Can't be cheap being a crowdfunded product, but not expensive either. The biggest turn-away I can see is the small screen. Most e-ink readers nowadays start at 6". A 4.x" screen will lose a considerable chunk of potential backers.
post
replies:
I love physical buttons and switches, I don't like an e-reader without page buttons.
replies:
4" screen and 16MB flash is a joke. Ebooks are small, but not that small. Considering how many used, end of life Kindles there are out there stuck on old easily jailbroken firmware, I don't see why anyone would ever choose this as an alternative. The software for jailbroken Kindles is incredibly mature and at the point of "just works". E-ink technology hasn't progressed much in the past ten years, so you really don't miss out on anything by buying a $30 used one.
Edit: just realized it has micro SD support. So my storage concerns are invalid. It's still incredibly clunky looking though, a 1cm thick device with only a 4" screen sure is something. My eyes probably couldn't handle it even with the largest font.
replies:
4" screen?!
replies:
The specs are an absolute joke. Even my Sony PRS from 2008 comes with 64MB RAM and physical buttons.
This thing will choke on epubs with embedded fonts, if it doesn't just plainly ignore them (which it seems like it will, since they're talking so much about their own custom font).
Neat idea, but I fear it's destined to fail. I also think it's too small. The PRS-505 is six inches and I wouldn't go any smaller than that for comfortable reading.
It looks like a prototype for a circa-2005 ereader. Why is the frame around the screen SO large? Why does the screen look so lo-res? And why is it $150 for the base model?
replies:
The replaceable battery is definitely a requirement for me moving forwards on all new tech I purchase.
replies:
MIT licenced firmware... Another bunch of libertarian kids who don't know better.
Like they don't know everyone likes buttons, specially page turn buttons,
replies:
Why is it buttonless??? We like physical buttons, how are we supposed to turn it on/off???? This is just confusing lol
replies:
Generally great idea, but the screen size invalidates it for me. Hope they're successful enough to launch a 2nd round with a 6"+ screen
You can easily load alternate firmware on a Kobo.
replies:
Would I be able to push overdrive/Libby books to this?
$150 for ESP32-S3? Are you serious? My first e-book in ~2008 was much more powerful.
replies:
If this device supported PDF it would be a no brainer to buy. I understand that the hardware is not good enough for PDFs
Ugly and small, cool idea tho
The specs vs the price does match up.
Why is buttonless a selling point?
Not trying to be snarky, genuinely wondering.
replies:
🏴☠️
that screen.. alas, too small for me. I use a Kobo Libre Colour now
I see people get excited about this. But if you are realistic, buy a Kobo e-reader and you are good.
Copy-pasting me own comment from under this CNX post
I am a BOOX Leaf user. Very much frustrated with BOOX. They do not release the GPL code. I quite like a cheap e-reader with too > long battery life. But I have several criticisms on this thing:
- It uses ESP32-S3. It’s Xtensa. Worse software support. Didn’t the folks stop their Xtensa line?
- Isn’t 8MB (PS)RAM short?
- The screen supports only 2 bit grayscale. And they haven’t written what screen they are going to use. That makes a realdifference. I already feel the difference between me BOOX Leaf with Carta 1200 and me brother’s BOOX Go 7 Color with Carta 1300.
- If you want to simply sideload normal DRM-free epubs, all of those devices support it.
- If you are fine going for an AP, you can install custom software like koreader on many devices including Pocketbook and Kobo ones. Not sure why it has written you cannot run custom code on Kobo Clara BW.
Regarding the last point, I do want a decent e-reader like Leaf I have but with Linux support. To make us closer to the goal, I have > extensively contributed to postmarketOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Category:Ebook_reader
As I have written in the respective wiki pages, both PocketBook and Kobo openly permit running custom OS/firmware on their ebook readers if you can go outside warranty.
replies:
Kobo Klara is $159 has a 6" screen, supports 15 file formats, 16 gb of storage and a 1448 x 1072 resolution with Dark Mode
No physical buttons and a tiny screen? Yeah I'm gonna pass
I realized there is also LibreHardware community. I wonder why there is no post there. This fits right in LibreHardware.
Low frame rate, black/white e-ink screens are obsolete: https://youtu.be/nHbA2-_qzH4
replies:
128 comments in c/technology@lemmy.world view that post
1 comment in c/opensource@programming.dev view that post
all 47 comments