Ebook Readers and Book Machines

Itty bitty e-readers have become really popular, and for good reason -- they are so small and convenient that you can take them everywhere....

This is part 1 of my first customizations to my Diptyx ebook reader .

Its been a week or so since Ive really dove into the ebook reader.

First observations:

1. The battery is AMAZING! I haven't seen it go below 90 since Ive had it and im already 10% of the way through a book. I am a voracious reader.
2. Software has been ok. Good in some ways, bad in others. Im looking to fix the things that bother me the most. I was able to image the ebook reader (thinking about posting how to do so for anyone at a later date).
3. Theres a ton of inbuilt fonts. Some are good. Most are meh.
4. Documentation is still ongoing. So some parts are excellent (source code and STL) and some are terrible (what do DO with said source code and STL)

The buttons are probably the worst part of the experience. They are made of some low quality PLA that hurt my fingers. Which led me to the first customization! My wife had nail polish that works well with PLA. So slapped on a blue and it feels soo much smoother! Ive been reading even more now.

The second customization was getting a 32 GB sd card. The system only comes with a 2 GB SD. 32GB for 20$ isnt bad. I have another for 512GB that im using for my miyoo mini. So im thinking worst case ill use that one day. 32 is enough for what I want to do with it (for now).

The inside of the device. Pretty easy to read. You can see the ESP32, sd card, wires and other such here.

Not the greatest picture but you can see the size of my ring compared to the screen. It fits in my poket. This is the other side of the eink display.

1/32" to get the screws out. No instructions on that one. I had to guesstimate on that. only 10 screws in the whole system and its super solid.

Anyways yeah im having fun with this thing. Fully recommend if your a maker or want something completely open source.

First post: HERE

Amazon added a notice to the product pages for the new lineup of 2026 Kindles that states, “Wi-Fi and an Amazon account are required to set up your Kindle and download books”.

I thought maybe that was their way of saying that new Kindles cannot be used in an unregistered state like previous gen Kindles, but it turns out that’s not that case at all.

It’s still possible to use the new 2026 Kindles without registering them to an Amazon account, but they make you think you have to register them during the initial setup process. I forgot how to get past the registration screen since the last time I did this. At first I thought it wasn’t going to work, but I figured it out, so here’s how get past the initial setup process.

When setting up a new Kindle, there’s no obvious way to bypass the registration screen. The trick is to hold down the power button until the pop-up box appears where you can select “Restart“, and then your Kindle will boot to the homescreen instead of the registration screen.

However, you have to trigger the restart at the right time. You have to get to the screen that asks you to sign-in on the device, not the initial setup screen.

The first screen that appears asks if you want to sign-in on the device or set it up using your phone. Select the sign-in on device option, then enter your WiFi password. My Kindle downloaded a software update at this point, and then it restarted to the sign-in screen where it showed my name. That’s where you want to hold down the power button and restart.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t have to go through the process of setting up WiFi when I bypassed registration on my 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite earlier this year; I think it worked from the first screen where they ask if you want to sign-in on the device or use your phone, so something changed along the way.

Nevertheless, it’s still possible to use Kindles without registering them, despite Amazon making it seem like you have to sign-in with an Amazon account in order to use them.

You can still sideload ebooks and dictionaries and custom fonts, and use Kindles in an unregistered state if you want to. The main downside to doing so is there’s a nag screen that pops-up every time you go to the library that asks you to sign-in (I think that can be disabled if your Kindle is jailbroken), and you can’t use online features like Wikipedia lookup. But on the plus side, ad-supported models don’t show ads on the lockscreen—they show book covers instead. Another benefit with using unregistered Kindles is they no longer get software updates that break things, and you don’t have to worry about your sideloaded ebooks getting deleted if you use airplane mode for too long.

It's about the same size as an Xteink while being a more capable device that features a touch screen, a mic, and higher pixel density, only costs $50, and Crosspoint OS (eReader software made for the Xteink X4) supports it. So it can be turned into a great little e-reader.

E-paper has been having a bit of a moment recently. First, the Boox Palma shrank the form factor of eReaders down to something a bit more pocketable and less proprietary than the Kindle. Then, open source developers seized upon and installed custom firmware on the Xteink X4 and X3, cheap no-frills eReaders that snap to the back of your phone and are just enough for many people.

The X4 was clearly a huge success, as Xteink is following this up with the X3 Pro and X4 Pro and Boox has announced their micro ereader competitor the Boox Picco.

But bare bones e-paper is anyone’s game at this point, and so Seeed Studio has thrown their hat in the game with the reTerminal Sticky, an even cheaper and more capable small magnetic eInk display that leans in on the entire angle that made the X4 a viral sensation.

Free at - https://github.com/nicoverbruggen/libron

I'm really liking it because it's just a smidge bolder/thicker than my other fonts, so works great on this smaller reader.

Free and open source font made specifically for ereaders and e-ink. (This isn't me, I just thought it looked cool and wanted to share.)

https://github.com/nicoverbruggen/libron/releases https://ebook-fonts.nicoverbruggen.be/

Amazon has just announced two new Kindle Paperwhite e-readers. Now thinner and lighter, with a 7-inch flush-front display, up to 12 weeks of battery life, adjustable warm light, and waterproofing. The Signature Edition adds aluminum, adaptive front lighting, 32GB of storage, and ad-free reading. Both will be available for purchase on October 28th 2026, with pre-orders opening soon.

CrossPoint's an open-source replacement operating system for certain e-readers, designed to give users more control, customization, and support for additional reading features.

I love it and for me, my Xteink 4 was useless without this OS.

BOOX Picco

M5PaperMono

Xteink X4C

Seeed Sticky

Xteink X4 Pro

Xteink X3

M5Paper

T5 E-Paper S3 Pro Lite

Recently I got a Diptyx eBook reader. And it doesn't come with a backlight or light at all. Its my favorite eBook reader at the moment.

I'm looking for a light or something that I can easily strap on the eBook reader without messing with the e-ink displays. Anyone know of any tiny illumination options?

Crossposted from https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/76165939

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/76165931