Spyke
kindle·Kindlebyosbo9991

Kindle EOL 5/20/2026 announcement questions

I know this is kinda old news at this point, but I have a Kindle 4th generation non-touch that I would like to keep using for the foreseeable future. I already jailbroke it and enjoy sideloading .epub books over WiFi using calibre to read with koreader.

Ever since the EOL announcement from Amazon, I have kept my kindle in airplane mode out of paranoia, mainly due to the ominous phrase "If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way." I know that this is probably not necessarily true for older devices since I'm pretty sure you can skip Amazon account registration in the setup but it is still concerningly vague phrasing.

Because I set my device in airplane mode, I cannot use WiFi sync with calibre or pull up wikipedia articles like I used to. I really want to turn WiFi back on to get these features back. Has anyone heard of Amazon pushing an update or something that actually removes books or breaks homebrew apps? I am aware they don't have the greatest track record for doing the right thing in this regard.

Also, is it possible to set up my kindle or my network so that it can only access wikipedia, my local LAN, and koreader update servers? This may ease my worries about keeping my kindle's WiFi on.

View original on lemmy.world
kindle·KindlebyFaresh

Flashing the Kindle Paperwhite with a custom ROM

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/13221450

This is a of a post made during a time where outgoing federation for lemmy.ml was broken. I hope lemmy.ml readers will forgive me for shoving my filthy little words under the shining gaze of their precious and observant eyes for a second time.


I have a Kindle Paperwhite (7th generation). (Stallman weeps) It appears people generally customize their kindle beyond Amazon's original design by jailbreaking it. But I was wondering if I could replace the entire system on the kindle by a new one, for even more hacking fun.

It appears Kindle Paperwhites run on ARM processors, so there should be plenty of compatible software. However, it appears flashing the ROM of kindle only appears in the context of something called the Kindle Fire. Why is that? Is there any reason ROM flashing for the paperwhite kindles isn't common? The only reasons I could think of is that disassembling and reassembling the kindle paperwhite is kinda annoying (especially with the glue holding the case together) and that maybe not everyone has a board to externally flash ROMs. I've also thought that maybe the ROM is write-protected or that the software is signed and that the Kindle will refuse to boot off of anything that hasn't received Jeff's blessing. Is there any existing guide on flashing a custom ROM? Have any ROMs been created already?

Maybe my foolish self has not searched good enough and hasn't found the discussions on ROM flashing of other kindle models, but in any case I think it's good to have this discussion on here on Lemmy too even if it potentially already exists somewhere else on the internet, so that other fools like me may come across your wisdom and be enlightened.

If this is complete and utter nonsense what I'm babbling about, can I at least somehow download the firmware and software running on the kindle from the device, so that I may poke and probe it with my disgusting, dirty little fingers, defiling Amazon's intellectual property?


I hope that you have a good day and that the following days be good too. If I am stupid for even mentioning the idea of a good day, I wish that some day our suffering may end and that a good day be something we all can look forward to.

View original on lemmy.ml

Kindle Rewards: Spend $20 and earn 400 points (between July 28 and Aug 1)

There's a Kindle Rewards bonus offer going on currently.

Spend $20 on Kindle books between July 28 and Aug 1 and earn 400 bonus points. Activation required.

Those $20 you need to spend to get the bonus points gives you another 60 points, so this event nets you at least 460 points. That's enough to redeem $3 credits and you are left with 160 points out of 300 needed for another $3 credits. Just remember that points expires in 3 months and you only get 3 points for every dollar you spend on Kindle books.

View original on sopuli.xyz

Changes to Kindle Rewards beta on June 1

Kindle Rewards beta

For those who don't know yet, Kindle Rewards is a rewards program on amazon.com that rewards you for buying books. It's for both US and international customers, but you can only get into the beta if Amazon chooses you. It was launched last year.

Initially you got 5 points for every dollar you spent on Kindle e-books and 2 points for every dollar spent on print books. The points expired in 6 months. You need 300 points to redeem $3 worth of credits you can use when purchasing Kindle e-books. Credits expires in 1 month.

Changes to Kindle Rewards on June 1, 2023

After June 1, you now get only 3 points for every dollar spent on Kindle e-books and 1 point for every dollar spent on print books. On top of that those points now expires in 3 months (points earned before June 1 still expires in 6 months). So, you still need 300 points for the credits, but you need to spend more to get enough points. And you only have 3 months to earn those points before they start expiring.


What do you think about the program? Have you participated in it, or ignored it? What about these new changes?

I have only participated on those spend-X-dollars-get-Y-points events (for example, spend $10 get 300 points). I maintain a wish list of books that I'm interested of. When one of those events comes along, I look through the list and buy the minimum amount required by the event. Preferably books that are on sale. That gives me plenty of books for little money, and free credits for next purchase.

After these changes, I think the points you get from buying books outside of events are meaningless. You earn so little, and have so little time to earn enough, that those points will just end up expiring. I think the rewards program gives little to no benefit for customers, except during those spend-X-dollars-get-Y-points events. Even then, only if the event gives you those 300 points required for the credits.

https://www.amazon.com/kindlerewards/Open linkView original on sopuli.xyz

Firmware 5.16.2.1 (June 2023)

There's a new firmware for Kindles from 7th gen Paperwhite to the newest Kindle basic. Newest firmware for Scribe is 5.16.2 (May 2023).

Release notes are very short and very generic:

Version 5.16.2.1 – June 2023

Here's what's new:

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

Not listed in release notes, but there is now a button for annotations, that I don't think were there before.

Have you noticed any other changes or improvements?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html%3FnodeId%3DGKMQC26VQQMM8XSWOpen linkView original on lemmy.world