cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/33602109

I am looking for an e-paper device with a polychromatic screen, with a GPS chipset, able to run OSMAnd, enough storage for offline maps (64GB+) and preferably an option to flash LineageOS or any other de-googled OS. Or is there maybe even a dedicated e-paper GPS navigation device not reliant on Android? Any recommendations or tips?

I ordered this Kindle 1 in November, 2007, the first day Amazon released it, and it’s still going strong. I still remember doing ordering it because I was a huge ereader at the time and following the news of it. I was at work, and I was late to a staff meeting, because I wanted to buy it that morning. Good thing too, cuz they were sold out a few hours later.

I recently had to replace the battery, but I can’t complain because the original lasted nearly 19 years!! The screen is still sharp, the page turns are quick, and everything works about as well as it did when it was new.

When it came out, it was before ebooks were well-known. So believe it or not, it caused quite a stir. So much excitement AND shit talking.

Most were saying, "I prefer paper books, no one will buy these!" lol

Sounds like how Lemmy feels about new tech lately too! Why are a bunch of tech nerds like Lemmys all hating tech all of a sudden?! lololol

Also, amazon sells more ebooks than paper books now.

When I took it to work, everyone was asking to look at it. There weren't ebook nerds, so they had never heard or seen e-ink before. I had a Sony Reader (still have that one too!), but I'd never taken it to work. Fun times.

And man, lots of people called this original Kindle design ugly, but I’ve always liked the design. With all the angled buttons, odd shapes, and chunky plastic, it reminds me of the futuristic technology from Space: 1999.

It looks like someone in the 1970s tried to imagine what people would read books on in the future, which is part of its charm.

It’s not my main reader anymore since it has no built-in light, but I still read on it. I use Calibre to convert my DRM-free books and short stories to MOBI, then transfer them over directly.

Every once in a while, I pull it off the shelf and will read an entire book or story on it just for fun. Like I'm doing today. I also have a couple of nonworking Kindle 1's around for spare parts if I ever need them.

I freaking love the fact that it’s still chugging along. The plastic is doing what plastic does, so it's not as white as it used to be. The entire case is getting a little more faded over time, but I don't know how to stop that from happening yet.

This makes me so happy. It's so fun to take these apart and clean them up!

The Franklin eBookMan was made from 1999 until 2002, has standard PDA functions and can play and record sounds. It has a black on green touchscreen, contains 8 or 16 MB of RAM, and uses its own proprietary operating system. Its handwriting recognition system accepts nearly natural handwriting.

Although research and development on the eBookMan ceased in 2002, new eBookMans continued to be available from Ectaco. As of April 30, 2011, all support and downloads for eBookMan were discontinued.

There is an active user base. Some users have written programs for the eBookMan. Many games were developed and a free version of the Mobipocket reader was developed for the eBookMan to take the place of the underpowered Franklin reader which came with the device.

From a 2001 review:

Bottom line: Though lacking in features, the EBM-911 is great as a basic handheld with e-book- and audiobook-reading abilities.

Entertaining and PDA-like At first glance, it’s easy to mistake the eBookman for a Palm OS PDA that sports an ample backlit 200-by-240-pixel LCD screen. While its proprietary OS is not very sophisticated, the eBookman lets you synchronize with Outlook via Intellisync synchronization software.

And while the eBookman has all the contact management synchronization functions you’d expect from your Palm PDA, all of this takes a backseat to the eBookman’s true calling: entertainment.

The large, accommodating screen makes the eBookman an ideal book reader, and if you’re afraid of squinting, it’s also simple to change font sizes.

Our test unit, the $199 EBM-911 with 16MB of internal RAM, provided enough elbowroom for novels, news, and the like. And if you don’t need that much space, the $129 EBM-900 offers 8MB of storage.

Franklin promises that more titles and a Microsoft Reader converter will be available sometime later this year. One notable absence from the eBookman is the lack of any AvantGo- or Vindigo-like applications. These handy apps load fresh material from the Internet onto your PDA each time you synchronize, so you can read the New York Times, local movie listings, or restaurant reviews while you’re on the go. Frankly, we were surprised that such a key bit of software was omitted from what’s being billed as an entertainment-first PDA.

If you’re not big on reading, you can enjoy audio books, though, since the eBookman supports the audible format and can play MP3s (audio books are also done in the MP3 format). This is where the MultiMedia Card slot in the back comes into play. MP3s are notorious space hogs, so extra cards are a welcome addition. And mercifully, unlike the RCA e-book readers, you’re free to download the book and audio files to your PC.

The sound quality of the eBookman isn’t great, but it is good enough to enjoy most audio books. If you try listening to music, though, it sounds more like you’re tuning into AM radio with its 96kbps sound. Don’t bother looking for separate audio controls to adjust bass or treble–there aren’t any. But you do have the option to record short memos or take notes.

Now, try comparing all of this to more single-minded devices such as RCA’s REB1100 and REB1200. Both of the RCA units are clunky and more expensive and can only download e-books directly from the RCA-sanctioned online library. No files are yours to keep on a PC.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO is basically an ebook reader that was disguised as a bright green toy laptop. Created around 2005, it was def way ahead of its time. Background on the project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child

Best feature is the screen. The 7.5-inch display had a sharp 1200 × 900 resolution at 200 dpi, which was impressive in 2007. Indoors, it works as a color LCD.

I don't know why screens like this didn't take off. Outside, you can turn off the backlight and use it as a crisp black-and-white reflective screen that is amazing to read in direct sunlight. It used as little as 0.1 watt in reflective mode, so super low power.

The display rotates and folds flat over the keyboard, turning the XO into a chunky tablet. Buttons around the screen work as page controls, and the vertical layout feels like it was designed with ebooks in mind.

The built-in Read activity handles digital books and PDFs. You can load books through USB or an SD card, so the machine doesn’t depend on internet access.

The XO is designed around a simple idea: one small machine can hold an entire library. In places where schools have few textbooks or almost no library, that’s a big deal. Even now, it makes a neat offline reader for public-domain books, manuals, old magazines, and PDFs.

The hardware looks like something that escaped from a cartoon and volunteered for humanitarian work. White shell, bright green trim, a carry handle, rubberized edges, covered ports, and those fold-out Wi-Fi ears.

This mofo is built for dust, heat, rough handling, and children who'd mess around and test whether it can also serve as sports equipment. Tonka Tough, for those of us old enough to remember that phrase.

It runs from wall power or its battery, and it can also work with solar charging setups. Hand cranks show up in early publicity, but they never become the practical everyday power source people sometimes imagine. Solar power makes much more sense.

Sucks that the project never fully got off the ground, because it had real potential as a cheap, tough ebook reader for underprivileged kids.

The screen is sharp, easy to read in full daylight, and uses very little power, while the case can take abuse that would probably kill a normal tablet. It could’ve been a rugged little portable library, packed with textbooks and free books, and carried anywhere without needing constant internet access or perfect conditions.

Mine still loads up fine, as you can see. I did hack it and put linux on it, but ugh, it's super slow now, so this will be an ongoing project.

Replaced the battery earlier in the year. Has a couple of old screen issues. I use it for one thing only.

Its the only ebook reader i have found that can open The Wandering Inn. The entire series is over 100mb. That doesn't sound like a lot. Until you realize that is just text. No css, no styling. This is 100+mb of pure text .txt file. I have all the books on ebook but i read all of them....so i got all the chapters online into it. At first i tried to get it on a kobo but it reboots if you try to open it. If you try the cell phone apps, most freeze. This old kobo is the only one that loads the entire series.

Ive been reading for 2.5 years now and im 71% of the way done. Its my book soap opera. Im on page 457,409 out of 631,393. Crazy.

Anyways thats its job! One book series.

Not a dedicated reader for most, but it was my dedicated ebook reader in 1996, and introduced me to the idea of ebooks. The first book I read on it was The Hobbit. I read the crap out of this thing.

I read soooo many books on this back then. And the resolution sucks, so I don't know how I did it. I guess I didn't know any better. lol

I actually still have it, but the screen doesn't react to touch anymore. I may look into seeing if I can fix it though for a fun challenge.

The Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 wee the first generations of PDAs produced by Palm Computing (then a subsidiary of USRobotics). It was introduced in March 1996.

The Pilot uses a Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and had 128 kB (Pilot 1000) or 512 kB (Pilot 5000) built in Random-access memory.

The PDA has a plastic case (various colors). Its dimensions are 120x80x18 mm and weight is 160 grams.

The Pilot has a 160x160 pixel monochrome LCD tactile panel, with a "Graffiti input zone" presented in the bottom third of the screen. Underneath the screen sits a green on/off button, four applications buttons (Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, and Memo Pad) and two scroll buttons. At left, contrast control. At right top, stylus slot.

On the back of the device there is a Memory Slot door, Reset button, battery compartment (held two AAA batteries) and Serial Port (for use with the PalmPilot Cradle).

Memory is kept in a "memory slot" under a plastic cover at the back top of the PDA. A 512 kB ROM chip stores the Palm OS 1.0 and resident applications. RAM is available in 128 kB, 512 kB or 1 MB; with a PalmPilot Professional memory card, up to 2 MB of RAM. Hardware limit is 12 MB of RAM and 4 MB of ROM.

After a calibration test presented during the initial power up, the Pilot would boot and be ready for use and synchronization. Connecting and synchronizing the PDA was initially done through a utility called Pilot Desktop.

For the PC, Pilot Desktop was distributed either on 3½ inch disk or on CD-ROM (according to an original floppy disk set, v1.0 was for Windows 95 and included a tutorial disk and two win32s disks for Windows 3.1; v2.0 was for Windows 95 and Windows NT).

EDIT: Ok, besides the fact that I have over 45 ebook readers already, fuck it, I just ordered one of these. It's small, so just one more is fine, right?! :)

The Xteink X4 is a miniature e-reader from Xteink, a small hardware company based in Shenzhen, China. The company’s founder, Crusoe Hu, introduced Xteink to international readers in late 2025 at a price of $69.

The basic idea was simple: make an e-reader small and thin enough that people would actually carry it everywhere. Instead of competing directly with a Kindle as a primary home reader, the X4 was meant for short reading sessions during lunch breaks, appointments, bus rides, or other moments when people would normally reach for their phones.

The X4 has a 4.3-inch black-and-white E Ink screen with a resolution of about 220 pixels per inch.

It measures approximately 4.49 by 2.72 inches, is just under a quarter-inch thick, and weighs around 74 to 77 grams, depending on which company figure is used. That makes it noticeably smaller and lighter than a typical Kindle.

Its other major specifications include:

• ESP32 processor

• 650 mAh rechargeable battery

• USB-C charging

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

• 16 GB microSD card included

• Support for microSD cards up to 256 GB

• EPUB and TXT book support

• JPG and BMP image support

• Physical page-turn and navigation buttons

Article from last year but I prefer buying stuff like this after it's been out for a while because I can them cheaper. So I find the older articles helpful.

This is my daily user when I go to the park to read. It's my first Kindle 3rdGen, (called Kindle Keyboard) that I bought way back in 2010.

The battery was going to crap (after 16 years!), so I replaced that and everything was great. But then I dropped it and cracked screen, so I replaced screen. And while I was doing that, I went ahead and replaced the keyboard since my other one was getting kinda crunchy.

Decorative skin was bought on ebay for $2.

Now it's as good as new, and the charge lasts forever. I have lots more batteries and screens, so this will be read on until I die. These Gen3 kindles are the last model of Kindles I bought, because after this, self-repair was too much. I am trying to only buy/own things that I can self-repair from now on.

I don't connect it to wifi (I don't need Amazon snoopin on me), I copy all my DRM-Free books to the device directly from Calibre.

I've got the 7in boox with the color screen and it's awesome. Mostly, I'm posting to see if this community will go anywhere.

The Rocket eBook was one of the first commercially available handheld electronic book readers. NuvoMedia announced the dedicated digital reading device in October 1998.

The original retail price was $499, though it later dropped to $199. The device had an asymmetrical design, two page-turning buttons, a stylus, and a monochrome backlit LCD screen with a resolution of 110 dots per inch. It weighed about 22 ounces, which made it portable but heavier than a typical paperback.

Its 4 MB of flash memory could store up to ten average-sized ebooks, or about 4,000 pages of text. Users downloaded books by connecting the reader to a PC or Mac through a serial cable. NuvoMedia’s proprietary RocketLibrarian software managed the transfers.

A rechargeable nickel-metal hydride battery provided up to 30 to 33 hours of reading time, although frequent backlight use reduced the battery life.

NuvoMedia was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1997 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who later helped found Tesla. They developed the Rocket eBook after recognizing a demand for a device that could recreate the experience of reading printed books in digital form.

Barnes & Noble invested in NuvoMedia and acquired a 17 percent stake after seeing an early prototype. Bertelsmann also provided financial backing. These partnerships helped NuvoMedia launch an online bookstore with digital titles from major publishers, though publisher concerns about piracy limited the available catalog.

Approximately 20,000 units were sold in 1999. The Rocket eBook earned several design awards, but it faced competition from multifunction devices such as the PalmPilot. Limited book selection, inconvenient downloads, and the lack of a standard ebook format also restricted its appeal.

Production ended in 2000.

In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense began a concept development for a portable electronic delivery device for technical maintenance information called project PEAM, the Portable Electronic Aid for Maintenance.

Detailed specs and summary report: https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA210348/mode/2up

Detailed specifications were completed in FY 1981/82, and prototype development began with Texas Instruments that same year. Four prototypes were produced and delivered for testing in 1986, and tests were completed in 1987.

The final summary report was produced in 1989 by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, authored by Robert Wisher and J. Peter Kincaid.

A patent application for the PEAM device, titled "Apparatus for delivering procedural type instructions", was submitted by Texas Instruments on December 4, 1985, listing John K. Harkins and Stephen H. Morriss as inventors.

I have been searching ebay for one of these, but they're hard to find. I have the first american sony ereader that came out. Love it, but always wanted one of these OG machines.

The very first e-reader that was ever released with an E INK screen was the Sony Librie EBR 1000 in 2004. It was only sold in Japan, and retailed for ¥41,790, which was around $260 USD.

The Sony had a full QWERTY keyboard with physical page turn buttons on the left side, this was a conscious design decision, because Japanese books flip from the left side, instead of the right and the overall color scheme was was white. Initially many users were impressed with the display, that had better resolution than most computers. .

The Sony Libre EBR 1000 featured the first E INK display with a resolution of 800×600 with 167 PPI. It only had 4 grey scales, black and white, instead of the 16 grey scales we have today. It did not have a lighting system and was totally dependant on environmental light to see what was on the screen. There is a tiny qwerty keyboard at the bottom of the display, permitting a limited form of marginalia, as well as a small roller wheel. Two physical page turn keys were on the left side.

It was powered by a ARM-based Motorola DragonBall MX1 chip (with a ARM920T core) and had 10MB of internal storage and a Memory Stick slot. There was a USB2 port, a headphone jack and mono speaker. It was powered by 4 AAA alkaline batteries. At power-up, the Librie presents the ubiquitous Japanese cartoon character to guide you through the electronic library. The mascot is called Libro, based on the designers three-year-old miniature Schnauzer. The dimensions were 126mm×190mm×13mm and weighed 190g. This is the same weight as a typical book in Japan. The OS that Sony created was based on Linux.

Sony had an ebook format that was raring to go. They named it Broad Band eBook (BBeB) and one of the important aspects was to to shrink the text of a 250-page book into 500 kb of text, saving precious storage. The primary BBeB content provider is Publishing Link, a joint venture between Sony and a number of large Japanese publishers and printers. Using the digital rights management functions of BBeB and the Librie, content from Publishing Link is set to expire and be unreadable after 60 days. Ebooks sold for ¥1,200 ($8.30) and Readers can choose texts from seven sections, or clubs, ranging from business books to novels and may either pay ¥315 ($3.00) for a single title or join that club and gain access to up to five books a month for ¥210 (£2.10) each. The e-reader could not buy books right on the device, because it did not have WIFI. Books must be downloaded to a PC, then transferred to the reader via its USB 2.0 port or by using a Memory Stick. The Librie comes preloaded with three Japanese dictionaries in Rom and an encyclopaedia.

The final release of the was the result of three years of work on the part of Toppan Printing, Philips, Sony and E Ink Corporation, this was basically the first e-reader, that used an E INK display, a company nobody heard of before.

In 1996 the MIT Media Lab developed new e-paper technology that developed tiny microcapsules that were suspended in a liquid that is encased within a film layer. The microcapsules, which are roughly the width of a human hair, contain positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles. Applying a negative electrical field causes the white particles to rise to the surface. Conversely, applying a positive electrical field causes the black particles to rise to the surface. By applying different fields at different parts of a screen, e-ink produces a monochromatic text display. One of the great aspects about this tech was that it only drew power when the state changed on the screen. In 1997, the tech was so promising that they started a business and called it E INK. The rights to the technology are currently owned by the Massachusetts-based E Ink Corporation, which was acquired by Taiwanese company Prime View International in 2009.

The iReader Air 3 Pro is an 8.2-inch e-reader and e-note device that stands out in the e-paper market due to its unique screen size and specific design choices intended to maximize text clarity.

https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/ireader-air-3-pro-is-coming-out-soon

The iReader Air 3 Pro is an 8.2-inch e-reader and e-note device from PalmRead. It stands out in the e-paper market due to its unique screen size and specific design choices intended to maximize text clarity. It is launching in China on August 6, 2026, and no pricing is available yet.

It features an 8.2-inch E Ink Carta 1300 screen with a resolution of 300 PPU and 00 PPI class, and up to a 50 fps refresh rate. The e-reader offers responsive e-paper generation with significantly darker blacks and higher contrast. In an unconventional hardware shift, iReader omitted the traditional built-in frontlight from this model. By removing the light guide layer, the e-paper screen is essentially transparent, reducing the gap between your eyes and the electronic ink. This delivers an ultra-sharp, paper-like reading experience but requires external ambient light to read in dark environments.

The device integrates physical page-turn buttons along the side bezel, making it highly ergonomic for single-handed reading. It includes an electromagnetic stylus for sketching, note-taking, and direct annotation of PDFs or e-books. The device includes expandable storage capabilities, giving it an edge over competing devices with locked internal storage capacities.

Under the hood is an 8-core CPU and a dedicated microSD slot supporting external storage up to 2TB. Runs Android-based SmartOS, though iReader’s stock interface is tailored primarily for the Chinese domestic market and does not have Google Play, but users will be able to install their own apps.

In 1992 Sony Corporation introduced the Data DiscmanOffsite Link, an electronic book device marketed in the United States to college students and international travelers.

The Data Discman may be called the first eBook reader that was commercially produced, but it was introduced long before the eBook concept had a wide following, and it had little success outside of Japan.

The Data Discman's purpose was quick access to electronic reference information on a pre-recorded disc.

Searches for information on disc were entered using a QWERTY-style keyboard, and utilized the "Yes" and "No" keys. A typical Data Discman model had a low resolution small grayscale LCD, a CD drive unit, and a low-power computer.

Early versions of the device were incapable of playing audio CDs. Software was prerecorded, and featured encyclopedias, foreign language dictionaries, novels, etc.