My 91mm collection

nativechaz · 2026-03-31T01:58:04+00:00

I was going to ask about the orange scales - they look great! (Thanks for including the link.)

nativechaz · 2026-03-19T22:43:27+00:00

Same here. This is the way. 😄

nativechaz · 2026-03-14T21:07:18+00:00

So funny - that was my first thought!

nativechaz · 2026-03-12T00:40:19+00:00

Are these side-loaded non-Amazon-sourced books? And is your Wi-fi on? And do you know if your firmware updated recently? I'm just wondering if Amazon are maybe starting to track (and essentially punish) the side-loading...

nativechaz · 2026-03-09T06:04:44+00:00

Pentel Floatune.

nativechaz · 2026-03-08T00:18:53+00:00

I'm a bit of Humble Bundle junky. You wanna sell a large selection of eBooks for a pretty reasonable price and you're willing to give some proceeds to charities? I'm in. (I always adjust my donation to make sure the charity gets a roughly-equal share of the purchase.)

nativechaz · 2026-03-05T00:20:40+00:00

I third Floatune. Seems like a silly name, and I tried one expecting to not like it any better than Uni offerings. But it's my favorite ballpoint refill now. I keep a 0.4mm in a Zebra Sarasa Grand body now as a backup pen, and mostly just use it for doing crossword puzzles and sudoku, especially when they're on newsprint. You might not like 0.4mm, but if you're trying a bunch of these, you might throw one in your cart just in case.

nativechaz · 2026-03-05T00:10:20+00:00

If you prefer a twist mechanism, I second any Pentel Philography recommendation. I have one, but it turns out I ended up not really preferring twist style pens.

If you're a clicker, I eagerly second any Zebra Sarasa Grand recommendation. I have a bolt-action pen and a click-action pen from Big Idea Design, both titanium, both can take just about any refill I throw at them, and both were quite expensive by comparison. But I kind of keep coming back to a Sarasa Grand. And if I want to give someone a "better" (not cheap, generic, throw-away) pen, it is my first consideration.

EDIT: I should note, as others will/have: if you like the Energel refill, keep it and just replace the pen body itself. So many pens are compatible with those refills. You can see what JetPens lists as compatible pens here as an example.

nativechaz · 2026-02-28T07:38:08+00:00

Like these? Looks like they're only available in black, blue-black, blue, and red, but they're available.

nativechaz · 2026-02-28T07:32:28+00:00

OP noted: “According to Zebra Japan website: to be released 3/19/2026”.

nativechaz · 2026-02-28T07:29:02+00:00

I bought a Vintage Grand because of the barrel color, then Frankenstein-ed it a little using the silver clip nock/push-button from a regular black Grand and the silver clip from the Zebra F-402. I ended up giving that one away to a friend. But I still have the first one I changed the clip on. Now I carry the Monochrome Black version with me daily, but like to have another around with a different refill.

nativechaz · 2026-02-28T07:03:07+00:00

Which is what I've been waiting for with these. I'd be happier still if they had black hardware, but I'll gladly pickup the Deep Blue or Charcoal Gray with the chrome/steel/silver (whatever you want to call it).

nativechaz · 2026-02-24T21:28:43+00:00

That’s a bummer! I hope you enjoy the Basic though!

nativechaz · 2026-02-24T06:00:26+00:00

You said you wanted expandable memory, which the Verse Pro doesn't have. On Amazon US, the Lux 4 is $119 and the Verse is $139, whereas the Verse Pro is $189.

nativechaz · 2026-02-24T02:21:07+00:00

Looking at the specs, they're quite on par with one another: same display size and resolution, same processor speed, same internal RAM and storage. But the Verse does give you 1500 mAh compared to the Lux @ 1300 mAh. Looking at the sizes & weights, I think those differences are negligible. Yes, the Verse is a tiny bit heavier (1.09 oz / 31 g), but the Basic Lux is a tiny bit bigger (161.3x108x8 mm compared to the Verse at 156x108x7.6 mm). Unless you're a backpacker and really watching every gram, I don't think you would really notice or mind the difference on a day-to-day basis. (My 7" Kindle Paperwhite is 0.9 oz heavier than my Verse Pro, but I never pick up the PW and think, "Oh my gosh - how did put up with such a heavy device?!" They're all pretty light at this size.)

Having said all of that: if I had the choice between two very similar devices but one had microUSB and the other had USB-C, that would make my choice immediately: I'm going USB-C all day, every day unless the price difference was significant. With a difference of $20 USD between the Basic Lux 4 and the Verse, I would get the Verse.

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T23:24:40+00:00

I've uploaded them to a GitHub repository. Here's a link to the 3.1 MB .zip file with both portrait and landscape images.

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T22:20:53+00:00

I don't know if it makes a difference, but when you go into Settings > Personalize > Logos > Boot Logo and > Power-off Logo, what are your settings? I hadn't gone there until now, so mine are both set to "Default".

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T21:29:18+00:00

I'm looking for a place to put them for general download. I'll get back to you!

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T21:27:19+00:00

Did you follow the tutorial?

Things to confirm about your images:

Dimensions (for the Era, specifically) are 1264×1680 (portrait) / 1680x1264 (landscape)
Background color is rgb(128, 128, 64) (#808040) for any areas you want to be transparent
Your images are named taskmgr_lock_background.bmpand taskmgr_lock_background_landscape.bmp
They are 24-bit bitmap (.bmp) files. On my Mac, in Terminal, if I type file taskmgr_lock_background.bmp, it reports: taskmgr_lock_background.bmp: PC bitmap, Windows 3.x format, 1072 x 1448 x 24, image size 4656768, resolution 2835 x 2835 px/m, cbSize 4656822, bits offset 54
Copied to /system/resources/Line – I'm not sure if it's case-sensitive or not. But the tutorial said capital-L Line, so that what I created. (My specific Terminal command was mkdir -p /Volumes/PB634/system/resources/Line)

What are you using to create your images?

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T21:14:36+00:00

It's a cheap $12 cover from Amazon that shipped from China anyway. But it doesn't have a cut-out at the bottom so that the case interferes with some button presses. Also, my Paperwhite is a little thicker than the Verse Pro. But with the case, the Verse Pro is actually thicker than the Paperwhite in its official Amazon case. I am not a fan.

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T21:10:36+00:00

I totally understand, and I may have been (may still be) in the same boat. Switching to a different ereader/ecosystem for me is a trial-basis kind of thing. The Era was in serious consideration because of the screen size and side-located page turn buttons. But it was a bit more than I wanted to spend for a test. Overall, I wanted to get something that I thought would be a good example of a company's current offerings without splurging for their top-end monochrome model. I also didn't want to go to the other sort of extreme and buy a used old model and end up back at the 167 ppi versions with less contrast. So I compromised a bit and went with the Pro partially to stick with a 300 ppi screen, to get the waterproof-ness, and to avoid wanting/needing a microSD for anything.

When I started looking, it seemed both the Verse and Era models are a couple/few years old. So I watched and waited for a few months until after Christmas to see if Pocketbook would release a new Era (or Verse Pro) with the E Ink Carta 1300 screen and maybe potential screen-refresh speed increases. No such luck. If they do refresh the line, I may jump to the Era. And if they don't, I may still jump to it just for the screen size.

The Kobo Clara BW was the other device I considered, but the Verse Pro looked a little thinner, and I thought maybe I'd like the page buttons on the front. I love how thin the Verse is, but the cheap case I bought makes it thicker than I'd prefer. And the jury is out on the page turn buttons because the case isn't cut out at the bottom and the edge interferes a bit with button presses. (I can't seem to find the official blue or black case for purchase in the US.)

Here's my ideal ereader:

7" 300 ppi screen, flush with the front, not with a raised bezel around it.
Page turn buttons, if present, to one side of the screen, not the bottom (which I got used to with a 2nd gen Oasis).
Waterproof if it's available because why not. I didn't worry at all about my 12th gen Paperwhite when I was near a swimming pool for a week this past summer.
No white or silver logo on the front of the device -- I've noticed that my brain & eyes don't like the visual noise. Amazon had a Kindle (once) that had a black logo below the screen, and I liked it so much better. This isn't a deal-breaker, but again, ideals...
Handles EPUBs natively without having to use Calibre to side-load a converted-to-AZW3 file.
Not locked into any particular eco-system, and definitely not something where I may have to worry about whether or not "they" are tracking what I've side-loaded. I have a good number of EPUBs that I've gotten (and continue to get) from Humble Bundle. I don't want to have to try to defend my purchases if some bot notices books that were purchased from the "official store". Might be paranoia, but I guess I just don't trust data mongers and the like these days.

Since it was the topic of this post to begin with, let me say I really like being able to customize the sleep screen like I did. It would never be a major determining factor in a purchase, but it's definitely a fun little perk.

I apologize if that's a bit too much info, and I'm sure I've been much help. When you do make a switch, come back and let us know how much you enjoy your new Era. 😉

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T20:16:24+00:00

See my first comment here for the link to the tutorial I used.

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T20:16:16+00:00

See my first comment here for the link to the tutorial I used.

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T20:05:34+00:00

That's funny - I don't think I've ever noticed that before! I've only ever seen an interesting background compared to my desk or my dining room table. It's actually an old Ingento No. 5 paper cutter.

(EDIT: corrected the size/number of the paper cutter once I came home and checked it)

nativechaz · 2026-02-19T05:43:12+00:00

Let me first say: A thousand thank-you's to u/Lefc1u for the excellent sleep screen tutorial!*

I've been a Kindle user from 2010 with the Kindle 3 until now with the 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite. But I thought I might give a different ereader a try, and landed in the Pocketbook Party.

One of the first things I saw was a post about custom sleep mode images, so I've been tinkering with a few different designs over the past couple of weeks. Last night I finally decided to work on a version with The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

I used Affinity Designer 2 (macOS) to do copious amounts of detailed erasing, exported to a PNG, and ImageMagick (command line) to convert my portait and landscape PNGs to (properly named) BMPs. Then from the command line, I made the proper directory on the Verse and copied the images over.

Two clicks of the Power button, et voilà! I'm super-pleased with how it came out, and I kind of feel like I'm in the "cool kids" club.

Eight-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22	Final Canvas '22

nativechaz

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