The Open Book
hackaday.io
This is a complete reimagining of the Open Book Project, but the original mission remains: As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading are closed objects, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners' interests are not always aligned with readers'. The Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone can build for themselves. The Open Book should be comprehensible: the reader should be able to look at it and understand, at least in broad strokes, how it works. It should be extensible, so that a reader with different needs can write code and add accessories that make the book work for them. It should be global, supporting readers of books in all the languages of the world. Most of all, it should be open, so that anyone can take this design as a starting point and use it to build a better book.

This is a complete reimagining of the Open Book Project, but the original mission remains:

As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading are closed objects, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners’ interests are not always aligned with readers’.

The Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone can build for themselves. The Open Book should be comprehensible: the reader should be able to look at it and understand, at least in broad strokes, how it works. It should be extensible, so that a reader with different needs can write code and add accessories that make the book work for them. It should be global, supporting readers of books in all the languages of the world. Most of all, it should be open, so that anyone can take this design as a starting point and use it to build a better book.

Check out the promo video as well:
https://youtu.be/vFD9V8Hh7Yg

  • The Hobbyist
    2•9 months ago

    That version is ad-sponsored though, isn’t it? If you wanted to get it without ads, I believe you need to pay extra.

    • @allstar
      2•9 months ago

      You can ask customer service to remove it for free after purchase, or so I’ve heard.

      • @2ncs@lemmy.world
        4•9 months ago

        I’m pretty sure it’s a $30 dollar charge, from when I last looked into it. For that exact price difference you can get a Kobo, which isn’t Amazon and doesn’t have ads

        • @SatyrSack
          2•9 months ago

          If you want to just do it automatically through the settings or whatever, sure. But you can supposedly call up customer service, make up an excuse like the ads are inappropriate for your kid, and they will remove ads for no charge.

        • HeratikiEnglish
          1•9 months ago

          Sadly a Kobo doesn’t support my Kindle library without a good bit of extra steps that, from my experience, can wreck some books.

          • @2ncs@lemmy.world
            2•9 months ago

            That’s fair. Fwiw that’s the main reason I tried to avoid kindle, so I would be able to take my library where i want and not be tied to Amazon

      • HeratikiEnglish
        1•9 months ago

        Yeah they usually won’t do this unless you’ve owned it for a while or purchased a considerable amount of content via the device. Also depends on how adamant you are about having them remove it.