[Tho85]

I bought the Onyx Boox Note Air some months ago, and I must say that I'm really happy with it. Screen refresh is good, there's almost no ghosting in default mode, and refresh rates are acceptable.

There are only two downsides about it: The vendor does not respect FOSS and does not publish the sources for their modified Linux kernel, and the device constantly phones home to China. However, the device can be rooted easily [1], and you can install a firewall to stop the preloaded apps from phoning home (verified it with Wireshark).

[1]: https://blog.tho.ms/hacks/2021/03/27/hacking-onyx-boox-note-...

[_l4lu]

It doesn't just phone home to China. The company actually refuses to comply with the GPL because of "anti-China sentiment" and closed down their support forum when people got angry (https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/hsyigm/on...)

[dspillett]

> because of "anti-China sentiment"

Because yet another Chinese company flagrantly flouting a licence is really going to help with that situation…

I was considering one of their devices. I am now not.

[echelon]

> The company actually refuses to comply with the GPL because of "anti-China sentiment"

Seems like just cause for a multinational import ban. This is flagrant law breaking and theft.

[hcurtiss]

Man, I don't know. I have the Onyx Poke 3 and I find the software pretty janky. For instance, in order to install a dictionary, I have to jump through a whole series of hoops to download one to a PC and then upload/install it on the tablet. I could install the Kindle app (after I enable the Google Play Store), but then I might as well buy a Kindle. In order to upload epub or pdf documents to the Poke3, I have to interface through a browser on a page with a very limited interface. They do not have upload by email, bluetooth, or any other convenient interface with my phone. All in all, it's just felt like a half-baked product to me.

[Tho85]

I use Syncthing [1] to do all the syncing, works like a charm. I have a folder synchronized between my reader, my PC and my phone, and whenever I need to send a document to the reader or from the reader to my PC, I just put it into that folder.

[1] https://syncthing.net/

[rchaud]

I discovered Syncthing last week, and it's exactly what I was looking for: a local server that syncs between Device A and Device B on the same network. No need for a middleman like Dropbox.

This is why I'm leaning towards the Note Air. The Kobo Elipsa is coming out soon but it syncs with Dropbox only.

[westpfelia]

Syncthing is maybe my favorite software discovery this year. It does exactly what I want it to no fuss. I'll shill for Syncthing all day.

[salamandersauce]

You can install a dictionary on the device, they are just stardict dictionary files...it's literally putting a file in a folder. They also have some available to download although mainly focused on Chinese/Russian.

It runs Android. You can just sync things through the cloud provider of your choice. Put the Dropbox, OneDrive, NextCloud etc. app on and just download it from there.

Most eReaders don't have upload by email just Kindles and that doesn't let you send a more recent better formats like KFX or AZW3, just ancient mobi. Ditto Bluetooth.

And guess what? At least with Android phones "Nearby Share" works too (although that may require setting up Google Play Store.

[powerapple]

I thinks he is looking for a "kindle" and really should get a Kindle. I actually own a Kindle and a BOOX Nova 3, they are two different products, not interchangeable if you are picky about which is better at doing what. I would have a E-ink tablet, a Kindle and a iPad depending on the tasks.

[andrei_says_]

Anything you’ve installed on the nova3 that you use?

Apart from Kindle, Firefox and safari books online reader?

I’ve found that 3rd party drawing apps don’t work well with the screen.

[salamandersauce]

Yeah maybe. I use my Nova 2 as an everything eReader. Run the Kindle app for Kindle books, Kobo for kobo stuff, etc. Plus it will do things like Marvel Unlimited, Tachiyomi that readers from Amazon and Kobo won't.

[hcurtiss]

I want a Kindle for DRM free epubs

[tluyben2]

I don't use most of their stuff on it; anything Android works and that's what I use. However I do like their reader. Never tried a dictionary installation but the rest is all resolvable with Android apps I would think; for synching anything you would use on an android phone works here too; dropbox, google drive etc.

The fact it runs Android is vastly better than some custom software (like Kindle and others) because of this reason.

[bjornjajayaja]

If it phones home to China count me out. I’ll go for the reMarkable tyvm

I can just see me working on a brilliant invention (one can dream , right?) and putting my notes into the note boox, only to realize it gets patented before me by a Chinese company.

[yitchelle]

I know that this is obvious, but worth noting.

This anxiety is not just China as a destination, but it just as relevant if it phones home to any company in any _country_.

[tomComb]

I don't agree. Remarkable is based in Norway and I have more confidence in a Norwegian companies handling of my data.

[Aeolun]

Maybe not just as relevant, but certainly still annoying.

[est]

> If it phones home to China count me out.

About 1 billion Chinese customers think the same like you, except they refuse products that phone home to USA.

[PaulRobinson]

US (and EU, and indeed everywhere else), companies do not have as long and detailed a recent track record of IP theft.

[msie]

Don't forget that Facebook and Google steal all sorts of information about you too.

[est]

And that's relevant with customer choice because?

[eloisant]

Because you might be taking work-related notes on your device that you don't want to be stolen as industrial spying.

[selectodude]

Because people create IP on their tablets.

[radlad]

Makes sense? After all, you're crossing legal jurisdictions.

[bserge]

As they are free to do.

[ChristopherDrum]

I have also really enjoyed my BOOX Note Air. I read like crazy on it and use it for note taking constantly. I like that I can have Firefox on it, for a little light web browsing. Maybe it's because it's my first e-ink device and I got enamored with the "new and shiny" of it all; I dunno.

Personally, I don't need it to translate my handwriting, I just like the act of writing and like being able to design my own paper types on demand, with infinite paper. For me, it meets my needs. I put hands on a variety of devices at Yodobashi Camera and this was the only one that felt natural to write on. Everything else had a perceptible lag, or the pen was weird, that I couldn't handle for long.

Of course, leave it to HN to make me feel like a total shithead for not looking into FOSS and other things (it didn't cross my mind even once). Guess I'll be rooting it this weekend; I really hate sinking the time/effort/risk into doing stuff like that.

[vinni2]

I don’t like the software on my Onyx boox. It’s over engineered with too many options often not intuitive. Unless you opt in for their cloud service syncing sucks. I still can’t figure out how to access documents from Dropbox and edit them and sync it back.

[zmk_]

Try Dropsync [1], you can sync particular folders to your Drobpox. The sync is bidirectional. There is a similar app for Google Drive as well.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dr...

[dominotw]

I use google drive from the play store. There is an extra step to enable play store.

[stewbrew]

Is there any information on what data it sends home? Is the problem the server is in China? My Android phone always phones home to some US servers.

P.S. I own a rm2 but I'd be interested in an e-ink android tablet.

[Tho85]

It's been a while since I looked at it, but here's what I remember:

In the UI, you can choose if the device should communicate to Chinese or US servers. Both of them are available under the boox.com domain, so I assume they are both controlled by the Chinese manufacturer. The device uses this to check for firmware upgrades, to sync notes, for their own book store and IIRC to send some basic usage statistics. As per firmware version 3.0 (v3.1 is current), this traffic was only partly encrypted.

Besides this, the software seems to include some kind of Tencent SDK, which tries to contact Chinese servers quite aggressively, regardless of which setting you choose in the UI. The traffic is encrypted, so I couldn't figure out what it does. The servers seem to belong to Tencent's QQ service [1], so they supposedly use it for their on-device support feature. However, because the device tries to contact the servers immediately after startup, I assume it does some kind of analytics tracking as well. Blocking the service's domains on the DNS level doesn't work though, as the SDK will start to contact fixed IP addresses if DNS resolution fails.

Luckily, all of this traffic can be blocked after rooting and installing a firewall (see my post above), since all of this is implemented under Android user ID 1000, which makes it easy to block in AFWall+.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ

[dominotw]

I bought this last year during pandemic. My reading time has grown exponentially, i couldn't update sure . I like that i can use play store apps so i use kindle, libby, pocket and oreilly.

[andrei_says_]

Any chance to block this via my router for example?

Is there an IP list anywhere?

And, do you know what data they send?