I jailbroke my Kindle. Here's how.
Now, I can change my wallpapers and read not only azw3 and pdf files but also epub, mobi etc. It's fairly easy to hack if you have an outdated firmware.
Last update:
Time to read: 2 minutes.
Why did I jailbreak my ebook reader?
I have a Kindle Paperwhite 2 (released in 2013) that was passed down to me (I don’t have an Amazon account). The thing probably hadn’t even left airplane mode for two out of the four years I’ve had it.
I am always keen on jailbreaking devices and loading them full of software that one: are pirated (don’t tell) and/or two: are functionally better than what they ship with by default. The last device I quote unquote broke was my New Nintendo 3DS. I followed the 3DS Hacks Guide after learning that the firmware I had on the console was supported by the jailbreaking exploit. After it was successful, I loaded it up with games I downloaded from hShop.
It’s fun to hack (in the old-school meaning of the word; play around) with devices this way. There’s the thrill of overcoming limits that are set by the manufacturing companies and there’s also the added benefit of adding more functionality to an otherwise functionally limited device. Not to mention the customization tools you can get by jailbreaking.
Let’s face it, the Kindle as an ebook reader is limited. It only supports PDF and Amazon’s proprietary (yuck) ebook format: AZW3 (I’ll mention HTML as a document format too but it’s because the reader has an experimental browser). No mobi, epub etc. support, so you have to convert your books (the book collection manager Calibre is my preferred choice) before you can open them on your kindle.
One thing that will always drive me crazy is an inconveniently placed advertisement on any of my devices. My reader wasn’t an exception; on the lock screen in sleep mode, it displayed an advertisement pointing me to the Kindle Store. No option to turn it off, no option to opt out of said advertising.
I tried to look up some hacks a few years ago, but sadly, my firmware was at its newest version, no exploits were found. That’s when I decided to permanently leave the thing on airplane mode, so it can’t update automatically and hope for the best. Until then, I put up with its limitations and read some converted books on it. With or without its flaws, I loved the thing.
What did I do?
Fast-forward to a few days ago when I remembered to have fun with it again, I looked up some jailbreaking exploits and found the Mobileread forum. There, after a few searches and trial-and-error, I could find a working guide.
On newer firmware versions, many of the exploits that result in a jailbreak don’t work. Luckily for me, my Kindle had a firmware version of 5.12.2 (outdated), so I could break it easily. Just transferred some files and opened an html document in the experimental browser and boom, I had a reader with a developer key (basically jailbroken).
What now?
I installed a ScreenSaver hack, so I could set custom images while the device is in sleep mode. Also, check out KOReader, an extensive document reader application designed for e-ink devices. This last one is a game-changer; I can now open and read any major ebook formats, not just Amazon’s proprietary one. It also has a functionality that sets the cover of the book you’re currently reading as a screensaver (along with reading time, progress and whatnot; real handy).
So yeah, this thing is cool. I managed to get even more value out of it, even though the hardware is ~10 years old now and it was a hand-me-down. I hope this post helped you get started.
Happy hacking.