So they encrypt it via keys they download to protected storage.
I hope their market share will tank after a few public outrages. Make sure you're not one of the victims.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So they encrypt it via keys they download to protected storage.
I hope their market share will tank after a few public outrages. Make sure you're not one of the victims.
Bad corporate behaviour is a political problem.
Here we are talking about technological solutions for political problems. Why?
So I had an e-reader once but left it in the drawer because I found reading on my phone (dark mode) was so much more convenient.
I use librera which has tts and I alternate between reading with my eyes and listening to the robot voice narration (eg while driving). Those language packs have come a long way!
When I got a kindle (10 years ago) I did it on the basis that it was possible to strip the DRM of the books and load them on another device. I'm not going to be tied to some shitty platform for ever more. I must say though that when I have bought books on other places, the process of stripping the DRM and getting the book onto the device has been an absolute ballache - presumably the same for any device when you're not using the native store.
I won't be going back to physical books though. I bought a hardback for the first time in ages and my wrists don't like it. Nor does my partner when I'm reading while they're trying to sleep.
OK, so kindle is off the list of potential readers.
Any recommendations for a good reader that can do epub, PDF, and maybe even html with CSS?
I have a Kobo and it does OK. Nothing special.
I like my kobo
Also saying Kobo. I've got the Kobo Libra Colour and love it.
It's the only ereader I've ever owned but I used the spouse's Nook and Kindle a couple of times in the past and the Kobo kills it. Granted, we're talking about a nearly new release of the Kobo vs a 5+ year old Kindle so it's not a fair comparison.
Because of eInk and auto-sleep, the battery lasts me well over a month of casual reading (~30min before bed) with the occasional multi hour weekend session. Backlight is present and is totally readable in dark areas at <10% brightness; 100% brightness is like a supernova in your face. While the Libra Colour is not specifically a note-taking tablet like a reMarkable, it does just fine for quick notes/todo lists/etc but I did splurge on the ($60) stylus. There's a "notes" application that comes pre-installed.
eBook support for writing in margins (or over text), underline/circling, highlighting, etc is really nice but occasionally the highlight is flakey when trying to highlight the end of a paragraph. That seems to have been specific to certain epubs rather than an "always" thing, but it happens in around 20% of epubs I've used.
EDIT: Notes and highlights you do in an epub (and presumably other formats) are exportable to your PC via Calibre ("Annotations"). I love this because I like to highlight things I find interesting, particularly good quotes, and this gives me an easy way extract them while retaining a reference to which book it was and where exactly in the book it was. Example attached.
Seconding a Kobo. They have Overdrive (library) integration in the US and their eink and full color options are both great.
DRM on Kindle it's a known fact. That's why Richard Stallman calls it Swindle
Authors would be foolish to publish on Amazon. Guarantees your book will be forgotten.
Are there any good "open" alternatives to the Paperwhite? I've been drooling over getting an e-ink reader for like a month straight now.
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/kindle-models.html
Most of the current models can be jailbroken, but I'd definitely rather another route. (Not having to deal with checking second-hand market seller's firmware versions etc)
PocketBook if you want openness and long runtime (book-replacement), it runs plain Linux.
Kobo/Onyx if you want Android flexibility, with possibility to flash LineageOS/PostmarketOS (though they're slow for tablet use).
But personally, if you're not using it to transcript notes (recommendation Remarkable) or want more than merely reading books, i would go with a tablet.
I have an ereader and I've never bought an ebook. The fact that they're priced the same as paperbacks is absurd.
This is why it sucks that physical print media is on the decline, because one could just scan their own PDFs or if possible epubs instead of dealing with this if physical print media was still commonplace.