Just learned today about the Xteink X4 device, which seems really nice pocket e-reader (with physical buttons)
gemini://axxuy.com/blog/2026/i-also-got-an-xteink-x4.gmi
And there’s an Open Source firmware:
https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader
Has anybody tested it?
@ploum It is fantastic. I use the Open Source Firmware and it works beautifully.
I don't use it to read long papers of texts that I want to annotate (it does not have that functionality) but I have gotten to spending my lunch breaks reading fiction books (currently going through Ursula K. Le Guin's works) instead of staring at the phone.
The reader is so small that I just have it in my coat pocket all the time. The battery lasts forever.
Replying to @tante@tldr.nettime.org
@ploum it has the perfect size
Replying to @tante@tldr.nettime.org
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
Frank Herbert, Dune (Dune, #1)
Its ALWAYS been about control of the means of manufacture.
Its also why local #LLMs and other local software is so important. Its the way to not be trapped with people who own the machines against you.
AI isn't the enemy. The companies who control AI are.
