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
When they say build it yourself, they mean it:
- 3D print case
- Solder PCB
- Compile your own firmware
For those interested, base price to build this might start at $85 based on one estimate linked from the resource.
For those interested, base price to build this might start at $85 based on one estimate linked from the resource.
It’s crazy how subsidized a Kindle is. I recently paid 60€ on sale for a brand-new Paperwhite. That has a superior display, and requires no extra work. It’s even worse if you look at voice-assistants, On sale, you can probably get 3-4 echo dots for the price of the materials of a single self-built one…
Mass production does that.
DIY is like that. If you look up how to make a birdhouse they will tell you you need a saw, a hammer, nails, drill, paintbrush and something to measure with. Having a 3d printer and a soldering iron nowadays is pretty low entry, you can get into it cheaper that buying the saw, hammer and drill for the birdhouse. You don’t have to buy the bambulab printer and the weller / hakko iron. You can print this case on an ender 3 you found in the dumpster. Or pay 10 bucks for someone and they will print it for you. On the other hand you will have a device you can infinitely repair unlike the kindles that are kicking the dust every few year for everyone.
A friend of mine was showing me around a maker space when I was on a trip to where he now lives. They had an entire room full of various 3D printer. They’ve really gone mainstream in a big way. Getting a hold of one isn’t out of the question for a lot of people.
My local library offers a 3d printing service.
Rakuten Kobo is a good alternative to Amazon Kindle. I can just drag and drop books, no internet connectivity necessary, no DRM… I have no problems with it at all. Would be cool to be able to load custom firmware, but I do not need to since it already doesn’t spy on me and doesn’t force DRM (3rd party book imports).
Have you installed nickelmenu and koreader? Brings the experience up a couple of levels software side.
Koreader blasted my “aging” 1st Gen H2O into space with all the speed and features it added.
- Faster page turning
- Wallabag support
- Most of all: SFTP transfer from my phone
It’s wild.
For the people commenting about prices and comparing it to kindle:
Unfortunately, open source hardware is in its infancy, and faces severe barriers of entry, but projects like this one are really nice in order to further develop the concept and make working prototypes, proving its viability.
I don’t understand, it seems perfectly reasonable - people are just so used to these products being sold at a loss or at cost and subsidised by huge companies.
I would happily pay extra to not be tied to a massive corporation.
And if we think about it, it would only cost more at first, because open hardware would last longer and be repairable, costing much less in the long run.
Ideally, how would open source hardware look like for you? I mean that as in after it has achieved something akin to mainstream adoption.
This is a great question. I don’t believe it can reach the point of any person simply being able to create their own hardware, unless we’re talking about an utopic future with multimaterial 3d printing in small scale, but I can see small businesses being able to manufacture custom open source hardware on demand, based on open standards. For me, the ideal scenario would be something like going into an open hardware service shop and asking for a device with your requirements, and they creating it for you, or repairing/upgrading yours.
Though PocketBook, Tolino, Kobo, Onyx are pretty good at openness or ability to make it open.
Sure, not Open Hardware, but you can at least read what you want with them.
I have a Kobo with KOReader installed and Calibre with the DeDRM plugin for managing eBooks and it’s pretty great! It’ll open just about anything you throw at it and is pretty customizable.
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.
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.
I mean…it does what it needs to do just fine.
Is this thing repairable?
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.
