Thread: Frontlit no WiFi reader
View Single Post
Old 02-11-2022, 10:13 PM   #45
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,905
Karma: 47303824
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnotherWanderer View Post
You've stated that the browser on readers don't work a fair few times now. What are you judging this by? From pictures of even old Kindles I can only assume that they have fairly decent CSS and JavaScript support, although I imagine JavaScript heavy pages or pages with complicated stylesheets would get painful to use quite quickly.

I put "usable" at reading plaintext, rendering an HTML form and submitting it. If any reader failed to render 68k.news I would be amazed (and somewhat disappointed, I have a very cheap PRS-T1 on it's way as an experiment for using an eink device as a news reader).
Browsers on e-ink devices are terrible for a number of reasons. The CPU and RAM is low so performance for that reason is terrible. Updating e-ink screens is slow and has issues with ghosting. That means that complicated pages don't work and if there is any sort of animation, it looks terrible. They don't tend to support newer web features. Someone mentioned that the browser on the Kindle hasn't changed since 2007. I don't know if that is true, but, I'd put the browser on the Kobo at least five years behind PC and tablet based browsers.

For a Kobo, a text only page like you example works fairly well. But, scrolling means a lot of flashing as it the text is refreshed.

The other thing for e-ink based dedicated ereaders, is that any internet usage is a very secondary thing. They use the WiFi to sync books and status. But, it happens in the background. There are no notifications from other apps, the home screen shows books, not other apps with notices. Opening the browser takes multiple clicks and it is a deliberate decision to use. Honestly, if you are able to let the internet on an e-ink ereader distract you from reading, then you probably would have been distracted by anything and possibly should reconsider what you are reading.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote