Show HN: I built a tool to help you read Hacker News on Kindle

393 点作者 longnguyen超过 2 年前

Hi HN, I'm Daniel Nguyen. In June, I quit my job to start indie hacking full-time.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.[0]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22918980" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22918980</a>

32 条评论

Abishek_Muthian超过 2 年前

Hi Daniel,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] <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220216140431/https://hntokindle.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20220216140431/https://hntokindl...</a>[1] <a href="https://github.com/abishekmuthian/hntoebook" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/abishekmuthian/hntoebook</a>

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mft_超过 2 年前

Hi DanielFirst, 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] <a href="https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/</a>

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Bluecobra超过 2 年前

I'm in a similar situation as as you in that I wear glasses and have busted right eye due to eye muscle surgery in the early 1980s. I can "see" out of it but reading text is impossible unless it's like a foot tall. The thought of avoiding screens never occurred to me. Wouldn't any medium be it a screen, paper book, or Kindle cause eye strain on your left eye? I've seen many optometrists/ophthalmologists over the years and nobody recommended to avoid screens. One doctor advised me to avoid using contacts since eyeglasses always give you eye protection for the left eye and that was it.

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colincooke超过 2 年前

I love the idea, and would consider paying for this after a nice trial period. I love my kindle and it has radically changed how much I read, I used to read maybe 2-3 books a year, now it's more like 2-3 books a month. I find the E-ink screen and "low techness" of it the most appealing. I'm really looking forward to using this for things other than books.

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Bakary超过 2 年前

Thanks for making this. This type of software makes e-ink much more usable.I 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.

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password4321超过 2 年前

> my vision for KToolI 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?

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oidar超过 2 年前

I just signed up for a year to try it out. A few things: 1) The way you get the kindle email address is slick, but some people might get squicked out from a privacy standpoint because you are scraping information from a logged in Amazon account. Perhaps present an obvious option for the user to input the kindle email address. 2) There is no share functionality with the iOS app - I understand that there is an extension in safari itself, but I should be able to pass the app via the share button - this is how all these kind of services do this (P2K, Share to Kindle, Evernote, Joplin, Dropbox, Day One - etc.) You are the first service to use a safari extension to share webpages that I have come across. The upside of using the share functionality, is that any browser can access your service - not just safari users. 3) Cleaning up documents on the Kindle is a PIA. Consider bundling - or giving the option to bundle them into a "book". Maybe two options - add to my periodic (weekly/daily) "book" and another option to send an article immediately. 4) Most people are not going to spend 50 bucks for an annual subscription to try something out for a bit - consider offering monthly subscriptions. Hope this helps!

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nabaraz超过 2 年前

I use Amazon's official extension to send webpages to Kindle all the time. [1]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]. <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-kindle-for-google/cgdjpilhipecahhcilnafpblkieebhea" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-kindle-for...</a>

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dchuk超过 2 年前

I have to say, your setup process for your chrome extension is very slick. I look forward to giving this thing a shot, I use Pocket to save articles but it's kind of just a junk drawer for me, and I'd prefer to force myself to read from my Kindle anyway vs my iPad so I don't get distracted easily.

jeffbee超过 2 年前

The blurred-out notice makes it seem like some form of scam. I would rework the site to present the entire process to potential sign-ups on first glance.

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xena超过 2 年前

Do you have a way for me to demo the RSS support? I'd love to have a calm technology flow for reading articles on my kindle and I think ktool may just be what I'm looking for.

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nik5超过 2 年前

I read lot of blogs, made something similar [0] a while ago. Write now installing it is painful, if you don't have calibre or node js installed. Re-writing it all in nodejs, so that installation is easier. Calibre is not needed now, as amazon started converting epubs to azw3.[0] <a href="https://github.com/nikhil1raghav/kindle-send" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/nikhil1raghav/kindle-send</a>

cgb223超过 2 年前

As a professional platform builder, I’m always amazed at how good of a piece of hardware Amazon has made, with how limited it’s platform experience isKindles 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

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azinman2超过 2 年前

When I saw this I was hoping for something that was more about the articles themselves as well as the main page. Would love to have an e-reader experience in the morning versus use my phone.

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SnooSux超过 2 年前

> In June, I quit my job to start indie hacking full-time.What has that been like?

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catchmeifyoucan超过 2 年前

I like this! I was wondering if this also sends the articles from HN, not just the comments. It'd be game changing to wake up and read the news on my Remarkable.

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johnthescott超过 2 年前

welcome to the monkey house, dan.combining HN and kindle is intriguing. my most serious work occurs laying in bed reading, before falling asleep. i will surely follow your work.

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jhoelzel超过 2 年前

Nice! i often wished for this before a flight, but it would need to include the article and comments in offline mode =)

novantadue超过 2 年前

Not related, but I came up with a workaround to add scrolling for Kindle on Desktop. Kindle doesn't support scrolling on their desktop app -- they only allow page-by-page reading for some wacky reason. Workaround is to install "Windows Subsystem for Android", then read it on the kindle app inside the subsystem.

futhey超过 2 年前

Been using this for a few months, really solid replacement for Amazon's own send-to-kindle, with a lot of potential.

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rugina超过 2 年前

I was under the impression you can opt to simply download the epub and send it to Kindle yourself but the website will not let me do anything before I set up the Kindle upload.

gigatexal超过 2 年前

I love this. This is the killer feature that would get me to buy a kindle. If the affiliate program were still as lucrative as it was I'd use your link to do just that. what a cool thing you've built!

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fudged71超过 2 年前

Any chance to be able to use this on reMarkable? It has epub support

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niutech超过 2 年前

Cool idea! Will it be possible to provide a list of HN articles (eg. the best of the week) to send to Kindle (or ePub)? Thanks!

replwoacause超过 2 年前

Very well done, I can't wait to give it a try!

smoldesu超过 2 年前

This is neat! I used to do this with modded firmware and an RSS feed of the HN frontpage, it's quite a wonderful experience.

8675309t超过 2 年前

Website says cancel with click of a button...can't find the button...Can't find an email to try to get a refund.found in email.

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maninthere超过 2 年前

Amazing work! Great to see such a tool getting the recognition it strongly deserve. Love it already!

akomtu超过 2 年前

Something like a weekly digest of most popular HN posts in the epub/pdf format would be great.

cgrealy超过 2 年前

Just to play devils advocate, I 100% do not want this.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.

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imapeopleperson超过 2 年前

Please consider a word application on kindle as your next project.

rantingdemon超过 2 年前

I may be missing something - but how exactly do I Use it?

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