[HN Gopher] Moaan InkPalm Plus is weird, cheap, small, and my ki...
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Moaan InkPalm Plus is weird, cheap, small, and my kind of e-reader
Author : kermatt
Score : 77 points
Date : 2024-06-27 15:40 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sixcolors.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (sixcolors.com)
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| After using the cheapest e-Reader for over a decade (Kindle 2
| until support ended, Kindle 3 until the same) I finally upgraded
| to the top Oasis and love it. Things that are absolutely
| essential IMO are
|
| - physical page turn buttons. the touch screens are finicky,
| inconvenient for one-hand use, and impossible if i want to keep
| my hand up a blanket or something
|
| - back/front light, with adjustable color temp, and an actual dim
| setting that doesn't blow your retinas out
|
| everything i don't care about. but these are must haves.
| TeaBrain wrote:
| The physical page turn buttons are why I got an Oasis also. I
| find the experience much better than having to touch the screen
| to turn the page. With the physical buttons, it's easy enough
| to move the page forward or backward while holding the device
| with one hand, while requiring very little hand shifting, which
| I appreciate.
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| How is the weight for the Oasis in one hand?
| eigenvalue wrote:
| Very reasonable and comfortable.
| squigz wrote:
| Annoyingly, the original Kindle had physical buttons, then
| they removed it in later versions, and I often find myself
| turning the page accidentally.
| toast0 wrote:
| Did they really end support for the older Kindles? I haven't
| used mine in a while, but I thought they could still sync and
| get books over wifi.
|
| No lights on the Kindle Keyboard though, and the 3g modems
| won't work anymore for obvious reasons.
| kjs3 wrote:
| I have an oooold Kindle keyboard model. As you said, cellular
| doesn't work, but it syncs fine over wifi. Seems to be
| holding a charge for less time, tho, so maybe it does have an
| 'end date'.
| causi wrote:
| It's very easy to replace the battery with a new one. The
| whole back cover pops off.
| rebuilder wrote:
| I have an 11-year old Kindle and while it can't access the
| store any more, it can still sync over wifi if I purchase
| books on the web.
| mtalantikite wrote:
| I got a Boox Go that just came a few days ago and I really like
| the physical page turn buttons. It's my first e-Reader, so I
| don't have much to compare it to, but I can imagine relying on
| the touch screen to be annoying.
| manchmalscott wrote:
| I just got a Kobo Clara Color over their cheaper models largely
| for the page turn buttons (and being able to highlight in
| multiple colors of course). Combined with how shockingly light
| it is (lighter than my phone), one handed reading is excellent.
| wccrawford wrote:
| I love my Clara Color _so much_. It 's light, fast, and it
| has buttons. And it's just about exactly the right size.
|
| My one complaint so far is that the battery seems to need a
| charge every few days. Definitely less than a week, I think.
| I can live with that.
| zachmu wrote:
| That's good to know, that's a total deal breaker for me.
|
| I have the Libra 2 and I get about a month from a charge
| with my normal reading habits.
| zachmu wrote:
| Looks like the Clara Color doesn't have physical buttons?
|
| https://us.kobobooks.com/collections/ereaders/products/kobo-.
| ..
|
| Kobo changes their lineup constantly though, the Libra 2 I
| have (with physical buttons) is no longer available.
| manchmalscott wrote:
| Oops, I definitely _meant_ Libra. I need to stop looking at
| other words when I'm typing lol.
| adolph wrote:
| I don't know about the necessity of physical page turn buttons.
| I've had a paperwhite and now a scribe and the touch is fine.
| An advantage of touch is that it supports sideways orientation,
| which I use on the paperwhite to increase the page width.
| causi wrote:
| If you haven't had a kindle with buttons you have no basis of
| comparison. They're lovely.
| Tagbert wrote:
| I used to have one of the older ones with buttons. now I
| have a recent Paperwhite and don't really miss them. I just
| tap on the screen edge and it works fine. I can understand
| the appeal of buttons and am glad that you have a reader
| with them but it's not something that motivates me.
| TeaBrain wrote:
| The oasis has a touchscreen, but touch turning can also be
| disabled to prevent accidental page turns. The oasis page
| turn buttons also rotate depending on the orientation,
| whether that be right side up, upside down or horizontal,
| which allows the page turn buttons to be operated one-handed
| with either the right or left hand.
| jcul wrote:
| I'm surprised people value physical page turn buttons so much.
|
| I've had a kobo Clara HD for years now, running KOReader (one
| of my most loved pieces of software).
|
| I can turn the page one handed by just curling a finger around
| from behind and tapping the screen, or by touching the reader
| to my nose :)
|
| I tend to read a lot in a situation where I can only use one
| hand!
| mrgoldenbrown wrote:
| I'm the opposite, I don't understand the steady march towards
| fewer buttons. I miss my iPod wheel that I could operate
| without looking. My screen would be covered in sunblock,
| sweat and oils if I used my nose to swipe.
| toast0 wrote:
| Having real buttons means never needing to have my hand
| obscure the screen. And not touching the screen means not
| having to clean it as often either.
| criddell wrote:
| I also bought it for the physical buttons. Unfortunately, it
| doesn't seem like there's anyway to entirely disable the touch
| screen while reading (or at least I haven't figured it out).
|
| My only complaint is that it isn't USB-C. As soon as that comes
| out, I'll trade this one in.
|
| I just looked on Amazon and the Oasis is out of stock. I wonder
| if that means a refresh is imminent?
|
| Edit: I googled it and it seems the reverse might be true - the
| Oasis is out of the lineup and no replacement is coming. That
| sucks.
|
| https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/goodbye-to-the-amazon-ki...
| eigenvalue wrote:
| Agree that the Oasis is awesome and worth the money. It's also
| water resistant, so I can use it in the sauna/steamroom (my
| favorite place to read without distractions nowadays!)
| zachmu wrote:
| The Oasis is a great device with one fatal flaw: battery life.
| For some reason they nerfed the battery relative to the
| paperwhite so it lasts about a week instead of about a month.
| Probably won't bother a lot of people but it really bothered
| me. I read a lot and hate having to think about recharging.
|
| I ended up with the Kobo Libra 2, which has all the same
| features as the Oasis but also has a month-long battery. I love
| it overall, great little device. Includes some quality of life
| features beyond the Oasis, including auto color tone shifting
| of the front-light in the evening (cool to warm), being able to
| adjust the light by swiping up the left side of the screen, and
| more options for progress indicators / headers and footers than
| the kindle has.
|
| Kobo changes their lineup constantly, which means the Libra 2
| has been replaced with a more expensive color version I haven't
| tried. Color on an e-ink screen is not an interesting feature
| to me, esp. not when it makes the device more expensive.
| rf15 wrote:
| My suspicion is that the reason the battery is so abysmal is
| because _you cannot turn off the backlight entirely_.
| Indefencible design decision that just eats your battery.
| (older readers were better because they basically only used
| power to change the current page - now we made them so
| featureful they lost many of the advantages older models had)
| hex4def6 wrote:
| I haven't kept up with ereader stuff for many years since I
| worked on battery life models for kindles, but I will say
| that keeping your e-reader in airplane mode will increase the
| battery life significantly.
|
| The reason is that WiFi has a DTIM which basically means that
| requires periodic wakeups to keep associated with the AP.
| This burns power.
| bochoh wrote:
| I found that airplane mode solved my oasis battery issues!
| devindotcom wrote:
| I have a Palma (they sent for review) and I think it's great,
| though I agree it probably isn't worth the price for most.
|
| https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/03/boox-ereaders-poke-5-palma...
|
| But the text looks good, the light is nice, and you can even
| install apps that aren't too demanding - a crossword or
| something.
|
| I've found that even a Clara HD or BW (the latest version) can be
| a bit bulky when you're going out with no bag, but the Palma fits
| in any jeans or jacket pocket and is excellent to have when you
| find yourself with 20 minutes to wait and no desire to
| doomscroll. I hope these things get more popular and accessible.
| arp242 wrote:
| The narrow screen seems very, well, narrow... I haven't used it
| though, so maybe it's not as bad as it seems. I do like larger-
| ish text.
|
| I have a 6" PocketBook, and it fits in all my trouser pockets,
| although I do agree it's slightly large overall it's not too
| bad.
| packetlost wrote:
| I have both a Kindle Oasis and Palma and I like the Palma
| much more for when I'm laying in bed. It's lighter and easier
| to one-hand, but _most_ importantly is it 's easy to hold
| while laying on my side. The narrower screen isn't too bad if
| you're mostly reading EPUBs or AZW3 files where they reflow
| text appropriately. I have it set up to use the volume rocker
| for changing pages. The included case makes the buttons a
| little... _mushy_ for my taste, but I 've otherwise been
| largely impressed. The fact that it runs Android means I can
| install an IETF RFC app and Instapaper and sync easily, which
| has been a surprisingly huge plus for me as well.
| devindotcom wrote:
| It took a little getting used to - i had the same qualm. But
| honestly, I don't mind now at all. The text adjustment is
| very fine in the default reader and the resolution is high,
| so pick a font you find readable and it's really not so
| different from a pocket paperback page.
| dml2135 wrote:
| Yea, this -- love the size, hate the aspect ratio.
| spondylosaurus wrote:
| The Boox e-reader I have lets you rotate the screen in 90deg
| increments--not sure if the Palma does too, but reading
| horizontally probably wouldn't be too bad.
|
| Although at the end of the day I do most of my reading on my
| phone anyway, and it's surprisingly fine once you get used to
| it.
| rcarmo wrote:
| Install termux on it, get a pocket keyboard and you have an
| all-day (week?) terminal.
| squigz wrote:
| > even a Clara HD or BW (the latest version) can be a bit bulky
| when you're going out with no bag, but the Palma fits in any
| jeans or jacket pocket
|
| This is such a nice but underrated feature of ereaders. I can
| fit my Kindle in the back pocket of my jeans without it being
| uncomfortable (just don't sit on it!) and it's really nice to
| not have to worry about shoving it back in a back or anything
| like that.
| tracker1 wrote:
| Leading into OT... but does anyone have suggestions for the
| opposite of this. I would like a large eReader, where the text
| for say a paperback can be scaled to 8.5x11" size, or similarly
| reading a technical book at equivalent to print size.
| abound wrote:
| I use the Boox Max Lumi for this, it's a 13.3" eInk Android
| tablet, great for writing + for reading/marking/signing PDFs.
| Swizec wrote:
| I've enjoyed my reMarkable for reading on a large e-ink screen.
| Scribbling your notes right on the page is a great UX when
| reading papers.
|
| But unlike a Kindle, it really needs to rest in your lap or be
| propped up against something. It starts to feel surprisingly
| heavy in your hands after a few minutes. Probably more from the
| torque on your fingers than the weight itself.
| pklausler wrote:
| Worse, no backlight on the rM2.
| mkmk wrote:
| I wonder if you could find an old Kindle DX on ebay or
| something.
| whichfawkes wrote:
| Seconding the Onyx Box Max Lumi here. I bought one back when
| they were much more expensive and I still think it's been worth
| it.
| Finnucane wrote:
| Looking at that picture of the narrow column of text with so many
| very badly spaced lines of two or three words each firstly gives
| me flashback of my days in newspaper production and secondly
| makes me hope it has a landscape view option. Making the type
| smaller might help, but there's a reason most books don't look
| like that.
| iamjackg wrote:
| It does. I have a Pro, not Plus, which I believe has a slightly
| wider aspect ratio. I was worried I was gonna find the
| typesetting unbearable for the reasons you mentioned but it's
| surprisingly okay, especially with smaller font sizes.
| jrmg wrote:
| Good hyphenation and TeX-like paragraph-level justification
| (tries to balance whitespace throughout a paragraph rather than
| just filling each line up with as much as possible and breaking
| when a word overflows) would do a _lot_ to fix that.
|
| The lack of these is most noticeable when text is in narrower
| columns. But even with larger e-readers it is, IMO, responsible
| for a lot of the "this still feels less readable than a book
| for some reason" vibe that ebooks (and lots of self-published
| paper books) still have.
|
| I really lament that in the switch to electronic text we seem
| to have forgotten what were thought of as basic requirements
| for readability in paper-based publication.
| jerojero wrote:
| I have both a mooan inkpalm 5 and a boox palma and you can get
| books look much better in both.
|
| He is using a font size that's a bit too big. And there's too
| much spacing, you can configure all aspects.
|
| I get about 8-10 characters on these devices, the font isn't
| too small and the spacing is fine. With my settings I get about
| 70% of a book's actual page (I use the same book to compare)
| which is a fair compromise imo.
|
| It's fast to read shorter lines anyway because there's less
| horizontal travel distance. I actually think this aspect ratio
| is pretty great for reading. I also have a Kobo Clara 2E which
| has been relegated to just reading by the pool/bath/beach.
|
| Also, these devices are pretty good for manga reading if you're
| into that.
| mzd348 wrote:
| It's sold by a Chinese company, their software probably doesn't
| worry much about optimal formatting, since Chinese writing
| doesn't really have any spaces. It would be nice if koreader
| could run on it.
| nottorp wrote:
| Hmm does the OP read so much on the go?
|
| When I'm out I'll make do with my phone. When I'm home I'd rather
| use something larger.
| mattl wrote:
| I read a lot on public transport. I've started using my Kindle
| again as it's bigger than my phone and much nicer to read on.
| qwerty456127 wrote:
| How do you handle motion sickness? It hits hard almost every
| time I try to read in a bus, a tram or a car.
| Clamchop wrote:
| Not everyone experiences motion sickness, or to the same
| degree. I don't think there's much you can do if you're one
| of the unlucky ones.
|
| On the bright side, you're less likely to die of poisoning!
| iamjackg wrote:
| Ever since I stopped having a public transit commute to work, I
| have basically stopped reading. I have a Kobo Libra H2O but have
| been struggling to make it part of my daily routine. It sits on
| my nightstand, but I often end up staying up late and only going
| to bed when it's time to sleep.
|
| One thing I _do_ do a lot of, though, is waste time browsing
| Lemmy /Twitter on my phone, because I always have it in my
| pocket. I bought a Moaan InkPalm Pro in the hopes of replacing
| the habit with book reading, and it definitely worked. It's so
| light that I just keep it in my pocket together with my phone,
| and whenever I feel like filling up some downtime I pull that out
| instead of my phone.
|
| The battery lasts 1 week+, it has customizable warm/cool front
| lighting, it can run all Android ebook reading apps (so I can
| read all my Kindle/Kobo purchases), and it can always be on me.
| It's the happiest I've been with an ebook reader since I got my
| first Kindle back in 2009.
| kjs3 wrote:
| I read books on my phone, _because_ it 's always in my pocket.
| Just open the e-reader app instead of twitter.
| card_zero wrote:
| You can also buy a book made of paper and carry it around in
| a bag, but that would be inconceivable. Anyway I don't get
| the guilt about not reading books. Lately I've been reading
| Edgar Wallace, and before that, Raymond Chandler, in editions
| printed in the 1950s and 1980s respectively, but these are
| still unmitigated trash, because they're pulp thrillers
| designed to titillate. I should feel guilty for not looking
| at social media.
| davedx wrote:
| I owned ereaders for a while (had the first Kindle) but I ended
| up going back to my phone for reading books in the end. One
| device, less charging, less things to remember. The Kobo app
| works great now it's matured, and everything is super snappy and
| responsive.
| delecti wrote:
| Yeah, in practice I only use my Kindle when I've set aside a
| day to read an anticipated book at release. The convenience of
| a phone is hard to beat.
| fumar wrote:
| I daily the InkPalm for reading. It replaced my Kindle given its
| pocketable size. I still run the Kindle app on it and it works
| well without page turn animation. I am curious to see new eink
| development when the eink pattern expires.
| ramses0 wrote:
| Random e-reader tip: stick some sort of pop-socket thing on the
| back of the reader so that it "grips your hand" while reading.
| Then you don't have to "hold" the book/kindle, you just
| place/maneuver it.
|
| See "love handle" for something similar / in the ballpark (phone
| elastic strap), as I don't remember the actual brand that I ended
| up buying.
|
| Everybody thinks of using them for their phones, but I've rarely
| seen them suggested/used for e-readers where I think they make a
| ton on sense!
|
| ...back on topic: $95 for an e-ink android thingy? Have I found
| the proper device for junky home assistant dashboards / control
| panels? Still it'd be great to figure out mounting, magnetic
| charging, or direct-wire power, as if you were thinking of a
| detachable replacement for alarm-system pads, managing device
| battery can be a real hassle for long-term (years) usage.
| squigz wrote:
| That's a great idea, thanks!
| sshb wrote:
| Postponing any of my e-reader purchases until the Daylight
| Computer tech would reshape the market
|
| https://daylightcomputer.com/
| rty32 wrote:
| $729?
|
| Well, I don't think I am rich enough to throw my money at
| that...
| chimineycricket wrote:
| Same, no blue light or eyestrain is a plus. I agree with the
| other child comment though, the price is too steep for now. FPS
| and it being Android and therefore extendable is great. I want
| one.
| layer8 wrote:
| Only 190 DPI, and contrast and viewing angles are quite bad:
| https://youtu.be/iHeIw9rXzUQ?t=570
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(page generated 2024-06-27 23:00 UTC)