Copying this into my notes
Kobo can run apps now
201–210 of 224 posts
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's really cool. I've contemplated awesome for a tablet for similar reasons.
Yes - tiling window managers are really nice on a computer, but they're absolutely the best for small e-ink devices.
The Kindle used to use it!
https://www.mail-archive.com/awesome@naquadah.org/msg05102.h...
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#203This is something I've considered wanting, and I'm glad it exists, but after some thought it's absolutely not at all what I want my Kobo to do. Much like how I wouldn't bring headphones or a Bluetooth speaker with me on a hike, or a laptop with me camping, I don't even want the option of games or anything other than a good reading experience when I'm using my e-reader. I'd assume this is a redundant take, but I don't…
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Re: Kobo can run apps now
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Very bad battery life. Maybe 8hrs of reading with wifi off, BT off and only low screen backlight. I need to charge it daily or every other day at best. This seems like a wildly different experience than I have with it. I don't read 8 hours per day, but typically 1-2 hours per day, and charge it every 2-3 weeks.
Thanks! I'll look into why my battery is draining so fast.
Yeah, I mean I'd be interested... but you've got wifi/BT off, so I don't even know what would be taking up much battery otherwise.
My light levels are probably 50/50 6% (at night in bed) and ~33% (other times). I did briefly buy a Kobo remote and found that having bluetooth on for that was very bad for my battery life.
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#205For the unaware, there is an existing solution that integrates with Kobo's native software (Nickel). It has been maintained for years, and it supports every Kobo AFAIK. It's called NickelMenu, and it's great. I'm in the Kobo ecosystem because of NickelMenu and Plato. One note if you're thinking about getting a kobo due its relative openness: consider getting a two-core device. I did not do my homework and got a Clara…
Or https://github.com/baskerville/fmon for the hackers/suckless.
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#206Wow. This is rad, well done. I've been trying to find an alt OS for my Clara Colour and this looks great. Being able to author apps means I can finally add a way to review my highlights/quotes and search them with ease. Edit: damn, just saw the BW note. It looks like the Clara Colour would be blocked by Cobalt...
Fwiw koreader can be installed very easily. Bit clunky to get used to but extremely powerful and worthwhile ime
Try Plato
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#207Isn't the whole point of Kindle (or other ebook readers) being able to read books without distractions?
In the case of the kobo, it is firstly a much more open platform than kindle. Secondly, existing projects have made much more performant reader apps than the stock one. Basic kobo (nickel) is a bit slow and can be even slower with a “bad” EPUB file (you will come across many online as they are often auto generated from other sources and are essentially a collection of html files). Installing a third party reader can make page flips and re-renders significantly faster and smoother as well as remove all unnecessary network processes
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't Normie News! I think you are on the wrong site! The street finds its own use for things is the excitement that we don't know what is possible, and that we ought be free to try. The amazing suite of software here sure looks like self evident proof about how exciting it is when we can go further, to me. I love the LLM prompt sidekick; super neat as an ambient display. It's really sad how HN is so vocally ant…
I think the distaste is more against feature bloat. This sub-thread is reacting to dedicated e-readers succumbing to becoming full-fledged app-running devices. Is the refresh rate on an e-ink display even suitable for general computing? Plus, isn't it fairly old hat to get root access on a Linux consumer device and then running whatever you want on it? Oh, it makes for a neat party trick you could make an Action Retr…
That's their point though. The hacker ethos doesn't ask "should I do this" it asks "can I do this", and that's kind of beautiful when it's not scaled up to a corporate level.
The goal doesn't have to be practicality.
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#209For the unaware, there is an existing solution that integrates with Kobo's native software (Nickel). It has been maintained for years, and it supports every Kobo AFAIK. It's called NickelMenu, and it's great. I'm in the Kobo ecosystem because of NickelMenu and Plato. One note if you're thinking about getting a kobo due its relative openness: consider getting a two-core device. I did not do my homework and got a Clara…
I got the color one and wasn't very happy with it. The color one has a darker screen and less contrast than the bw one.[0]
It also wasn't really big enough for comics. So I'm not quite sure what the selling point is.
It definitely looks cool the first time you see it though.
(Also I thought the whole appeal of Kobo was that you don't need an account, but it wouldn't let me do anything without making an account, which I had to do thru a national partner, whose site was offline...)
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[0] I also heard something about color e-ink having a lower effective resolution? But I'm not sure.
Re: Kobo can run apps now
#210For the unaware, there is an existing solution that integrates with Kobo's native software (Nickel). It has been maintained for years, and it supports every Kobo AFAIK. It's called NickelMenu, and it's great. I'm in the Kobo ecosystem because of NickelMenu and Plato. One note if you're thinking about getting a kobo due its relative openness: consider getting a two-core device. I did not do my homework and got a Clara…
Hey, author here. NickelMenu is terrific and Cobalt uses it to show the menu item in the default Kobo menu. It's just that Cobalt and NickelMenu are not the same in terms of project goals. I created this as I could not find anything existing that gives the capabilities I wanted. I read several things downloaded over web apart from books on my Mac and phone, which I would prefer to do on an eInk display. Search papers…
Very nice project. I looked at it with the aide of Claude. I was interested in porting the Chess game that Claude helped me make for NickleMenu that runs on my Kobo Elipsa Gen1. From my understanding of Claude's analysis it would be difficult to port the chess game because each Cobalt app is sandboxed, and my app would not be able to spawn the Stockfish engine that my Chess (Nickle menu) game needs to run.
Is that an erroneous conclusion?
Also I probably could not port my Tailscale client to Cobalt for the same reasons.
I kinda creates a separation. Perhaps that is by design: Cobalt = very secure, Nickle = more open but more risk.
Finally the Elipsa Gen1 does not seem to be included in the supported platforms.
Thanks. Cheers from Canada!