For those of us who will only buy electronics used, kindle is usually the only option. And far cheaper too. So its nice that the device can be opened up a bit.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I'd never heard of these, thanks! I been trying to find old Kindles for sale, but this looks like a much better choice.

ETA: they're also a Canadian company, win-win

[–] bzLem0n@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Kobo is owned by Rakuten, a Japanese company. Still a much better choice than Amazon though.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 9 points 4 days ago

Ahh, looks like Canada native company started by Indigo, bought by Rakuten in 2011. At least their HQ and all is still in Toronto, didn't get gutted by the buyout.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I been trying to find old Kindles for sale

Try "Unclaimed Baggage". We got our kids kindles through them.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 4 points 4 days ago

Interesting site. I already snagged a Kobo, but I'll definitely keep this in mind for other stuff!

[–] sirpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

what is a good kobo to invest in on the cheaper side?

[–] minibyte@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

$140 – the Kobo Clara BW (black and white/e-ink) is clutch. Dark mode, plays well with calibre, a wide range of supported formats, and way more storage and battery life than you’ll ever need.

Edit: it is one of the first devices to utilize the E Ink Carta 1300 screen. It’s filled with e-books from Annas Archive loaded by Calibre on Debian and never complained about compatibility.

[–] sirpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago

Thank you! I really like the calibre integration. I'm on mint and it works flawlessly so having a compatible e reader for the couch will be amazing

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[–] moroni@lemmy.ca 62 points 5 days ago (4 children)

What are some cool things to do with a jailbroken Kindle?

[–] pipes@sh.itjust.works 75 points 5 days ago

Installing Koreader which can do a million things, but also playing around with terminal access, python, bash scripting, neofetch, usb-network, SSH. For older kindles: the screensaver hack was my first reason to ever jailbreak one.

[–] zerakith@lemmy.ml 32 points 5 days ago

According to that site you can downgrade the firmware (some people really disliked the various UI changes and the firmware is getting quite prescriptive)

You can also run your own homebrew apps so I found someone who installed KOReader which they claim is better experience than default reader especially for pdfs and also link better to personal cloud storage.

There's also ability to use locally stored Web Application Frameworks but I'm not 100% sure what the use case would be.

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Read your own EPUB on KOReader, for free.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 26 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I have been doing this already for years though? The Epub part. I just download all my books and put them on there.

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Oh I wasn't aware this was already possible on Kindle. On Kobo it's very limited.

Well, KOReader offers lots of customisation, including custom fonts, custom refresh rate to increase battery life, integration with Wallabag, WebDAV.

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[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You used epub files with a Kindle, didn't convert them or anything? I had no idea Kindles supported epubs, I know someone said they do jecause they emailed the files to their Kindle, but that was Amazon first converting them. I'm just finding Reddit threads saying epubs aren't supported.

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[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 5 days ago

The main Reason I've done it is to install KOreader since it handles other formats, especially PDFs better than the stock Reader. Though you can also run your own homebrew apps as well like other people have pointed out. I personally don't bother though since Ereaders are usually best for a single purpose, reading ebooks on an eink display, and mediocre at best for other applications. The eink display tends to be its Achilles heel when it comes to anything that isn't reading ebooks, at least in my opinion.

[–] cavemeat@beehaw.org 17 points 4 days ago

Omg this is so exciting, I love jailbreaking devices and jailbreaking my mom's old ass kindle was oddly tricky.

[–] jaschen@lemm.ee 31 points 5 days ago

Oh finally! I wanted a new launcher installed and have all ads removed. Now I can finally do it! Thanks for the news!!

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 14 points 5 days ago

Can it play doom now?

[–] B0rax@feddit.org 22 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Is there a way to turn them into smart screens for home automation? I don’t want a glowing lcd on the wall…

[–] Wurzelfurz@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

Apparantly you can install Android on some Kindle devices. Then you'd have many possibilities.

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[–] tranxuanthang@lemm.ee 24 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I have a Kobo which is already pretty open from the start and I can install Koreader, Plato and other softwares on this thing without having to jailbreak it. But this is a really cool thing, and now I may hunt the marketplace for a cheap used Kindle and install Koreader on it without having to worry about which version it has.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 days ago (8 children)

I have kept à disconnected kindle for a few years after I completely stopped using amazon for anything - today I wouldn't even be seen with one as carrying one is a bit like advertising for the company

These are the best ereaders period, my kobo Clara 2e is sluggish, night mode is shit, USB connection to Calibre is "when I want, if I want"... But I'm not a billboard for that business. Too bad, really good devices, and hurray for all the people who will enjoy them away from amazon

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 21 points 5 days ago

Just put a sticker on top of it that reads "Fuck Amazon" and you can do it guilt free.

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[–] EarlGrey@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Any real benefits of jailbreaking a Kindle? I mean I know the "You free yourself from amazon!" elevator pitch, but what exactly does that mean?

I can already upload pretty much anything I want to it with Calibre. Can I add support for other ebook formats? Cooler utilities on my Scribe? Alternative ebook stores (yes I know where I am)? A user interface that isn't absolute garbage?

[–] lol@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

I don't think there are many tangible benefits if all you want to do is read. You're likely using Calibre anyway for sideloading books and it converts everything to a compatible format automatically.

The only somewhat useful things the jailbreak allowed me to do is add custom fonts, custom screensavers, install KOReader as an alternative ebook viewer (although I rarely used it) and prevent updates because the interface became a lot worse after an update at some point.

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[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 days ago (3 children)

My kindle have not been connected to the internet since 2015.

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[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

hell yes i will be doing this right away so i can continue To not use my kindle or read books because im FUCKED

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[–] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 9 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I guess if you already own a Kindle then you might be interested in jailbreaking it. But for someone choosing an ereader it seems that Kobo is just a better choice. Isn't it? Like, why pay to put yourself in a jailed system in the first place?

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago

My kindle could already handle everything the Kobo I was looking at could do, but was far cheaper than the Kobo due to a sale (and Amazon thinking I'm dumb enough to be locked into their system)

Literally using Calibre is enough to turn your Kindle into a piracy machine, so if you can get one cheap it's long been my recommendation for people

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[–] major_jellyfish@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 days ago

Can this make Overdrive/Libby integration easier? Thats really the main thing pissing me off about Kindles.

[–] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 5 days ago (4 children)

After the feature of being able to send EPUB files to Kindle through email and them being automatically converted... I have not felt I was missing anything by using standard Kindle software.

So I'd suggest, unless you really really need some obscure feature, Calibre+Kindle is nowadays perfectly fine, and maybe you shouldn't risk bricking your device.

[–] elvith@feddit.org 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

So I'd suggest, unless you really really need some obscure feature, Calibre+Kindle is nowadays perfectly fine, and maybe you shouldn't risk bricking your device.

Uhm... Well about that... You will not be able to transfer books onto you kindle via USB in about a week. Amazon is going to remove that feature from all Kindles next week. The only way to do that may be through the method you described. But how long will they offer that, if they say they are removing the USB feature because of piracy? You cannot pirate books onto your kindle, when you cannot transfer books from outside of Amazon onto it. (Also this is a nice reason for them to block you from buying books anywhere else than on Amazon, of course)

https://www.theverge.com/news/612898/amazon-removing-kindle-book-download-transfer-usb

[–] prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I think you fundamentally misunderstand what Amazon is removing. From your linked article:

Once this feature goes away, you’ll still be able to manually copy ebook files and other documents to Kindles over USB using Amazon’s apps or third-party solutions like Calibre. You just won’t be able to download copies of your purchased books to a computer.

The only thing Amazon is removing is the ability to save books that you purchased from them. No more personal backups of legally purchased material, but piracy is still fair game.

[–] zarenki@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 days ago

For what it's worth, the "Download & transfer via USB" feature was applying DRM locked to the key of the specific Kindle device you select, giving you a file that's incompatible with other devices even if they're kindles linked to the same Amazon account. For many publishers it also gives files with drastically lower image quality than the Kindle app: about one-fourth to one-third the file size. For a couple examples, a 368MB KFX manga volume has a 125MB AZW3 file and an 8.0MB KFX light novel has a 2.2MB AZW3 file. Those smaller AZW3 files are also similar in size to DRMed EPUB files of the same books from other markets like Kobo and Google Play, so I expect it's a deliberate choice to limit the quality of formats that are more trivial to strip DRM from.

The best way I've found to make personal backups of owned Kindle content is to use a rooted Android device to download everything through the Kindle app, copy the KFX files to a computer, extract the key in a root shell, and then use DeDRM tools on those files with that key.

A quick and dirty shell command I've used for that purpose is egrep -ao 'dsn[0-9a-f]{32}' /data/data/com.amazon.kindle/databases/map_data_storage.db. The key is 32 hex characters.

Having a rooted Android device in the first place is the biggest hurdle for being able to do that. This new jailbreak should make it possible to do something similar with e-ink kindles instead.

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[–] Abnorc@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago

That's cool. I may keep an eye out for old Kindles in thrift stores and whatnot. With the advent of android tablets that just have e paper displays, I probably will try those before buying another kindle.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Does it let me put Linux on it?

[–] fossphi@lemm.ee 27 points 5 days ago (2 children)

They come with a Linux based OS pre installed. Jailbreaking allows you to effectively become root and gives you a lot more freedom to change stuff.

TLDR: yes

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