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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3632 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Casey Newton: The Everything Book: Reading in the Age of Amazon

Very timely for me - I've been thinking a lot lately about what ebook reader I'd like to use. Right now I'm using an app - FBReader - on my Galaxy S3, which works fine. Last year I tried switching to a Nook because the cheapest model was $35 - I got it for the e-ink screen and because I could root it and use stock android, which I did, but I was never able to get it configured quite how I wanted, despite trying a few times. Ideally, I'd like my reader to handle books, RSS, Wikipedia, news/weather, and basic web browsing. My semi-flexible requirements are that all the software is free and open source, and the files are DRM-free. These requirements are why I use FBReader and why I tried the rooted Nook, and also why I haven't tried a Kindle.

I've been pretty close to grabbing various android e-ink tablets like the Onyx Boox T68 and M92 (but bad reviews held me back), or the crowdfunded and endlessly delayed Earl (I figured I'd wait till it retailed).

Lately as I've been thinking about it more, I'm thinking I may just stick with a large android phone. I like having fewer devices. I've wanted to use e-ink for a long time, but my experience with it on the Nook was sorta off-putting. The benefit of e-ink is obviously that it's easier to read on for a longer time, but I've been using Twilight on my phone for a long time (and a similar app on my other computers), which warms up the screen temperature as the sun goes down, and makes using the screen much easier on the eyes at night. I'd be curious to hear other experiences if anyone here can compare LCD screens without blue light to e-ink screens. Being that I'm getting close to being due for a phone upgrade, I'm thinking about grabbing a Note 4 which has been fairly well reviewed, and it seems like it could be a good reader. I'm not big on Samsung's Touchwiz android interface, but: 1. it's easy enough to replace once you have root, and most importantly; 2. they're the only damn company that continues to include user-removable batteries and expandable storage. Being able to replace my battery is the only reason my Galaxy S3 has lasted - and continues to last - as long as it has. The one shortcoming of the Note 4 in my mind is that it's not water proof (the S5 is), which is why I haven't pounced for it yet.

I'll probably wait until sometime next year to decide what to get. (The announcement that Ting is going to be accepting GSM devices starting early next year has me excited - it'll hugely open up my options.) I'm still not sure whether I'll try to use my next phone as my reading device, so I'd be curious to hear other opinions from people who read a lot on their phone or on a dedicated ereader.