I pinned 4.8 because 5 started to build the application on its own (native windows, visual studio NOT code). I wouldn't mind much except it seems to take much longer than me alt tabbing and hitting control+b.
Also it seems to start subagents for random stuff, it didn't before with my development style. And then the main thread gives you a partial answer and tells you it's waiting for the subagent to finish :) What's the point?
Fable 5: I give it work, it tells me things that are true and that make sense, it does good work.
Opus 5: I give it work, it makes false statements and draws weird conclusions, I correct it and get it on the right track, it thrashes around but gives me something working though usually buggy.
5.6 Sol is probably on par with Opus 5 on ability but at least it doesn't waste as much of my time.
For the unaware, there is an existing solution that integrates with Kobo's native software (Nickel).
It has been maintained for years, and it supports every Kobo AFAIK.
It's called NickelMenu, and it's great. I'm in the Kobo ecosystem because of NickelMenu and Plato.
One note if you're thinking about getting a kobo due its relative openness: consider getting a two-core device. I did not do my homework and got a Clara BW because I don't want the color display. Later I found out that color is the only one with the two-core CPU.
Hey, author here. NickelMenu is terrific and Cobalt uses it to show the menu item in the default Kobo menu. It's just that Cobalt and NickelMenu are not the same in terms of project goals.
I created this as I could not find anything existing that gives the capabilities I wanted. I read several things downloaded over web apart from books on my Mac and phone, which I would prefer to do on an eInk display. Search papers on arxiv and read them offline later, Substack, even spending a lot of time on chess puzzles, monitor my Claude/Codex remotely, generate explainer audiobooks and listen to them on my bluetooth speaker etc.
The longer battery and the display makes some use cases really shine and I wanted to create apps for my own Kobo and potentially helpful for others as well.
Thank you for the kind words. I will add a page to the project explaining the differentiation.
NickelMenu is a mature project and perfect at what it does, we just have different goals. NickelMenu is designed to extend Kobo's stock interface. Cobalt is designed to be an app platform like Android has for example. I wanted app creators to just write their app logic and not build things like a UI toolkit for their apps, app lifecycle and rendering support (framebuffer drawing, partial eInk refreshes, touch input handling etc.), bluetooth handling, sensor and more. Anything launched through NickelMenu like KOReader or Plato have to implement these on their own.
AFAIK NickelMenu command actions spawn arbitrary shell cmds that inherit root from Nickel, we avoid it by running apps as separate unprivileged processes with declared capabilities like network, storage, audio, fronlight etc.
I also wanted to provide ability to quickly build apps with the SDK and our simulator to test apps on before putting it on the real device, an app store to get new apps over the WiFi after the initial USB install.
This was more oriented on making my life easier, say I have an app idea that I want on my Kobo tomorrow and how quickly can I bring it live on the device. The 'you can run apps' I wrote was meant to signify anyone can now create apps using the SDK without bothering about the device specific bits and publish them and install it via Cobalt's app store. I hope this clarifies things.
Very nice project. I looked at it with the aide of Claude. I was interested in porting the Chess game that Claude helped me make for NickleMenu that runs on my Kobo Elipsa Gen1. From my understanding of Claude's analysis it would be difficult to port the chess game because each Cobalt app is sandboxed, and my app would not be able to spawn the Stockfish engine that my Chess (Nickle menu) game needs to run.
Is that an erroneous conclusion?
Also I probably could not port my Tailscale client to Cobalt for the same reasons.
I kinda creates a separation. Perhaps that is by design: Cobalt = very secure, Nickle = more open but more risk.
Finally the Elipsa Gen1 does not seem to be included in the supported platforms.
Thanks. Cheers from Canada!
Thanks! Can you please create two separate issues in the project for both Elipsa Gen1 support and the other for the stockfish and tailscale client implementation support. Would love to discuss and collaborate with you on both. I would need your help to test on the actual Gen1 device.
There are current issues and PRs for Clara HD and Color devices support so we can take it up by common generations.
This kind of "purity" argument is absolutely toxic. We've seen it with the vietnam paper comparing ORMs to SQL, etc. etc. Please stop this. You didn't hire him, you certainly aren't willing to give him a salary for him to live off of.
If you want to complain about LLMs used in software, advocate for a voluntary LLM disclosure published in the docs someplace, so people can make informed decisions.
No, not really. If you used an LLM you didn't actually make anything. It's like if one commissions a work of art: yes, it wouldn't exist if not for your actions, but no, you didn't make it.
Oh my. Don't you think that code generated by an LLM has nothing to do with "hackers"? And once/if you realize that, don't you immediately see that they're right? Maybe not in the way they say it, but otherwise - they're absolutely right.
I mean, just think about cameras and photography. there's talented photographers, they know how to adjust cameras, they understanding lighting and composition, and yet the camera is what is actually producing the photo... but it's not taboo at all, for anyone to claim credit for taking a photo, no matter their skill level or the quality of the result. It's generally accepted that 'using the tool' is part of the process.
if someone said "i created this photo" it might sound like an odd choice of words, but you wouldn't find the need to 'set them straight' by explaining their camera is actually what created the photo.
you can be a hater all you want, but you're just as annoying as the thousands of vibe-coded projects that are annoying you.
I haven’t had a chance to compare side by side, but people say that if you primarily read books/prose, the BW version is better because the screen is more crisp compared to the color version, which is still a bit blurry when you read books. That’s why I ordered BW. Did anyone compare these two side by side in real life for simple text?
I'm happy with my Kobo Clara Colour. As far as the specs go, both are 300 PPI when displaying black and white. I took a picture of my screen from as close as my phone would allow - the lens was basically touching the e-reader [1]. My eyes can't really focus at this distance anyway, so I can't complain. I don't use the colour screen much, but seeing the book covers in colour is fun for me.
It is maddeningly impossible to get an ereader with all three of these features: b&w screen for maximum crispness; physical buttons for reliable page turns; modern processor for speed.
It runs Android. It's a Chinese company and comes with a bunch of pre-installed apps, but I just blocked its abilities to phone home and use Koreader. It's been great for me
https://goodereader.com/blog/product/onyx-boox-go-7-bw
"The Onyx Boox Go 7 is a dedicated e-book reader with a black and white e-paper display. This device has the same specifications and software as the Go 7 Color Gen 2, except that this model doesn’t have a Kaleido 3; instead, it uses the latest generation Carta 1300 e-paper panel, which increases responsiveness. The key selling points of this model are the physical page-turn buttons and Google Android 13, as well as full access to the Play Store. For those of you who want an e-reader that doesn’t lock you into a specific ecosystem, this deserves a look."
I personally use a Moaan 7. Android and does everything i ask it (I just use FDroid apps though). But do bear in mind it doesnt seem to run apps in the background at all. Just whats onscreen. Battery life is extremely long (probably not unrelated)
Yeah thinking about an pocketbook era lite but apparently can feel a bit sluggish. Might have to unfortunately wait and hope for kobo to release something along the lines of a vision bw.
I rage quit the Boox because the page turn buttons were the same for both landscape and potrait, which meant that one direction was illogical. There were user patches but it just made me so annoyed that when a friend expressed interest in mine, I just gave it way. Maybe it's fixed now but so damn infuriating.
I use a bw Boox device, a colleague has the colour version of the same device. The colour version does not show text more blurry, rather, the contrast is significantly lower. I personally prefer the bw device.
> Did anyone compare these two side by side in real life for simple text?
Yes, I have - I have a Kobo Libra 2 (BW), Boox Go 7 II (Color - same screen as color Kobos) and Boox Note Air 3 (Color).
The issue isn't crispness really - when rendering B&W content the crispness is about the same. However, there's a massive issue with contrast - the Color screen background is very dark and they're basically unusable (for me) without driving them constantly at 80-100% backlight (even during the day). Even at 100% backlight, the page background is darker than the BW reader at like 30% backlight.
This makes the reader eat more battery while being less pleasant for text reading. Moreover, in dark mode (light text on black background) the color screens all show severe ghosting artifacts which don't appear as much on BW screens.
Having said that - reading comics and color books (e.g. programming books) looks great on the color screens. There's just something about that slightly less vibrant "papery" look that's very attractive.
I have a Libra 2 and a Libra Colour. I generally don't notice a difference in crispness, though the effective resolution of the colour's screen is lower. There is a huge difference in the contrast, and you will probably want to use the frontlight even in a reasonably bright environment.
Yes, I replaced a B&W Sage with the Libra Colour, and used them for a bit side-by-side. Contrast (not sharpness) of B&W text is slightly worse with the color one, but not by so much that you'd notice it if you weren't comparing them next to each other. The resolution of actual color is worse, but obviously you can't get color at all on the B&W one, so hard to argue that this is a downgrade.
Unless you're a real contrast freak, I think most people would be slightly happier with the color than the B&W; but it's definitely not worth paying extra for.
The C is sharper but the L looks more like a real book/paper. I believe as an artifact of the colour screen and it’s called “screenshot effect”. In the end, once you use either for 10 minutes it becomes “the new normal”.
I compared. On the color version, the text seems to have a slightly fine mesh or rippled texture. There's no huge difference, but I prefer the black-and-white version
I had a Kobo Libra 2. It broke and I replaced it with a Kobo Libra Colour. The biggest difference is that the Libra Colour is unusable without the backlight turned on, since the screen is so dark. The Libra 2 had a pretty white background without the backlight, whereas the Libra Colour has a grey background. I don't know if the Clara Colour also has a really dark screen or not.
It's the same, just a smaller 6" Kaleido 3 screen VS. 7". Personally I find the Libra Colour fine in a lot of conditions without the front light. Kaleido 3 is darker than BW screens but it's like bad newsprint vs. good newsprint.
but also note that a color e-reader will have significantly worse contrast than a black and white model, which negates the usefulness of the device to people like me.
I encounter freezes mostly when I enable Bluetooth/wifi. Haven't tried on a multi-core kobo but I imagine the UI thread can keep running there.
When reading, agree on it being more than sufficient.
My recommendation is partially because the price can be identical when they have a sale. That was the case when I got a BW--it was the same price as the color.
I should also mention I run quite a few things on my kobo: boringtun to connect to my home network, a fetcher to sync my books and feeds, Plato and its article fetcher whenever I update my Wallabag articles. I'm beyond pleased with my reader experience. The extra processing power would just be icing on the cake.
Likewise. I'd had a Kobo Glo HD for more than 10 years and it was still going strong. I looked at the new color screens and they didn't look as clear to me, though it was a subtle difference. Only got the Clara BW because I wanted to use the BT remote.
I do like my BW kobo, but it's on the slow side, even just when switching pages on the stock app ; and that's annoying. Sometimes because it's stuck it doesn't register the page change, and then it will highlight text instead. That's breaking the reading flow and I really hate that.
Another didn't-do-my-homework mistake: Beware of buying one of the waterproofed models if you want to hack/mod your Kobo. On un-waterproofed models, the case is easily opened, and the main storage SD Card (IIRC - maybe it was a different kind of flash card) can be removed/replaced easily. On waterproof models, the SD Card is under the waterproofing layer, which would have to be cut through to remove the card.
My experience is over 2 years old, so I'm sure some details have changed.
I got the color one and wasn't very happy with it. The color one has a darker screen and less contrast than the bw one.[0]
It also wasn't really big enough for comics. So I'm not quite sure what the selling point is.
It definitely looks cool the first time you see it though.
(Also I thought the whole appeal of Kobo was that you don't need an account, but it wouldn't let me do anything without making an account, which I had to do thru a national partner, whose site was offline...)
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[0] I also heard something about color e-ink having a lower effective resolution? But I'm not sure.
I also have the Clara BW and haven't done any modding on it but it's been on my todo list. Would you be willing to briefly describe issues you've run into with it?
I recommend enabling ssh (native kobo feature) so it's easier to modify the config without needing to plug in, though obviously this is optional.
If you connect over SSH, I would recommend not touching system files. The new kobos don't have a removable SD card so if you corrupt the system files and it can't boot, you need to either do some PCB surgery or get a new mainboard.
Is there any way to recover a "bricked" Clara color? I bricked mine while trying to install nickel and koreader. Haven't been able to recover it since.
I think you'll need to replace the mainboard with one from ifixit.
Not aware of a debug interface, but in the absence of that, you'll need to desolder the nand module and replace the files there with the help of another owner. The mobile read forums are where you can connect with fellow owners.
i've used nickelmenu and it's always felt incredibly janky, especially maintaining the config, but also the way it integrates with the native side menu. you end up jamming so much stuff in there it's hilarious
It does. I don't know about bluetooth but it doesn't work with a usb-c keyboard. At least on the Clara BW the experience is bad, as there is a subtantial delay after each keypress and any keys pressed during it are dropped.
Apparently the "Sage" (which is what I have currently) has a quad-core, but Kobo discontinued it. Sigh, too bad - this was my favourite to-date (needs a power-cover though...).
Off topic, but I don't understand Rakuten's current product strategy. They discontinued their two best devices: the 8" Sage and the 7" Libra 2. What's left are two unfortunately sized B&W readers (the tiny 6" Clara and giant 10" Elipsa) and a couple of color readers that no one should buy unless they absolutely NEED color (I've tried them, and the screens look terrible compared to the B&W versions).
I believe that this is your opinion, but my own opinion (having also tried them, and used multiple generations of B&W ones before this) is that the screens look just fine, and that the slight downgrade of contrast isn't a big deal at all.
Very bad battery life. Maybe 8hrs of reading with wifi off, BT off and only low screen backlight. I need to charge it daily or every other day at best.
Physical buttons are comically bad and often don't register presses.
Built-in book reading app is slow, lacks some critical features and hangs in many epub books. I replaced it with KOreader which finally made the device usable.
It's a great screen size though (9" would be even better).
I got about the same - then I got a power-cover and it lasts far longer, it was a worthwhile investment. Although after about 2-years, the pogo-pins are wearing out and sometimes it doesn't connect/charge.
The physical buttons were also great - for the first year, then they started wearing out.
> Very bad battery life. Maybe 8hrs of reading with wifi off, BT off and only low screen backlight. I need to charge it daily or every other day at best.
This seems like a wildly different experience than I have with it. I don't read 8 hours per day, but typically 1-2 hours per day, and charge it every 2-3 weeks.
Yeah, I mean I'd be interested... but you've got wifi/BT off, so I don't even know what would be taking up much battery otherwise.
My light levels are probably 50/50 6% (at night in bed) and ~33% (other times). I did briefly buy a Kobo remote and found that having bluetooth on for that was very bad for my battery life.
And, regrettably, The Archive lent books regardless of physical possession.
Publishers had accepted the prior arrangement before The Archive decided to push it, if not explicitly then implicitly by not suing.
I'm a believer in The Archive's mission, and I wish they had treated the goodwill they'd accumulated as something worth preserving and not a currency to be spent.
It has been stated by many before me: lending books should have been handled by a separate entity, especially when they removed the physical backing requirement.
Just to be clear, publishers hadn't accepted the "controlled digital lending" (CDL) premise, not even with the one-to-one ratio. Their position was always "first sale ends when the atoms do". There was even controlling precedent: a few years before IA tried their online lending library thing, there was an "MP3 resale" company called ReDigi that had lost on very similar grounds. The publishers suing IA even made sure to sue in the same venue that had decided the ReDigi case so it'd be controlling precedent.
Furthermore, in the discovery for the Internet Archive case, publishers had already found a case where IA had lent out books despite knowing their partner libraries wasn't actually withdrawing loaned-out copies from circulation. The CDL premise was always just a suggestion, and IA would have still lost their case if they hadn't done the National Emergency Library (NEL) stunt or if they'd been sued in another venue that hadn't had the ReDigi case as precedent.
It's important to note that whenever a company decides to sue for copyright, it is often late, because the company is banking infringements up to the 3-year statute of limitations and because building a meritorious case takes time. The lack of a timely lawsuit proves almost nothing about the intent of a publisher with a valid case against you.
The thing is, I don't even think the whole stunt damaged much of the IA's goodwill? I know of a few people who withheld donations to IA, but that was mainly under the assumption that publishers would be getting a billion-dollar damage award that would immediately bankrupt IA and result in it's archives being sold off to Lexis-Nexis or something. The funny thing is, IA wound up settling for a sum so small they had to promise never to reveal it, and the danger is gone, so the only thing people complain about now is just that the NEL stunt maybe pushed them "above the radar" or something.
It's still insane that shredding books for AI training is legal, but this isn't.
The big insanity is tying this to AI. Shredding books is about format shifting; it's a concession hard-won from copyright establishment, which would otherwise be more than happy to deny you the option to convert the media you owned from physical to digital.
AI training happens to be one of the fields exercising that option, but since it's the current favorite topic for people to hate on, here we are.
You don't need to shred books to scan them. They make book scanners that will "rip" a fully-bound book no-problem, and even correct for the curvature of the page and binding to give you an equivalent image. In fact, the Internet Archive specifically built nondestructive book scanners[0] for exactly the purpose of which AI companies are now shredding books. The smart / savvy thing to do would be to buy those machines off IA and use them to read the books they're interested in.
The reason why AI companies don't do this is that they're cheap and desperate for training tokens. Same reason why they have scrapers that will happily overload web interfaces for Git repos following links to everything, even though you can just Git clone the repo with far less stress on the host. The AI people are ultimately there just to pillage as much knowledge as they can as fast as possible. Their scraping practices are slap-dash garbage.
Again, the entire point I'm making is that the choice is dictated by copyright law. They can't legally scan books non-destructively. They can legally format-shift them, i.e. scan them destructively. So this is what they're doing.
Your comment seems to also be regurgitating common misconceptions (to put it charitably) about AI and web scraping.
There is no tenet of copyright law that requires format-shifting be destructive. The term "format-shifting" almost always refers to a non-destructive process; i.e. when you "rip" a CD you are getting a 1:1 copy of the music, but the original CD still exists. If you were legally expected to destroy the disc after ripping, RIAA v. Diamond would have gone a different way and MP3 players would have been illegal.
For AI training specifically, the only standing caselaw is the Anthropic lawsuit. And in that lawsuit, the only thing that was actually in the wrong was maintaining a library of pirated books. That was deemed illegal and Anthropic was ordered to delete those files. But, notably, the judge explicitly said that scanning books to train AI on them was legal, and imposed no requirement to destroy scanned books. I'm pretty sure Anthropic wouldn't even need to retain the physical copies - though there's no caselaw on that in particular, so don't cite me.
As a member, the gas savings pay the annual fee, and I get my staples from Costco every few months. Peanut butter, paper towels, TP, tissues, and sometimes mushrooms and washed greens.
Everything else I'd rather get from my local grocery stores.
