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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.
by bredren 5y 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.
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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]
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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.
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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...
- ornornor 5y agoCan you share the arm you use to hold the kindle? I’ve been on a quest for year to find one for my Kobo (which is much easier to “jailbreak” in the sense that you don’t need to because it’s not in jail, and the text layout engine is so much better compared to the kindle… very few rivers)
- bredren 5y agoSure. See below. It isn’t super cheap and it isn’t great if you plan to take it out regularly. I keep this oasis in this contraption all of the time. I have an old Paperwhite for camping in the desert etc. (I did my jail breaking on the PW because by the time I got to my oasis it had already been updated.) Here is the listing, I got this in Jan 2020, so can’t say if the current is cut from the same cloth. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SDFFHSW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4VNQXWVYVPMAFYMJXP86?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SDFFHSW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4V...
- layer8 5y agoI got this very similar one recently, and it’s pretty good, using it with an iPad mini: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P8YHKLF/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P8YHKLF/ Also a Satechi R1 remote for page turning.
- shellfishgene 5y agoI also built a balanced arm for my (non-kindle) reader and wanted a remote page turner. I built one that uses a button and a reed relay to ground a piece of aluminum foil to the readers USB ground to stimulate a finger touch. It works but it's not very pretty. Forgot where I got the idea. My girlfriend has an Android reader, she can just use one of those tiny Bluetooth gamepads made for phones.
- Johnythree 5y agoThis is brilliant idea, thanks so much!
- 5y ago