I built a pocket e-ink newspaper from my RSS feeds to ditch my phone
I turned my RSS feeds into an e-ink newspaper to stop reading on my phone
A developer who loves reading personal blogs on his phone but hates eye strain bought a 4.3-inch X4 e-reader, installed the open-source Crosspoint firmware, and created 'feedpaper' — a tool that turns unread RSS items into an e-pub. He filters out feeds that don't work on e-ink, like YouTube and JS-heavy blogs, and enjoys reading his 'newspaper' at a café with a latte.
To my greatest surprise, I had it installed after just three clicks.
- ynac
I like to read a physical dirty (ink dust, not content) finger newspapers whenever I can get them. At a bakery / cafe a few weeks ago, sitting outside having cherry Danish and an Americano (the international special), I was reading the NYT and the SeaTimes section by section. It was awesome. Comics, international, regional beats, magazines. I realized somewhere in the middle of the caffeine and sugar rush, just what a huge effort it takes to put out a DAILY newspaper. It's incedible, even without considering the cheap price.
There was a couple nearby looking at the mess of papers on my table. I realized I needed to tidy my donnage pile of sections, and impulsively offered them to the couple. They almost jumped. If I didn't know better I swear they were living out some fantasy of holding a newspaper for the first time.
- runjake
This is wonderful.
About the only good thing to come out of the open web dying is a revitalization of open and accessible computing hobbies.
- dewey
In my regular RSS reader I often have the problem that some feeds are not full feeds, or some images are missing (In case they have some gallery) and I have to click out to the page, even just to verify I got the full text. That always kinda stops me from going the eink route where I don’t have a proper browser.
Depends on which feeds you subscribe to I guess, probably works really well for long form, reliable feeds.
- alsanan
Nxtpaper products of tcl are almost as good as eink but without losing the color and screen speed of normal phones. Just change the mode with a switch and you have an ereader. Mate screen and colors and light like an eink device.
- TFNA
This doesn't work for me in spite of over 10 years of trying. I am currently eating lunch and wasting time on HN on my phone, but my ebook reader full of edifying material is sitting there ignored on the table, right in front of me. I need some way of leaving the phone at home completely, but in my country so much basic everyday stuff relies on a phone (and strong bank authentication through a phone).