Kobo can run apps now
bandarlabs.github.io341 points by thepoet 6 hours ago
341 points by thepoet 6 hours ago
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.
I admire and support your effort, but the title makes it sound like you couldn't run apps in the past.
Nickelmenu deserves a mention in the opening paragraph and a differentiation of what this new piece of software brings to the table.
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.
Awesome
Time to start a F.A.Q section on the website. You could that comment almost verbatims for the question : "How is that different from NickelMenu"
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?
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.
Boox Go 7 - B&W version.
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
Boox Go 7 BW?
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."
(slower by 2 minutes...)
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.
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.
Yes. I had color Kobo, forgot it in the airport lounge, and bought BW one as a replacement. It is much better.
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.
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
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.
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.
What does the two-core CPU get you? I'm very satisfied with my BW with KOReader, haven't noticed any shortcomings but I only read books on it.
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.
Ah yeah, mine takes a while to connect to wifi too. I assumed that was just how it was, luckily I do it rarely.
I got the BW over the Color only because I had read the color screen wasn't as sharp, though I've never compared them side by side.
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.
Also NickelHook, which adds the native hooks into the Nickel application. I used it for intercepting http calls previously
Is it bad that I was disappointed after reading this, hoping for a library that handles callbacks, called NickelBack?
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?
0 issues using nickelmenu out of the box.
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.
Are there any writing apps? Any way to connect a Bluetooth keyboard? (Or USB)
KOReader probably lets you edit text files but I only use my kobo to read. Have not tried connecting any external devices.
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...).
I have Kobo Sage but it's not a great device.
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).
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.
This is something I've considered wanting, and I'm glad it exists, but after some thought it's absolutely not at all what I want my Kobo to do. Much like how I wouldn't bring headphones or a Bluetooth speaker with me on a hike, or a laptop with me camping, I don't even want the option of games or anything other than a good reading experience when I'm using my e-reader. I'd assume this is a redundant take, but I don't even know if my Kobo can produce sounds, and I'd like to keep it that way.
What's tricky is that although I don't want it to be an unconstrained app platform, I do want the ability to integrate with services that host my things to read. Karakeep, RSS, Google Play Books or Internet Archive, etc.. but I think that could be handled in a more narrow fashion.
I agree. One of the things I love about my Kindle is that it’s a single-use device, functionally equivalent to holding a paperback in my hands. There’s nothing to distract me or tempt me away from reading. Apps would risk breaking that spell.
FWIW, some Kobos can run PostmarketOS. I built this UI for my Clara - https://www.github.com/bjesus/air . It runs Firefox, Syncthing, KOReader, and basically anything else you can run on Linux.
>These are photographs of the device, not simulator captures
Thanks for the clarification Claude
the copy on OP's pages is so full of claude-isms that it quickly became unbearable, for me. the claude-ism you quote above at least made me laugh.
Wow. This is rad, well done. I've been trying to find an alt OS for my Clara Colour and this looks great. Being able to author apps means I can finally add a way to review my highlights/quotes and search them with ease.
Edit: damn, just saw the BW note. It looks like the Clara Colour would be blocked by Cobalt...
I still use my Kobo Glo. I must been working at least 10 years now. I have finished countless books on it.
I like that is a durable single use device. I wouldnt use it as general use computer at all.
Even my old kobo has experimental features like wifi and a web browser. They have been trying to break in to that market since forever.
Isn't the whole point of Kindle (or other ebook readers) being able to read books without distractions?
No, the whole point is the e-ink screen. Kindle has had a web browser since the very first version, and people have managed to read books on it just fine without distractions.
There's a contingent of enthusiasts who, once they find out a device runs Linux or can run Linux, seems determined to expose a terminal on it. I don't know why someone needs to SSH into their toaster, but damned if they're not gonna do it, just because they can.
Me personally, I just want a reliable toaster.
I always assume it's more for the challenge and accomplishment than anything practical. The results are always neat, but rarely anything you'd actually use for general-purpose computing.
This isn't Normie News! I think you are on the wrong site!
The street finds its own use for things is the excitement that we don't know what is possible, and that we ought be free to try. The amazing suite of software here sure looks like self evident proof about how exciting it is when we can go further, to me. I love the LLM prompt sidekick; super neat as an ambient display.
It's really sad how HN is so vocally anti-hacker, is so conservative, shows up so regularly to declare alliance to anti-possibility, to anti-features. For some people, they don't only fail to be interested, they are expressly anti interested, the only thing they want is for everyone else to have to live as constrained and unexplorarive and unthoughtful as they are. I don't get it. Conservatism is a wicked disease, imo.
I think the distaste is more against feature bloat. This sub-thread is reacting to dedicated e-readers succumbing to becoming full-fledged app-running devices. Is the refresh rate on an e-ink display even suitable for general computing?
Plus, isn't it fairly old hat to get root access on a Linux consumer device and then running whatever you want on it? Oh, it makes for a neat party trick you could make an Action Retro YouTube video out of. But perhaps people are just jaded since they've seen it done on a million types of devices by now. Maybe there are more interesting ways, and things, to hack.
Obviously you ssh into your toaster so you can host a website on it, or run DOOM
What worth is a toaster if it can't run DOOM? What worth is life if you never even find out??
You can read books on an iPad without distractions just fine. Just turn off all notifications...
I went through a whole design phase with ChatGPT on the idea of using an old Kobo as a low-distraction TV remote for my dad. The idea is that it would interface with a computer media server thing, be more legible than a traditional remote, and not be an app on his phone that would immediately send him into his phone.
Ended up being more involved than the benefit it would bring, especially considering that these media server programs know how to interface with the traditional remote over HDMI (if you have the right graphics card or a dongle) and show the selection UI on screen like a smart TV.
Anyway, my response is "you don't necessarily have to complicate your e-reader, instead you have the option of making it not an e-reader."
Even if you want it for just books, there are benefits to installing things like KOReader (way better ebook reader than the default). This allows you to sync with Calibre, etc.
Years ago, it was practically a hobby of mine to go to my local Goodwill, and find an extremely cheap old used Kobo and find someone to donate it to. Now I'm thinking of getting old Kobos just for the eink display so I can run simple apps on it - while continuing to use my regular Kobo as an ereader.
Why use a Kobo for that? Nook and Boox devices run Android - I've run Ankidroid on both those devices.
I guess I could. I recall I was getting used Nooks as cheap as Kobos. Not sure about Boox.
(I'm talking $15 or less).
Some people came for the compact package containing an eink screen, a moderately powered application board, and a reasonable amount of battery and storage. For some, it may be the perfect thin client.
In my personal experience, this can help in case the books are little technical and you have to switch to my laptop/mobile to get more information about the topic, which ends up consuming more time it should.
That's what I want from my e-reader device too. Yet being able to turn a $140 e-ink tablet into a general purpose tool is really neat.
It would be very cool to have an Obsidian viewer or something.
On many occasions I have compiled notes, sometimes manually created sometimes LLM curated, and put them into a .epub file to send to my kindle so I can read as I am out walking.
It would be cool to skip a few steps there, and have "live" documents at the ready, particularly in markdown if possible, without having to sync/publish etc
For most of the use cases I would need an app for, koreader's plugin system works just fine for it. You'd be surprised the gems you can find for koreader.
If someone made a Libby client for this, it would essentially be perfect for my uses.
As a Kindle owner; I'm very jealous.
I used KOReader for my Kindle and I never looked back. The software that Amazon ships is simply insulting. It's like when I installed Linux on my laptop instead of Windows. KOReader is a massive upgrade for any Kindle.
You can do a lot of the same things with a jailbroken Kindle and KindleForge.
You can jailbreak your kindle and get similar functionality through KOReader plugins https://omer-faruq.github.io/appstore.koplugin/
I'm not. I want my Kindle to do ONE job well, not turn into another multi-purpose device.
I too would like my Kindle to do one single thing well. Sadly, we seem to be waiting for that future to arrive.
I remember when my PaperWhite glitched while I was attempting to jailbreak it and got stuck with the screen inverted. It was great! I can't believe I have to jailbreak a reader to get that simple functionality for better in-the-dark reading. (epilogue: I let it run out of battery and the inversion was gone upon boot)
You don't need to jailbreak it. Swipe from the top and press the big button labelled "dark mode".
Yeah, I was going to say. I only installed KOReader because my Kindle Touch has lackluster ereader functionality.
I still miss the UI on my old Kindle Keyboard, which only showed the book list without an attempt at curation/upselling.
I can simulate it by staying on the "Library" tab, but it tends to forget halfway frequently.
It is totally different to be able to do something versus actually doing it.
It is not because you can install and run apps that you have to.
That's what's great about open hardware. You still have the ability to do that. Even if the original vendor of the device tries to decide differently.
I'm like yours, But there are things that makes me angry. I cannot for example read Farsi books. I cannot put a new e-pub into my kindle and I have to send it over the web; there are many things like these. And so I just want to have a nicer reader that I myself control.
the one job that it does well is show you ads lmao (in case you haven't jailbreaked your Kindle yet)
Not to defend amazon but you can remove the ads by paying to remove them, they sell one model ad supported and another that doesn't have ads if you buy the ads supported you can remove it later.
Your Kindle is an appliance you have little control over, the Kobo in this scope is a multitool. More choice is better than less choice as it relates to device ownership and control, imho.
HN Search: enshittification - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
Along with choice comes complexity. More things to break, security problems, distractions, etc. Purpose-built devices like the Kindle and Switch do one thing well; this looks like it does a lot more things but mostly poorly.
Everyone already has at least one multitool, the smartphone. Most also have a tablet and/or a laptop. While this project looks like a cool hack, I don't see much practical use for another multitool with a weak CPU, laggy screen, and poor input.
I suspect it won't be long before we have Anna's / Z-Library fully integrated
I am enjoying the recently trendy Xteink e-readers that can't do anything but read books. An app store and the internet would just make an e-reader feel like a "worse phone" to me.
Very cool and definitely useful. I'm not the audience but I'll say: I like my ereader to just have books that sync. That is all. It's my library room and peace time, the last thing I need is Claude to distract me.
So cool. I have this exact model. Might try to build something
I find LLM copywriting revolting, especially Claude's and it is pretty obvious that it is Claude, and even though I might find the software interesting since I own a Clara 2E, it puts such a sour taste in my mouth that I don't want to touch this thing with a 10 foot pole.
If your software is mostly written by the slop machine, fine. I don't have to be upset about it unless I think about contributing and then notice the uncanny nature of the source code. But a website and a README is directly user facing and it is a major disservice, and in my opinion, lack of respect, to generate your website copy with an LLM.
My reaction was perhaps not as strongly felt as yours, but I agree that it discourages me from reading further when it's obvious I'm reading slop rather than something a human considered.
"These are photographs of the device, not simulator captures" is the kind of total throwaway verbiage that a human would never even pause to consider writing because it "clarifies" something that in the totality of context is beyond obvious. It makes the writing more fatiguing to read, and creates a terrible first impression for a project.
i could care less as long as it works and does what it describes
much prefer ai assisted development than someone who does it by hand, prone to errors and lacking in features.
> much prefer ai assisted development than someone who does it by hand, prone to errors and lacking in features.
You prefer AI-assisted development with errors and lacking features rather than something done by hand with errors and lacking features?
Previously I built something using NickelHook
https://github.com/Podginator/KoboOmnivoreConverter
It took a lot of messing around trying to figure out how nickel fit together. This is much more … impressive.
This is incredible and super useful. More reasons to use my e-reader around the house instead of my phone.
I vote for Zotero integration!
> Install it once over USB. Every app after that installs, updates and removes on the reader itself, over Wi-Fi. A reboot returns to the stock Kobo reader.
Jesus christ folks. Is it really a big effort to have a human proofread the first paragraph in your product launch?
Noting again that postmarketos exists and works on some kobos (and potentially could be ported to more?)
Very cool project, will try to make it run on my device
ButWhy.jpg
Vibecoded, from what I see in the git log.
Yes. Also from looking for device compatibility:
> Tested on one device: the Kobo Clara BW (N365, device code 391), firmware 4.45.23697. Every device write is gated on an exact match of framebuffer identity, geometry, device code, serial model prefix, firmware version and kernel release, so a different reader is refused rather than guessed at.
I can't stop reading "gated" on LLM output lately.
Anyways, I wish this worked on my Libra :<
I think so too. I wish all projects had a tag with amount of AI usage.
It's not that vibe coding is bad on its own, but it makes me worried about project's future (ease come, easy go).
This wasn't a flag?
Store-only by design: installing it proves delivery of an app the USB package never contained.
Was it the "AI Command Center" app that gave it away? That could actually be pretty cool. Read a book on the deck with the vibemill running in the background.
Even the homepage copy is LLM output. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something to point out.
> Charge a Kobo Clara BW (N365) and connect it over USB. Other models are refused, not guessed at.
Just bought a kobo bw after reading this article
I need OTP for loging to ssh and meshtastic
Amazing. Hopefully Kobo don't ruin this by locking it down.
poob has it for you
The only “Kobo” I know of is a game which was popular around 1993, a remake for X11/Unix of the old 1981 Bosconian arcade game. A recent active fork can still be installed on modern systems as “Kobo Deluxe”.
an e-reader running apps feels like putting a treadmill in a library. next thing you know it's nagging you with a notification badge for 'you haven't read in 3 days'.
I don't know for who this is honestly
I mean I got a laptop, e ink laptop would be cool but this certainly isn't it and who needs a book with Claude code agent? You either read or you do what exactly with that linux pc on a book hardcover? Just grab your laptop like a normal civilized person
Would this also work on a Tolino?
The Tolino Shine 5 is the same hardware. You can even install the kobo firmware.
can it run Doom?
now if something like this released for amazon kindle i would dust it off and start actually using the device again
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