FreeInk: Open ecosystem for e-readers
freeink.org
freeink.org
I tried different firmwares too and ended up settling on CrossPoint. So far it's been the most stable and the UI feels more intuitive than the others (for me at least)
If you want all your book series displayed together, AALU (https://github.com/dawsonfi/aalu) might be worth a look.
And Crosspoint OS itself is still really nice.
its an involved process but that's always going to be that way on any e-reader that's not a kindle (or android based, where you can install the kindle app).
I want to access my books on random devices too, which is why I never bought a frikkn Kindle book.
I did buy a bunch of Audible books, starting way back when there was nothing else, and I knew the deal when buying, so I simply went through the grief on my end to strip them (easy these days) and don't care about the legality (or rather, am willing to fight and defend the legality).
But buying something from Amazon and then complaining to anyone but Amazon that you want something Amazon doesn't provide or even allow, I don't get that.
This wish for this thing that you want should be directed at Amazon, and if you recognize that that would be pointless, well, correct, that's why you shouldn't buy a book from Amazon in the first place.
Or you should decide you don't recognize any legal conflict and help write software to uncrappify your property.
Many books can only be bought this way. Publishers don't want to sell books through platforms that don't have DRM, because they are scared of piracy.
It would be great if we could have open ebook reader software that could display these books.
eReaders like the Xteink X4 are beautiful but lots of books are impossible to legally read on it. Yes, I know that I can break the DRM, but I think its sad that this is the only path for legitimate purchases.
I agree, but it also would be great if DRM wouldn't be use to restrict your device choice. The only reason Kindle DRM "works well" is because Amazon is basically the biggest eBook store in the world and Kindle are the most popular brand. But you can't buy a book in Kindle and use it in a Kobo device, for example.
DRM would be slightly more acceptable if the companies themselves didn't use it to also enforce their device lock-in (e.g., license their DRM to other companies), and so we are in the current situation where there is device lock-in and you are required to buy a eReader from Amazon if you want to read Kindle books, or at minimum buy one of those Android eReader devices since you can install Kindle app on it (but in this case you have all the other issues that you get by running Android in a eReader).
To say nothing of Amazon’s ethics.
Ethics-wise, hard agree.
Ethically it's all completely bunk, but more people should be aware how insane modern copyright laws are so that we can reform them. And this is not new, folks like the FSF and EFF protested the signing of the 1996 WIPO Treaty too.
I have very little respect for DRM, though. Personally, if the author has a patreon, I suggest donating the $20 to the Patreon and pirating the book
I am not sure this is true. Yes, Xteink is investing in small eReader devices to fill a particular niche, but I am not sure any other company also creating small eReaders, and especially from the big known names like Kindle/Kobo/PocketBook the minimum size they generally have is around 6'' to 7''. Also nowadays we have a big market for Note-style eInk devices, like the Kindle Scrible or Remarkable that fills the niche of "I want a really big eInk device".
So far I have only read one book on it. But that is Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (361 chapters, 1300 pages in paper editions), which I'd never managed to read more than a few tens of pages of before.
Which is pretty solid proof of how nice the X4 is.
I know it's not hard to do, but I needed it to work first time before my summer holiday, couldn't wait for a Chinese import, and had no spare time to mess around with putting new firmware on it.
I didn’t imagine how much I’d use a tiny, pocketable reader. I love it.
Do you use it with a dictionary? I like the full 1 GB English wiktionary loaded in Aard2 on my Boox. It has etymology and can look up Latin and other non-English words. But I imagine it may be too heavy for a ESP32 device..
They don't compete, but do complement. Both are very open and hackable, so you can use the same process to get books on both.
I got the colour after being on an old paperwhite for many years so thankfully it's a big step up for me.
You really don't need to build a Kobo clone. By being open, you can fit your needs. If your needs are already covered by Kobo, that's fine.
Also, it does a bit misleading to say "Charging, battery protection, an optional frontlight and a 24-pin e-paper interface, all on one PCB you can build for around $60." According to their own parts lists, if you are build 5 of these, you're in for $63.74 (plus shipping?) So if you want just one (like a normal person), it's going to cost more. And that's still just the circuit board and components: no mention of the outer plastic casing. (I can't find any info on their site about how to get that - presumably 3D print, but haven't found plans.)
First country in the list: Australia
I way prefer ePaper over reading on my phone so I have both the x3 and the x4 and love both.
The x3 is so small it sticks to my phone via the charging magnet on the back so it goes everywhere my phone does.
The x4 is a bit bigger so a bit more readable but still smaller than an iPhone, so it’s easy to keep in your pocket or bag.
EDIT: I use a "MagSafe" case.
I am still disappointed that there is no kindle sized hardware that this can run on, but I think that has to do with manufacturers rather than firmware developers.
My reader is 8", and I think that's just the right size. I like a decent sized font, and I don't like continually scrolling.
Surprisingly, the original promise of "low battery use" isn't panning out. My ereader's battery doesn't last that long, although I can live with it. Once you switch to large size color eink screens, the battery life is poorer than tablets!
Meanwhile, the smartphone world suffer from a lack of smaller screen sizes. Maybe we should just mandate the executives to switch industries with each other for a decade or so?
My Kindle Paperwhite and Scribe Coloursoft go weeks between charges.
But the reality is that most book pages are larger than 6", and if I found myself preferring the book because of the size, what's the point of an ereader? I first switched to 7", which was better, but not good enough. 8" is great, though.
> Scribe Coloursoft go weeks between charges
How many hours will the battery last while on? And how does that compare to a similar sized tablet?
I can read and take notes and even web browse (insofar as browsing is supported on the Kindle browser) for hours on end and barely budge the battery percentage, while a tablet w/ an LCD screen would run through half or more of its charge for similar usage.
The pain is in how often I need to "flip" the page. Especially if you're reading something where you want to reference back a few paragraphs, etc.
> I can read and take notes and even web browse (insofar as browsing is supported on the Kindle browser) for hours on end and barely budge the battery percentage, while a tablet w/ an LCD screen would run through half or more of its charge for similar usage.
Fair enough. I've seen large size color ereaders that run out after about 8 hours of use.
Reference materials and note-taking are why I got the Scribe and its larger screen.
Horses for courses.
These are seriously niche devices. They're currently trendy but the Kindles of the world probably have something like 98% of the market.
Kobo had an 8" ereader. People loved it (except for the battery life). But there's no sign they'll make more of them.
Open Source Vacuum Avoids Cloud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49038792 - July 2026
I have a 6" screen and it's too small. I got a 10.3" one and it was too large. But I'm starting to suspect those of us who primarily want to read are the only ones who want 8 inches, and we're a rare bread.
I really hope they bring back a similar format ereader in the future, I don't really want to go back to a smaller scale device when this one dies.
The downsides are that they are expensive and the Nomad does not have a front light.
My favorite device is still my Boox Poke 2 Color. I just wish it were slightly bigger. I don't care about writing on it (I have a BT keyboard that should work fine and don't write much by hand anyway if I can avoid it). Just want to read/highlight/annotate in KOReader, but need syncthing for my workflow.
I was looking into them recently, and can't recall why I ruled them out.
I think it may have been because of the size of their color tablets - either too small or too large.
To be honest, I just need a decent ereader that supports Koreader. I definitely don't want to run apps, etc. I don't want to use it for note taking unless I can find a way to migrate the notes to my PC in my preferred format (which I may well be able to hack quickly with LLM support).
If you can live with its many, many, many weird limitations, the hardware is delightful. I returned mine after I had it for a month, though, and bought a Nomad. Remarkable makes good devices but I couldn’t abide the shoddy software.
Its kind of annoying to have to be charging every other day.
I think I've only had to charge the xteink x4 a couple times since I got it in March. But that's the case for any non-android ereader.
I'd be happy if the boox lasted a week with 2-3ish hours of use a day.
https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/ronald-dahl-...
I still find it hilariously ironic that the first instance that was widely reported (as far as I know) was it happening to 1984.
- I've often bought books with old/traditional covers which I like, but then a movie is made and the cover is "updated" to the movie tie-in version
- I've found at least one typo in pretty much every e-book I've ever read, and usually report them --- they rarely get fixed, which annoys me to no end (esp. if it's a copy were there cover has changed as noted above)
There's also the old news story about the kid who bought the pirated copy of _1984_ took class notes in it, and then had the copy deleted, which presumably is why when Microsoft took the ebook reader functionality out of Edge they issued checks to people who had used the note-taking functionality.
KOReader paired with BookOrbit is my sweetspot and I love having all the data under my control. If my Kindle died today I'd probably grab a Kobo and put KOReader on it.
This project is very interesting to me but they seem to want to "own" the whole software stack, it seems like it won't support things like KOReader? Or am I mistaken?
My plan is to not use this firmware and use MicroPython instead (based on a high-level OS I already developed that is extremely low battery consumption). I carry around with me an A6 notebook with TODOs for each day - just the other day I temporarily lost it and realized that I actually need to have a backup for this stuff synced with a private VPS.
> Checkpoint 3: Board v2.0 Release (Supporters)
> Status: Check in around September 2026!
> Expand the platform beyond the original 4.26" display and demonstrate the full capability of the optional module system.
> (…) 4.26" (same as initial prototype), 7.5", 3.97"
https://github.com/iandchasse/de-link/blob/main/markdown/ROA...
I currently use CrossPoint, so I wanted to install this, but when I clicked the GitHub button, it just linked to the CrossPoint Firmware.
Huge props to the devs, that haven't just embraced people forking their repo - but have actually put in a lot effort to make it easier for anyone that wants to develop on these platforms.
But also, I didn't understand how much the lightness is amazing. A kindle is light and one handable but it's noticable, this is so light I just can hold it up. I've heard in the ultralight mouse (for gaming), there's a point you just feel like you're moving your hand and don't notice the mouse. This is how I feel for this and it's worth something
Also, for anyone that wants to cut doom scrolling, just delete your accounts and delete the apps for the services you're not using in a way you like. In many cases, it's that simple.
Love e-readers though. I've carried one with me (when I had a reason to expect at least 30 minutes of downtime) for a few years now and it's a lot more convenient than the paperbacks I used to lug around.
The biggest win is not caring if I get the reader back on the charger before I drift off, which is a thing I need to do with my phone.
Remarkable looks like it has a pretty active hacking community: https://github.com/rehackable/awesome-remarkable#launchers
For example, if I buy now Xtelink X4 for reading ‘on the go’, there is no easy way to switch back to a larger device for more comfortable reading at home.