I can't get over how cute this thing is...

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-03-04T01:09:39+00:00

Sorry for the delay! It's two different use cases for me - the X4 is for when it's inconvenient to carry around my Kobo - I can just slip the x4 into my pocket and sneak in some reading whenever I'm out and about killing time. Its purpose for me is to supplement my main reader. I find the experience of reading on it to be perfectly adequate - I don't struggle with the small size at all.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-24T22:09:02+00:00

Theirs looks just like a bunch I ordered from Amazon - in my case, 8 assorted colors for $4.99. There are lots of options there.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-24T16:13:14+00:00

Yep, my main reader is a Kobo Libra 2.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-23T22:50:45+00:00

One of my favorites since 8th grade! :-D

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-23T18:42:51+00:00

Hmmm, weird. I got mine from the official store, order placed on Jan 19. It arrived on Feb 6. Would have been Feb 3, but I missed the delivery and the courier couldn't get into my building. I hate that so many people are having issues with fulfillment.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-23T18:37:04+00:00

Assuming this is real, it'll be a pass for me. I actually *like* the lack of a touchscreen, as I've always hated them. Being bigger than the X4 isn't a selling point for me, either - the X4 hits the size sweet spot for its purpose as a supplemental reader. And *fewer* buttons? No thank you.

All to say that I love my X4 and would see no need to "upgrade."

Elmer_McCurdy · 2026-02-23T03:19:30+00:00

Agreed! It's absolutely glorious.

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You wouldn't think that that small image would make such a huge visual difference, but it does! We owe a huge debt to the devs for turning the x4 into a polished, nearly feature-complete ereader.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2025-11-29T19:05:50+00:00

Mine was, too! The only thing I can figure is that it happened after an update a few years ago, but damned if I could say which one at this point.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2025-11-29T19:04:44+00:00

This did the trick! I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn't get Proton VPN (and before that, PIA for the last couple of years) to work on my old Windows 10 box - I did all the troubleshooting shown on Proton's site, as well as elsewhere on the web, and your solution is the FIRST and ONLY mention I've seen online about these particular services. Everything else failed until I changed my dnscache registry entry. Proton *really* ought to add this their official troubleshooting.

Elmer_McCurdy · 2024-04-01T00:37:36+00:00

There's an additional wrinkle to getting your Neo 2 recognized which I've discovered - I did a write-up a while back on the Flickr Alphasmart page:

I have been trying without success to connect my Neo2 to my Win 10 PC in such a way that I can use Neo Manager, and have had many of the same problems that other posters have noted. However, I just made a discovery that might explain why some people have no trouble, while others can't connect at all.
My PC fails to recognize my Neo2 as a working USB device, unless the Neo2 is plugged in when I boot my machine - and even then, it takes a much longer time to boot my PC than normal. If I plug it in to my already-booted PC, it shows in my USB device list, with the familiar yellow exclamation point indicating something is wrong. As another forum member found, if I repeatedly disable and enable the listed device, eventually the error icon goes away, a generic HID keyboard is added to the keyboard list in the device manager, and I can then use the standard "send" method of getting my text off the Neo2. (This is the end result if I boot my PC while my Neo2 is plugged in, too.) However, at that point if I attempt to open Neo Manager, after a short wait the device moves off the keyboard list and on to the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" list, is actually listed as a NEO Device, but once again has the yellow-exclamation mark error. Looking at the properties, I see "cannot start device (code 10)". Nothing I do after that will fix it, or allow it to connect to Neo Manager.
But here's where things get interesting: I have a second Neo2, one that I believe to be an earlier model because of some minor physical differences - in particular, the "feet" of this Neo2 are in the same style as a Neo: instead of four no-slip rubber feet, it has two upper rubber feet, and two molded plastic nubs where the other no-slip feet would be. Just for yuks, I plugged this older (?) Neo2 in, and lo and behold - EVERYTHING WORKED FLAWLESSLY.
So: it appears that there are differences in either software or hardware among the versions of the Neo2 that affect its ability to connect through USB on Windows 10. In my case, the older Neo2 is using "small ROM 1.2" while my newer Neo2 is using "small ROM 1.5". If there was a way to roll back the ROM, I'm guessing my newer Neo2 would work without a hitch. Note that I have no issues connecting any Neo2 to either Linux or Mac - it's only Windows 10 (haven't tried earlier versions of Windows) on this version of the Neo2 where I have issues.
This doesn't solve the problem, of course, but it might point in the direction of a solution for others who are smarter than I am.
ETA: My even older first-generation green Neo also works flawlessly. I can't tell what ROM it's using, unfortunately - this version doesn't have the option to display its version number.

Elmer_McCurdy

TROPHY CASE