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Comment by gadrev | Hacker News Reader

I love e-ink devices.

Just back from a reading session in my Kobo, and I sent this article to it of course :) (through Firefox/Pocket). I can even read in the swimming pool (it's water resistant), nothing better than reading in sunglasses halfway in on a sunny day, awesome!!! And it doesn't weigh as much as some books. While I still prefer paper for certain reads, it has definitely helped get back into the habit of reading real books/reading more, so lost to smartphones and social media / "sugar" information type content these days. So convenient in terms of size/weight/number of books you can carry, while being easy on the eyes. No distracting crap, either, as TFA mentions.

Long live e-ink, whatever device you like most!!

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“Long live e-ink”

i’m always worried it’s just around the corner from outliving its usefulness/profitability to most people. even within my tech/gadget bubble it still feels like a relatively niche thing. this keeps me upgrading my Kindle pretty much anytime a new one comes out because i’m always worried the technology will be discarded. i really love the fact that i can fall asleep reading on it pretty naturally. this DOES NOT happen when i’m in bed on my phone or tablet. i’m glad to see devices like reMarkable and Scribe pushing it further, and i just hope research continues to get the tech to a point where it can refresh quickly without artifacting at near lcd quality. and yeah, it’s nice to have a device where i physically can’t distract myself with inane social media or other silly things. i’m generally of the Alton Brown thought that anything uni-task is unnecessary, but i’ll continue to make a happy exception here.

I'm someone who had them during the boom around 2010 or so, then found myself giving them away because they didn't seem useful, and now find myself wanting them again. Mostly I've noticed how I like to read in bed at night rather than on my phone, am not happy with the illumination options with real books in that situation, and not happy with the screens on my phone either.

I'd probably buy one immediately if I could be guaranteed I could put any pdf on it and have it display flawlessly, and if it were relatively open in terms of compatibility.

WRT PDF, if you want it rendered flawless, you want it rendered verbatim. No reflowing or columns removed.

That means an e-ink device the size of the pages. So probably A4. A device of 21x30cm. (8.2x11.7inches). That is huge. Equivalent of the largest iPad.

I'm getting a lot of use out of my ancient Sony DPT-S1 for this purpose. It has a huge screen but is very light and well-balanced so holding it for long periods is not a problem for me, compared to holding a similarly-sized lcd tablet. I've converted most of my epub ebooks to pdf (thank you Calibre) just so I can enjoy reading them on this device.

I got one too and they really rock! I read papers on them mostly and the odd text book. I had a Kindle fire reading novels but have last it recently. I'll maybe take a sieve or of your book (ha!) and try converting everything to PDF, but I really like the built in dictionary on kindles. just wish The DPT-S1 was open to writing your own apps for, I would have done it by now.

I would love an e ink slab in a4. Especially if I can easily push over whatever media vs some proprietary nonsense. Anyone sell one?

https://onyxboox.com/boox_tabx

My wife and I have Kindles for one purpose: reading outside. We use iPads inside (I’m posting from mine), but there is nothing like eInk for reading in the sun, because it looks like a book.

In a world of uni-task devices, that is one worth owning.

If reading at night, Kindles should be used inside too.

I love my Kobo as well. It’s pretty old now but durable and still works fine. Here in Canada it works with my local public library using Overdrive. I also use the Libby app on my iPhone. Libby is great for discovering stuff, it’s fast and beautiful.

So I find books with Libby, check them out, then hit sync on the Kobo and they all show up. It’s brilliant. I used to torrent books and now I never do, I just borrow from the library constantly, and I love how having to make choices (because not everything is always available) widens the scope of what I’ll try reading.

Brilliant, this is exactly how my wife reads, and I've been dreading getting her a Kindle and her not using it or making me do endless syncing for her.

I've already had my eye on Kobo, but Libby support seals the deal I think.

Which Kobo do you have?

Honestly, I have no idea, like I said it's really old. It's waterproof, so maybe an H2O? I don't think you can really go wrong, although take a look at online reviews before purchase. Mine is fairly small (like small paperback dimensions), which I thought I might not like, but in practice it's never been an issue and I like the portability. And the battery life is great, I read a lot and I can go weeks without charging. Another bonus with them is that they support non-DRM ebook formats, so if you have books lying around you can just transfer them to the device.

In terms of Libby support, keep in mind that the method I am talking about doesn't depend on any interaction between the Kobo and Libby. I think it's all based on Overdrive, that is, I check books out from the library, and the Kobo knows what I have checked out and syncs anything that isn't on the device already. My kids have newer Kobos and this method works well for them too, so you should be good.

Which Kobo do you have?

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