Have a later model, the Pocketbook Verse (not the pro edition). Flashed KOReader on it which was much easier than anticipated. Have a couple extra features in the reader that way.
It does as promised. I just plug it into my devices to get epubs onto it. You don’t even need a book management software like Calibre, you can use it similarly to how you’d use a thumb drive.
Thanks for taking the time to share, this was very helpful :D
Thank you for the thoughtful reply! One more question: Can you really manage everything using the website? Just sounds too good to be true!
Checked out the support pages. It does get a bit complex trying to figure out if they charge for adding money via bank transfers. But I got to it! For other people wondering (only valid for EU folks):
Turns out they take the customary 1.75% on using the card to get cash from ATMs (and even take 0.50€ on top after the second time). That makes them slightly worse than established banks for this purpose.
However they offer pretty low fees on transactions with the card. While established banks still take 1.75% on every transaction, Wise currently takes 0.46% on exchanges from EUR to JPY. They don’t seem to skew the exchange rate like PayPal does either. The only drawback is they’re free to change their fee any time, while most normal banks haven’t deviated from 1,75% in forever.
To my great relief adding EUR to your Wise balance is free with a standard SEPA (EU zone) bank transfer. And they automatically convert money to other currencies as needed. Though I wonder whether you can convert in advance to make use of favorable exchange rates.
This makes it seem like Wise is a solid option. Only one data breach so far, too ;)
Planning a trip to Japan soon and would like a credit card to pay for accommodation (I don’t have a credit card yet). Wise seems to be what I want but I’m not sure:
The President of the Signal Foundation (Meredith Whittaker) has commented on this in this podcast episode. Skip to 1:05:45.
This article lacks a lot of nuance. I got suspicious of the lack of statistics… Here’s a much better read with more info.
Finally a good, nuanced article on this topic, thanks for sharing. Only drawback is that the author doesn’t seem to be aware that degoogling your phone is a viable alternative, especially with manufactures like Fairphone offering this out of the box.
Lots of people (including myself, previously) fall for the narrative that Apple can financially justify not spying on their users because their hardware is expensive. Versus Google, who have always been about ads and data mining.
This logic unfortunately fails to consider that a publicly trading company will always use all methods at their disposal to keep up profit so shareholders are happy. Expensive hardware was probably enough a decade ago, but the golden rule is: as long as a company can fuck you over in a way that increases profits, they absolutely will, given enough time.
We need federal privacy law in the U.S. and we need it fast.
I use Gramophone from F-Droid for playing MP3 files which are in folders. One of the tabs in Gramophone allows you to navigate your main music folder and it’ll treat your folders as playlists!
Best comment I’ve read for a long time
Yeah wouldn’t suggest using your real phone number
This is the correct answer. If you don’t need notifications:
Make sure you enable the auto frost service in Shelter’s settings, enable auto frost for WhatsApp in Shelter and replace the icon on your home screen with a Shelter shortcut.
You can also use a trustworthy VPN to route traffic from the entire work profile or only from WhatsApp.
Yeah that’s true
Alternatives include PhoneTrack for Nextcloud (setup complicated but pretty much set it and forget it) or TICE (very easy setup, but only meant for temporary sharing).
Yeah I tried swipe typing on FUTO keyboard too and was very disappointed, went back to the absolutely stellar Heliboard. It’s definitely as good as Apple’s swipe typing, especially after a few weeks of use.
To be fair the FUTO keyboard is still in Alpha and they plan to improve this specifically. I’ll keep an eye on it as it matures.
I used to hold the same opinion you do, but after reading this article, reality caught up with me:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html
If you want a shorter version of this that puts the consequences into perspective, I recommend one of Cory Doctorow’s blog posts: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/18/unhealthy-balance-sheet/#think-manorialism
Taking the above behavior into account, Apple’s value proposition for anyone that cares about digital sovereignty is extremely brittle. I’ve decided not to invest any further into their tech. Is it the worst evil that roams earth? No. But does it logically follow that you should defend all their practices? Also no.
After reading the above, it shouldn’t surprise your that Apple spies on their users too, if only a bit less than, say, Facebook/Meta: https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar
Hope you can approach this with an open mind. I know it’s hard, I certainly didn’t want to start doubting what I thought was a valiant defender of consumer privacy. Cases like the San Bernardino shooter were testaments for Apple’s commitment to me. It turns out that’s only half the story though.
Exactly. We already have stuff like OpenStax. Great content, but comparatively little adoption by faculties.
Hold up aren’t you the person who ditched the U.S. for Britain like a month ago?
Hope you get a job soon, keep on searching! Miracles happen when you least expect them :)