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
Does it have a SD card slot, and if so can it take a 256GB card? 26k epubs and pdfs. Who pays for books?
For anyone interested our Discord is here! We’re a fun group of folks and have a couple of other projects. The project is mostly for fun and definitely centered around folks who are maybe trying to break into the hardware and software space with something tangible that they can use and show off, it certainly isn’t financially the best option out there but to learn and grow it’s great fun!
Doesn’t it make way more sense to just hack Kindle hardware? I remember having a Kindle years ago and torrenting books and just slapping them on there.
AFAIK you can use Kindle completely offline. Some family members do exactly this. They buy books online and upload them over USB. The main reason is that they read books in language that the Kindle store does not support.
But yeah, as far as I know the devices weren’t online like ever. Maybe except some initial setup that needs an Amazon account. You can just make a burner account, set the device up and don’t even bother storing credentials.
You lose some convenience like synchronization of reading progress and notes, but I’m not sure whether any of the open source options even have that kind of functionality.
Kindle hardware is shit. It’s built extremely cheaply, and it’s not made to be repaired. I have a Kindle with a broken display, asked Amazon support if it is possible to replace it, they said it’s not and they don’t sell parts.
It’s designed to be build-able by anyone and extensible, so it should be repairable by the average consumer. You can just hack kindle hardware as long as the device works but this project is trying to actually build something more sustainable.
I’m likely being an ass, but I’d argue that the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading books are probably still books.
It’s true. Counterpoint: if you move places a lot (let’s say if you happen to belong to a generation of people who will never be able to afford a place - which is a huge amount of people), your library needs to fit into a small tablet sized reader. Can store 5000 books, I do not have the means to move that amount of books every time my landlord decides to make my rent more unaffordable. An ereader fits in my pocket.
You could also ise a library. The ones I have used are free or almost free
If they have what you need, it’s indeed a great option. Many of them lend eBooks too, nowadays.
Unfortunately, living in a French speaking area, my local library network doesn’t carry a lot of English material, so the selection is very limited. I’ve found it to be problematic especially for non-fiction, which often doesn’t have translations available. Otherwise, libraries are great.
Teenage me would be ashamed to see I barely read any books anymore. I used to read two large novels a week, now it’s more like one or two a year…
Yes, but it is surely more flexible to own them. Also, I’m pretty sure my local library doesn’t have the specific books I care about. But yea, librarys are great for discovering and quickly testing new books you didn’t know about
On the Open Book GitHub I have collections of free books and short stories that are digital only from Tor.com. That’s actually why I wanted to get an eReader, digital only online short stories are winning Hugo Awards now, and then couldn’t decide and got involved with the Open Book is that I wanted a little device to load up with them.
You’re not being an ass. But I think it also depends on the book and the person.
For example: cookbooks I prefer a physical book. IT books I prefer in digital format so I can use the find function.
Fiction books I go either way. I prefer digital because they are easier to get but will browse them at the book store.
Either way having an open hardware solution is very welcome so you aren’t trapped behind Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
I remember reports of Amazon deleting books off of people’s devices.
Dang, this looks pretty awesome. Too bad it would probably suck for manga.
