This is a complete reimagining of the Open Book Project, but the original mission remains:

As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading are closed objects, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners’ interests are not always aligned with readers’.

The Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone can build for themselves. The Open Book should be comprehensible: the reader should be able to look at it and understand, at least in broad strokes, how it works. It should be extensible, so that a reader with different needs can write code and add accessories that make the book work for them. It should be global, supporting readers of books in all the languages of the world. Most of all, it should be open, so that anyone can take this design as a starting point and use it to build a better book.

Check out the promo video as well:
https://youtu.be/vFD9V8Hh7Yg

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
53 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

I mean those Echo Dots come with a huge hit to your privacy as a cost. Not to mention how susceptible the Echo Dot has been in the past. Hell some expeditious hackers even got the Echo Dot to hack itself.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

I installed that update just minutes ago! What are you using for your voice satellites?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yeah I have an Rpi Zero for interfacing cheaper devices with HomeKit so I feel you. I’m just not going to use an Echo Dot when I already have a bunch of HomePods lol.

permalink
report
parent
reply
14 points

Mass production. Plus ads on the Lock Screen. It’s $20 cheaper with the ads.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Wait, are they putting ads on kindle??

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

There have been ads on Kindle for a very long time. You can optionally pay an extra $15-$20 to remove the ads though.

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

I keep mine in airplane mode most of the time to avoid getting new ads too often. Also the only ads are on the lock screen which is extremely unobtrusive if you’re looking to save a few bucks

permalink
report
parent
reply
63 points

Mass production does that.

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
29 points

It’s not just mass production and economies of scale. That’s obviously a huge part of it, but the cheap Kindle devices are also definitely sold at a loss with the expectation that you’re going to buy a lot of ebooks from Amazon which will more than make up for it (and also some of the devices are ad supported).

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

…and we can be sure Amazon finds ways to monetize user data as well (they see your book purchases, downloads, reading habits, etc)

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

and underpaid labor in asia

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

It’s also the economy of scale. You get better prices when you’re buying thousands of units.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

It’s crazy how subsidized a Kindle is.

No doubt Amazon sells Kindles with a thin margin or maybe even at a loss. But the cost to produce them is also lowered significantly by manufacturing large quantities.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

And doing so in a sweatshop somewhere cheap.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

You mean the ad infested ebook reader that has less and less features with each version? Yeah sounds great. Buy a Kobo instead and host your own library with Calibre.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
*

Sounds great. Edit: although I would have more fun building the open book project.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

That version is ad-sponsored though, isn’t it? If you wanted to get it without ads, I believe you need to pay extra.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

You can ask customer service to remove it for free after purchase, or so I’ve heard.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yeah they usually won’t do this unless you’ve owned it for a while or purchased a considerable amount of content via the device. Also depends on how adamant you are about having them remove it.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

I’m pretty sure it’s a $30 dollar charge, from when I last looked into it. For that exact price difference you can get a Kobo, which isn’t Amazon and doesn’t have ads

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply

Open Source

!opensource@lemmy.ml

Create post

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

Community stats

  • 3.6K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.8K

    Posts

  • 30K

    Comments