[Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Hi,

So I need to buy an e-reader. I used to have a Pocketbook 622. It was a decent device with epub support, but had some caveats:

- had some trouble with djvu outlines and page numbers
- scrolling some PDFs with hw keys stuttered at times
- it used a proprietary format for the dictionaries, which could be converted only using a Windows binary

What is a must:
- hardware keys for scrolling the pages
- e-ink/e-paper - I don't want an LCD/LED in any case

What is really nice to have
- epub support
- stardict dictionary support
- good PDF support (LaTeX documents are usually rendered to PDF, unfortunately)

Appreciated:
- hackable, root access, ssh, etc.

I have nothing against Android in this case. TBH, Android is a system designed perfectly for e-readers, not mobile phones.

What would you suggest?

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I'd suggest a Kindle 3. It has a HW keyboard, wifi, optional 3g, and an E-ink screen. It has great PDF support; it does not natively support epub but you can freely convert epub to .mobi using Calibre. It has been rooted; using custom software you can do things like access the microphone (which is installed but the native OS doesn't actually use) or run a terminal for ssh etc.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

If the hardware keys were in the "nice to have" section, I'd have written a bit about modding a tolino with a huge sd card and root because it's (old) android with adb enabled from factory, some models are easy to open and the system is just on a tiny micro sd inside.

As mentioned: No hardware keys, but a reasonable good touchscreen mostly insensitive to smudges/finger prints. FBreader runs OK, but memory is severely limited.

If someone is interested, I could write up some pros/cons and so on nonetheless.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I have a Kobo Touch n905c ereader. The 1000mAh battery last 8 days actually. It's been said it is possible turn it a debian tablet. When I got time I'll do the try.

-E-ink display

You can view books, documents, images, text files, and comic books on your Kobo eReader. Each have different file formats associated with them.

Books: EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, and MOBI
Documents: PDF
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and TIFF
Text: TXT, HTML, and RTF
Comic Books: CBZ and CBR


-Hackable, you can turn into a debian tablet.

Hardware buttons:
Power slider – Turn your eReader on or off, or put it to sleep.
Home button – Press the Home button to go back to your Home screen.

other kobo ereaders

Kobo Aura ONE
The New Kobo Aura H2O
Kobo Aura H2O
Kobo Aura
Kobo Touch 2.0

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Also this may be of interest for you:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comme..._on_my_kindle/

https://github.com/DylanHamer/DebianKindle/tree/master

But I would prefer a reader which is more open from the start.
Kobo sounds like a good choice.
Although the runtime of a kindle may be great to have.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I have a Kobo Glo since 2 years and it works ok although pdf ebooks are sometimes hard to read as they seem not to scale/zoom properly.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I have Kobo Aura H2O and I can say I'm very satisfied with it.

I think the only missing thing from your list is hardware buttons, but I havent found that to be an issue during regular use - the touchscreen (which is actually not capacitive but infrared) works just fine and just can page either by taping areas on the screen or by a left/right gesture over the screen. Also nice touch that you can change intensity of the (superb!) built in frontlight by a up/down swipe near the left edge - many other devices required you activating and using an awkward menu for this.

The device is also dust and water proof, which could be pretty handy in some scenarios. There is also a slot for a uSD card (under a water-tigh cover) which is a must if you read any mangas/comic books or have scanned PDFs, etc.

The default reader software works well and doesn't get in the way - and there is a very nice plugins for Calibre that makes it easy to manage what books you have on the device and can even create book collections visible in the Reader UI for you.

As for custom development, the Kobo platform is pretty open and there is even a complete reader replacement, called Koreader, that has some pretty advanced features, like support of sending books and book metadata (reading state) directly between readers on the same network, providing access to the device to Calibre over network and other features. I haven't really got to try Koreader out myself though.

The overall community developer community seems to be concentrated at Mobileread and looks pretty active.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Thanks a lot for the many suggestions.

I found some kind of budget options which seems legit to me. It seems to have hardware buttons on the edges, runs Android 4.2.2, has both Adobe Reader and FBReader by default. Some article said that the default dictionary app support stardict.

What do you think?

/edit: thanks to maegon9y00 for pointing that I accidentally not posted the name of the device: it's InkBoonk Classic 2

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Could you tell us what device you found?

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Oh, I removed the name while editing :)

InkBook Classic 2

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

German page "allesebook" (= all ebook) has an Article about the Inkbook Classic 2 and the Inkbook Prime, which I've used as a base for my assessment, because they are quite good.

You'll definitely notice the low resolution on the Classic 2. 800*600 is pretty low, and while it's still relatively good e-paper, it's going to feel like reading some image printed in the wrong resolution, but as a book, if you haven't got bad eyesight. Here's a comparison of some Kindles (the Classic Kindle also has got 800*600 with 167 dpi). Even the more expensive version does not have great dpi.

Also, the Classic does not have a backlight, which might or might not be relevant to your needs. I find it quite nice to read at night without disturbing my dearest next to me at all.
That said, it should suffice to run FBReader* and some small apps, just like the tolino, because at first glance, they should be of comparable performance. The big plus here is the external micro-SD.

At the bottom, the linked Article compares the InkBooks with the Tolino I've mentioned before as an easy-to-root alternative with better out-of-the-box software – and if you put a beefy micro-SD inside, it'll take a while to fill it up with books. But with the only hardware buttons on the tolino being power on/off, backlight on/off and home (which is "back" in normal android apps) that still does not fit your needs. (I think tapping the screen edges is not much of a problem, btw.) :)

I'll echo what their recommendation is:
Just try it. Get it from Amazon, try it for a few days and if it's a pile of rubbish, reset it and send it back. If I were in the market for a new reader, I might consider trying the Inkbook Prime, to be honest. But most likely it'll end up being just a bit too pixel-y for me, as well.


*) But based on my experience on the tolino: Don't fall asleep reading with FBReader and let the device fall over. It tries to select pages of text, the RAM fills and everything goes horribly wrong until you kill the app. :)

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I don't see the need of more resolution for an e-reader, and perhaps it has benefits: less power comsumption. On my kobo I never had a problem related to RAM. Just need patience with the processor speed.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I agree, in normal operation with lightweight apps, the RAM isn't much of a problem – but don't try to, for example, use the amazon kindle app for android. Apart from having horrible animations, while it sometimes works, other times it just crashes. Normal browsers I tried (chromium, firefox) wouldn't work at all. (I have a different launcher + a floating menu button thingy for 'advanced' usage running, as well, though.) And also the thing with selecting dozens of pages of text in FBReader by accident I described above.

Different resolutions really are a matter of taste, of course: For me personally, a higher resolution really makes a difference. But then again, I'm the type of guy who already flinches when he sees printed things with visible pixels (like cheap ads in the bus or menus in a snack bar, you know the type) – when reading, it's really a bit distracting for me. With 303 dpi (and the right fonts installed) on the other hand, I find myself mostly only missing the smell of real books, otherwise it's absolutely fine. It even feels to me to be less straining for the eyes, but that could be something like a placebo effect. :) Also, my parents both have low-res Kindles and don't see any difference, so this is obviously not a problem for all people, it's just one that's very important for my own experience.

For energy consumption I'd imagine the "missing" backlight to be more relevant than fewer pixels, but even with it (I'm only using it only on low brightness and when it's dark), the battery lasts for weeks with moderate to heavy usage. I'd expect the same from all current e-readers, to be honest. That's not to say it's not true that fewer switched pixels can use less energy, but especially with most animations disabled, I can't imagine it to be a really big deal for reading.
A low resolution might put a bit less stress on the slow CPU for rendering stuff (and considerably so on memory when dealing with big images), though.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

I've the Kobo Aura. I very like its small size, it can stand into my jeans rear pocket. But the resolution is not good enough. I can definitely live and read like this, but a better resolution would have been really better. It's just 30 euros more as far as I remember. Money well spent.

Re: [Suggestions requested] The best e-ink reader for a Maemian
 

Onyxboox has a variety of eInk readers.
To have a good reading and avoid problems with "pdf not fit to screen" a big screen like OnyxBoox Max or
OnyxBoox Prometeus
OnyxBoox MAX
Display: E Ink Mobius, 13,3", touch, resolution 1200 × 1600 dots, 16 levels of grey
"Its large and comfortable for your eyes display, .. optimal for reading PDF and DjVu files"
Lighting: No
Processor: 1 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Internal memory: 16 GB
Audio: Stereo output, 3,5 mm, Speaker, Microphone
Expansion slot: For micro SD cards
USB interface: USB 2.0
Supported file formats
Text: TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, EPUB
Graphic: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Others: PDF, DjVu, MP3
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
Battery: Polymer Li-on, 4100 mAh
Operating system: Android 4.0.4
Size 325 × 237 × 7,5 mm
Weight: 480 gr


PROMETEUS
Display: 9,7", E Ink Pearl, 16 levels of grey, 825 × 1200 dpi, touch
Lighting: MOON Light
Processor: Freescale i.MX6, 1 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Internal memory: 16 GB
Expansion slot : For SD/MMC/SDHC cards
USB interface: microUSB
Supported file formats:
Text: TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, PDB, DOC, EPUB
Graphic: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Others: PDF, DjVu
Wireless interface: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
Battery Li-on, 3000 mAh
Operating system Android 4.0.4
Size 258,2 × 177,3 × 9,5 mm
Color: Black. Weight: 450 gr

MartinK said about Onyx Boox M92, that is hackable.


Although an e-reader can read pdf files, the reading it is not so comfort as on .epub files. The pdf was designed to deliver the document in the exact aspect as was created (same fonts, size, margins, etc). That exacteness doesn't fit well on 6", 5" screens.
In the other hand, epup is designed precisely to do that. So you can choose the size, font, interlined, etc acording to your preference and your e-reader device. Even the build-in dictionary works on epub files (not in pdf).
An EPUB file is a ZIP archive that contains, in effect, a website—including HTML files, images, CSS style sheets, and other assets. It also contains metadata.