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Show HN: Serve your saved articles to a Kindle

github.com

90 pointsedgartaor45 comments

The kindle ecosystem is a disgrace when it comes to compatibility.

I have implemented a similar service (working from the WWW) that tracks your favourite RSS feeds and sends content to your kindle via their (terrible) sharing email address.

I find it sad that a company with Amazon's reach plays this dirty with what users are allowed to have on their devices. :(

> I find it sad that a company with Amazon's reach plays this dirty with what users are allowed to have on their devices. :(

To be honest I'm always surprised how easy it is to put things on your Kindle even if they are not purchases from Amazon. I regularly purchase ebooks some other place and then just send it to the Kindle with Calibre's feature using the amazon sharing email address and it works without a problem for years.

Yes. I was reluctant to buy a Kindle to read my already owned ebooks but using Calibre to sync to my Kindle it's really simple.

Yes, calibre is a powerful tool. However not all content can (or should) go via it.

My specific use case is something like the integration that Pocket has with Kobo ebook readers: I see an article I want to read on the internet, I add it to Pocket and then at my next sync I can read it on my device.

An email that Amazon controls is no replacement for a proper API. Having tools to convert to mobi is not a replacement for supporting open ebook formats.

Have you tried Instapaper?

Yes. A long time ago though, and all I remember is that it didn't quite manage to give me the same flow as I had with Pocket/Kobo. Maybe I didn't look deep enough into it.

Testing it out now. I just signed up on the website then it popped up a "Get the App" button. Clicked that, and it brought me to this link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tumblr&ref...

Which is the Tumblr app! What the hell?

EDIT: ok, figured it out. After signing up on the website, I'm given a page which has a single item called Getting Started. Nothing else, no menu, no header, no footer. So I clicked the link and it brings me to the Getting Started page on blog.instapaper.com

I now realize this is actually hosted on Tumblr so the Get the App button there is from Tumblr.

Not a great onboarding experience so far. Hopefully the rest of the app is better.

It has limitations. I don't think Amazon really likes it much as a feature anymore but I think they know people would be really angry if they got rid of it. They haven't bothered adding support for newer file formats beyond KF7. You can sometimes trick an ePub on there by renaming it .zip and get an AZW3 but it doesn't always work. They also make it annoying to get covers on emailed documents.

This is super interesting.

I've wanted to get an e-reader for a while now, but I'd really like to be able to read the articles I have saved in Wallabag[1] on it so I could go fully offline for a day or two a week. One potential solution I saw which is similar to this was wallabag-kindle-consumer[2] but both of this and your solution have issues that dissuade me from them. The first is that I think there's a lot of metadata that isn't encapsulated by both of these solutions. Tagging/highlighting are the first things that spring to mind. The second issue is both are very kindle-specific and I wonder if/how they'd work on a non-Amazon e-reader?

Take my comments with a grain of salt though - I haven't owned an e-reader in years so maybe the interface wouldn't even readily support tagging/highlighting the way I imagine it. I appreciate how simple your solution is and can readily see how it could be extended to support tags at least from the search interface and integrate with other services like Wallabag! Thanks for your work and if I do end up getting an e-reader you'll definitely be seeing some pull requests from me!

[1] https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag [2] https://github.com/janLo/wallabag-kindle-consumer

Tagging/highlighting cross my mind but I did want to keep this project as simple as possible. Tagging could be possible if I include a sqlite database but I don't think highlighting is possible in the Kindle web browser.

Outside of this project you can get tagging with TagSpaces[1] desktop app and highlighting with the SingleFile[2] web-extension.

>I wonder if/how they'd work on a non-Amazon e-reader?

If the e-reader have a web browser it would work without problems, maybe adjusting css properties a bit.

[1]https://github.com/tagspaces/tagspaces [2]https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile

There is an official browser extension from Amazon for this[0] that allows you to send any web page from browser to your Kindle in 2 clicks.

[0] - https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle/

In the same vein, I discovered https://ktool.io/ recently - if anyone is interested in similar functionality but doesn't want to run the media server themselves.

KTool founder here. Thanks for the mention.

While KTool is still in active development, feel free to give it a try (no account needed). Much appreciated

It would be great if I could email it to myself for transferring to the Kindle via USB as I don't trust Amazon enough to allow their device to connect to the internet.

Interesting. So something like "download .mobi or .azw3 files" would fit your requirement?

Sure...

Looks interesting but it's only showing me a Twitter sign in option. Is that the only one?

It is, at the moment as my entire audience are on Twitter. I'm working on other login method right now. Is there any way I can reach you when it's ready? Also I assume you would like a email/password login option? Thanks

Yeah, it's so common to hear of auth providers like Google, Twitter, FB randomly banning people because some automated system said so and then poof, all your logins are gone and 20 other apps stop working. So I decided a while ago it's email + password manager only for me.

I do have some sympathy though because I've implemented email auth before and it's not simple!

I'd rather not give out details here. You could add a mailing list maybe?

Yeah, I understand your concerns. You can subscribe for updates using this form, thanks:

https://ktool.io/subscribe

Hey esperent. I've added email/password auth for KTool. Can you give it a try? Thx

https://ktool.io

Instapaper has this as a feature. Only in the paid subscription, though, I think.

Another great app that can send articles to Kindle is https://hq.getmatter.app/

The Send to Kindle browser extension is great but it's not really usable on mobile.

With Matter I can add something to my queue while browsing on mobile and from Matter send it to my Kindle already parsed and ready to read.

Everytime I email PDFs to my Kindle, I get a verification email with a link I have to click on. This same email says I can avoid this verification step by adding the sending email address as an approved sender (or whatever) which I've done. But then also I've got these sent emails with large attachments to go delete. So it's a pretty clunky workflow.

Tangential, there used to be a web service called Readlists which used to transform collection of articles into a kindle readable book and send it to the added kindle address. I found it very optimal to my needs due to its non technical nature and simplicity. That service shutdown a while back though. Is there any similar service?

There is a similar service [1] however it does not collect articles but lets you send single articles to your kindle via your email address.

[1] https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/

I made this myself a long time ago for just a few specific websites. Thank you for this, a generalized version is amazing.

It's slightly different, but I can recommend https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/ Works perfectly.

I use it as a (n effectively) free browser plugin, and also paid for the iPhone app, because it's super-useful to have available there, and also to support the creator - this was something I'd wanted to write for myself and was very glad to not have to.

I haven’t tried it, but one of the features Kobo push is native Pocket integration,[1] which might be useful to some people in this thread.

https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017763753-Use-the...

I use that a lot, I even created a web service where I have my favourite RSS feeds that get pushed to pocket when they get new content which then gets synced to my Kobo device.

It's much better than the kindle option where sending the content over email feels like a twenty years step back.

I am looking for Kindle alternatives as Amazon has closed my account unilaterally. I was looking for alternatives and Kobo seems to be the only alternative to Kindle. RSS integration via Pocket seems interesting. Apart from the ereader feature, how does Kobo compare against Kindle ? Do you have any recommendation for which model to buy ?

There are other options in the eReader space. Pocketbook is another one, there's some Chinese Android devices like Boox and Boyue that are more flexible since they run Android.

Kobo compares favorably to Kindle. Really they just lack something like "Send to Kindle" but they make up for it with other things. Some models support Dropbox syncing, they support getting books from the library via. Overdrive right on the device and they have a lot more customization with regards to what you can do with fonts, spacing etc. out of the box. And you can even get pen input for note taking on the bigger ones if you want.

I'd just pick the model that most appeals to you with exception of the base model. I think the extra $30 to get a 300PPI screen is worth it.

Thanks. My primary use cases are reading library books, long form articles for offline reading and classic books. So Overdrive/Libby and Calibre support is critical. Kobo seems good for those tasks. I am bit wary about Android devices as they get slowed down after some time.

Personally I advise against the Chinese devices as they often are GPL infringers (Boox for sure is). Also I don't consider running android as a plus, it's just another layer of cruft that lowers the overall performance of the device. I think Kobo's OS is largely fine and Sage has a pretty good specs: 300PPI, quad core 1.8GHz processor, and stylus support.

I've owned both. Even if Android is a heavier OS the Boox devices have so much faster hardware that they feel significantly faster. Android also greatly increases what the devices can do, e.g. magazines in Libby, Marvel Unlimited, Google Play Books, actually good web browser, etc. Yes, GPL violations are unfortunate.

How’s their long-term support? I realised the other day that my Kobo Aura H2O is now 8 years old, and still getting regular updates.

I doubt they will match Kobo there since Kobo literally has been updating every single model they've ever made except for 3. Although Kobo has a tendency to keep the best features reserved for newer models like Overdrive, Dropbox, etc even if the old hardware is basically identical to the new.

But that said they've surprised me. As a niche Android device from a Chinese company I expected absolutely 0 updates but my Nova 2 has gotten several with some significant improvements like the ability to split screen apps, layers in the note taking app and more. I've had Android phones from big manufacturers with worse support.

I have a Boox Note 3, and I haven't touched my kindle since I got it. The built in e-reader is fine, but it's a full android OS so you have other options.

Additionally, the larger form factor is really nice, as my eyes start to age.

Thanks. I am bit wary about Android devices as they become slower after some time.

> Apart from the ereader feature, how does Kobo compare against Kindle

I can't compare directly with Kindle, as the last one I used was a couple of years ago.

But the features that directly appealed to me are stylus support for two of the latest models: Elipsa and Sage.

It has support for Overdrive as far as I know (though not in all countries). It has support for dropbox. It supports more formats, which makes it a favourite for sideloaded manga/comics reading.

It's easy to root and run your own code on it, there's a pretty healthy community of modders out there. Under the hood is just a linux machine.

I installed KoReader on my Kobo, which has native Wallabag sync. Reading saved articles on my eReader has never been easier + I'm in control of the data (as opposed to Pocket users).

There is a free service called Tinderizer[1], which sends web page to kindle using a bookmarklet. It works by opening the web page in a browser, apply readability javascript code, convert to PDF and emails to your kindle email address. All of this done in backend in a very few seconds. It will automatically appear in your kindle shortly after that. It won't work properly for subscription sites as it takes snapshot of the non logged in user. I have used this service for nearly a decade until Amazon decided to close my account.

[1] https://tinderizer.com/

Amazon closed your account for using this service?

More likely they couldn't continue to use the service BECAUSE Amazon closed their account, therefore deactivating their kindle email address.

No. Tinderizer is fine. Amazon provides an email id for your device. If you send any document to that email address, then it gets delivered to your kindle. If you use Convert as subject line, then it converts the attachment into Kindle format (AZW3). Otherwise it will send the attachment as is to your device. Tinderizer uses this feature. To send email to this kindle device address, you have to whitelist the from address. It is one of the step that you have to do while setting up Tinderizer bookmarklet.

Account closure was due to different reason. Few months back I ordered a phone from Amazon India, but they delivered a perfume. When complained to CS, they closed my account with a vague reason reason that I violated ToS by using a duplicate account. This account closure after I had this account for more than 10 years and have used it in Amazon.com and Amazon.in. Earlier this month, I have a filed a consumer court case (similar to small claims in US) in India.

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