I’m in love with these retro e-ink digital watches. The Snoopy ones are especially adorable.
I’m in love with these retro e-ink digital watches. The Snoopy ones are especially adorable.
@blog thx for the #HonestWords.
To me that touchscreen sounds awful.
Most 3rd party products that aim to compete with any established brand at least get the #price lower than the established players if they can't be assed to at least have the same level of #documentation, #quality or #support than i.e. #RaspberryPi.
For €100 I can get some 1080p screen if not a decent #touchscreen if I snipe the right corners and ain't afraid of returns and refurbished parts.
"I was really excited to try the Go 7 with a stylus to see how it stacked up to traditional paper. However, results were mixed."
#EInk #Boox #Reviews
https://mobilesyrup.com/2025/06/28/boox-go-7-e-reader-review/
@tron I.mean, I'd love to build "BigChungus" a 122+ ISO-Terminal board with such keys, but AFAICT those micro - OLED-Panels ain't cheap nor does the #SteamDeck support a useage akin to a real #Keyboard...
It's rather cheaper to just take a giant touchscreen and slap a Raspberry Pi 0 W below to turn it into a USB+Bluetooth touch "keyboard"...
I know #eInk and a tiny #Keyboard ain't cheap, but they really lost a lot out on not going the whole route down and build something rugged af...
Like an #Iridium 9555 or 9575 Extreme...
Any reason for why so many people seem to prefer Kindle e-readers when something like Kobo exists?
The Pubook Mobile is an upcoming phone-sized eBook reader with a 6.13 inch E Ink Kaleido 3 color display, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and an octa-core processor. It's unclear if it'll be available outside of Taiwan though. #Pubu #PubookMobile #eReader #EInk #Kaleido3 https://www.ereaderpro.co.uk/en/blogs/news/e-ink-new-product-pubu-announces-taiwans-first-mobile-color-open-e-reader-pubook-mobile-to-be-released-in-q4
Two of my nerdy tech devices that bring me a significant amount of joy:
Boox Palma 2 and Remarkable 2.
They’re black and white e-ink devices. I use them for different purposes. The RM2 is used for handwritten notes/PDF markup and the Boox is used for casually reading text/books/articles, practicing Anki cards, and other low intensity tasks.
They’ve been extra clutch over the last few months since my migraines returned to ‘chronic’ status.
EM32DX: Samsung bringt effizientes Color-E-Paper auf den Markt https://www.computerbase.de/news/monitore/em32dx-samsung-bringt-effizientes-color-e-paper-auf-den-markt.93000/ #samsung #displays #eink
Hi! I'd like recommendations for a secondhand exploitable e-ink e-reader, something akin to the 2016 Kobo Aura ONE. I want to be able to sideload apps like KOreader and Plato and access the filesystem like any other removable storage.
Please retoot!
blog! “Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?”
Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8.
The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader.
As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was t…
Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/
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#ebooks #eink #reading
Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/
Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8.
The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader0.
As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the subsidised price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their website ceased working long ago.
But it got me intrigued. Moore's law is supposed to drive down the cost of electronics. So where are all the dirt-cheap eReaders?
The cheapest Kindle for sale on Amazon UK right now is about £100. Back in 2012, it was about £70. Taking inflation into account, that price has stayed static. Brands like Kobo are also in the £100 to £150 range.
About the cheapest retail eReader is the PocketBook Lux 4 for £85 or the (terribly reviewed) Woxter Scriba for £70.
AliExpress has loads of second-hand and obsolete models at cheap-ish prices. But a surprising dearth of new eReaders.
Going wholesale, Alibaba has a range of models, some of which clock in at around £30.
But, of course, that's before shipping and tax. They won't come with any manufacturer's warranty and don't expect any software updates. Also, good luck getting accessories!
So what's stopping new eReaders being released at a cheap(er) price? I think it comes down to four main things.
Reading is a niche hobby
Around 40% of UK adults didn't read a single book last year. That survey combines reading books and listening to audiobooks. Of the 60% who do read/listen, about 14% primarily listen. Of those that read, around 60% do so on paper books.
If reading is niche, reading electronically is a tiny niche! This is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg argument. If an eReader were the same cost as a mass-market paperback, I'm sure many more paper-book readers would become converts.
The whole point of an eInk reader is that it is a distraction-free environment. Yeah, you could scroll TikTok on one, but it isn't a pleasant experience. An eReader is designed for one thing only, unlike a phone or tablet. Do enough people want to carry yet-another-bloody-device just for reading?
eInk is expensive
The company which makes eInk hold several patents on the process. They're not a patent troll; they're building a business and selling mega-hectares of the stuff. Understandably, they have an interest in keeping prices high. They don't want to cannibalise their own market.
A basic 6 inch screen with wiring costs around £20 wholesale - that's from Alibaba, so doesn't include tax and shipping. That's before you've added any electronics or a operating system.
Speaking of which…
Android is a bottleneck
The promise of the Android Open Source Project was a free Operating System for anyone to use. The reality has been a little different. Most people want to be able to use basic Android functionality - like download operating system updates or reading apps. But Google doesn't allow that for eInk devices.
As I understand it, Google requires Android devices to have colour screens and, so I've read, won't certify eInk eReaders for newer versions of Android.
So manufacturers have to source parts which have drivers for older versions of Android. Or they have to develop their own OSes.
Books are fungible
Back when Apple sold iPods, they knew that the majority of purchasers would buy MP3s direct from Apple. The perfect symbiotic relationship! But the walled-gardens cracked and now people can buy their music from anywhere.
Amazon keeps this model for its eBooks. Unless you're prepared to get technical, you can only read Amazon books on your Amazon Kindle paid for with your Amazon wallet.
Games consoles are often sold at a loss because the manufacturer knows they'll make it up in game sales and subscriptions.
A low-price manufacturer is unlikely to also run a book store and wouldn't be able to cross-subsidise their hardware with content sales.
Alternatives
Some people have tried building open source eReaders but they're either abandoned, not suitable for production, or ridiculously expensive.
Buying second hand is relatively cheap - often under £50. But eInk screens can be brittle, and older ones may have scratches or cracks which are effectively unrepairable.
How cheap is cheap?
I'd love a £8 eReader. Something I could throw in a pocket and not worry about damaging. An eReader which was the same price as a hardback book - around £20 - would be amazing.
But I don't think we'll get there soon. The monopoly on screen technologies sets a retail floor of around £30, before the rest of the hardware is taken into account. Niche hardware is viable - but only with decent OS support. Other than Kobo and Amazon, no book retailer wants to stray outside their core competency to develop and subsidise hardware.
So I guess it's buy second-hand, or wait for the patents to expire.
You can see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread. ↩︎
Una pantalla tipo eBook, tinta electrónica o similar, que recoja los datos del precio de la electricidad por hora para que sepas cuando poner los electrodomésticos sin tener que buscarlo en el smartphone. ¿Existe algo así?
Stripped it down, gave it a thorough clean. Battery is good and not pillowed, everything works, you can hook it up to USB in storage mode and load ePub books on. Only some irrelevant scratches on the rear of the case.
There was a whole bunch of "sexy horror" books on it, which I deleted because I don't ever read that. Now it has the Douglas Adams collection instead.
I like this thing. Really good find! Now that I know he doesn't sell broken crap, I want to go back again and look through this guys other e-waste
I picked up a Boox e-ink tablet device for school. I hope to help reduce eye strain and migraines.
So far, I’m rebuilding how I study and read course materials. Using the tablet has cut my screen time on other devices by about 50%.
Yes, typing and navigating on e-ink is slower, but that’s part of the trade off. I’m actually starting to enjoy it. With my hyperactive ADHD, I go 100000% the speed of light sometimes and I need to learn to slow down my processes. This might be one way to help with that while also protecting my eyes and reducing migraine triggers. So, yay!
Accidental late post
picture a day: may 15 https://cjs-wunderkammer.ghost.io/picture-a-day-may-15-2/
Hey - this one is for folks in the academic and education space… do you have any tips for note taking when your only sources are a textbook and written lectures from your prof? No journal articles or PDFs. I’m finding it a bit challenging.
I’m looking to design a note template for my eink tablet to create better organized written notes.
I am familiar with the typical formats like Cornell, Outline, Mind Maps, etc. I’m curious to know what works for you and why? Tell me about the layout you use. Tell me how you revise and dial into your studying/learning from your notes. How do you use written notes for recall?
I’ll take all the help I can get :)