Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Your ePub Is fine

andreklein.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 322 posts

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#231

Post by qubidt »

port11 wrote: post #209
ramblurr wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is widely known in the epub space that targeting 3.1 or 2 is the more sane option. With EPUB compatibility issues CSS should always be suspect number 1. Using "modern" CSS features and complaining about missing flex boxz grid, etc is a web developer's mindset. Just because EPUB shares some of the stack with the web doesn't mean they perfectly overlap (or even should). Hardly any e-ink embedded e-reader device…

Are we blaming the spec and the author of the post for trying to conform to the checks, instead of blaming Adobe or Kobo for using 16-year old technology that ISN’T spec-compliant? -.-

Yes. sometimes specs are badly designed. Targeting a constantly moving goalpost for a spec mainly implemented by embedded devices seems to me like, best case, questionable judgement

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#232

Post by Someone »

tjoff wrote: post #149
m348e912 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love or hate Steve Jobs, his insistence of not supporting Flash on the iPhone (in favor of HTML5) accelerated Flash's demise dramatically.

The best feature of flash was that it was so easy to disable. Because 99% of the use was annoying ads that pinned your cpu at 100%. And that was Jobs argument, that it was too resource intensive. Predictably though, now that annoying crap moved to "newer" tech (javascript) and now we can't disable it as easily or without as little consequence. Just as resource intensive though...

> And that was Jobs argument, that it was too resource intensive.

One of his arguments, and not the most important one. Looking at https://newslang.ch/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Thoughts-on-F..., he says the most important reason is that Apple doesn’t want Adobe to be in control of a major API on iPhones (he buries that’s the main reason somewhat by mentioning it last because, I think, he knew that argument is more “because it’s good for Apple” than “because it’s good for our users”)

Yes, he mentions reliability, battery life, security, too, but those are things Adobe (in theory) could have fixed.

He also mentions Flash isn’t open. Again that is is something Adobe could have fixed, but I doubt they were fully willing to do that at the time

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#233

Post by RetroTechie »

dakolli wrote: post #189
icantevenhold wrote: post #186

I recently was in the market for a new e-reader and steered away from Kobo and Kindle because of their non-free ecosystem. I don’t know how exactly it would negatively impact me but I didn’t want to find out. Got a refurbished pocketbook in the end and very happy with it, it reads all imaginable file formats and I can just send books to it via email or cable.

I don't really have an issue with kindle, I just download anything off of z-library and use the email to kindle tool. I haven't given Amazon a penny other than from the original purchase of the kindle. I only have used epub/pdf (and will never have a need for another format).

Quoted from here:

https://informatecdigital.com/en/Send-to-Kindle%3A-all-ways-...

"This service is free and works with both Kindle devices such as with the Kindle appIt also automatically converts many files to Amazon's internal format (such as AZW3 or KFX), as long as you respect its supported file types and size limits."

Read: requires internet connectivity to put documents on your Kindle. Depends on Amazons 'blessing'. Ends when Amazon ends support for your device. Is limited to whatever document formats (and sizes) Amazon decides to support. Internal formats on your Kindle may be DRM locked. Amazon could snoop any document transferred through that service. Could be turned into a paid service @ some point. Amazon could effectively brick your device if so desired.

(please correct if I misunderstand any of the above)

Sure, this may work for many users & they may be happy with that arrangement. But it's quite a few drawbacks. And the "planned obsolesence" smell is strong here. Me... I'll pass.

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#234

Post by martin- »

ornornor wrote: post #183

If you use a kobo you have to give koreader a whirl! The only thing missing for me is the unified view of the library: koreader requires you to navigate to the subdirectory to open your ebook whereas nickel (kobo’s UI) will list them all in one library regardless of how deeply nested they are. Everything else is better with koreader and it’s super easy to install alongside nickel. And it works very well with calibre…

There are several plugins that give you a library view based on metadata instead of folders and filenames. Two examples that are both great:

https://github.com/AndyHazz/bookshelf.koplugin

https://github.com/joshuacant/ProjectTitle

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#235

Post by qubidt »

pmontra wrote: post #123

I understand the frustration of the author but how many readers do have an old, unupgraded, maybe unupgradable epub reader? If authors want to make their work available to all readers they have to build for the least common denominator. If it happens to be something from 2013, sorry but that's the reality of the market.

The issue the author is explaining is relevant for the Kobo devices currently being sold

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#236

Post by buu709 »

louisbourgault wrote: post #29
lidavidm wrote: post #19

AIUI, Kobo devices have a more advanced rendering engine if you name the file with .kepub.epub. (I think it's based on ePub 3?) Not sure if it would fix the problem here. But I personally run ePubs through kepubify ( https://pgaskin.net/kepubify/try/ ) before transferring them to my Kobo.

Yes, I do that for everything too. Also publishers like Standard ebooks provide a kepub download - as they explain here they have problems with the Adobe reader too. https://standardebooks.org/help/how-to-use-our-ebooks#kobo-f... I love my Kobo (clara colour) and really, if they just removed the Adobe reader, it'd be perfect. And yes, I've tried KOreader, but never switched to it because I like my Overdrive library b…

> I love my Kobo (clara colour) and really, if they just removed the Adobe reader, it'd be perfect. And yes, I've tried KOreader, but never switched to it because I like my Overdrive library books and Kobo Store.

You may have already tried this, but they all work fine together. You can just exit the KOReader app and use the default Kobo stuff, then open KOReader again when you want to read something via that.

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#237

Post by rglover »

Mentioned at the end, but Kobo's gel better with the KEPUB format. Calibre has a nice converter for this (I think it may be built-in now or still a plugin), but works great. Got a Kobo Clara Colour about ~2 years ago now and I couldn't highlight across pages until I bulk converted my library to KEPUBs. After that, you'd never know there was an issue. This post makes the whole mess make a lot more sense now.

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#238

Post by maratc »

RetroTechie wrote: post #233
dakolli wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really have an issue with kindle, I just download anything off of z-library and use the email to kindle tool. I haven't given Amazon a penny other than from the original purchase of the kindle. I only have used epub/pdf (and will never have a need for another format).

Quoted from here: https://informatecdigital.com/en/Send-to-Kindle%3A-all-ways-... "This service is free and works with both Kindle devices such as with the Kindle appIt also automatically converts many files to Amazon's internal format (such as AZW3 or KFX), as long as you respect its supported file types and size limits." Read: requires internet connectivity to put documents on your Kindle. Depends on Amazons 'bless…

All of that is technically correct, however my non-Amazon readers (Sony, Nook, ...) reached the end of their useful life when their batteries died or their screens broke. All of them were "unsupported" at that stage (3-4 years after announcement), so not much to do about it. With that, I have a very old Kindle (7 years or so) that is still working -- with "Amazon's blessing" of course.

Any reader will turn into a brick one day. What matters is what you're getting before that point. For me, I'd rather use Send-to-Kindle and never bother with SD cards again. Naturally, YMMV.

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#239

Post by ornornor »

martin- wrote: post #234
ornornor wrote: post #183

If you use a kobo you have to give koreader a whirl! The only thing missing for me is the unified view of the library: koreader requires you to navigate to the subdirectory to open your ebook whereas nickel (kobo’s UI) will list them all in one library regardless of how deeply nested they are. Everything else is better with koreader and it’s super easy to install alongside nickel. And it works very well with calibre…

There are several plugins that give you a library view based on metadata instead of folders and filenames. Two examples that are both great: https://github.com/AndyHazz/bookshelf.koplugin https://github.com/joshuacant/ProjectTitle

Thanks, I had no idea, these look great!

Re: Your ePub Is fine

#240

Post by ramblurr »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #78
ndiddy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried the PineNote yourself? It $400 and says that it's "aimed at Linux developers with an extensive knowledge of embedded systems and/or experience with mobile Linux." The community provided firmware they link for it hasn't been updated in over a year. The Kobos don't limit what you can do with them either, you can sideload alternative e-reader software like KOReader that improves on the built-in reader fun…

> More expensive and less out-of-the-box software, but straight to the point on device ownership/what kind of software you can run, fewer strings attached. This note was in the original comment, did you read it? The fact that it is $400 (more expensive) and has less out of the box software is literally mentioned to alert people to that. > The Kobos don't limit what you can do with them either, you can sideload altern…

> > The Kobos don't limit what you can do with them either, you can sideload alternative e-reader software like KOReader that improves on the built-in reader functionality.

> This is patently false, the latest Kobo Libra Color is using secure boot which completely locks out custom development

Your "patently false" is not true. There are nuances here that you are glossing over or ignoring.

Yes, the Kobo Libra Color uses secure boot.

But, you can still get root and install KOReader on it.

What is "custom development" if you mean "boot my own operating system" because, then yes. But the 90+% of the Kobo hacking community has never meant that.

For most folks in the community "custom development" means being able to install/side-load applications like Plato and KOReader alongside the existing Kobo/Nickel software.

Yea, I agree it sucks that the new Kobo uses secureboot, but it was never an open development platform. I feel for the quill-os folks, that sucks. I'm glad they found a home with the PN as they won't get a rugpull.

But the Kobo is still a system where you can trivially get root on it without having to jailbreak or otherwise exploit a vulnerability.

And +1 for the xteink x4 (though if you're rabidly against manufactures locking down their devices, you should look at the recent xteink developments where they are only releasing unlocked devices to the western market.)

Post reply on HN