Show HN: I built a tool to help you read Hacker News on Kindle (ktool.io)
The idea of KTool first came to my mind when I was reading "Ask HN: I'm a software engineer going blind, how should I prepare?"[0]
I've been wearing glasses since I was 5. My right eye is basically blind. Doctors said there is no chance to cure it.
I was genuinely scared. Like holy shit, if my left eye stops working, my life is done. Since then I've been very conscious about time spent on computer screens.
That's when I started using Kindle-related products: to offload as many reading materials as possible to the Kindle. I was a happy customer of Push to Kindle. Great product!
Then I ran into multiple limitations which led me to build KTool: a tool to send anything online to Kindle. Blog posts, Twitter threads, Hacker News discussions, RSS, newsletters... you name it.
But I'm not here to pitch my vision for KTool.
I built a specific tool to help you send HN discussions to your Kindle. And in the spirit of Show HN, it doesn't require an account. If you don't own a Kindle, there is the option to download the EPUB.
Let me know what you think. Any feedback will be much appreciated.
If you're a Kindle owner and you read a lot of online content, give KTool a try.
79 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] threadI also suggest trying Android e-ink readers from companies such as Hisense or Onyx Boox as they've come a long way in the last few years. (Not affiliated with them, just a bit obsessive on the topic)
With the upcoming generation of color e-ink and large companies starting to notice (Apple, Huawei) it's only going to get better and better moving forward.
No way I’m going to support company like that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/hsn7kx/onyx_usin...
I see what you did there.
Didn't Amazon tighten up how custom content is delivered to Kindles fairly recently, requiring 2FA? So you need to connect the Kindle to load the content?
Here's the help article describing that process: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId...
So far I haven't run into the 2FA issue yet. I made sure the email configuration was correct (all those SPF, DKIM, DMARC kinds of stuff) and the KTool email was added to their Approved email address list.
Currently, I use KoboCloud to sync cloud drive (Box, Google Drive, et al.) folders to my readers, one folder for each family member. I use browser extensions to create epubs for websites on the fly and save them to the cloud drives, but can't find a great-looking solution for mobile (Android in particular). Many sites I visit like HN comment sections just don't reformat well and it looks like you have a wonderful solution implemented for that aspect.
Kindles can only (easily) do what Amazon wants it to do —full stop.
It’s like the iPhone before the App Store.
I bet Amazon would make a massive amount of money if they opened up their ecosystem to let others develop on top of it
If I were head of that division at Amazon, I'd remove bluetooth, APIify the bookstore (so you can buy books from other retailers), remove GoodReads integration, and direct the hardware people to focus on battery life and the software people to focus on layout and typography. I'd also add a physical switch to enable/disable the touchscreen. All Kindles would have physical page turn buttons like the Oasis does.
Kobo's Pocket integration is nice, so I can read through articles I've saved on my computer/phone without distraction. There's also an Overdrive store so I can browser and borrow books from my local library without jumping through hoops.
Would it be nice to support alternatives to Overdrive and Pocket? Sure, but once you open the doors to any third-party apps, it's hard to keep the focus on books.
I use my regular e-ink kindle 100% offline, I never turn off airplane mode. I only load content via USB using the Calibre CLI. I don't want my Kindle to do cool stuff. I used to think I did, I rooted my early Kindles and tried to do as much on them as possible. But then I realized that it's only a distraction from the one thing the Kindle is actually good at: reading long static text documents.
First, I love what you've done here, and why - congratulations on making it this far!
A few suggestions:
1) An independent web route is important, but you could lower the friction even further with browser plugins. Like you, for general articles I use push-to-kindle[0] which only needs two clicks - no copy/paste, etc.
2) Have you also thought about including a copy of the original article - so that in a single download, there's the article followed by the HN discussion, all accessible from the document's index?
3) I could see this developing further as a productivity tool via subscription - maybe I set up an account with you and then receive a digest of the day's top-10 (or 20, whatever) articles and discussions. Or a weekly digest? Might be a powerful way to divert people away from the regular distraction of HN, but still allow consumption.
Good luck :)
[0] https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/
1. I've actually developed that[0]. Using the browser extension is even more powerful as it could send content behind paywalls to Kindle — something not possible for the web UI.
The reason I didn't mention it is it requires an account, probably not a good thing for a Show HN.
2. Yes. I'm not sure if that's a useful feature, but personally, I don't like it. I want the original article to be a separate ebook so highlights & notes go into the correct entry. But that's an interesting feature for sure. Probably will make it a user preference.
3. Yes! That's 100% on my road map. And not just for HN. I got beta support for newsletters now but it doesn't work with a digest-type newsletter.
Thank you again!
[0]: https://ktool.io/install
Ah, I see it now when I load your full site, rather than the HN-specific page. Great to know!
I find computer screens cause more eye strain than Kindle.
Yeah, I don't think we can avoid screens completely. I just wanted to offload some of the reading to the Kindle. So I could read outside more.
I don't think the advice to avoid contacts as a baseline recommendation is the takeaway of the comment you replied to, that advice pertained to that person's specific medical situation.
Also, personally, I don't believe it's the type of screen that's problematic for long-term eyesight. What my optometrist told me is that we weren't really evolved to be looking at things close up for long periods of time.
I don't think e-ink versus backlit screen is the issue – certainly, our eyes take in a lot more ambient light from not-screens during the day compared to the weak little LED light on our screen.
The real issue is spending 8+ hours a day focused on close up objects. Take frequent breaks where you are looking in the distance, go on walks, etc.
Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me.
Can you provide more details on this? A cursory search doesn't turn up anything especially alarming. The only source I could find that was alarming is this[0], which I don't really trust because it reads a bit like anti-vax literature ("see what they're hiding", etc.) and is very old (all sources they cite are from 2009 or earlier). My understanding has been that the procedure has improved dramatically in that time in both cost and safety.
[0] https://lasikcomplications.com/
One of the big ones I had found was risk of chronic dry eyes being really high, but that seems to be with PRK surgery and not LASIK. Rates of long-term dry eyes after 12 months for LASIK appears to be 0.8% according to the papers I found, which you could argue is pretty low.
I wouldn't discount the idea that modern practices and equipment works a lot better. A lot of the horror stories I do find are older, like you mentioned.
Would you mind going back and adding that in your original post, as you've got pretty big unsubstantiated claims about LASIK.
2. I still haven't changed my general opinion about LASIK: it seems too much like a "convenience surgery" to me, i.e., most people who get it have correctable vision with eyeglasses/contacts. It's also not hard to find stories from the minority of people who had complications and regret it.
3. My original comment came with this disclaimer: "Remember to listen to your doctor over random people on the Internet, including me."
A year ago I came across Todd Becker's method to cure myopia here from HN as well. In case interested to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Efg42-Qn0
There's also a PDF from a different guy with some practical guide. Feel free to email me at denny at nusantara-cloud.com if you want me to share it.
But with PKR you also have wait like up to a month before vision is clear again, versus lasik giving mostly clear vision within like a day or so. So with PKR long term it is less physically vulnerable but it puts your vision out of commission for a week or two atleast.
Is I believe the original
Are you aware of Todd Becker's method to reduce myopia? I've been doing it in the past 1 year and am happy to report that I've had 1.5 reduction in my glasses prescription (from 6.75). There's a PDF from a different person with a concrete guide on how much to reduce. I can share it if you're interested, feel free to email me at denny at nusantara-cloud.com :)
[0] https://github.com/nikhil1raghav/kindle-send
My feedback: I can't justify paying $4/month to be able to send few packaged webpages to my kindle, If this was a one time payment of ~$20, I'd be interested.
[1]. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-kindle-for...
Most of the time, the official extension doesn't work for me. And I'm not alone. You can check their recent reviews[0]. A lot of 1 star.
I'm aware that there are other alternatives such as Push to Kindle, P2K, Instapaper, newslettertokindle etc. They provide much better conversion quality than the official extension, and better deliverability. I'm confident that KTool is on par with them, maybe better in some use cases (such as Twitter threads, HN, sending pdfs...). And their paid plans range from $2.99/mo to $10/mo.
What I'm doing at KTool is to support all those content in a single subscription.
I hate subscriptions, but until we found a better model, I can't sell it as one time payment. My expense is recurring (CPU for parsing & image processing, email + bandwidth to send articles to Kindle, Apple developer program, core parser maintenance as sites structure changes...)
But I will definitely do more experiment with pricing though.
Again, thanks for your valuable feedback. Much appreciated
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-kindle-for...
What has that been like?
combining HN and kindle is intriguing. my most serious work occurs laying in bed reading, before falling asleep. i will surely follow your work.
Congratulations on the launch!
I received an email from HN user telling me about this post because a while back I was running 'HN to Kindle' service[0] and since Amazon enabled 2FA for bulk emails even for approved email ids I lost motivation to run it further and instead made the core application open-source[1].
Since you're sending HN item individually, I'm not sure whether you'll face the 2FA block but do monitor whether your users are getting your emails delivered by connecting with them.
Your website's presentation is way better than mine, Perhaps because you've put JS to good use. Feel free to use my code to implement other features like classification according to chosen topics if you'd like it.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20220216140431/https://hntokindl...
[1] https://github.com/abishekmuthian/hntoebook
Yeah I haven't run into the 2FA issue yet, but probably will. Is there any docs about this 2FA issue I can read (other than the short doc on amazon.com)?
Thanks,
But my hntokindle.com email id had SPF & DKIM from the start and the verification links started occurring only late last year (or) early this year. That's what lead me to believe that the 2FA is enabled after the number of emails from an email id crosses a threshold.
I don't expect Amazon to clarify this in their docs. They might have whitelisted domains from known services like Instapaper (I think they generate unique sender email ids) along with the id they use for 'Send To Kindle' if they used email for that in the first place.
Although it might be possible to reverse engineer 'Send To Kindle' browser extension to send your HN item, But it might also raise legal issues(INAL).
[1] https://medium.com/realmodelabs/kindledrip-from-your-kindles...
1. You enter a Hacker News story URL (such as this one)
2. Click on Preview. You should see the content rendered on the Kindle mockup
Now you can send it to your Kindle (follow step 3,4,5) or download the EPUB file (6)
3. Enter your send-to-kindle email address. To find yours, follow this guide[1]
4. Make sure you whitelist kindle@ktool.io on your Amazon account settings. Refer to this guide[2]
5. Click "Read on Kindle" and enjoy
[0]: https://share.cleanshot.com/yUODpW
[1]: https://thebookbuff.com/how-to-find-your-kindle-email-addres...
[2]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
I understand your reasons for making this and I fully support them, but the day Amazon make the Kindle into something other a way to read books is the day I drop the kindle for another reader.
The whole point of a Kindle for me is that I can use it to read and not be distracted by notifications or wondering what's on HN or whatever.
Now to decide whether that use case is worth the monthly cost to me.
TBF, nobody wants to pay 4 bucks a month for 3-4 articles.
But once you developed the habit of reading almost everything on Kindle, I believe 4 bucks/mo doesn't sound very expensive ;-)