4 ms·

Cheaper Than A Tablet: 'Rooting' Your E-Reader

67 points by jnazario 15y ago

Abomonog 15y ago
I first rooted mine back in January. It's a very easy device to root and you have a lot of options on how to do it now. You can run off an SD card of you still want to use it as a nook sometimes (like getting your free hour at B&N.) You can run Froyo, Cyanogen, or a Honeycomb version. And it's very hard if not impossible to brick. If you are serious about wanting to root yours, I'd suggest putting Cyanogen on your EMMC, with it overclocked to 1.1. Very easy to do now that you can download ClockworkMod on an SD card and install Cyanogen, or anything else for that matter using it.
tmcw 15y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong (I'd like to be), but the actual pictured tablet, the 'Kindle keyboard' actually doesn't have a notable rooting technique, and the caption below it is wrong?
- yew 15y ago
  My Kindle Keyboard is rooted. It runs a hand-rolled Linux framework rather than Android, however. The rooting process is actually rather trivial, as platform security is minimal.
- skymt 15y ago
  The Kindle 3/keyboard does have a jailbreak available[1], but it's not that useful. Most people just use it to change the "screensaver" images that are displayed when the Kindle is in sleep mode. There are some interesting hacks/ports available[2]. 1: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004 2: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704
- eof 15y ago
  It has an easy rooting technique. Some useful things you can do are 'desponsor' your ad supported kindle, add some useful navigation techniques (like user defined alt+character combinations to do common things or input characters you need), tether your 3g kindle via usb.
  - herval 15y ago
    By tether, do you mean I could use my kindle as a 3g "modem"? Wouldn't that go against the device's terms of the device? Do you know of anyone that did it?
    - eof 15y ago
      Yes, yes, yes
      - herval 15y ago
        the outstanding question was: do you know of Amazon blocking/banning anyone for that?
        eof 15y ago
        i haven't been following it closely at all. the direct answer is 'no' i don't. but that doesn't mean they haven't. the main kindle rooting community i know of was not giving specific instructions on how to tether or disable the ads so presumably that helped limit how much of a problem it was for amazon. but no, i haven't heard of any kindles being shut down for any reason
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
webwanderings 15y ago
I don't know if there's anything innovative here. Why should I bother going through such trouble for $190-250 range hacked tablet when I could buy (and just did the other day) Lenovo's A1 for $175.
- jrockway 15y ago
  Because you already own the e-reader.
- wtallis 15y ago
  Because the IdeaPad A1 uses a TN panel, but the Nook Color uses an IPS panel. And if you want to compare against the Nook Tablet ($250), then it's still got a better screen, and also has more RAM, a dual-core CPU, and a faster GPU.
  - webwanderings 15y ago
    Well, for my taste, all these tablets are e-Readers and game devices only. There's hardly anything you can do on them that would count as serious, contrasting the cost of these things.
nextparadigms 15y ago
If you don't already own one of these, you might as well wait for the rumored Google Nexus tablet: http://androidandme.com/2012/03/opinions/rumor-nexus-tablet-is-a-done-deal-to-retail-for-as-low-as-149/ http://androidandme.com/2012/03/opinions/rumor-nexus-tablet-...
- webwanderings 15y ago
  They can sell these for free and they'd still be profitable because Android is nothing but a market where they're selling Ads and Software to large number of potential eyeballs and pockets willing to shell out few bucks here and there.
  - webwanderings 15y ago
    Down-votes without a comment?
Kuiper 15y ago
It's worth noting that this story is a year old and the price figures and remarks about Kindle's lack of touch screen are a tad obsolete; a Kindle Keyboard with 3G is only $140 if you get a "sponsored" version (and removing the ads is trivially easy when you jailbreak), and for $150 you can get the Kindle Touch with 3G.
pragmatic 15y ago
Kindle Fire? $200 android tablet with decent web browsing. One drawback, no Google Android Market err umm Google Play market unless your root it. One of my five year old's favorite toys...I get it back after he's asleep.
- michaelbuckbee 15y ago
  This was my thought as well, if nothing else it is $60 cheaper than the Nook Color.
pasbesoin 15y ago
My older generation Kobo would be much more useful to me if it would simply do ePub in landscape, so that code samples within texts did not extent past the right margin with no means to scroll. Or if they could be made to wrap, ugly as that might look. Supposedly, the firmware that the Kobo firmware is based on, does this, and some have successfully supplanted the latter with the former. Take this along with the long-anticipated, now increasingly manifesting -- or publicized -- security failures of various "closed garden" phone/tablet environments, and I am increasingly disinclined to use, depend on, or support any such environment that is not open source and therefore amenable to some very common-sense functionality, by the community if and when the manufacture lets us down. P.S. The Kobo firmware is at heart more or less Linux (although based on an intermediate party's customization of same). I'm frustrated at some things that Kobo has failed to offer, but at least there are ways past this (that don't even involve "jailbreaking", in its more legalesque meaning).

67 points by jnazario 15y ago

I first rooted mine back in January. It's a very easy device to root and you have a lot of options on how to do it now. You can run off an SD card of you still want to use it as a nook sometimes (like getting your free hour at B&N.) You can run Froyo, Cyanogen, or a Honeycomb version. And it's very hard if not impossible to brick. If you are serious about wanting to root yours, I'd suggest putting Cyanogen on your EMMC, with it overclocked to 1.1. Very easy to do now that you can download ClockworkMod on an SD card and install Cyanogen, or anything else for that matter using it.

tmcw 15y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'd like to be), but the actual pictured tablet, the 'Kindle keyboard' actually doesn't have a notable rooting technique, and the caption below it is wrong?

yew 15y ago
My Kindle Keyboard is rooted. It runs a hand-rolled Linux framework rather than Android, however. The rooting process is actually rather trivial, as platform security is minimal.
skymt 15y ago
The Kindle 3/keyboard does have a jailbreak available[1], but it's not that useful. Most people just use it to change the "screensaver" images that are displayed when the Kindle is in sleep mode. There are some interesting hacks/ports available[2]. 1: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88004 2: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704
eof 15y ago
It has an easy rooting technique. Some useful things you can do are 'desponsor' your ad supported kindle, add some useful navigation techniques (like user defined alt+character combinations to do common things or input characters you need), tether your 3g kindle via usb.
- herval 15y ago
  By tether, do you mean I could use my kindle as a 3g "modem"? Wouldn't that go against the device's terms of the device? Do you know of anyone that did it?
  - eof 15y ago
    Yes, yes, yes
    - herval 15y ago
      the outstanding question was: do you know of Amazon blocking/banning anyone for that?
      - eof 15y ago
        i haven't been following it closely at all. the direct answer is 'no' i don't. but that doesn't mean they haven't. the main kindle rooting community i know of was not giving specific instructions on how to tether or disable the ads so presumably that helped limit how much of a problem it was for amazon. but no, i haven't heard of any kindles being shut down for any reason

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

webwanderings 15y ago

I don't know if there's anything innovative here. Why should I bother going through such trouble for $190-250 range hacked tablet when I could buy (and just did the other day) Lenovo's A1 for $175.

jrockway 15y ago
Because you already own the e-reader.
wtallis 15y ago
Because the IdeaPad A1 uses a TN panel, but the Nook Color uses an IPS panel. And if you want to compare against the Nook Tablet ($250), then it's still got a better screen, and also has more RAM, a dual-core CPU, and a faster GPU.
- webwanderings 15y ago
  Well, for my taste, all these tablets are e-Readers and game devices only. There's hardly anything you can do on them that would count as serious, contrasting the cost of these things.

nextparadigms 15y ago

If you don't already own one of these, you might as well wait for the rumored Google Nexus tablet: http://androidandme.com/2012/03/opinions/rumor-nexus-tablet-is-a-done-deal-to-retail-for-as-low-as-149/ http://androidandme.com/2012/03/opinions/rumor-nexus-tablet-...

webwanderings 15y ago
They can sell these for free and they'd still be profitable because Android is nothing but a market where they're selling Ads and Software to large number of potential eyeballs and pockets willing to shell out few bucks here and there.
- webwanderings 15y ago
  Down-votes without a comment?

Kuiper 15y ago

It's worth noting that this story is a year old and the price figures and remarks about Kindle's lack of touch screen are a tad obsolete; a Kindle Keyboard with 3G is only $140 if you get a "sponsored" version (and removing the ads is trivially easy when you jailbreak), and for $150 you can get the Kindle Touch with 3G.

pragmatic 15y ago

Kindle Fire? $200 android tablet with decent web browsing. One drawback, no Google Android Market err umm Google Play market unless your root it. One of my five year old's favorite toys...I get it back after he's asleep.

michaelbuckbee 15y ago
This was my thought as well, if nothing else it is $60 cheaper than the Nook Color.

pasbesoin 15y ago

My older generation Kobo would be much more useful to me if it would simply do ePub in landscape, so that code samples within texts did not extent past the right margin with no means to scroll. Or if they could be made to wrap, ugly as that might look. Supposedly, the firmware that the Kobo firmware is based on, does this, and some have successfully supplanted the latter with the former. Take this along with the long-anticipated, now increasingly manifesting -- or publicized -- security failures of various "closed garden" phone/tablet environments, and I am increasingly disinclined to use, depend on, or support any such environment that is not open source and therefore amenable to some very common-sense functionality, by the community if and when the manufacture lets us down. P.S. The Kobo firmware is at heart more or less Linux (although based on an intermediate party's customization of same). I'm frustrated at some things that Kobo has failed to offer, but at least there are ways past this (that don't even involve "jailbreaking", in its more legalesque meaning).