/b/ - Random

E-book readers are nifty. I'm using the third in fifteen year. Read hundreds of books.
My problem with them is the software. The hardware gets stronger but instead of refining and tuning the old specialized ebook reader software on them, they put generalized crap that can do many other stuff like playing music, browsing the internet and whatnot. The latest I bought has a fucking Android on it and is a huge bloat. On an e-book reader I only want to read for fucks sake.

ze7ewdpiSvGr6UGpkKGYh... webp
(83.22 KB, 970x546)

 >>/76111/
>  E-book readers are nifty. I'm using the third in fifteen year. Read hundreds of books.

glad to hear is going good for you. you are are already living what i aspire to be. you wouldn't believe my arrogance. i thought reading was over when people would publish their videos on youtube channels and there are a few channels that have impressed me deeply, but i don't think they can hold a candle to the industriousness that some authors had a hundred years ago who would publish 2 books a year for decades!

i consider it a privilege to just load up an epub, it feels like emulating a book the same way it feels like emulating a nes rom. and once i loaded it, i can read the thoughts of someone who lived a hundred years ago or even thousands of years ago. imma read all the religious edge! imma read the book of yakub, who according to the believers invented the white man! imma read the 2500 year old tao te ching and the dhammapada from 1881.

> My problem with them is the software. The hardware gets stronger but instead of refining and tuning the old specialized ebook reader software on them, they put generalized crap that can do many other stuff like playing music, browsing the internet and whatnot.

from the few different manufacturers i have seen e-readers from, i mostly got the heavy enshittification vibes. i really like my kobo because they keep it simple and i edited one textfile in a hidden folder that would just let me use it without forcing a kobo account on me. i have not tried it but i think i can just add fonts to it, luckily the one i wanted (open-dyslexic) was already installed so i just chose it. also changing the font size wasn't a problem and the text just reflows beautifully in the epub file format. if i ever wanted to customize this even deeper, i can load KOreader on it where i can customize even more stuff but i think i wont even bother. in theory i can even put my own firmware on it because the one i got (kobo glo) can run a genuine linux debian version on it, which i was fully ready to do but now i kind of like the stock firmware and probably wont bother. 

this one manufacturer called remarkable apparently doesn't even allow users to connect via usb because they want to force subscriptions and cloud services on the users, which is disgusting. i tried this in a electronic store, it looked good but obviously the company is anti-user.

> The latest I bought has a fucking Android on it and is a huge bloat. On an e-book reader I only want to read for fucks sake.

i very much worried about this and steered clear of any android. the thought of having to navigate all the stuff they think i might like (newsflash, i don't), garbage proprietary apps, advertisement and promotional notifications i could puke when i think of it. i guess you can save the thing by installing f-droid and use a custom launcher where you have nothing on it but the app you use for reading and a file explorer and a note-taking app.

Screenshot... png
(1.48 MB, 725x3366)

 >>/76111/
> My problem with them is the software

there is one approach i thought was interesting and promising which is dedicated e-ink screens.

this is the Dasung 103, which is a portable 60fps e-ink display that is 10 inch in size and connects to modern devices only via usb-c. costs around 400€. 

i think it is kind of cool but i have early-adopted plenty of times in life to jump on it too quickly.

if i succeeded in connecting this to my phone, i would use this for writing text with a wireless keyboard and for reading from a regular boring text-editor. i imagine it nice to quickly alt-tab between websites so i can search for stuff i don't understand or would like further details or modern perspectives on.

i do use the included dictionary in the kobo though. when i don't know a word, all i have to do is tap and hold and it highlites the word while displaying a offline-dictionary definition if it knows the word.

 >>/76112/
As for the Andriod, it doesn't do much of anything. I turned off everything in the settings. The OS loads and gives the list of the books right there. I pick the one I read, read, then close or just turn the thing off.
The only real problem is the font size has its limitations. Like I want to make it smaller, but it's already the smallest in the settings. So sometimes I have to edit the books and try it a couple of times before I find the optimal font size.

 >>/76113/
That's nice but it's not an ebook reader, but an e-ink screen for computers. Which could be okay if you only do is text editing.

Screenshot... png
(398.17 KB, 667x2246)

 >>/76114/
> As for the Andriod, it doesn't do much of anything. I turned off everything in the settings. The OS loads and gives the list of the books right there. I pick the one I read, read, then close or just turn the thing off.
i would have expected a lot of notifications about updates and apps you are supposed to use, services you are supposed to subscribe to, sudden changes of interface without giving you the option to revert, etc.

...i wouldn't even give wifi to something running a stock android. i guess you live dangerously and don't mind being data collection cattle. i guess it can be nice to use your favorite synchronization software. i would install syncthing and set up one folder connection to my computer and have it automatically sync my books so i don't have to use any cloud garbage and then i'd use koreader which saves the anotations in the same folder as the ebook file, which would then also get synchronized to my computer.


> The only real problem is the font size has its limitations. Like I want to make it smaller, but it's already the smallest in the settings. So sometimes I have to edit the books and try it a couple of times before I find the optimal font size.

sounds like something you could easily do in koreader. i attached a screenshot from it's f-droid page for your convenience, handsome 😘

 >>/76114/
> That's nice but it's not an ebook reader, but an e-ink screen for computers.

not by itself but it can connect with one usb-c cable to the phone for both power and data. 

(i guess you have not heard about mobile screens yet. those have been around since shortly after usb-c became normal.)

so when i just velcro my phone on the back i could make it into an ebook reader whenever i feel like it. my phone has a nice free open source operating system on it so it wouldn't bother me with updates or bloat.

 >>/76115/
> give wifi
I don't have wifi in my house.
I plug the reader into my pc with USB and copy books from there.
But you do you, just give wifi to everything.
> koreader
I don't install anything onto my e-book reader.

 >>/76116/
> using phones
And this Anon berates others for using Android.

 >>/76117/
> I don't have wifi in my house.

tough guy right there, i respect this. i should come up with a better way i do it at home maybe a button i can press to turn wifi on and off and often i don't use it. doesn't matter though because i am surrounded by neighbors who use wifi alarm clocks and wifi toothbrushes 🫠

though i do need wifi when i am out and about so i use a mobile router that my phone and laptop connect to. 

good thing you didn't buy a remarkable tablet because i don't think you can use it without wifi 🤔 unless you can attach a network cable via usb adapter and then use the browser from your pc to somehow send files to it.

> I plug the reader into my pc with USB and copy books from there.

tough guy right there, that's how you do it! nice thing about books from hundreds of years ago is that is how they don't require constant updates.

> But you do you, just give wifi to everything.

is just a phone and it is way more harmless then your google android ebook reader because i installed custom operating systme on it. occasionally when i use one of my laptops at home and those run linux so don't paint me as some technologically unconscious dude when it was you who accepted stock android. that's way worse then anything i do.

> koreader
> I don't install anything onto my e-book reader.
since you arleady fucked up and stepped into the consumerism trap that is google android, you may as well make the best of it and try out a potentially better reading app that btw unlike your beloved google android is free and open source, which is what i prioritize in a device before i even buy it. another thing is repairability. does the company make it hard on purpose to repair this or not. the little kobo i have seems pretty accessible, i soon open it up and maybe i can come up with a way to find out how much the battery has degraded because it is probably not that hard to replace.

 >>/76117/
> And this Anon berates others for using Android.

yeah is a phone but without a simcard in it and it has a custom free open source operating system on it, which i consider the only valid path to having a phone except maybe actual phones that are built to run some way of linux. it is android but without google. doesn't use the play store or a google account, i use the f-droid to install apps on it and this is plenty. fdroid has everything you could ever wish for in it. i use it mostly to play internet videos via grayjay and listen to audio-files.

if there was something i could use for watching videos, listen to music and maybe talk to my father via some chat app beside a phone, i would. i don't use bluetooth headphones, i prefer the ones with a cable, you probably don't have a phone and when you want to listen to music on the go you just carry around a midget strapped to your backpack who plays ukulele for you.

sun zu jpg
(19.08 KB, 300x450)

this is my opinion on sun zu. fuck that guy.

paulie jpg
(602.47 KB, 2144x2098)

 >>/76120/
> sun teazoo

 >>/76119/
I still use a flip phone, no internet service, just call and texting.

 >>/76169/
> I still use a flip phone, no internet service, just call and texting.

i'd never trust the centralized telephone technology. i guess you don't mind there being a folder with all the phonecalls you ever made as mp3 files and all the text you ever written as txt files in case the owners wanna take a closer look at what you did at a certain time.

so you have a phone where you can't use offline maps on and can't quickly search whether a store is still open but some asshole who has your number can call you and talk to you or write you advertisement messages.

like a phone that intentionally doesn't have the good parts and only the bad parts. seems stupid to me. i rather have a phone that can't be used to make phone calls and doesn't accept messages where i can easily display all the stores in a place i have never been while listening to music or audiobooks.

unless you carry a cassette player or a minidisc player that's pretty lame.