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The Benefits of JailBreaking Your Kindle: - Customize your lock screen to the recently opened book cover, selected image, or randomized from a collection of im

The Benefits of JailBreaking Your Kindle: - Customize your lock screen to the recently opened book cover, selected image, or randomized from a collection of images. Amazon added something similar recently but it took them 13 years for something so basic. - KOReader for reading epub and pdf. Also, you get access to the filesystem so you can organize your books however you want. - Customizable collections (similar to folders) with Calibre - Run Python so you can run w/e you want. Some ideas... - Sideload books via WiFi - Sync notes automatically The main idea of Jailbreaking is that you own your device and you can do whatever you want with it. However, I switched from a Jailbroken Kindle Paperwhite to an Android e-ink reader about a year ago and I'm never looking back. Regardless, I'm happy to see this on Hacker News!

kajiryoji 4y ago
I wonder does jailbreaking have any implication on battery life? I'd hate to jailbreak my kindle for a very much reduced battery life
- charleshan 4y ago
  Unless you run some automation on it, it shouldn't affect the battery life. The difference was negligible for me
solarkraft 4y ago
KOReader is brilliant. I sync my books with Syncthing and read them with KOReader.
and0 4y ago
What model of e-ink reader did you switch to?
- charleshan 4y ago
  Onyx Boox Poke 3. TBH it's a bit overpriced compared with Kindle Paperwhite which is what I had but the feature set is comparable to Kindle Oasis. More importantly, I wanted to be able to sync my books, highlights, and notes cross-platform. Uploading epub to Google Play Books lets me do this
  - ngcc_hk 4y ago
    I have the boox a4 size and the normal ipad size. I am not sure I like to read book on it. Kindle is better somehow. The problem is pdf is too small to over there. Hence the chinese phone home device. Finally go back to Goodreader and even working copy (<20 MB only due to GitHub restriction) and Dropbox. Read a lot of things and hence still struggle any old and responsive e-ink reader without phoning home.
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      Those devices are a bit too big for novels IMO. Reading with a two page spread on my Note Air isn't too bad but the device is still pretty heavy. The 7.8" devices are IMO perfect book size and that's where I do most of my novel reading.
WalterBright 4y ago
I've repeatedly asked for the lock screen to be the last page read. Then you can use it to display a reference page, or your daily schedule, or whatever.
- tomcam 4y ago
  You crazy bastard. As if that device is actually yours. What’s next, actual ownership of the files within?
  - MomoXenosaga 4y ago
    To be fair the Kindle is the cheapest e-reader you can find. Amazon needs to recoup the cost somehow.
    - bathtub365 4y ago
      Why should we be fair to Amazon? I consistently read on this site about how bad they are as an employer, company, and a web store.
      - endorphine 4y ago
        And then you went and bought their product?
        mirntyfirty 4y ago
        I think it’s fair to complain about a company whose product you bought. I have both android phones and iphones and complain about the parent companies all the time. Same thing with Nike, P&G, J&J, and a handful of the other oversized American conglomerates.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - 4y ago
mfritsche 4y ago
... but will it allow me to turn my Kindle off?
bufferoverflow 4y ago
I always upload books to the Kindle via wifi. You email the .mobi version to youremail@kindle.com, within a minute you will get a verify email, where you have to click the link, then the file gets pushed to your kindle. I'm too lazy to deal with wires and stuff.
- charleshan 4y ago
  I used to do this but I realized how difficult it is to organize your books this way. Calibre → Kindle was a much better workflow in my experience.
- innocenat 4y ago
  MOBI is so outdated and lack many newer features on Kindle. So much so that Amazon is discontinuing sending mobi via email later this year.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - beret4breakfast 4y ago
    Wait what? Is that just mobi? Or can other files be used. My USB port broke years ago so I soldered on a qi charger and now just send books over WiFi.
    - innocenat 4y ago
      They support sending EPUB now.
    - stunt 4y ago
      You can still use other formats on your Kindle. That restriction is for publishing new books on Amazon store. If you want to publish a new book on Amazon, you have to use EPUB instead of MOBI. That's the only change afaik.
      - innocenat 4y ago
bredren 4y ago
In my experience, these jailbreaks only work a short window of time and are not easy to hold on to. Amazon silently updates devices as soon as they patch CVEs. In most cases, you must keep the device in Airplane mode or somehow block OTA updates. [1] You can not downgrade if you mess this up or do not catch your device before the CVE is patched. Presumably, they are blowing fuses, but I don't know. So if you think you might want to jailbreak, find your device put it in airplane mode now! I keep an Oasis in a spring-balanced arm anchored to my bed frame so I can read while I'm falling asleep. I finally finished the first Dune trilogy this year thanks to this. -- The sole reason I previously jailbroke my Kindle was so I could use a wireless page turner. The problem was that reaching out to touch the screen each page meant I had to get my arm out from under the covers which broke the otherwise sublime passive consumption of a book. More recently such motion had the potential to wake the baby I was holding. I am not the only one who has wanted an official clicker from Amazon, people have expressed a desire for this on reddit and forums for many reasons including accessibility. Since these jailbreaks come along infrequently, my initial idea was to build a physical screen tapper out of a solenoid. That ended up being too noisy and big. I've investigated two jailbreak methods using software / hw combos: - Kindlelazy, which uses a usb 2.0 micro usb male to usb female otg adapater and a presentation clicker - Homekit Eve button -> Homebrew -> run ssh command on kindle over wifi When the last jailbreak based on an RCE dropped in January of 2021, KindleDrip, [2] I rushed to attempt it and succeeded. However, I made some mistake and the device updated. I was so bummed! I kept my notes on these different methods with links to each repo or forum thread for the steps in a google doc. I just made a copy of it public, maybe it will help someone. [3] -- To my great surprise in mid 2021, some company called SYUKUYU made a wireless Kindle page turner using a clip that does a light electrical pulse and a small hand held remote. I bought it even though it had hardly any reviews and found it was amazing. Both parts use a USB-C connection to recharge and the thing works exactly as designed. I just checked in on that product and it has 4.5 stars and 726 ratings now. -- Parent mentioned Amazon took 13 years to add image covers. It isn't just that, Amazon has neglected the Kindle in many ways for many years. From the default "special offers" behavior of Kindle, to the languishing, yet unavoidable Goodreads to the latent hardware improvements to their overpriced product line. Amazon isn’t offering a native Bluetooth page turning device because the product lacks demand or it’s not feasible. In my opinion its because the company doesn't care about its Kindle customers. Amazon has a strong hold over ebooks due to its vertical integration of content, hardware and entrenched social platform of Goodreads. The pandemic only pushed adoption of its DRM licensing scheme used by libraries or their service providers even further. It was unexpected and welcome when they added the cover thing, but that came only after the last CVE was closed. Almost like they were waiting for a reason to need to appear like they were doing _anything_ for the product. [1] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338268 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338268 [2] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336740 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336740 [3] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIw5YCx-wlSetOWVgD-HAAiPV7xqce-ZLm075sYSS9E/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIw5YCx-wlSetOWVgD-HAAiP...
captn3m0 4y ago
KOReader also gets you a host of features, including a real file browser, reading statistics (both on the book and calendar level), reading sync with other devices running KOReader, support for weirder formats (such as CBR/CBZ), better PDF formatting (PDF Reflow for reading papers is great), and Calibre Wireless access, and OPDS support. And much more. KOReader runs on Linux as well, so you can do a trial run to see the UX and the vast feature set.
- ekianjo 4y ago
  KOReader runs on everything under the sun, including Android. The UX is... good in some areas and very poor in others.
  - flatiron 4y ago
    Not iOS
- adhesive_wombat 4y ago
  I use it on a Kobo and it's great. It has SSH too, and WebDav, so I can either scp files over from a computer (push) or open the network share and download them onto the device (pull). No cables, no web services.
DantesKite 4y ago
Dang, I think you just convinced me. The main benefit is I can run my own Python code...Damn the possibilities are literally limitless. Amazon updates their own operating system like once every three years...The thought of finally being able to do what I want is very enticing.
stormdennis 4y ago
I pretty much never use my kindle any more. Instead I use a Reading app on my android phone, usually in darkmode which I don't find tiring on my eyes.
OrangeMusic 4y ago
> or randomized from a collection of images. Amazon added something similar recently Just to be clear, you still can't do that (without jailbreak), right? You can set it to the cover of the book you're currently reading, but not to a collection of images of your choice.
- gala8y 4y ago
  I think grandparent meant 'Amazon added something similar recently...' ... to newly sold kindles.
  - OrangeMusic 4y ago
    I still don't think this feature exists, I can't find any reference of it online anywhere.
mrzool 4y ago
May I ask which Android e-ink reader you switched to?
- Multicomp 4y ago
  Not OP but was in a similar situation sans jailbreak. I switched to a Boyue Likebook Mars which has android, micro SD card, headphone jack for audiobooks. I installed koreader and synching so when I drag n drop ebooks or audiobooks into a certain folder, I know it will just magically appear there on the sd card of the e-reader in a few minutes. I can still run and use the Kindle app for my existing library, though these days I buy only drm free ebooks as well. So nice to actually own ones ebooks!
  - codeslave13 4y ago
    How did you install syncrhing. Granted im not deep into likebook but i love my mars reader. Syncthing would make it great.
    - charleshan 4y ago
      Syncthing is available on android
  - woojoo666 4y ago
    Hows the battery life with syncthing? I found it pretty draining on my smartphone
- charleshan 4y ago
  I answered this in another comment :) > Onyx Boox Poke 3. TBH it's a bit overpriced compared with Kindle Paperwhite which is what I had but the feature set is comparable to Kindle Oasis. More importantly, I wanted to be able to sync my books, highlights, and notes cross-platform. Uploading epub to Google Play Books lets me do this
bitL 4y ago
Isn't it easier to get a Lenovo M10 X605F, put Ubuntu Touch on it and do whatever you want with it?
- delusional 4y ago
  Not if you want e-ink
Brybry 4y ago
I had to jailbreak my kindle to fix the system time. My kindle 2 (~2009) only has cellular connectivity (which doesn't work anymore) and even if it did the API it used for clock synchronization no longer exists. Occasionally my kindle crashes or requires a hard reset and this resets my system time to epoch. So any new books I add via USB (or even any existing books I read) have their added/last read time in the past and it messes up book sorting. Some day I'll write an init script to check if the system time is bogus and set some reasonable value from a log file's last access time or something. Until then I manually update it when it breaks via usbnetwork.
- stonewareslord 4y ago
  You could also write something like Linux's fakehwclock that writes device time to a file on shutdown and reads it on bootup. Your clock will skew more (shutdowns are supposedly 0 seconds in duration), but it would at least be monotonic. Fakehwclock is cool for computers with no clock battery like raspberry pis. So you at least have a time from this century until clock sync
seaman1921 4y ago
maybe we should also mention the downsides?
- charleshan 4y ago
  The downsides are your time spent into doing some research and jailbreaking, and the barrier to update the Kindle firmware freely. But I wouldn't worry about the last point because Amazon rarely adds useful features. As a reference, I didn't find the need to update the firmware while I had the Kindle from 2019-2021.
going_ham 4y ago
Thank you so much for this! I was considering of getting ipad just to read PDFs. I jailbroke my kindle last night. Now I am enjoying this awesome reader!!!

kajiryoji 4y ago

I wonder does jailbreaking have any implication on battery life? I'd hate to jailbreak my kindle for a very much reduced battery life

charleshan 4y ago
Unless you run some automation on it, it shouldn't affect the battery life. The difference was negligible for me

solarkraft 4y ago

KOReader is brilliant. I sync my books with Syncthing and read them with KOReader.

and0 4y ago

What model of e-ink reader did you switch to?

charleshan 4y ago
Onyx Boox Poke 3. TBH it's a bit overpriced compared with Kindle Paperwhite which is what I had but the feature set is comparable to Kindle Oasis. More importantly, I wanted to be able to sync my books, highlights, and notes cross-platform. Uploading epub to Google Play Books lets me do this
- ngcc_hk 4y ago
  I have the boox a4 size and the normal ipad size. I am not sure I like to read book on it. Kindle is better somehow. The problem is pdf is too small to over there. Hence the chinese phone home device. Finally go back to Goodreader and even working copy (<20 MB only due to GitHub restriction) and Dropbox. Read a lot of things and hence still struggle any old and responsive e-ink reader without phoning home.
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    Those devices are a bit too big for novels IMO. Reading with a two page spread on my Note Air isn't too bad but the device is still pretty heavy. The 7.8" devices are IMO perfect book size and that's where I do most of my novel reading.

WalterBright 4y ago

I've repeatedly asked for the lock screen to be the last page read. Then you can use it to display a reference page, or your daily schedule, or whatever.

tomcam 4y ago
You crazy bastard. As if that device is actually yours. What’s next, actual ownership of the files within?
- MomoXenosaga 4y ago
  To be fair the Kindle is the cheapest e-reader you can find. Amazon needs to recoup the cost somehow.
  - bathtub365 4y ago
    Why should we be fair to Amazon? I consistently read on this site about how bad they are as an employer, company, and a web store.
    - endorphine 4y ago
      And then you went and bought their product?
      - mirntyfirty 4y ago
        I think it’s fair to complain about a company whose product you bought. I have both android phones and iphones and complain about the parent companies all the time. Same thing with Nike, P&G, J&J, and a handful of the other oversized American conglomerates.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - 4y ago

mfritsche 4y ago

... but will it allow me to turn my Kindle off?

bufferoverflow 4y ago

I always upload books to the Kindle via wifi. You email the .mobi version to youremail@kindle.com, within a minute you will get a verify email, where you have to click the link, then the file gets pushed to your kindle. I'm too lazy to deal with wires and stuff.

charleshan 4y ago
I used to do this but I realized how difficult it is to organize your books this way. Calibre → Kindle was a much better workflow in my experience.
innocenat 4y ago
MOBI is so outdated and lack many newer features on Kindle. So much so that Amazon is discontinuing sending mobi via email later this year.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- beret4breakfast 4y ago
  Wait what? Is that just mobi? Or can other files be used. My USB port broke years ago so I soldered on a qi charger and now just send books over WiFi.
  - innocenat 4y ago
    They support sending EPUB now.
  - stunt 4y ago
    You can still use other formats on your Kindle. That restriction is for publishing new books on Amazon store. If you want to publish a new book on Amazon, you have to use EPUB instead of MOBI. That's the only change afaik.
    - innocenat 4y ago

bredren 4y ago

In my experience, these jailbreaks only work a short window of time and are not easy to hold on to. Amazon silently updates devices as soon as they patch CVEs. In most cases, you must keep the device in Airplane mode or somehow block OTA updates. [1] You can not downgrade if you mess this up or do not catch your device before the CVE is patched. Presumably, they are blowing fuses, but I don't know. So if you think you might want to jailbreak, find your device put it in airplane mode now! I keep an Oasis in a spring-balanced arm anchored to my bed frame so I can read while I'm falling asleep. I finally finished the first Dune trilogy this year thanks to this. -- The sole reason I previously jailbroke my Kindle was so I could use a wireless page turner. The problem was that reaching out to touch the screen each page meant I had to get my arm out from under the covers which broke the otherwise sublime passive consumption of a book. More recently such motion had the potential to wake the baby I was holding. I am not the only one who has wanted an official clicker from Amazon, people have expressed a desire for this on reddit and forums for many reasons including accessibility. Since these jailbreaks come along infrequently, my initial idea was to build a physical screen tapper out of a solenoid. That ended up being too noisy and big. I've investigated two jailbreak methods using software / hw combos: - Kindlelazy, which uses a usb 2.0 micro usb male to usb female otg adapater and a presentation clicker - Homekit Eve button -> Homebrew -> run ssh command on kindle over wifi When the last jailbreak based on an RCE dropped in January of 2021, KindleDrip, [2] I rushed to attempt it and succeeded. However, I made some mistake and the device updated. I was so bummed! I kept my notes on these different methods with links to each repo or forum thread for the steps in a google doc. I just made a copy of it public, maybe it will help someone. [3] -- To my great surprise in mid 2021, some company called SYUKUYU made a wireless Kindle page turner using a clip that does a light electrical pulse and a small hand held remote. I bought it even though it had hardly any reviews and found it was amazing. Both parts use a USB-C connection to recharge and the thing works exactly as designed. I just checked in on that product and it has 4.5 stars and 726 ratings now. -- Parent mentioned Amazon took 13 years to add image covers. It isn't just that, Amazon has neglected the Kindle in many ways for many years. From the default "special offers" behavior of Kindle, to the languishing, yet unavoidable Goodreads to the latent hardware improvements to their overpriced product line. Amazon isn’t offering a native Bluetooth page turning device because the product lacks demand or it’s not feasible. In my opinion its because the company doesn't care about its Kindle customers. Amazon has a strong hold over ebooks due to its vertical integration of content, hardware and entrenched social platform of Goodreads. The pandemic only pushed adoption of its DRM licensing scheme used by libraries or their service providers even further. It was unexpected and welcome when they added the cover thing, but that came only after the last CVE was closed. Almost like they were waiting for a reason to need to appear like they were doing _anything_ for the product. [1] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338268 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338268 [2] https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336740 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336740 [3] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIw5YCx-wlSetOWVgD-HAAiPV7xqce-ZLm075sYSS9E/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JIw5YCx-wlSetOWVgD-HAAiP...

captn3m0 4y ago

KOReader also gets you a host of features, including a real file browser, reading statistics (both on the book and calendar level), reading sync with other devices running KOReader, support for weirder formats (such as CBR/CBZ), better PDF formatting (PDF Reflow for reading papers is great), and Calibre Wireless access, and OPDS support. And much more. KOReader runs on Linux as well, so you can do a trial run to see the UX and the vast feature set.

ekianjo 4y ago
KOReader runs on everything under the sun, including Android. The UX is... good in some areas and very poor in others.
- flatiron 4y ago
  Not iOS
adhesive_wombat 4y ago
I use it on a Kobo and it's great. It has SSH too, and WebDav, so I can either scp files over from a computer (push) or open the network share and download them onto the device (pull). No cables, no web services.

DantesKite 4y ago

Dang, I think you just convinced me. The main benefit is I can run my own Python code...Damn the possibilities are literally limitless. Amazon updates their own operating system like once every three years...The thought of finally being able to do what I want is very enticing.

stormdennis 4y ago

I pretty much never use my kindle any more. Instead I use a Reading app on my android phone, usually in darkmode which I don't find tiring on my eyes.

OrangeMusic 4y ago

> or randomized from a collection of images. Amazon added something similar recently Just to be clear, you still can't do that (without jailbreak), right? You can set it to the cover of the book you're currently reading, but not to a collection of images of your choice.

gala8y 4y ago
I think grandparent meant 'Amazon added something similar recently...' ... to newly sold kindles.
- OrangeMusic 4y ago
  I still don't think this feature exists, I can't find any reference of it online anywhere.

mrzool 4y ago

May I ask which Android e-ink reader you switched to?

Multicomp 4y ago
Not OP but was in a similar situation sans jailbreak. I switched to a Boyue Likebook Mars which has android, micro SD card, headphone jack for audiobooks. I installed koreader and synching so when I drag n drop ebooks or audiobooks into a certain folder, I know it will just magically appear there on the sd card of the e-reader in a few minutes. I can still run and use the Kindle app for my existing library, though these days I buy only drm free ebooks as well. So nice to actually own ones ebooks!
- codeslave13 4y ago
  How did you install syncrhing. Granted im not deep into likebook but i love my mars reader. Syncthing would make it great.
  - charleshan 4y ago
    Syncthing is available on android
- woojoo666 4y ago
  Hows the battery life with syncthing? I found it pretty draining on my smartphone
charleshan 4y ago
I answered this in another comment :) > Onyx Boox Poke 3. TBH it's a bit overpriced compared with Kindle Paperwhite which is what I had but the feature set is comparable to Kindle Oasis. More importantly, I wanted to be able to sync my books, highlights, and notes cross-platform. Uploading epub to Google Play Books lets me do this

bitL 4y ago

Isn't it easier to get a Lenovo M10 X605F, put Ubuntu Touch on it and do whatever you want with it?

delusional 4y ago
Not if you want e-ink

Brybry 4y ago

I had to jailbreak my kindle to fix the system time. My kindle 2 (~2009) only has cellular connectivity (which doesn't work anymore) and even if it did the API it used for clock synchronization no longer exists. Occasionally my kindle crashes or requires a hard reset and this resets my system time to epoch. So any new books I add via USB (or even any existing books I read) have their added/last read time in the past and it messes up book sorting. Some day I'll write an init script to check if the system time is bogus and set some reasonable value from a log file's last access time or something. Until then I manually update it when it breaks via usbnetwork.

stonewareslord 4y ago
You could also write something like Linux's fakehwclock that writes device time to a file on shutdown and reads it on bootup. Your clock will skew more (shutdowns are supposedly 0 seconds in duration), but it would at least be monotonic. Fakehwclock is cool for computers with no clock battery like raspberry pis. So you at least have a time from this century until clock sync

seaman1921 4y ago

maybe we should also mention the downsides?

charleshan 4y ago
The downsides are your time spent into doing some research and jailbreaking, and the barrier to update the Kindle firmware freely. But I wouldn't worry about the last point because Amazon rarely adds useful features. As a reference, I didn't find the need to update the firmware while I had the Kindle from 2019-2021.

going_ham 4y ago

Thank you so much for this! I was considering of getting ipad just to read PDFs. I jailbroke my kindle last night. Now I am enjoying this awesome reader!!!