Ofer

charlesn said:

I understand why you love this device--it's literally a dupe of the Kindle Oasis from 5 years ago that I own and love, with the addition of a color screen in the Boox. Don't take my word for it--have a look at the Kindle Oasis page on Amazon and you'll see an identical device. So that extra wide bezel on the one side with the page turn button is hardly "genius" on the part of Boox--that's called "theft," lol. Fortunately for Boox, Amazon has already EOL'd the Oasis and you can only buy one used, so if you like that form factor and want a new device, Boox is now the only way to go. 

I would really appreciate more specifics in a product review than the broad generalities given here. About the only thing we get about "performance" in the performance section is a vague comparison with an iPad and an iPhone... ummm, how about performance comparisons with other e-readers? How quick are the page turns, how fast does it boot up, how subject is the screen to ghosting, what is the OS like, how even is the backlighting--where does Boox position the LEDs and how many are used? What is e-ink color like compared to what we're accustomed to seeing on backlit screens? Is color all that useful or necessary in an e-reader? Also, since it's now 17 years since the Kindle debuted, do we really need to be telling people that e-readers are not gaming devices? Honestly, with Amazon seeming to have suspended further development of the Kindle (I don't know that for a fact, but it sure seems that way) the most curious potential buyers for this Boox device are likely current Kindle owners looking for a next gen device. Is there any way to use their Kindle library on a Boox? Is there an equivalent to the Amazon Kindle Store for purchasing books for the Boox? Overall, this review reads more like the written version of an unboxing video and is a missed opportunity to really inform. 

I do wonder about the future of Kindle hardware on Amazon. I'm sure that entire business amounts to no more than a miniscule rounding error on their balance sheet, so in this era of cost-cutting at Amazon, it would be hard to justify the R&D investment to continue bringing new Kindles to market for a loyal and passionate user group that is unfortunately fairly small. Perhaps Amazon abandons the e-reader hardware business and focuses on being the best online bookstore for e-titles no matter what brand of e-reader you use? Maybe--if they abandon the hardware business--they make Kindle purchases readable on other brands of e-readers so that people can continue to access their Kindle libraries. I'd be curious to hear what other e-reader users think in the comments below. 

araquen said:

I’ve dabbled in third party solutions, and tend to give up using them. Some of them got my money, and I have no regrets.

Grammarly - I found this intrusive, plus I was not going to pay a subscription. 

1Password - I was NOT a fan of moving to a subscription, and there was one update that “broke” attachments. If Apple’s native password manager lets me maintain parity between my Mac and my frankenbox (though with Microsoft screwing up Windows 11 as it is, I may not need the frankenbox anymore), I don’t mind removing another subscription from my budget.

Windows managers - I’ve tried them and this functionality doesn’t really work for me anyway.

Calculators - I never needed anything fancy. The apps on iPhone and my Mac are fine for my needs. PCalc has a digital dice app, which I did buy and I am sure Apple has no interest in. So if anyone wants to keep supporting PCalc, especially if you’re looking to get into TTRPs, Dice is worth the price.

Calendars and task managers - there has been NO calendar solution that does what Apple’s Calendar will do, with the exception of Palm’s Palm Desktop calendar, which maybe clung to live as late as 2008: which is the in-line coordination of to dos and calendar entries. Even Fantastical keeps reminders to a sidebar. I have been begging for “threaded” tasks and calendar entries for almost 20 years. If there is another calendar app that will do this, I can’t find it, and if Fantastical can do this, I was never able to unlock that feature (unless it was gated behind a subscription paywall).

Journals - I have never been able to journal, even though I bought several journaling apps (some of which switched to subscription, and I draw the line at subscription models for software.

The one app I really wish Apple would sherlock is TuneUp. To date, has been the best tagging software I have ever used - as long as you are diligent. It is no longer in development and can no longer be used with Apple’s jukebox (Apple Music). But TuneUp worked from the same database Apple uses, not the insanely inaccurate Musicbrainz current full featured music taggers rely on, and was able to determine what was an album track versus a complication track. It allowed you to force a recording into an album even if the identifier believed the track was from a compilation, and was able to use duplicates to build out multiple albums before flagging the file as a duplicate (great for, say, The Beatles, where the same songs appear on a LOT of albums, both as stand alone albums and compilations). It could also bulk process files, and didn’t require music files to already be in an album folder. You could literally have a drive full of music files and TuneUp would sort and tag all of it without you having to micromanage it. APPLE! SHERLOCK TUNEUP!

bgardman said:

It would be nice if Apple could allow us to clean the keyboards without starting the Mac up with a key press. This is part of the auto on they use now. I have a MacBook Pro M1 and it is really annoying when I clean the keys to have the Mac startup. Any key.