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Comment by holysoles | Hacker News Reader

I almost bought an xteink the other week but held off due to lack of a frontlight option.

I instead resurrected my nook simple touch (2011) with this project [1] from XDA forums, its made it infinitely more usable and still has good battery life.

[1] https://xdaforums.com/t/nst-g-the-phoenix-project.4673934/

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Xteink is coming with a backlit option soon.

Be aware though they're trying to block third party software and their own sucks badly. I don't understand why they try to block this because it makes their hardware actually worth buying.

They're working with the crosspoint team.

The official hardware (if you buy through their website or amazon) is not blocked. Only Aliexpress offerings.

But yes, they are coming with a FRONTlit option. Although it'll also have a touchscreen and no front buttons.

I'm hoping maybe in a year or so they make an actual successor with the same button layout, no touchscreen (or with a touchscreen but still with all the buttons) and a better chipset (though nothing major, what the X3 has is enough).

Oh ok but why do they block the Ali ones then? I don't think they're on Amazon here in Spain. And if I have to order from China I'd greatly prefer Ali express because they have good consumer protection.

And yes I meant front light sorry. I didn't know that one won't have buttons.

They're just blocked from OTA updates, you can flash whatever you want on the sdcard and then unlock OTA. (I did this yesterday with an aliexpress version x4)

You can. But if you build your own stuff, you can also easily lock yourself out. That whole mechanism that tells the software to look for a new bin file on the SD card and to use that to update is something that needs to be contained in your software. If you forget it, or you get it wrong, the thing will be bricked.

I was just looking into it, with coupons and ongoing sale, it is possible to buy the Chinese version for about 7,500 JPY (45 USD) on Aliexpress, while on the official website (and Amazon) it is 13,900 JPY. I am not sure if this applies everywhere.

While there is an "unlock" option, it seems it is strongly implied that you should stick to mainstream custom firmware or risk getting stuck with a firmware forever [0].

[0] https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader#usb-l...

I understand, I just wonder why they do this. Why lock their stuff down so much? Especially if they offer other channels that don't have this limitation.

My guess is that they identified two different groups of consumers, the ones who want to buy the cheapest product in China and the ones that want it hackable. If they sell it cheaper (and open) they kill the profits coming from the second group.

(As far as I understood those from AliExpress can also be unblocked.)

You can install custom firmware from the SD card, but you can't enable USB flashing. And the SD card installation depends on the installed firmware; in other words, if you end up with the wrong firmware installed, you may be stuck with it.

I have one. Do not bother. It is too small. I did write my own software for it which was a fun exercise but it remains idle because it is just too small to enjoy reading from.

The correct size is 6" or so diagonally.

Thanks for mentioning both of these, the xteink and the nook resurrection. My old nooks are all slimy with the black material liquifying, and unusable just for that, else I'd pursue the XDA option. Looking into the xteink now, else Kobo. The one the post is about seems extremely appealing, but the price is a bit high for me, and the lifePo option makes the lesser one seem even more expensive. I really love e-ink. I could easily go with it for all compute.

5k cycles would be nice.

My nook was lightly sticky to the touch, I actually wiped it down with some cornstarch on a dish towel, it made a noticeable improvement. I do think if its too far gone though you'd be out of luck.

The kobos do look pretty nice, I might switch to that whenever my nook kicks it.

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