In gormany you can buy Tolino ereaders. Similar price to amazon, does not need an account. If you want to move stuff on there, you can just connect it to your computer, where it shows up as a usp storage device. If you want to use their cloud (no subscription, you get 30GB for your own stuff + all books bought from a number of varios book stores are hostet for free), you obviously need an account, but still upload all your stuff like totally your legally aquired collection of 20000 ebooks. At some point there was the possibility to update it via your computer, so you can use this device completely offline
I have a Kindle Paperwhite and I jailbroke it to install KO Reader.
The only difficult bit was getting a version of the Kindle software that was rootable. To do that you have to make sure it doesn’t get updates, which basically means not allowing it to go online. If you ever go online, no matter what else happens, it tries to update its firmware. I ended up letting the battery on mine drain and then tossed it in a drawer for a few months. Eventually it was out of date enough that I could root it.
I got lucky because there was a jailbreakable version relatively soon. It looks like the last SW version that could be fully jailbroken was back in January 2022.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon had actual competitors and you could buy an e-reader that just ran open source software?
I found out about the new jailbreak, hours before Amazon pushed an update to fix it. Luckily my older Kindle was dead so I could JB that one. Pissed, because I prefer koreader and was looking forward to jailbreaking my new Kindle
That was a great feeling–taking something locked in, programmed, something that used intentionally deceptive description and design, and finding a way to make it your own. To, basically, break the deceptive design and make the device better by “breaking” it.
When I rooted my first Android phone I felt that way. It’s a shame how much of the computing power in phones is used for nothing but harvesting our data and profiting from our use of the computer.
I remember when I got a Kobo Glo ereader a decade ago, I was soo excited to have an ereader that wasn’t tied to Amazon.
So I booted it up, and it immediately wanted me to not only register, but to download a program on my computer, and do it from there.
I refused and got pissed.
I started googling and found a guide to hack it.
You had to manually modify the Sqlite database and create a user there.
After doing that, it just worked.
The feeling of relief and accomplishment was fantastic!
In gormany you can buy Tolino ereaders. Similar price to amazon, does not need an account. If you want to move stuff on there, you can just connect it to your computer, where it shows up as a usp storage device. If you want to use their cloud (no subscription, you get 30GB for your own stuff + all books bought from a number of varios book stores are hostet for free), you obviously need an account, but still upload all your stuff like totally your legally aquired collection of 20000 ebooks. At some point there was the possibility to update it via your computer, so you can use this device completely offline
I got a kobo sage, and it does require an account, but it didn’t force me to install a shitty app.
Luckily, its very moddable (just drag and drop a .zip file), so I’m still keeping it.
This is why I bought a 12 year old Sony ereader, the only thing I really miss is a back(front?)light
I have a Kindle Paperwhite and I jailbroke it to install KO Reader.
The only difficult bit was getting a version of the Kindle software that was rootable. To do that you have to make sure it doesn’t get updates, which basically means not allowing it to go online. If you ever go online, no matter what else happens, it tries to update its firmware. I ended up letting the battery on mine drain and then tossed it in a drawer for a few months. Eventually it was out of date enough that I could root it.
I got lucky because there was a jailbreakable version relatively soon. It looks like the last SW version that could be fully jailbroken was back in January 2022.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon had actual competitors and you could buy an e-reader that just ran open source software?
I found out about the new jailbreak, hours before Amazon pushed an update to fix it. Luckily my older Kindle was dead so I could JB that one. Pissed, because I prefer koreader and was looking forward to jailbreaking my new Kindle
You didn’t have time to throw the new one in a faraday cage or something?
Since I didn’t know about the new jailbreak I used my Kindle like normal.
Just as I pulled it off the charger, to stick it in airplane mode, found out it was mid update
Annoying.
You can just enable airplane mode…
Probably true, I just didn’t want to risk it because I’d been burned by an unexpected update.
That was a great feeling–taking something locked in, programmed, something that used intentionally deceptive description and design, and finding a way to make it your own. To, basically, break the deceptive design and make the device better by “breaking” it.
When I rooted my first Android phone I felt that way. It’s a shame how much of the computing power in phones is used for nothing but harvesting our data and profiting from our use of the computer.
There’s so much more we need to break now.
it’s very sad to me that I won’t be rooting my next phone because of play integrity API. At least ADB is here to stay… right?