Kobo seems to work readily offline simply out of box. Plug in usb-c to upload books?

A kindle will do the same thing. Everything is privacy-respecting if there's no internet connection.

kindles have cellular modems

Not all of them and they are surprisingly easy to remove. At least the old ones are: https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a...

They've stopped making Kindles with modems. Latest gen ones are WiFi only. Of course, the hardware might still be in there, just not available for book purchasing.

I really enjoy my Kobo Libra H2O with KOReader installed.

My new Kobo refused to start out of the box, without making an account. Very disappointing.

I created an account, but then installed KOreader on my Libra 2 and just read books through that. It's FOSS, more customizable, and supports OPDS feeds which can do pretty neat things like finding articles from HN[0].

[0] https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/news2reader

I read that KOreader is unstable on the Libra 2[0], so I haven’t installed it yet even though I would like to. What has been your experience running it?

[0] https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/8414

I had it installed for a while, and there were fairly frequent crashes (i.e. about once every 8 hours of reading) requiring a reboot.

But it was _almost_ worth it. It's a really great reader, especially for reading PDFs.

After some software update about 6 months ago it got halfway uninstalled somehow and I did a factory reset and haven't reinstalled it yet. I recall reading that it's not on KOreader's side, and they can'tfix. :(

It's been perfectly stable for me since I got the device a few months ago, but I also don't read for hours at a time like the other commenter. It's possible that it leaks memory after viewing several hundred pages or something like that.

Can confirm you need to log into your Kobo account to get it going.

I keep my kindle in airplane mode.

Do you need to keep it 100% of the time in airplane mode? Couldn't it be queuing stats to upload them once it leaves AP mode?

With a jailbroken kindle you can install the BBB (Block Big Brother) filter on the firewall (it's running linux under the hood after all):

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2425330

Alternatively like me you can just remove the 3g modem in it's entirety:

https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a...

what happens when you buy Kindle in EU, I would think when you first turn it on they would have to ask if you want to be tracked and if not would have to fuck off.

That's a good question I couldn't find anything in my cursory searches. Knowing Amazon because all the focus has been on Web browsers and cookies there might not be much available on the ebook front atm.

Kindle with ads has been observed to, after a couple alerts that it’s been offline for too long, just ignore airplane mode at some point.

I have a wifi only model that has never seen a wifi password, and haven’t noticed this.

What’s the symptom?

Can confirm. Happened with me couple times. It would just go off the airplane more altogether.

Besides, "airplane" mode is just an icon on the screen. If it has WiFi with a known password (or without one) within reach there's really no way of knowing if it's phoning home.

Amazon never denied the fact that they use their devices to collect data. That's why they are (relatively) cheap. Kindle, Echo, Fire TV - they are al presumed to provide data to Amazon on customer's preferences allowing for better ad targeting etc. If this data can be sold to third parties, even better, more revenue. This is not illegal and I'm not even sure it's unethical, as long as the buyers are aware of the deal.

I keep it 100% in airplane mode and use calibre to manage my library. So far it’s been a pleasure, reliable and predictable.

I like the Marvin3 reader on iPhone. Haven't found something I like on the desktop though.

Is it still on app store or just not available in the US?

Oh shit. My bad. I don't know honestly... I got it a couple years ago, and it was everything that Books wasn't.

Apple Books thinks I want to put tiny 1mb epub files in my iCloud, which is full (no idea why) and then it won't save them. So when I reopen, now the book's gone even though I have like 40 gigs free on my phone. Simple interface, simple list of books to choose from, etc. And now the damned thing's gone and I have no idea why.

The underlying problem is obtaining the books. Even if you never register your ereader and never let it go online, you are just shifting the problem to a computer. They loose fine-grained details about what you are reading, but that's about it.

If you understand that and take proper precautions, I would imagine that any ereader that doesn't require registration would be fine. If you never put it online, it cannot accidentally go online. Plus it isn't tied to your name. Personally, I use Kobo. You have to jump through a hoop to bypass registration by modifying an SQLite database. Other than that there are no protections, so you aren't using sketchy software to realize that degree of privacy.

> you are just shifting the problem to a computer.

Libgen works with anonymizers.

Pocketbook https://pocketbook.ch

You can download your books as you want and copy them to the device in many ways, including connecting the thing via USB to your pc and using it as an external storage unit. Sounds trivial but try to do that with a smartphone.

You can buy books from their shop if you make an account, but it is completely optional.

I wasn't aware of Pocketbook, interesting to see a smaller competitor in this market. Unfortunately they might run into the same issues discussed in this article.

They have two privacy policies. The one which seems to cover their web site [1] and one which I assume is for their devices [2].

The latter says the following:

> We collect such non identified information concerning the Application:

> […]

> Usage Data includes information about how you use our Application. By Usage Data we mean: how you use your book library, information concerning which buttons on the Application you click, which you do not, how often do you use buttons, turning on/ off the device, setting font options, changing the interface language, sending archive, changing the library settings, setting the read mode. We collect these information to make our Services better for the end-customers. Understanding of your usage preference give us the opportunity to develop better Application, which will have higher reliability, usability, compressed functionality and extremely easy startup.

The first privacy policy [1] though says they do not collect any "Special Categories of Personal Data about you".

[1] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/privacy-policy

[2] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/reader-mobile-privacy-notice

Can't you just never connect your device to the internet though?

Are you saying it's hard to get phones recognized as external storage devices? I've not had this issue with any of my android phones or my Boox e-reader which runs android.

Yes, that is what I meant, I always had problems with it. Iirc Android uses the mtp protocol for file transfer, it is not like accessing external storage. Before I can read / write files to the phone's storage I have to perform some steps on the phone's UI (this already rules out doing this while the phone is off); the exact steps changed between android versions. And then if I manage to remember, not all files and directories are visible.

With a pocketbook, you connect it and it is like you attached a USB stick.

Gotcha. Yeah, you get a notification from which you can swap mode. Default being charging only, for security reasons.

Also, android encrypts the filesystem by default these days I believe. So unpowered fs access is a no go without a lot of work for a very niche use case.

Security doesn't really matter on a somewhat dumb e-reader though, so seems like sensible defaults for the respective devices tbh.