It's also important to remember that it's perfectly possible to use the Kindle without DRM. You can just put your own books on it with a cable, though you'll have to convert them to MOBI as it doesn't do ePub. The same can be done with other brands like Kobo, which can take raw ePub. Also, the Kobo's can be pretty easily modified as they just run plain Linux, I'm running PyGame on an older one. The entire OS was simply on an internal SD card so really easily modified (though not sure if the new ones can be modified too).
I think the problem with DRM and ebooks is not the readers. It's the availability of books without DRM... Basically the "GOG" of eBook stores. Even if you have an open eBook reader, where are you going to get the books from?
I think for the reader, I would prefer to buy commercial hardware as look and feel is an important thing for a device you will interact with a lot. Similar to the way us Open Source aficionados don't build our own laptops, but do use free software :)
libgen
At least Kindles do track what the user is reading even if it wasn't purchased on Amazon so having a good, high quality, open source e-ink device would be of great benifit. [1]
> I think for the reader, I would prefer to buy commercial hardware as look and feel is an important thing for a device you will interact with a lot.
In the case of laptops, at least 99% of the software can be replaced save for stuff like the BIOS and Intel ME, etc. In the case of phones and devices where side loading the OS is not currently possible both due to the hardware being more specialized AND the manufactors locking the systems down to prevent modification of the software; there are open source hardware systems like the PinePhone and the do laptops as well. [2]
Also unless anything has changed, the DRM can be removed from Amazon ebooks so it's not a huge deal compared to DRM on other media like Ulra-HD Blurays.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/31/21117217/amazon-kindle-tr...
How do they do that without any account, registration and internet connection? I use my kindle entirely for offline reading of books I copy over cable.
At the very least, Baen and Tor offer DRM free ebooks of their offerings.
If all else fails, you can remove DRM protection from pretty much any major DRM method (Adobe Adept ePub and PDFs, Barnes & Noble ePubs, Kindle ebooks, Kobo ebooks).
Regardless, though, it's a really cool project and I could see it morphing into something just as good or better than a commercial e-reader after a few iterations.
Both sides please. the 10% of the population that are left handers will thank you.
There's a huge ebook pirating scene, so you could always do that, buying the book beforehand if the ethics disturb you.
What is sad to me is that there's no way to check out an ebook from a library in a way that doesn't involve Amazon.
Isn't this what Libby - https://libbyapp.com/ - does?
I have a 'niche' interest in SFF magazines and for that, WeightlessBooks fills it well [1] by offering subscriptions to Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Interzone, Locus (the Newspaper of the SFF world) and many others.
I also occasionally buy non-DRM books from Smashwords [2] and there are plenty of other dedicated non-DRM book/story sellers out there [3]
[1] https://weightlessbooks.com/
I was able to easily jailbreak mine and it does ePub fine after that. I don't think a home-made device offers me any more freedom than a jailbroken kindle; I can drop to a shell and do all the same things. That said, while I enjoy tinkering, basically the only non-stock things I do are read ePubs and play zork. I'd prefer to save my tinkering for a desktop or laptop and keep a device just for reading books.
1) It was prebuilt, plug-and-play.
2) It comes as a kit. I can do it as a project with my kid. Once assembled, it's as above. Kit is consumer-friendly.
Digikey parts list and PCB is a little over my laziness tolerance.
People confuse free-as-in-freedom with free-as-in-not-making-a-profit. I've done free-as-in-freedom businesses, successfully. I wish others did too.
A lot of manufacturers underestimate the power of 100% open. I'm not price-sensitive. I'll pay for it. If my cheap Chinese [tablet/keyboard/mouse/webcam/etc.] comes with a PCB schematic, parts list, and open source firmware, I'll probably pay triple and prefer it to a Logitech/Razor/etc. I'll give nice online reviews too.
And the designs are simple enough no competitive edge is lost.
On the other side, projects like this, lacking a business model, rarely get mature enough for me to use. Make 'em nice and sell 'em, I say.
And yes, there will be cheaper clones, so profit margins can't be insane, but people will pay extra for the original branded version, AND profit margins can't be insane in competitive markets either way.
Another big difference is if I place three orders, and one comes up out-of-stuck or delayed by months, I get stuck with a useless 2/3 of a kit. I can't return the useless 2/3, since those vendors didn't mess up. If you're selling me a kit, you're doing logistics for me.
Even with things with standard parts, like putting a computer or bicycle together from standardized parts, I've had issues. With DIY, this thing can explode.
It's literally 2 clicks instead of one click. 3 clicks to add the 3d-printed part fromShapeways.
It IS already exactly, a kit. You get a box in the mail that has everything in it, it just says DigiKey on the box instead of mydumbproject.org
That's 3 fully pre-loaded urls all together in one spot. No uploading a csv. Just click the link and up pops a pre-loaded shopping cart. If anything is out of stock, you see that before buying not after they ship 1/2 of it.
I'm exactly the same amount likely to "forget to include some parts" in my painstakingly crafted digikey cart as in any kit. It takes days sometimes to hunt down and figure out just what all should go in the cart because there are 500 versions of everything. You don't do that much work to leave things out.
I want to share my efforts for whoever wants it, or just for reference, not run a mail order business. I have a day job. The stuff is free, the knowledge and directions are written up into a followable recipe, in a wiki and github which I don't even have to be the only one who can improve over time, and you only have to pay the actual material suppliers, and fill out 3 order forms instead of one. And when I lose interest or die, it's all still there without me to keep providing it.
If you think it makes so much sense to provide that last little bit of service, and charge for it, feel free to start up and run that business. You can take all my stuff and produce and sell those kits. I bet you have no interest in that though because you have better things to do. Yeah, me too, and this ereader guy too. If you want anything more, you want a Kobo or any of the other 50 rootable no-names. Those already exist. You don't need this or a kit version of this for that.
Figuring out what all to put in that digikey cart was the 900x hard part, but clicking 2 links instead of one is just over your laziness threshhold? OK.
You have to buy the pcb from a different link? Well you have to buy batteries from somewhere else even for a complete finished product let alone a kit, and a protective cover, and a memory card, and a car charger, and headphones, any number of extra bits like that. The book reader didn't already come with the books I hate to surprise you with that outrageous ommission. This argument just doesn't wash on so many levels.
I want to be able to go to nytimes.com, or Vox, or Hacker News, and read the articles and comment threads on a high-contrast screen that doesn't hurt my eyes. I don't want to use some read-later service that sends specific articles to my e-reader, I want to just navigate to the sites directly. There would be trade-offs for sure, but it seems like the benefits would outweigh the downsides.
I've been waiting for ~ 10 years now. Am the only one? Is anyone ever going to make this?
There is a lot going on in the eReader world but it is at the fringe of the tech bubble of SV. It is in Europe and Asia, specially Asia.
The usual FAANG companies don't want you using that stuff because it moves you away from their silos and platforms. If you start using a device to read books away from their profiling disguised as social interaction, away from their ad machines, and walled garden shops, they lose money. Oh boy, that sounded way more conspirational than I wanted. What I want to mean here is that since these type of eReaders do not favour major tech companies from the USA, they're usually not covered in their platforms or news media that follows SV stuff.
Literally my only complaint about the device is that it runs an outdated and heavily skinned version of Android. I wouldn't recommend this device today for that reason, but there are a lot of options running newer versions these days.
It's a shame Google doesn't offer a "pixel" device like this, unlocked and without all the junk. For whatever reason, though, Google seems completely uninterested in eink.
The hardware isn't enough. The modern web itself resists being displayed on single-purpose devices.
How would you navigate tho?
eInk displays are incredibly limited- low refresh rates, low density, limited/no color, limited/no touch etc.
It just doesn't make sense to build a product with that combination- high end under the hood, low end IO to the user.
You can search for Boox tablet, or Hisense A5 phone.
I know I shouldn't be complaining about price now that I've heard it exists at all, but $840 is really steep! I was thinking something more like $400. I know it's a niche product, but even so.
The web browsing experience is OK, but it's slow and monochrome.
I thought the boox was interesting
But what about this one? https://amzn.com/B07XG9T898
it's a lenovo laptop with an e-ink screen
Unfortunately, there's no Google Play Store on it. But that doesn't preclude web browsing with Chromium or Firefox.
The problem is that most gliders are not very rich & fly on shared hardware of the local flying club. So there is no incentive for manufacturers to build a device for this kinda small and nit very afluent community.
IIRC a couple years ago some of them we using hacked Kobo devices.
I wouldn't expect to be typing on it—but, I've absolutely seen e-ink screens that can refresh quickly enough for typing. They start artifacting a bit when you force them to refresh quickly—which lessens the contrast advantage—but then they fix themselves once the screen has a moment to "refresh" itself.
It eventually stopped working this year, and a new review of the market place suggested they're one of the better options - so I picked up the HD3.
I can not understand how anyone could accept a vendor (especially one like Amazon) limiting or remote controlling my device's contents.
"You are not entitled to modify or distribute the Software."
Doesn't sound like open source software to me.
Also, in this day and age, I believe that devices should be open hardware as well (as the Open Book appears to be). Open source software is a good start, but it isn't good enough.
Another Kindle alternative that is open software + open hardware is the Inkplate 6, I've pre-ordered one: https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6
1) in practical terms, what you get is essentially an open, hackable platform. The CTO is a former KDE dev, you get root on the device, much of the product is being developed in the open-
And there are recipes for getting UI and background components running on the device. I have not done this, but do use the API in my own workflow to get content on the device.
2) Yes, they are building a product. A, say, religious commitment to open source, and/or open hardware, is a commitment to limit the range of decisions that may help the business to a much narrower set that adhere to the religion. Sometimes strict open source is good for business. Often it is not.
As someone who in his younger years has bought quite a large number of "open hardware" products, the software for which was always only barely usable, the business model hypothetical, and therefore never went anywhere and now litter the graveyard- I am very happy for this team to be doing the right things for the business.
It's a really good product, with a really bright future, and it also happens to be pretty open and hackable.
Kind of best case, in my opinion.
Cheers.
The purchase that turned me into an open hardware evangelist was the Planck EZ mechanical keyboard: https://ergodox-ez.com/pages/planck
It's a joy to use. The layers feature of the open QMK firmware blew my mind and changed how I think about typing. The keyswitches take seconds to replace so it's extremely easy to repair/maintain, which is great for the planet. It's tiny and portable, which was perfect for my needs before the pandemic hit and I stopped going outside. And perhaps most importantly, the company seems pretty successful, they seem to be a competent business that is in it for the long haul.
I am also very impressed with my Pinebook Pro: https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/ The year of the Linux desktop may never come, but this shockingly cost-effective open hardware laptop convinced me to quit Apple products after a decade of loyalty. For my needs, which are mostly browsing the web, editing code, and SSH-ing into servers, it's good enough for like 1/10 of the price. I'll grant you that Pine64 is more of a hobbyist project than a business, but it seems extremely successful on its own terms and seems sustainable despite selling stuff basically at-cost.
I've now ordered a System76 Thelio desktop, also open hardware (although closer to Apple prices, performance costs money I guess). https://system76.com/desktops
I don't say all of this to suggest that Remarkable is bad, it seems pretty good. I'm just saying that it can be better on open source software and hardware, without it hurting the business or the product. It might even help.
I'd just like to say that I searched their website and wasn't able to find any link to these repos. I think that open source is something that should be touted as a feature, not something hidden in shame. Perhaps their target audience doesn't care about source code, but would it kill them to mention it somewhere?
In short, I think one factor in deciding whether a product is open source is whether it is advertised as open source (and has the repos to back that up). It's harder to get collaborators and benefit from open source if nobody knows that the source code has been published.
Really, I wish we had a sort of eink (and lcd) tablet PC: general, bare hardware that it's just assumed you'll probably throw your own OS onto at some point. Make it ugly: four torx screws and the back comes off and you can access the battery and the mainboard and the onboard storage. Maybe an external micro SD slot.
Not android, just plain linux + off the shelf components with solid driver support.
The real frustration is that the Remarkable is 90% of the way there to such a thing.
If desktop computers had started out like tablets, we would have skipped over the Apple II and it would have been hermetically sealed Macs from the beginning.
The problem with projects like these (other than for fun) is that the software isn't where the issue is. It's the lack of open hardware. We reinvent too many wheels and never bother to get to the actual cart.
I don't mind the lack of store so much, but things like the dictionary and being able to sync and read "saved" articles from anywhere.
Hopefully, The Open Book looks more promising & would be able to fully replace WikiReader.
JFTR, Need write an article about The Open Book Project[1] on Wikipedia.[2]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader
I love my Kobo but tend to use my phone because I can buy books using the Amazon android app. I hate the UI (both navigation and the suggestions on which are never what I want to read next) but it works ok for buying books.
A replacement would be a book market place where I can buy DRM free books and use clients on any ebook reader to download them to native format supported by the reader. Wirelessly and without fear of someone keeping track of what I read.
Kobos can be hacked to some extent, but no replacement firmware exists to my knowledge. Their readers already run Linux but I'm sure that they don't release drivers for their display or UI source code.
I see the power of Kindle in the ease of buying books. I see the device as a storefront to Amazon's e-book collection.
To be more massively successful, such a device should come with access to a sync service (or several), and access to e-book stores. IDK if Amazon has an API for buying books, but definitely some e-book sellers with APIs exist.
And yes, of course it should allow uploading DRM-free books of your choice, and maybe integrate nicely with Calibre.
The software part of the project looks much bugger and gnarlier than the hardware part.
I've had bigger (4.5") display in smartphone 8 years ago and I would not call even that suitable for reading books
why is nobody discussing this and why they don't show the device in hand to show how ridiculously small it is?
> Main features: > 4.2" inch e-paper display with partial refresh, driven over a dedicated SPI bus.
Tips:
- set the background color as close as you can to the bezel color, and remove the margins if you have a small screen - Set the font size a little large if you have a low resolution screen; antialiasing makes it much easier to read, even if your screen is also small.
Tips if your device has a slow processor and little ram (I had all or most of this automated at the time, through a batch file and a custom calibre conversion profile)
- resize or remove images. I stored mine alongside the book rather than in it, saved as smaller 8bit PNG files. - split your ebooks into multiple files (~100kb/file without images allowed pages to load in <1/2 second) - Make sure the files in your epub are actually split by chapter (calibre can do this automatically, I think) - if you have control over file compression (I use a script to generate epubs), don't use high compression--especially if there's images.
4.2" is OK for temporary reading for very short periods, but ebooks are usually used for long reading sessions and one would want to use it for years before throwing away
It is definitely possible to make de-DRM harder, but lots of things are possible and thankfully don't happen.
