Last Days of the NOOK?

[Julie Paradise]

Originally Posted by gforgiraffe39935

This is a good point. However, due to my eyesight, there were paper books I just couldn't read at a certain point. If they didn't have large print or eBook available in the public library, I never read them. [...]

E-Books are great for their accessibility in various ways: 1) You can get pretty much anything instantly (funds and internet access provided), 2) you can then change fonts and sizes and 3) even have stuff read to you with text-to-speech, and 4) sometimes even translate parts or look up unfamiliar words with just a tap.

I think my comment went into the opposite of what you were going with (or understood it for, maybe, so I apologize if I was not making myself clear):

Books, as great as they are and although they have worked for centuries without much change and will in the future, are sometimes or under certain circumstances/for some people less accessible, yet some folks have to moan about all those great little e-reader devices we have now at our disposal, and moan so much so that it seems these are all bad, cheaply built, not thought out, garbage-crap-too-dark-unusable ...

When I am working on a publication (I am a professional [copy] editor, mainly in academia), I am always sad to learn that there is no e-book version planned, which is often the case, because this means that the physical book will be put on a shelf in an office, and that's it. I then always try to argue for a proper e-book (and not just the PDF), I mention accessibility (for disabled people), practicality, even offer to provide the EPUB myself, but still many people just don't want it or don't see the use of it, or they fear piracy. (Which is pretty naive, given how many books I used to paper-copy during my time in uni ... and the books we're talking about are dealing with Islamic law or Amharic grammar, so: Who will want to steal those, except maybe a few poor students who couldn't afford the 120 € print book anyway?) So, then I always make a private EPUB for myself and maybe the author, if they so wish, and happily use that.

[Quoth]

Commercial pirates can pirate paper nearly as easily as Kindle. They used to just upload image based PDF of the scans but now do OCR.

[Renate]

I remember buying a paperback copy of an American text books years ago in South Korea. It looked fairly normal until you saw the margin notes that somebody had written in the original.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by gforgiraffe39935

With extreme joint pain in my hands...

You might consider a Bluetooth foot pedal to turn the pages for you.
This one from Onyx is not particularly the cheapest, but it is nice looking.

Personally, I wouldn't buy anything with any controls (besides pedals) on the top surface.

I have a BT key fob flipper, a BT single (PgDn) pedal, a BT quad pedal and a wired USB Infinity triple pedal for my desktop.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

I remember buying a paperback copy of an American text books years ago in South Korea. It looked fairly normal until you saw the margin notes that somebody had written in the original.

What language and were they useful?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Quoth

What language and were they useful?

It was the classic "Digital Signal Processing" in English.
I can't find the right edition, but it could have been the Proakis one.

[gforgiraffe39935]

Originally Posted by Renate

You might consider a Bluetooth foot pedal to turn the pages for you.
This one from Onyx is not particularly the cheapest, but it is nice looking.

Personally, I wouldn't buy anything with any controls (besides pedals) on the top surface.

I have a BT key fob flipper, a BT single (PgDn) pedal, a BT quad pedal and a wired USB Infinity triple pedal for my desktop.

Thanks for the recommendation. I tried remotes (not using bluetooth of the eReader) but they required constant reconnecting between the ring remote and the page turner attached to the device. If they had e-ink devices / accessories that could follow eye-movement or facial features like I've seen for Mac OS Accessibility, I'd be in business!

Current: I have origami cases on my eReaders that I prop up close to my hands and turn pages by tapping with my knuckles so I do not have to straighten/uncurl my fingers.

Future: I believe KOReader has the ability to program automated page turns, so that is what I am looking into now. I can read faster than an audiobook / TTS can narrate.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by gforgiraffe39935

I tried remotes (not using bluetooth of the eReader) but they required constant reconnecting between the ring remote and the page turner attached to the device.

That should not be the case.
Some cheap things may have a 1 minute sleep timeout (selfie clickers).
I program my BT devices to have a 5 minute timeout.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Renate

In a world where much is out of your control, being able to apply your particular tastes to your "vademecum" is a godsend.
For me:

• flush screen
• front light
• no buttons (Bluetooth clicker)
• auto sleep cover flap

The old Nooks (and even the new ones) don't meet these criteria.

Even if the nook met your criteria, the firmware for the nook is atrocious.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if the nook met your criteria, the firmware for the nook is atrocious.

I only use my own launcher, library and reader so there's not any Nook user software.
I could switch from Onyx to any other Android-based device without too much trouble.

[gforgiraffe39935]

Originally Posted by Renate

I only use my own launcher, library and reader so there's not any Nook user software.
I could switch from Onyx to any other Android-based device without too much trouble.

Before I sold my NOOKs off, I thought: let me give it one last hurrah.
Wow, they are little power-houses of fun (or rather, were, since all of that's actively discouraged with locking ADS and whatnot)!

I thought there wasn't a suitable launcher for the GLP 2015, but have ReLaunchX and KOReader working wonderfully on it! Unlike the GL4/4e 2021, it is waterproof, and I am enjoying using it outside in nature with the automated page turns of KOReader!

I have got TTS (text-to-speech) working now on the GL4, and with KOReader, it's almost perfect.

I will have to research how to set up my own sync server next, since that is what bugs me most about KOReader progress syncing. Perhaps even adding a bluetooth keyboard and a barebones Word processor apk is in my future, too? Fantastic little devices.

Considering letting go of the Kindles.