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henriquemaia

I like to stay updated of what the Kindle hacking community is up to.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=150

My PW3 Kindle got way better with the many hacks I've learned there.

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What can you do with a jailbroken Kindle?

There was a frontpage yesterday about literary clock.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17688324

With a jailbroken Kindle you can, for instance, install koreader[1], a feature-rich alternative ebook reader application that enhances the somewhat limited capabilities of Kindle’s native reader.

For instance, with koreader you can open djvus, epubs, fb2 (if you’re onto those formats), but what makes koreader especially appealing to me is that it is a far better pdf reader than Kindle’s native.

Or you can look for a pool of available hacks[2] that make Kindle’s overall usage far more suited to your own particular needs. One example is the screensavers hack that allows you to choose either to use your own images (somewhat interesting if you’re onto customizing them to your tastes); or you can, as I prefer, to use that last displayed screen as the screensaver, as this allows you to keep a book’s opened page in display while you are taking notes or doing some other book research related task.

Some of these new features are now so essential to my Kindle’s experience that I can’t imagine myself using an original one without jailbreaking it. Also, I have my Kindle since 2015 and I’m in no hurry to get a newer or more capable model. As it is, it is very tailored to my academic needs.

[1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

[2] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180113

Is this old XKCD [1] still true? Or have all the cell signals serving it shut down?

[1] https://xkcd.com/548/

I just got out my Kindle Keyboard (Kindle 3) and tried it out... the 3G still works! It's a bit slow, but you can launch the browser from the Experimental window, choose the Wikipedia bookmark, and it still loads. I was able to search for the entry for the above referenced book and read it.

(That said, it's probably the first time I've used my Kindle Keyboard in months. I mostly use my phone or Samsung tablet for reading Kindle now.)

I highly recommend koreader. I use it on a Kobo Aura HD, and it's really excellent. It's much nicer for lots of things than staring at a computer monitor.

> but what makes koreader especially appealing to me is that it is a far better pdf reader than Kindle’s native

Same! On-the-fly column splitting, text reflow, and contrast adjustment makes reading academic papers much more pleasant.

At one point I was considering jailbreaking and writing a couple apps for the current PW, but after digging around the “Kindle Developer’s Corner” all I found were hacks to install, not really any comprehensible resources about how to develop for the devices.

I was looking at this yesterday and I also use a PW3. It seemed you actually have to open the case for physical access to jailbreak it. Did you do that? I punted.

Since it is somewhat risky if you’re not completely sure of what you are doing (as is my case, since I would be almost blindly following steps), and since there is a software hack to jailbreak it, I preferred the latter.

But the community there is very helpful and I’m convinced that if I were to physically hack it, I would find enough help there to guide me through.

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