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The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

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Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#41

Post by com2kid »

lsc wrote: post #14
com2kid wrote: post #6

The problem is that Amazon has a virtual monopoly on the e-reader market. If Kindle doesn't adopt a given technology, it won't be commercially viable in the US. With no competitive market place for e-reader products, consumers buy whatever good enough technology Amazon sells. There might very well be a high end screen tech that people would pay for, much as how Apple discovered people are willing to pay for higher re…

>If Kindle doesn't adopt a given technology, it won't be commercially viable in the US. For the people who don't buy their e-books from amazon, I think the market is quite competitive. I mean, if you are reading PDFs, unless you like really small type or spending a lot of effort converting, you are going to buy one of the myriad A4 sized e-readers from various vendors. Most of the gutenberg readers I know use an off-…

> For the people who don't buy their e-books from amazon, I think the market is quite competitive.

And tiny. Amazon has by far the largest in the US market, from numbers I just googled and haven't verified, Amazon is 83% of ebook sales in the US, and probably and even larger % if your consider "ebooks read on a digital paper device".

Hardware technologies cost hundreds of millions to develop, and years of active sales to refine and bring prices down. Amazon has a "good enough" tech in their Kindles, so the market is stagnating, outside of some cool stuff like Remarkable, which isn't a new display tech stack, nor are their sales numbers going to support development of new techs.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#42

Post by eichin »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #23
lsc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you know of an e-ink device that runs a fairly standard and up-to-date (google play store compatible) version of android? such a thing would be pretty useful for me.

https://onyxboox.com/ are making some very cool devices, I think most are running Android. It might not be updated by the manufacturer every 6 months (not even many phones do that), but it definitely runs most of the latest apps.

The particularly cool bit: at least the Boox Max 2 has HDMI input so I can pop it up on my thinkpad as an external monitor (kind of clumsy, needs power too, but I've run emacs on it Just Fine...)

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#43

Post by ptx »

crocal wrote: post #24
ptx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your dreams might have come true, then, with the Dasung Paperlike[1], a 13-inch e-ink monitor. The first generation connected to the PC via USB and special display drivers, but the current generation uses HDMI like a normal monitor. My girlfriend is quite happy with her second-generation Paperlike Pro. There is apparently now a third generation[2] with higher resolution. There are some disadvantages (of e-ink in gene…

Thanks for the link! Based on your experience, would it be a good fit for hacking? How does a Emacs/Vi session comes across?

She uses it at work, so I can't check now, but I think it should be OK. It's mainly smooth-scrolling web pages and the mouse cursor that look laggy – things that move continuously pixel by pixel.

Dasung do mention programming as one use case and demonstrate it here: http://www.dasungtech.com/sta/en/type.gif

They say it's "nearly as fast as LCD". It has different modes to choose from, with different trade-offs between speed and image quality. And the new generation might be faster that the one I used.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#44

Post by abawany »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #23
lsc wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you know of an e-ink device that runs a fairly standard and up-to-date (google play store compatible) version of android? such a thing would be pretty useful for me.

https://onyxboox.com/ are making some very cool devices, I think most are running Android. It might not be updated by the manufacturer every 6 months (not even many phones do that), but it definitely runs most of the latest apps.

I recommend reading the Onyx forum on Mobileread (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=220) before making any decisions. In particular, the vendor that you buy from will make a big difference in your support experience - Booxtor's store (https://ereader.store/en/) is a good place since they tend to release firmware updates proactively and work on the above forum to troubleshoot issues.

Onyx is an interesting company. Their devices are amazing IMO (e.g. the Boox Max 2) but some of the issues that people encounter has tended to scare me a bit. I still hope to get a 13.3" Android-based e-reader some day.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#45

Post by abawany »

anonu wrote: post #26

Curious what people's views are on e-readers here at HN? Personally, I've tried to adopt an e-reader over many years. The convenience of having 100s of books without the weight is great. Being able to read in a dark room as well. However, the feel of a real book I think still wins out over any advantages of an e-reader. Also my informal and anecdotal survey of how people use technology - mainly on the NYC subway - do…

I currently use a Kobo Aura HD with updated applications to avoid using the Kobo firmware and its associated silliness (e.g. a long refresh process on every power cycle to re-enumerate my entire collection into their sqlite db.) I have gone through a lot of different e-readers [1] but never a Kindle - the walled garden approach is not for me. This means that I buy ebooks in ePub form from Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Google Play, etc. or read converted pdfs of my former print books.

In general, what I have looked for in an e-reader consists of the largest screen that I can afford (since pdfs don't scale well, IME), a micro sd slot to enable me to copy/sync books as I need it without being on the network, some basic functionality to save book markups, and maybe a web browser.

[1] Some examples: Entourage eDGE (sic), Sony Libre, Sony Readers (PRS-500, PRS-505, PRS-300, etc.), Pocketbook 9.7", B&N Nook Simple Touch (still have it, running Android 2.x rooted).

Edit1: more e-readers.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#46

Post by abledon »

crocal wrote: post #24
ptx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your dreams might have come true, then, with the Dasung Paperlike[1], a 13-inch e-ink monitor. The first generation connected to the PC via USB and special display drivers, but the current generation uses HDMI like a normal monitor. My girlfriend is quite happy with her second-generation Paperlike Pro. There is apparently now a third generation[2] with higher resolution. There are some disadvantages (of e-ink in gene…

Thanks for the link! Based on your experience, would it be a good fit for hacking? How does a Emacs/Vi session comes across?

Third generation kicks ass for terminal work. Wait for 4th gen and Non hardcore gaming will be doable
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