When it comes to an eBook reader, the choices are limited. The market is dominated by Amazon’s proprietary Kindle along with a few other options like Kobo, Nook and Onyx. An interesting news for open source enthusiasts is that a developer, Joey Castillo, is working on creating an open
  • Obinice@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    The extremely tiny screen is the deal-breaker for me, I want to build one of these for my father to replace the over a decade old kindle he uses, but I want to upgrade to a bigger screen.

    We can’t afford much, and we have a 3d printer and I know my way around a Pi and wiring, so it would be a great option.

    But such tiny display for what should be an upgrade from the tech of 10+ years ago :-(

  • BoneALisa@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    IIRC it only suports plain text files / Markdown rn. Not supporting EPUB is a non-starter for me. I use my Kobo right now and love it. If they add EPUB support i will heavily consider building one.

    • Synthead@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Yeah it’s an interesting project, but it looks bad with the printed case and exposed tact switches, and seems to have little functionality.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldEnglish
    01·
    11 months ago

    “When it comes to an eBook reader, the choices are limited.”

    ?

    Limited to every other smart phone and tablet on the planet?

    • StarDreamer@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      Having a good, dedicated e-reader is a hill that I would die on. I want a big screen, with physical buttons, lightweight, multi-weeklong battery, and an e-ink display. Reading 8 hours on my phone makes my eyes go twitchy. And TBH it’s been a pain finding something that supports all that and has a reasonably open ecosystem.

      When reading for pleasure, I’m not gonna settle for a “good enough” experience. Otherwise I’m going back to paper books.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        11 months ago

        I don’t buy the need for e-ink. I’m on normal LCDs for… way more hours than I’d care to admit. No strain.

        • DJDarren@thelemmy.clubEnglish
          0·
          11 months ago

          Have you used an e-ink reader? The difference is remarkable. My Kobo battery died this morning, so I finished the book I was reading on my iPad, which was fine, but much less pleasant.

          Besides, it’s not just about the screen. The lack of distractions in a device that serves only one purpose is just as important to me.

          • jordanlund@lemmy.worldEnglish
            01·
            11 months ago

            I’ve looked at e-ink readers multiple times since they first came out and they are all garbage. Low resolution, trash images, garbage refresh rates, slow page turns, awful white levels.

            I literally see no reason to ever use one over a nice phone or tablet display which, by the way, can be used for other content options besides text.

            • DJDarren@thelemmy.clubEnglish
              0·
              11 months ago

              Did you not see the bit about not actually wanting other content options? My Kobo is a single use device that is incredible at what I want it to do. I don’t care about refresh rates or resolution, literally all I care about is that it displays text comfortably without being glaring. And it does that.