my wife has a Kobo reader and it’s a great alternative, from Canada. The reader works great with Calibre on desktop for books you already own, and the Kobo store is more or less equivalent to the Kindle store.

I have no suggestion for getting files off an iPhone, but presumably an app exists to arbitrarily send files to desktop, and from there Calibre works.

Kobo build quality is better than other e-readers, and it supports color and markups. Overall it’s pretty good for PDFs/textbooks and novels, but manga/comics can be a little goofy.

I cant speak on the syncing since she has only the one device.

Good luck!

Edit: seems like you edited (or i misunderstood) the OP. Kobo (the device) works great with US library lending, but ymmv if you are in another country. If you use the kobo app on your phone it will sync your position with the device, but the app is pretty flawed on mobile and doesnt have a desktop version i’m aware of.

I wouldnt mind using the app to read fiction, but it’s not great for reference material. I use a standalone pdf reader for that kind of thing on my phone, which obviously doesnt sync.

Is it? I still get regular updates. Yes there are a few, i use Morph

https://www.ubuntu-touch.io/

Thanks for the elaboration. I’m not familiar with how Signal works.

Less than some. The US gov has a history of forcing US-based corporations to disclose private data regardless of their policies or the law.

I can’t give you a good alternative though. I’m sure the same thing happens in many countries

It’s a messaging app, it’s useless if there is nobody to message. I dont have any friends using signal yet.

Also it doesnt work on my phone (Ubuntu touch). There used to be a community app but it’s not currently working.

I sincerely wish them success, but it’s hard to have faith that a US-based company will actually protect your privacy. Not that Telegram does either. I dont know what information they do even collect.

I couldnt find a working Ubuntu touch app last i tried to use it

Nothing new here. E2E is only available in one on one chats and is disabled by default. Dont use it if privacy is your main concern.

At least Telegram has an open-source client. Very few messaging platforms can say that, and fewer have a decent UX.

It’s not perfect, but it’s got a good combination of features and multi-platform availability. None of the other messaging apps support all of my devices except Matrix, and Matrix doesn’t have stickers

Edit: Signal doesn’t support all my devices but maybe someday! The network effect is also big. None of my family and friends are on Signal, but most have Telegram. A few have Matrix.

Also Signal is a US-based company.

Edit 2: Matrix does have stickers, i guess I’m switching