This gadget—and free software—makes e-reading fun again

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. At first blush, it sounds like a canonical example of a gizmo the world could live without. The device in question is a truly diminutive e-reader designed to snap magnetically to the back of your phone—you know, the one that can already run a variety of e-book apps. It has no direct access to an e-book store, complicating the essential task of procuring stuff to read. Furthermore, its onboard software is so crude you might wonder if it was engineered to ensure buyer’s remorse. And yet I am delighted with the Xteink X4 Pro I bought last month. It turns out that yes, I do want to carry an e-reader in the same pocket as my phone. Like Amazon’s Kindles and other better-known contenders, those from China-based Xteink are optimized for reading, with paper-like screens and the ability to run for weeks between charges. The fact that they aren’t hooked up to an e-book store turns out not to be a catastrophe. The Xteink X4 Pro clings magnetically to the back of iPhone 16 Pro (with a little overhang at the bottom). [Photo: Harry McCracken] Most important, it’s simple to replace Xteink’s underwhelming software with a free, community-…