this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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I hope I've cross-posted this the right way haha. What do you think of this project?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

It's really cool. Information should be as cheap to access as possible and the platforms for doing so should be available to all.

I will say that there are two factors I look for in a reading experience that might need improving here.

The first is ergonomics. If I'm going to be holding an object for about two hours a day, every day, then it needs to feel good in my hand. This model looks a little chunky and unfinished. As a proto-type that's fine, but whilst you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, it helps if that cover isn't made out of sand paper.

The second is the font. That's the bit that gets the text from the page to your eyes. Typesetters and typemakers have spent an awfully long time figuring out what fonts work well for reading, and I don't think the font being used here is one of them. Also, folk have different requirements for fonts. Can that be changed by the user?

There's also the issue of format. Right now it appears to only support plain text files which is odd because isn't epub an open format and a pretty good standard?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That's fantastic. I loved my ereader (amazon) but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was giving away my data and every purchase wasn't really a purchase. I mean I tried to export my books but it wasn't possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You can buy books elsewhere without DRM and copy them to the kindle via cable. You can even buy protected books from the Amazon shop and download them for offline installation. If the device never connects to the web, they can't delete anything remotely.

Mine has been offline ever since I bought it, 8 years ago.