URL for the crowdfunding: https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/open-book-touch
Specs:
- Display: 4.26" e-paper touchscreen, 480 × 800 px, warm + cool frontlight
- Processor: ESP32-S3 dual-core, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth LE
- Memory: 16 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM
- Formats: EPUB and plain text, no DRM
- Storage: microSD card slot
- Interface: USB-C with integrated LiPo charging
- Dimension: 78 × 120 × 10 mm, about 85 g
- Open source: MIT-licensed firmware, open hardware (to be released at shipping)
It also has a replaceable 800 mAh battery, I found it cool :)
4" screen and 16MB flash is a joke. Ebooks are small, but not that small. Considering how many used, end of life Kindles there are out there stuck on old easily jailbroken firmware, I don’t see why anyone would ever choose this as an alternative. The software for jailbroken Kindles is incredibly mature and at the point of “just works”. E-ink technology hasn’t progressed much in the past ten years, so you really don’t miss out on anything by buying a $30 used one.
Edit: just realized it has micro SD support. So my storage concerns are invalid. It’s still incredibly clunky looking though, a 1cm thick device with only a 4" screen sure is something. My eyes probably couldn’t handle it even with the largest font.
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Generally great idea, but the screen size invalidates it for me. Hope they’re successful enough to launch a 2nd round with a 6"+ screen
Low frame rate, black/white e-ink screens are obsolete: https://youtu.be/nHbA2-_qzH4
This is an ebook reader. You don’t need high refresh rate to read books. It’s a waste of power and money.
holy shit, this is insane!
4" screen?!
Yeah, that killed the idea on the spot for me.
It looks like a prototype for a circa-2005 ereader. Why is the frame around the screen SO large? Why does the screen look so lo-res? And why is it $150 for the base model?
At that price you’re better off just buying a Kobo and installing KOReader. I like the idea of it being open source, but a 6" screen is pretty standard these days.
I love physical buttons and switches, I don’t like an e-reader without page buttons.
This. I don’t see why “no buttons” is supposed to be appealing? I’d much prefer only buttons, no touchscreen.
Can’t be cheap being a crowdfunded product, but not expensive either. The biggest turn-away I can see is the small screen. Most e-ink readers nowadays start at 6". A 4.x" screen will lose a considerable chunk of potential backers.
Thats the biggest issue for me.
I would carry around something with the thickness of a textbook and a 7+" screen, but under 6" is a nonstarter for me. I’d end up with text so large I’d be reading one sentence at a time.
Yea, the screen makes it an instant turn off for me. Small and low res. Modern e-Readers like the kindle, kobo, etc. have screens basically as sharp as printed paper at a similar size as a book.
And with software like calibre, I don’t really see a reason to switch away from my kindle…
The replaceable battery is definitely a requirement for me moving forwards on all new tech I purchase.
while it’s nice, i’d argue e-readers use so little battery that even the default should last for at least a decade, but having it is awesome for sure.
If this device supported PDF it would be a no brainer to buy. I understand that the hardware is not good enough for PDFs
$150 for ESP32-S3? Are you serious? My first e-book in ~2008 was much more powerful.
ESP32-S3 seems rather properly sized computing power -wise for this kind of device. And it’s quite low-power as well.
Granted there are some tasks where even this kind device could use some computing, like extracting, indexing and rendering pdfs.
