EWritable – e-ink tablet news and reviews

I'm always surprised when I see this happen. I could see a quick surge in traffic locking up the server, likely at the database, but I'd also expect that to sort itself out quickly with a reasonable infrastructure setup.

I'm seeing a 503 here now, maybe they ran into a hard cap on hosting bandwidth?

spudlyo• 2 years ago

I think it has to do with the default value of max_connections in MySQL being somewhat low, I think it's like 150 or something.

knodi123• 2 years ago

of being slashdotted

haha, you're old... :-)

tedunangst• 2 years ago

The boox air 3 c is currently at the top of my list of useless gadgets I want to play with for a week before placing on the retirement shelf.

IKnowMazin• 2 years ago

Dang, I'm curious what you don't like about it. I've been loving mine

zeagle• 2 years ago

Just my experience but I felt they are slow fragile and not particularly great on battery life. I think a dedicated device like remarkable or kindle without Android stuff running in the background might make more sense.

I sadly recently broke my ultra c with the pressure just from putting on a new screen protector using a cardboard applicator. I was mainly using boox notes with the stylus to read pdfs and pressreader on flights and that was a decent experience.

My other criticism is prior to this just having the magnetic pen attach itself damaged the finish on the side.

I'm glad you like yours, but the appeal wore off quickly for me and I would suggest any potential buyer familiarize themselves with reports of experiences of trying to get service or warranty on these through the company.

moritonal• 2 years ago

If you are in London I'd be happy to let you use one over coffee.

jerojero3• 2 years ago

I'm hoping there's a good (and not super expensive) smartphone (without cellular) color e ink device in the future.

I know a lot of people want the boox palma to have cellular but... I would prefer for it to be cheaper and retain just wifi. I have one, and I've never felt like I need mobile internet on it and I've also never felt like I would want to replace my phone for it either.

freddie_mercury• 2 years ago

I doubt dropping cellular is going to save any significant money. 4g chipsets are so cheap you can buy an entire 4g phone for $17.

A Unisoc T107 is dirt cheap when bought in bulk.

jerojero3• 2 years ago

If only price was correlated to the cost of the implemented features.

If they put cellular I assure you they can easily charge an extra 100 dollars for it.

TechDebtDevin• 2 years ago

HiSense makes eink phones you can import from China but need to do your research as far as carrier compatibility.

infotainment• 2 years ago

I'm one of those people who wish the Palma had cellular, and it's exactly for that reason: I want it specifically for use as a phone.

alisonatwork2• 2 years ago

I bought a Boox Palma after a couple of eink threads here recently and it primarily exists for me as a replacement phone to reduce eye strain in bed. I can do all the reading I used to do on my phone on the Palma, I can do Anki flashcards, I can comment on HN, I can even watch and get the gist of an embedded short video. It's great!

But what was even greater was when I went out for a bike ride last weekend and kicked back on the beach for a bit to do my flashcards in the sun. Except... couldn't sync with AnkiWeb because there was no 4G. Fortunately I had my phone with me too and set up wi-fi sharing to do the sync, but how much better would it have been if I could have left my phone at home? Way better! The eink screen was much easier to read in the sun than my phone ever could be, and the Palma is (slightly) smaller and lighter than a phone too. I would love if it could be my primary bit of kit for traveling around during the day, with just enough connection to sync Anki, download up-to-date weather reports and maybe send the odd email. It probably wouldn't replace my phone for multi-day or overseas trips where GPS and having a legacy phone number/dialer is still useful, but with 4G internet it'd be the perfect day trip device.

blackeyeblitzar• 2 years ago

The Kindle used to have its own cell connection a long time ago, letting you leave the phone behind and access content. I want to say it worked worldwide too.

jerojero3• 2 years ago

Yeah, I mean, to each their own right.

I guess my point is I'd like for these to offer a model with or without cellular. More options is always better.

funksta• 2 years ago

Ewritable is definitely my go-to resource for comparing eInk tablets (I'm a big fan of the space). Hopefully it survives the hug of death soon so more folks can discover his hard work.

I also came across https://comparisontabl.es/e-readers/ lately, which has a lot of niche and older devices, but doesn't have the same depth of coverage for the bigger incumbants.

nicoloren• 2 years ago

I tried to make a similar website [1] but find very difficult to present this type of information on mobile.

So I made a full text search, but still doesn't do the trick very good.

I'd like to see a good responsive library to show this kind of comparison tables on mobile (that's where all my website visitors seems to use).

[1] https://world-of-ereader.com/find-e-reader.html

TheHumanist• 2 years ago

Not the most mobile-friendly site

jesse-stewart• 2 years ago

Came here to find this comment

Modified3019• 2 years ago

If anyone running a site like this finds this thread, I’d like to suggest that always declaring the PPI is important. At least to me.

I straight up am not ever going to buy anything with less than 300 PPI, because that’s the point where I stop noticing the pixels. So being able to filter out everything that fails that saves a lot of time.

linsomniac3• 2 years ago

I've had a Kindle Scribe for just over a year, and my micro review is: "It's like paper, only much more expensive."

The writing experience is good. I use it for largely bullet journaling of things I need to do. It works well, but honestly a paper notebook would work nearly as well. I had hoped to get nebulous other benefits, I'm not exactly sure what, but maybe exporting or templates or viewing from multiple locations. But the software is fairly slow and fairly minimalistic.

Honestly: It's an e-reader with minimal pen functionality. What it has over a notebook is: It lays flat, and it's easy to erase. I do use it every business day.

Downsides: Page flipping is maddeningly slow, and the pencil is $50 if I lose it, and $1 nearly every time I drop it (replacing the nib). I've had a number of close calls where I thought I lost it and didn't look forward to the cost of replacement.

I'm amazingly close to selling it on ebay and replacing it with either a notebook and pen, a Boox Note Air 3 (non-color). I hear ReMarkable is coming out with a new one soon too.

lowkey• 2 years ago

A few years ago I supported a Kickstarter project for a paper notebook that may be a great fit for your needs. The Rocket Book is a wire bound paper notebook that has icons on each page and a mobile app. When you take a picture of a page with your phone it automatically syncs to your favorite cloud apps. As a bonus, it is designed to work with a special heat sensitive erasable pen so the notebook is reusable. Simple pop it in the microwave under a mug of water for 1 minute and the book comes out blank and ready for reuse. I am not affiliated and ultimately decided to type my notes or use an iPad but wanted to suggest it for those who prefer paper.

https://getrocketbook.com/

geoelectric2• 2 years ago

Looks like current ones are water-washable instead of microwavable, which I assume has the disadvantage that you need to do it page by page.

But you can use off the shelf Pilot Frixion pens with all of them, including the OG Wave version (which they do still sell as one of their cheaper ones, but looks like it can only take a few erase cycles).

This looks surprisingly good. The app that does the scanning and transfer to other services has a 4.7 on the iOS App Store, so I assume it works reasonably well, and I don’t see any subscription fees whatsoever.

$20-60 for a notebook is pretty dear, but certainly cheaper than $200-300 for an e-ink tablet as long as you can get enough reuse out of them.

linsomniac3• 2 years ago

That's a good reminder, I did try Rocketbook, I just printed out some of the samples and used them with pen/paper. At that time I was trying to get fancy with making a custom template, but for most of my use I really don't need anything more than lined paper and I rarely refer back to it after I'm done with a day, so no need to scan it.

I had originally started with a Panda Planner (because I got a bunch of them years ago to try to get my family into the habit, but that plan didn't work, so I had them laying around). I generally liked it, but wanted to make a format custom to my workflow, and that's where the Rocketbook was going to come in. But eventually I just went with lined paper and carried that over to the Scribe.

Also of note: You can search and download "daily planner" templates on the Internet and print them to try different formats and see what works for you.

chx• 2 years ago

It works well, but honestly a paper notebook would work nearly as well.

When I went to university I used a Crosspad. It's been a quarter century and as your comment shows for actual use that's still fine. To recap, you are writing on paper mounted on an electronic pad with a special pen which radios in your position and the device records vector strokes you later can download for reading / editing. It wasn't a success because it was early and the software wasn't great and also because you needed to put in the work after class to somehow tag your notes for later searching.

As long as handwriting OCR is as unreliable as it is, I fail to see what adding a screen -- with its additional cost and weight -- to this setup brings. And indeed your comment shows: nothing.

dash2• 2 years ago

I can recommend Ratta Supernote. I’ve got the A5X and I still use it regularly after a couple of years. It has handwriting recognition, the interface is pretty nicely designed, and sync is handled well also.

geoelectric2• 2 years ago

I bought one recently, and I’m using it primarily as an ereader at the moment.

I really like that in landscape mode, it’s the same size as two 7” Oases side by side. It feels like reading a paperback when I display the text in two page-sized columns, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed having that. It turns out the “look to the left, then to the right” thing you do to read the two pages makes the experience feel much more authentic to me.

It’s also a manga-reading beast, for the same reason. It’s much more enjoyable to read in two-page mode for me.

I am impressed with how good the writing feels on the surface. It’s very tactile compared to my iPad. I’m looking for places I can try to work it into my flow. I’m sure there’s a ton of stuff that has simply not occurred to me because I’ve become so used to not having pen and paper around.

r-spaghetti2• 2 years ago

What about the fact that those kindle products are equiped with amazon apps that are preinstalled and can not be deleted. Apps and infrastructure that share your personal data with god knows who?

globular-toast• 2 years ago

It lays flat, and it's easy to erase.

A spiral-bound notebook lays flat too and, if you use good paper and a good pencil it's easy to erase as well.

phony-account• 2 years ago

I’ve had the Scribe for about six months and absolutely love it: I actually relish using it every single time I open it up.

I’ve had Kindles for probably 10 years, gradually upgrading until the latest warm-screen version Oasis.

But reading on these smaller screens always felt like a compromise: having to constantly flip pages was a nagging mental reminder that the platform was digital, and for some reason this always impinged slightly on my enjoyment.

I use the Scribe in portrait mode and now it feels like a luxurious hard-back page I’m looking at. The only thing that would make it conceivably better would be a yellower tint to the base color, which even the warm light doesn’t quite achieve - making it feel even more like a paper-page.

I also write work notes on it every day. The pen feel is beyond comparison to ‘writing’ on an iPad - which is really nothing more than sliding around with a piece of plastic on a sheet of glass.

linsomniac3• 2 years ago

I haven't used the Scribe much for reading, I do most of my kindle reading before bed, and I find the smaller Oasis is a nicer form factor for me to read while holding it. Using the Scribe as a reader, if you wanted something bigger, is probably a great experience. I agree that the pen feel on the scribe is great.

m463• 2 years ago

I really liked my remarkable 2 for the feel of writing. Honestly what stopped me from using it is the lack of backlight (since most of my use is reading ebooks)

A4ET8a8uTh0• 2 years ago

I like mine, but my uses for it may not be that common ( I let my kid doodle in it; I write a journal; I have some books in it, but I don't remember last time I read a book there ). I have some minor beefs with it for the price, but by far it was the best experience in terms of 'feeling' of writing as if it was paper.

fsiefken• 2 years ago

boox air 3 (non-c) is my favorite reader ever, i can run android apps like lichess, hive, logseq, hacki, termux, chatgpt. write on it with a stylus, take notes and read books in a large format. it has a nice interface, unfortunately no buttons, is thin, has good battery life and bluetooth and wifi support so i can use it with a foldable keyboard and it doubles as a grayscale xfce machine.

minimalist2• 2 years ago

Every now and again, I see stories about Onyx and their tablets pop up and I have to dust off this old comment of mine [0]. I've since sold the tablet and picked up a remarkable that I am very happy with and have modified in many ways.

Long story short: - Onyx still doesn't release kernel sources

- Onyx still uses outdated and vulnerable builds of Android, with questionable settings such as disabling SELinux

- Their devices are very chatty back to servers in the PRC.

- Their digitizer API is still hostile to developers.

- They shut down their support forums when the chorus of disgruntled customers began to get too loud

And even worse, they are using "anti-China movement" as an excuse to not comply with the GPL. This company is shit and no one should give them any money. And yet, all of these "review sites" (full of every kind of affiliate link imaginable) can't help themselves from riding the gravy train of free product from this company.

Edit: And then there are large threads like this [2] where people recognize all the problems and try to "secure" their devices. （ ´_ゝ`）

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21041543

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_usin...

[2] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?s=64718a04c...

r-spaghetti2• 2 years ago

I have the same experience with a Onyx Boox. No more updates after 1 year. As (european) consumers rights require a working product for at least 2 years, and security updates are an essential part of a 'working product', it's easy to return it to the seller (not Onyx).

SushiHippie3• 2 years ago

I've since sold the tablet and picked up a remarkable that I am very happy with and have modified in many ways.

Could you elaborate a bit more about the modifications you've done to the remarkable?

After looking at all these devices, I always come back to the remarkable, but then things like their cloud subscription thing and the weird ways to get files to/from it steer me away.

minimalist2• 2 years ago

It's just linux under the hood and they give you root access. So you can install anything that you can compile, and you have access to all the compiled packages in entware [0].

For sync, I have wireguard and syncthing. For backups, I use rsync. For epubs, I have koreader. I even installed netsurf for fun, but I don't use it often. I was even using gocryptfs at one point, but that workflow kept breaking with updates so I stopped using that.

All of the tablets that I have seen perform handwriting recognition via a cloud service, so that doesn't interest me and I haven't come across any local solutions for rM (although it's been over a year since I last checked).

It's an unusually nice experience for such an open platform.

[0] https://toltec-dev.org/

carlosjobim• 2 years ago

and I have to dust off this old comment of mine

Do you really have to, crusader?

tazu• 2 years ago

Seems like this website is hosted on a 1ghz e-reader.

jwrallie• 2 years ago

My ideal portable machine would be an ARM laptop, Thinkpad x220 build and an e-ink screen running Linux. With the right power management, it could last days on battery.

loughnane• 2 years ago

Long shot, but does anyone know the ODM/OEMs that produce these? I’ve had an idea for a niche device and I bet there’s a few firms that specialize in the hardware.

spaceisballer• 2 years ago

When the site finally worked it was nice to learn of the super note. Never heard of it before and I’m curious when the next iteration of their 10” version comes out. Seems like a good note taking first and e reader second. Which is what I’m looking for, already enjoy my smaller kobo for reading only.

JadeNB2• 2 years ago

The site speaks to that: https://ewritable.com/when-will-the-ratta-supernote-a5-x2-be... . In brief, Ratta is open on Reddit, but I don't think anyone has much faith that they'll meet their latest estimate, so we're all just guessing.

EWritable – e-ink tablet news and reviews

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