Quote:
Originally Posted by rhari79
I feel, the BQ Cervantes line of readers are the most "open" devices.
The UI is built over QT and source available in github.(incl kernel).
https://blog.bq.com/es/bq-ereaders-developers-program/
This probably beats even the Irex Iliads.
But in spite of these, there seems to be very little interest in these devices.
Out of the box the reader seems to be quite bland and they are only in 6' size. Begging for some developer's TLC. |
The Cervantes 4 is a nice reader. If you plan to write your own QT apps it is way better than kobos because you can repurpose the framebuffer / touchpad / buttons drivers and just focus on the application itself. The only thing that needs a bit of work is implementing a virtual keyboard but there are plenty of tutorials online, like
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index....board_Template.
Some software was ported, including
KOReader,
FBInk, a
modern toolchain and
a tool to debug the device via usbnet.
If you don't care about Qt apps then get a Kobo (or a Remarkable), because both are easily hackable and have a bigger community, which helps when you have questions.
Comparing stock readers (QtBookApp vs Nickel) or hardware (BQ cervantes 4 vs Kobo Clara HD) is not fair and kobo usually wins by a huge margin, but there is some positive points for BQ:
- they implemented a truly professional mechanism to update the firmware
- wifi might consume a bit more current when it is disabled but it is waaay more reliable than kobo's wifi.
- the device doesn't wake up by itself on KOReader as happened sometimes in some kobo devices I had.
- Better battery life (at least in KOReader)
- I saw a few C3/C4 and none of them have the light bleeding problem you'll find on some Claras HD.
- Developers firmware is based on Debian Wheezy, you can install any Debian packages and have some nices extras (like installing avahi-daemon and having your device autoannounce your network services on your LAN or installing a userspace mtp implementation instead of relying on the g_mass_storage kernel driver.
Finally, I do love the IR touchscreen these devices have.