, possibly only 6-7 months, as I bought mine in October 2020.
More "tabloids" in April 2021 https://www.tomsguide.com/news/amazon-kindle-update-adds-kil...
More nerds in August 2021, https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/30x1qmxj "the setting that was added a few months ago in Settings/Device Options to show the "Display Cover" of the book you are currently reading"
Amazon discussing rolling it out during ... April 2021, https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00008A1VpoSAF/di...
Maybe you were in a pre-release A/B or region, or simply didn't notice the update.
By all accounts your Oct. 2020 date is the earliest reported date for it being an official feature. Kobo has had it since day one in 2010, Kindle not so much.
If it takes some competition for Amazon to finally add some very basic features like this after a decade, I will keep supporting that competition.
I’ve grown frustrated with Amazon in a lot of areas, this was just one small one. I’m looking to divest my dependence on Amazon, and the Kobo isn’t leaving me missing anything.
But, with that all said... it's great for my specific uses. Android is just so much better if you want to run self-hosted stuff. When it dies or the software just gets that old I'll be really at a loss for what to get to replace it.
That said all 3 have amazing battery life, they'd all last all semester on a charge.
Then I switched to Kindle Scribe, mainly for the large screen. It was amazing, it was so much faster and more responsive. I even started to use the scribe to make notes, though I didn't buy it for that purpose. With the Boox Note I never did that because of the slowness, it was just annoying.
On the cloud stuff though -- note syncing has support for WebDAV, so I've fully disabled the Boox Cloud integration and all notes get synced to my self-hosted OwnCloud server, which is nice.
I'd love to figure out how to install some stock Android or Linux on it down the road, though Boox's notes + reading apps are really quite good, and likely very optimized for the hardware.
No jailbreak or anything required, just some config in Calibre-Web and replace a URL or two in a config file on the Kobo.
KOReader has some quirks, but Kavita is trying to work around them. Theres a PR for proper syncing so you can read on multiple devices and KOReader doesn't respect the specs for OPDS so doesn't always update after you add books, but it is fixed by a restart of KOReader.
This is news to me. All my kindle library is books side loaded via calibre. Then again, my kindle paperwhite is non stop in airplane mode so maybe this is a factor. In any case this is alarming and thanks for the feedback, I will read more about non-Amazon devices because of that.
But I'm surprised a book with DRM can even be added to another device than the one it belongs to, let alone be opened?
> I'm surprised a book with DRM can even be added to another device than the one it belongs to, let alone be opened?
It is probably a path that could potentially lead to another sale. The user reads a few pages of the book, gets hooked, and then is told about the restriction.Could you expand on that? I load all my books via calibre but I also have the kindle set to aeroplane mode at all times. Does this happen when syncing?
The only annoying thing I experience is that the cover art will unload on the side-loaded books where you just get the generic cover with the text of the book. But once you click the book it loads the artwork, which seems to last a few days before quickly going back to the generic cover. But the book itself never leaves the device. I can't say I have experienced this ever (except for once, mentioned below) and I have over 150 books on my 32Gb device.
Just some random thoughts I am wondering:
- Is it an ads-supported model (mine isn't)
- Are the books in a broken-DRM .mobi? Not judging, i've done it too, just curious if Amazon has some sort of "signature" in mobis that allow it to detect a book that had DRM removed?
- Are they standard .epub?
- What is the size of the device? (Maybe smaller 8Gb devices will clean up and prioritize non-Kindle content to make way for "official content)
- Which device is it? (Scribe, Oasis, Paperwhite, older paperwhite, etc)
The one time I had it deleting my book was a large book (it was 400Mb) and it was on an older 8Gb paperwhite. I still had PLENTY of storage space available (I was using around 4Gb) but it kept deleting that book. This was the only time I have seen it happen and it was with this one specific book. That was many years ago and I haven't seen it since. That book was a DRM-removed book I got through "shared" means. Which has led me to question if the Kindle removes it because it could detect that the DRM had been removed or because of its large size. But this was a one-off experience for me. The book was readable by the device. It would download for several weeks at a time before being removed. You could redownload it and it would work for weeks again before dissapearing. I never could figure it out.
*Edit to add: I believe the kindle won't delete epubs you sideload via the Amazon kindle email gateway, but I have no interest in doing that.
These days it wants ePub only, but things also seem to "just work", and I always assumed it's because they added support for it on device side. What are the issues that you ran into?
Fortunately, getting two units in a row with jarring pink blotches was enough of a non-starter to suggest that she just revert to a V4 without my having to explain the confusing behavior.
I've side-loaded .mobi and .pdf files, and have never had anything disappear, whilst still buying some things from Amazon kindle store...
Any workaround?
Honestly, I just wanted an open reflective reader just for reading. Just put the books on the reader with usb and you're done.
I liked the remarkable 2 - they didn't require an account or cloud syncing. I didn't use the pen much, but when I did it was pretty good. I mostly stopped using it because no backlight.
I tried a kobo clara 2e - I had to learn about "sideloadedmode=true" in the settings to use it properly. Decent reader, but a little small. I like dark mode.
then I stumbled on the pocketbook inkpad lite. I use it all the time. 9.7" screen but only $219, backlight, and you just put your books on it and go. No activation or cloud stuff required.
Also, it reads books directly not only in epub, but many other formats like mobi and azw. (I haven't tried .azw)
I can't remember all the specifics of how I set it up and honestly i've not used it in a while because I used it to get all my old Kindle purchased books on (which was a lot) and i've not booted the docker container since.
Is this a reasonable work around/alternative or have I misunderstood? If so, I apologise. Oh also, I think I had to do some custom stuff with my Kobo as well to support this functionality, but I don't remember it being difficult. Got it all wrapped in an evening of tinkering.
Minimal work if you configure the site as the homepage in the Kobo web browser.
One thing in particular is that the physical page turning buttons are very useful. None of Amazon's new Kindles have physical page turning buttons any more from what I see in the reports.
It's usually in airplane mode, but I of course turn syncing on whenever I buy a book from Amazon, and it never deleted any of my sideloaded books.
I wonder if this is a "feature" of new Paperwhites? If so, it would suck. I was looking to replace mine because it has the old micro USB connector that no other device I own uses, and so I must keep a cable just for it.
Never had that happen, either with stuff loaded through Calibre or Amazons document service.
I upgraded from an Oasis 2 and couldn’t be happier. When it comes to upgrade again, Amazon DRM readers will not even be looked at.
It is one of my favorite pieces of software. The UI is beautiful and, to be honest, inspirational. It frequently reminds me that the best UI should not be noticed. Humbling.
You can also buy from third party stores, e.g. Weightless Books for sci-fi & fantasy, and just drag-and-drop the epub onto the Kobo.
I had first edition terrible keyboard kindle and have a paperwhite. It seems libra colour is still not available in India.
That's still my favourite ever Kindle, simply for the side buttons for next/previous page.
Touch interface is so much more inconvenient in comparison, for the main purpose of reading and navigating through books.
Did they actually announce that the Oasis was discontinued or did they just stop making them?
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24272009/amazon-disconti...
It was so good I got a second one for my 5 year old daughter, figured it was a good alternative to the iPads I see her peers with.
I wonder if there is a way to do that safely, long term.
PC + USB cable + Kindle = books transferred the old fashioned way?
I'm very tempted by the thing another commenter mentioned, with not giving the Kindle internet access, if it works, I need 0 smart features.
It's a step between but think of Calibre as your own book "store". It's an ebook management app that can automatically convert almost any ebook format into the one your device needs but at the same time also gives you the option to edit the ebook details and stuff like that. It's honestly great, I'd totally recommend it.
I've tried the Hisense A5 and the Bigme Hibreak, and software-wise, found the Bigme Hibreak to suck a little less, as I could not access the Google Play store on the Hisense.
I had one with colour, and one without.
The black and white screen is much better.
Both sadly run outdated Android versions, so I don't do anything like banking on my e-ink phone.
But I have found that not having a LCD screen in my pocket, literally gives me hours of my day back. It literally saves a huge portion of my life from being wasted in the evil pit that is ad-funded recommendation algorithm services.
LCD screens, videos, and ad-watch-time-maximising recommendation algorithm services (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, etc) attract our eyes like moths to a flame.
I have not finished multiple books per month since my pre-smartphone childhood days, until getting an e-ink smartphone.
My Bigme Hibreak, that is my daily driver, runs Android 11, and I don't get timely notifications on e.g. messaging apps. It also came without case and screen protector, which is a big minus.
Do you have experience with e-ink smartphones? Which makes and models work for you?
Notifications and a kind of recent android version are two deal breakers.
It's pretty good. The only problem is that the glass on the screen scratches easily. If you're okay with a screen protector then it should be fine.
In terms of software, it has access to the playstore but I actually haven't downloaded any apps on it. I've used fdroid and aurora store.
I installed a minimal launcher called unlauncher. I use Koreader as my main reader and I have it there most of the time so that I unlock/lock the e-reader and I'm taken directly to the book. It has amazing support on this device (I've used other android based E-readers and support wasn't the best). Can't change front light from the Koreader app though, which is slightly annoying.
Other than that, and the main reason I got an android e-reader, is that I use an android based manga reader. The experience is amazing. Yes, the manga reader is not fully optimised for e-reader screens like Koreader is but it works well enough that it's not a problem.
Overall, it's a really nice E-reader. My favourite thing about it is the size and form factor. Really, I have a 6 inch Kobo reader and this one is much easier to carry around. I'm very much used to reading on my phone anyway so the size is very comfortable for me.
Overall, it's been a positive experience. I'm waiting for either a color device in this form factor with kaleido 3 or perhaps another b/w with carta 1300.
But yeah, it's positive. Hardware is good and software can be made enjoyable.
Colour e-ink works by having a colour filter over the screen, and every third pixel being dedicated to each colour (please correct me, people who actually know the details!).
Therefore they inherently have lower resolution, and are also by nature around 2/3 less white in the pixels not displaying anything. When reading text, most pixels are uncoloured, meaning in most cases you significantly lose screen resolution, compared to b/w e-ink. Thus, with colour e-ink screens, unless you're out in sunlight, you'll need backlight most of the time. This is my reason to keep using the black and white versions, and it might be something for you to keep in mind when you select your next reading device.
no buttons? no purchase.
Been waiting a long time, I suppose it's time to move to alternatives, as it's a pain to carry around a usb-micro cable just for my kindle.
Maybe people are more interesting in Kindles and upvoting this story instead?
Not everything is a conspiracy.
> You don't really own anything from Amazon. Kindle is good as ashtray.