Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Jailbroken 51
hypnosec writes "Amazon's latest Kindle Paperwhite is now officially jailbroken, giving users the ability to do things like turn their eReaders into weather station displays, or connect serially to a Raspberry Pi. To jailbreak the Paperwhite, the user needs to copy a file over to the root directory of the e-Reader and restart the device. The Kindle Paperwhite jailbreak is based on a previously known hack used on the Kindle Touch."
I'm jailbreaking mine. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm jailbreaking my Paperwhite so I can read ePubs!
Re:I'm jailbreaking mine. (Score:5, Interesting)
That would be my first, and main reason as well. Same reason i rooted my nook touch, so i could read mobi native.. Having native access to both main formats is far better than having to convert and hope... ( now that both support pdf, that became a non-issue, but the mobi/epub issue is still there )
Having direct access to the both 'markets' for books is good too.
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That would be my first, and main reason as well. Same reason i rooted my nook touch, so i could read mobi native.. Having native access to both main formats is far better than having to convert and hope... ( now that both support pdf, that became a non-issue, but the mobi/epub issue is still there )
Having direct access to the both 'markets' for books is good too.
You still need to get rid of either Adobe's or Amazon's DRM, the Jailbreak and software you'll later install will only display free eBooks in the other format.
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Just say no to DRM. Buying DRM-"protected" ebooks sends the wrong message to publishers.
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You are suggesting that there are no DRM-free commercial ebooks available. That's just not true.
You get lots of commercial books from a lot of publishers. For example Tor, Baen, and Fictionwise. You might be out of luck if you want to read 50 shades of grey or twilight books. But hey, at least Harry Potter is DRM-free now.
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I have used both on my rooted nook. Why would the kindle be any different?
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A lot of new content /producers/ are avoiding DRM like the plague as well ( We are, and almost all members of our loose, but large association are ). So it's changing.
I do wish Amazon would just get over itself and add ePub ability and be done with it... likewise release a linux-native reader.
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I would actually argue that converting is more convenient, for the simple reason that books converted to Mobi can then be uploaded to Amazon's cloud (by sending them to your Kindle's email). Once that's done, they sync their last read position, bookmarks etc, same as books purchased from Amazon. If you ever read from more than one device - e.g. Kindle at home, and your smartphone on the go - that syncing functionality comes very handy.
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Or just convert ePubs in a minute or so using Calibre
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But it's much easier to just copy your epubs onto the device than having everything going through Calibre.
Of course it depends on how you manage your ebooks but any conversion can go wrong and Amazon's reader software on the hardware Kindles is quite limited anyway (no kerning and no hyphenation)
I'm also quite sceptical about Calibre's code. But its UI is ugly and considering some security issues in the past by its main programmer I'm constantly surprised
KindleGen CLI ePub - Mobi (Score:2)
That's why I use Kindlegen which runs on the CLI and can be downloaded for free: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765211 [amazon.com] I don't like much Calibre; it feels sluggish.
Re:I'm jailbreaking mine ... to read Epubs (Score:2)
And what program are you using for that?
I started the HackedUpReader project [mobileread.com] (based on the Coolreader code) for reading epubs on the Kindle Touch.
We know now the Kindle Paperwhite is quite similar to the Kindle Touch (also shown by the internal firmware version 5.1.2 for the Touch and 5.2.0 for the PW) and the latest release of HackedUpReader has possible support for the PW but I don't have heard any report so far.
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That's what you think you did. In reality, you installed spyware with the added benefit for you that you can read epubs.
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There are cheaper ways to do things like weather displays. And the e-ink display is really only useful for what it's used for - displaying and reading printed text. And Amazon probably will find a way to shut it down, much like Sony does with its PS3 - force you to system update to use new features, which lock it down again.
Weather displays aren't "printed text"? Is there something wrong with wanting a customizable smart display that uses less power and is easier to read than the typical black/gray hardwired LCDs?
Hackable devices. (Score:1)
Long may they live. It is good to be able to hack devices and make them do things they were not intended to do. That is the hacker spirit living on in 2012.
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Or just use it like it *should* be, and not locked down to one particular vendor's file format.
Without epub support the thing is worthless to me.
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I wouldn't say worthless. More convenient, definitely.
Calibre makes it crazy easy to convert between ebook formats, so turning that epub into a pdf or mobi is pretty simple.
But, yes, if the option is available to read the epub directly, that is definitely preferable.
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You can covert easily, but what comes out the other end isn't always that great.
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It's not *always* great, but I've had mostly good luck.
The only real problem I run into is pictures landing in the wrong spots so they don't match their caption. For a novel, not a big deal. For a reference book, probably a showstopper. But even that can be rectified with a little work.
Anyway, my point was only that "worthless" was too strong a term. I fully agree that a device that can just use X format directly is a better tool than one that requires conversion.
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"Without epub support the thing is worthless to me."
Drama queen too much?
I have a K4 and I have absolutely no idea if it supports epub. I mean, it certainly does in the sense that I can send epubs to it and read that stuff on the Kindle without any problem. But the question that it supports it natively or by converting it during transfer is absolutely irrelevant for me and I guess mostly for everybody.
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Wait - are you saying that sending an ePub file to your Kindle via email will actually convert it?
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e-ink (Score:3)
That is the whole point of e-ink, to provide a good readable display. LCD sucks for anything other than a quick glance of a tech book where you *need* color or a larger format. ( where is my color e-ink amazon and B&N.. ?? )
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The hacker spirit is not for "utility" but for "hacking". :-)
Having said that IMO there is utility in a jailbreak of Kindle devices even if you "only" want to use it for reading. Without a jailbreak you can't directly read specifc formats (e.g. epubs or some comic and manga formats).
Notice to tech gadget corporations (Score:2)
When I first saw ads for Paperwhite, I was sort of meh, I've been using my Transformer Prime/Razr to read books, my Kindle went to my wife. Why another gadget? This notice made me look again...and I'm betting I'll never find a reason to want to actually root it. Just the fact that root-ability is out there attracts a segment of the demographic. I'm thinking I want one of these now...
Officially? (Score:1)
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In comparison to the imaginary jailbreaks for the Paperwhite?
Paper what? (Score:3)
Isn't there a marketing danger to naming your product almost "paper weight"?
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Does that imply that my non-touch Kindle should be called "PaperGrey"?
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Just great! I can jailbreak my kindle read any format now...
With a binary written by someone i don't know and am forced to trust because i can't write or disassemble code. (21st century illiterate. )
Do i trust Amazon to make the kindle less user friendly and progressively more expensive with user lock-in or.. $Random programmer to be honest without anyone reviewing the source code?
I Would love the convenience of a kindle but for this question.
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Devices that are not so closed can't compete so much on price since they have to make more money
Burried in the list (Score:2)
It would be like buying a monitor that would only stream video from approved devices.
I see what you did there!
Why the hell ... (Score:1)
This is cool, but (Score:1)
At the risk of getting flamed to a cinder I am offering this up:
I am getting the Kindle Paperwhite and I am not going to jailbreak it.
I like paying for my books. I have purchased some friggin excellent books directly from my kindle touch that I would have never otherwise. "Pines" and "Run" by Blake Crouch are 2 good examples many slashdotters will appreciate. ('Wool" is another). It is an easy way to support an author.
I use my kindle to read PDFs all the time. you CAN read epubs if you convert them (http://
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I am getting the Kindle Paperwhite and I am not going to jailbreak it. ... I like paying for my books.
I see this argument in iOS jailbreaking discussions too, but I don't understand it. Do you really believe jailbreaking is about stealing books? If you do, you're wrong.
I have an iPhone and a Kindle, both of which are jailbroken. I still pay for my books and my apps. The default jailbreaks on both devices wouldn't let me steal stuff even if I wanted to! But I have been able to add functionality - and that's why I do it.
Thanks to jailbreaking, my Kindle 3 now lets me connect to it over wi-fi - I can put files
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Most of the custom framework the Kindle Touch and Kindle Paperwhite are using is based on a Java framework that is quite extendible.
For example a popular jailbreak patch called JBPatch adds lots of stuff to the standard Kindle reading software, like hyphenation
Theoretically it would be possible to add code that decodes epubs and thus lets you read the content.
Practically so far there have been standalone programs developped that let you read them.