

Ask HN: Does there exist an actually useful ebook reader? - humility

I&#x27;m on the move a lot, unable to take my library(ebooks + pdfs) with me. I tried Amazon Kindle, but its pdf rendition is pretty much useless. Also, as much as I&#x27;m tempted, LCDs like that of ipad&#x2F;nexus don&#x27;t work for me. Any advice&#x2F;suggestions?
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emp_zealoth
I've got an ebook reader specifically for A4 PDF's

It's Onyx BOOX M96 - 9.7" screen, 1600x1200, running on android. The dpi could
be better, there is no backlight and only weird stylus-only touchscreen. Build
quality is decent, but nothing amazing, the touchscreen is acceptable if you
have the damn stylus around (you can actually take notes on that thing though)
It is more or less stock android, with special launcher for ebook part - you
can change it though, and it does come with google play. This means you can
replace shoddy inbuilt apps with good ones from the store (therefore no issues
with supported formats -dvju, epub, fbr, mobi,personalised dictionary,editing
doc, excel files (bluetooth keyboard) whatever you want) - it pretty much is
an android tablet with eink. However the android comes with no tweaking
regarding that - some apps come as black on black - unusable The sheer screen
size lets you browse most technical books without zooming. I routinely use it
to study for uni. (Thats mainly why i got it)

It is quirky and not that good looking, but it is very usable - the android
part works good (if you kill connectivity it will power down after inactivity
so battery life is not an issue)

Bottom line is: I'm glad i got it. Play store means i can supplant broken pre
installed stuff. Missio critical objective - reading B5/A4 pdfs - works better
than i hoped. The isn't pretty or sleek or polished, but it gets the job done
and it does it good

PS. Previous version got an community ubuntu flavour, dont know about this
one.

~~~
humility
bull's eye!

------
dmart
What issues in particular did you have with PDFs on the Kindle? If it was the
low resolution for images and such, the Paperwhite and Voyage have higher DPI
displays (212 and 300, respectively, versus the original Kindle's 167).

I've had some issues with PDF rendering on my Paperwhite also, but I've
usually been able to convert them into a more readable form with Calibre.

~~~
eru
I'm pretty happy with PDFs on my new Kindle Voyage, too.

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mitchg
errata: The Onyx BOOX M96 - 9.7" has just 1200x825 pixels as written on the
box (actually in Polish it has 1280x825). That's indeed VERY low in DPI
compared my various Kindles, and yet this is a honestly engineered PDF reader
- beating all what Amazon has in the PDF department for 2-column academic
papers. Despite its low DPI, which is its major flaw...

I love sending HTML pages to my kindles for proper reading, and regret that
even with Calibre most tech PDFs are just too small, greyish low contrast for
reading.

The Sony DPS has 2x the resolution (still insufficient by 10x to compete with
paper) and 2.5x the price, while unable to cope with anything else than PDF.

Kindles and Kobos HD have nearly 300dpi, though too small and restricted to
their own format and a poor WWW experience.

It's the 1st time that i praise a reader that's neither high DPI (blame the
eInk monopoly for stagnation in this field), nor of highly polished (pun
intended) quality, nor cheap (at $350 is 3-4x more than sundry Kindles/Fire),
nor easy to use for the common iCrowd.

Yet the M96 proves that a generic Android with decent PDF rendering and
supporting all the ePub, mobi/azw, MSO files is doable... even in monochrome
and lacking video. I'm glad i bought it against all odds and specs, as support
of honest engineering and risk taking companies.

Its basics are right, it's a device for geeks, students, nerds and pros
willing to accept all the compromises enumerated above and in emp_zealoth's
post (+1) in return for sparing their eyes from glowing/glaring LCDs and
OLEDs.

With about 10x the current resolution for a 13" panel with perhaps 3-4 colors,
this could become in a few years the ultimate ereader and paper replacement.

------
minthd
Afaik duokan for kindle is the best alternative. Also , the place to ask is
mobileread.com

~~~
humility
Intriguing, but does it address the pdf reading problem?

~~~
minthd
Haven't yet used it.

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hackuser
> LCDs like that of ipad/nexus don't work for me

Why don't they work? Also, do you mean that you are looking for an e-paper
solution?

~~~
humility
Yes, I'm looking for an epaper solution since my eyes get readily fatigued
while staring at an LCD, which I have to do a lot.

~~~
GFischer
Hmmm... that sounds like you might need glasses (or updating your prescription
if you already have ones).

Several of my coworkers were prescribed glasses for the same problem. Go visit
your ophtalmologist.

Edit: emph_zealot's suggestion looks like exactly what you need, but I'd still
have my eyesight checked if I were you.

~~~
humility
thanks for your suggestion, but let me clarify- I read books to wane off the
fatigue caused by looking at the computer screen for long intervals; this
purpose would be defeated if I were to use another lcd screen!

Also, my eyes are in perfect health as verified by a recent checkup, but I
appreciate the advice. Thanks again.

~~~
eru
If you are reading on an LCD screen, please also give flux / twilight /
redshift a try. They adapt the colour temperature at night.

------
mydpy
I use an iPad mini + Google Drive for Oreilly/Manning books + Goodreader
(app).

The iPad was a gift and I just started collecting pdf books. I also use the
Amazon app whenever I purchase ebooks from their marketplace. This allows me
to stay versatile and automatically sync all my notes, etc. remotely.

~~~
rahimnathwani
+1 for Goodreader. Such a usable app. You'd think a pdf reader is a pdf
reader, but there are many small features and UI niceties I would miss if I
switched from Goodreader. I wish there were something as good for Android.

On Android (and jailbroken Kindles) Koreader (open source on github) does a
decent job of reflowing even 2-column PDFs.

------
dylanjermiah
What worked for me was converting the PDFs to Kindle format, using Calibre.
Most of the time it works fairly well.

~~~
humility
> Most of the time it works fairly well.

Did not for me!

~~~
dylanjermiah
What type of books are you converting? I've found text only works perfectly,
but anytime there's images it's either a hit or a miss.

~~~
humility
correctly guessed, I read books that have a lot of images/illustrations!

