<story><title>Stories and lessons from working with Jeff Bezos on the original Kindle</title><url>https://twitter.com/drose_999/status/1287944667414196225</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soapdog</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve spent 16 years working for major niche publisher and am a bit addicted to eReaders. Every time threads like this appear here I see lots of people that have no idea that there is a whole world of devices outside Kindle and Amazon. Here are some of the more interesting devices current out there in the market:&lt;p&gt;Pocketbook Color: yes, a color e-ink device for about $200: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pocketbook.ch&amp;#x2F;en-ch&amp;#x2F;catalog&amp;#x2F;color&amp;#x2F;color-ch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pocketbook.ch&amp;#x2F;en-ch&amp;#x2F;catalog&amp;#x2F;color&amp;#x2F;color-ch&lt;/a&gt;
You can see the Pocketbook color reading comics here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=pkufktAQC_E&amp;amp;t=0s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=pkufktAQC_E&amp;amp;t=0s&lt;/a&gt; which beautifully demonstrates its colour capabilities.&lt;p&gt;Onyx Boox Note 2: 10&amp;#x27;&amp;#x27; e-ink screen, Android 9.0, touch and wacom digitizer: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;onyxboox.com&amp;#x2F;boox_note2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;onyxboox.com&amp;#x2F;boox_note2&lt;/a&gt;
It can be used for school&amp;#x2F;uni&amp;#x2F;research. Its large screen and notetaking features pair well with annotating fixed-layout formats such as PDFs.&lt;p&gt;I have some strong opinions about Amazon and its eBook business. I really like their tech but their business practices are not aligned with what I want for myself as an author. I have moved to Kobo for my personal eReader and am using a Kobo Forma which is their answer to the Kindle Oasis. Even though the Oasis hardware with its metal usage feels much more premium than the Forma with its flexy plastic shell, the device is much more open than the Oasis and it is easier for me to use it both as a reader and as an author. I live in the UK and Kobo through its partner Overdrive -- which it owned up until not long ago but I am not sure they still do -- allows me to borrow books from local libraries. I have a couple library cards from different library consortiums and that gives me a lot of catalogs to search and borrow from. Synchronizing with Pocket is also a godsend, every time I see a nice article here on HN that I think deserves more attention and care, I just send it to Pocket and read it from the Kobo in a nice park.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, this is just some pointers to those here that never experienced ebooks and ereaders outside Amazon. Yes, Amazon brings a lot of value to the table, especially for the readers, books tend to be cheaper in Amazon but that is due to its monopolistic practices and thug tactics. Kindle is not where the innovation is happening, other devices have better hardware and better software, other companies have healthier ecosystems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wazoox</author><text>Rant ahead : the color PocketBook looks nice, but I&amp;#x27;ll be harsh: their website is atrocious. There is a loading animation that takes seconds to run every time you click anywhere. You can&amp;#x27;t easily find any relevant information. The &amp;quot;where to buy&amp;quot; page simply doesn&amp;#x27;t work at all and display no stores, even in Switzerland, their home country. It seems impossible to discover the price of the products, too.&lt;p&gt;This is one of the worst site I&amp;#x27;ve visited in years, really. It&amp;#x27;s plain terrible, obviously the nice look and animations were used to sell the website to clueless executive that never browsed the website, it&amp;#x27;s painful to watch such a train wreck. This site is a sure way to lose potential customers forever.&lt;p&gt;Regarding ebooks, I have a strict policy of buying only ebooks without DRM. That strictly limits what I can buy, but I&amp;#x27;m adamant (some SF, and that&amp;#x27;s about it). DRM is evil and must die. So I can&amp;#x27;t use either Kindle hardware nor app. Plus I religiously use only opensource&amp;#x2F;free software whenever possible.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stories and lessons from working with Jeff Bezos on the original Kindle</title><url>https://twitter.com/drose_999/status/1287944667414196225</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soapdog</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve spent 16 years working for major niche publisher and am a bit addicted to eReaders. Every time threads like this appear here I see lots of people that have no idea that there is a whole world of devices outside Kindle and Amazon. Here are some of the more interesting devices current out there in the market:&lt;p&gt;Pocketbook Color: yes, a color e-ink device for about $200: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pocketbook.ch&amp;#x2F;en-ch&amp;#x2F;catalog&amp;#x2F;color&amp;#x2F;color-ch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pocketbook.ch&amp;#x2F;en-ch&amp;#x2F;catalog&amp;#x2F;color&amp;#x2F;color-ch&lt;/a&gt;
You can see the Pocketbook color reading comics here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=pkufktAQC_E&amp;amp;t=0s&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=pkufktAQC_E&amp;amp;t=0s&lt;/a&gt; which beautifully demonstrates its colour capabilities.&lt;p&gt;Onyx Boox Note 2: 10&amp;#x27;&amp;#x27; e-ink screen, Android 9.0, touch and wacom digitizer: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;onyxboox.com&amp;#x2F;boox_note2&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;onyxboox.com&amp;#x2F;boox_note2&lt;/a&gt;
It can be used for school&amp;#x2F;uni&amp;#x2F;research. Its large screen and notetaking features pair well with annotating fixed-layout formats such as PDFs.&lt;p&gt;I have some strong opinions about Amazon and its eBook business. I really like their tech but their business practices are not aligned with what I want for myself as an author. I have moved to Kobo for my personal eReader and am using a Kobo Forma which is their answer to the Kindle Oasis. Even though the Oasis hardware with its metal usage feels much more premium than the Forma with its flexy plastic shell, the device is much more open than the Oasis and it is easier for me to use it both as a reader and as an author. I live in the UK and Kobo through its partner Overdrive -- which it owned up until not long ago but I am not sure they still do -- allows me to borrow books from local libraries. I have a couple library cards from different library consortiums and that gives me a lot of catalogs to search and borrow from. Synchronizing with Pocket is also a godsend, every time I see a nice article here on HN that I think deserves more attention and care, I just send it to Pocket and read it from the Kobo in a nice park.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, this is just some pointers to those here that never experienced ebooks and ereaders outside Amazon. Yes, Amazon brings a lot of value to the table, especially for the readers, books tend to be cheaper in Amazon but that is due to its monopolistic practices and thug tactics. Kindle is not where the innovation is happening, other devices have better hardware and better software, other companies have healthier ecosystems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chewxy</author><text>As much as the Boox is great, they have a lot of GPL issues. Plus the kernel they are using is very very closed sourced. Sounds like FUD, but I am generally quite wary of companies in China that do this</text></comment>