WinterBreak is a jailbreak which was released on New Year’s Day 2025 by HackerDude
It is based on Mesquito
Kobos don’t need jailbreaking and have better performance
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.
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
Kobo is owned by Rakuten, a Japanese company. Still a much better choice than Amazon though.
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.
I been trying to find old Kindles for sale
Try “Unclaimed Baggage”. We got our kids kindles through them.
Interesting site. I already snagged a Kobo, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind for other stuff!
My partner has a ‘Boox’ that runs android, complete with apk side loading its basically an android tablet! Super cool so far - there’s even a model with a color screen!
I slapped the Nextcloud app on there and she has been syncing her books between her phone and the Boox!
Edit= the brand name is called Boox! Autocorrect makes a fool of me yet again
I never even thought about the syncing capability with the Android e-ink options. I thought it was too much for a dedicated e-reader, but now you’ve got me thinking.
Recommend checking them out! Sorry, typo’d on my comment - the brand name is Boox!
I have hers all loaded up with a FOSS reader, f-droid (droid-ify), Nextcloud, Element messenger… The only thing I haven’t put time into is custom launcher stuff - but the native launcher isn’t half bad, if you ignore their attempts to coax you into their cloud subscription crap!
I’ve got my eyes on some Boox models, perhaps in a year or two if prices come down for the secondhand market. (Since I think they just released a new line not too long ago.) I’ve never had a tablet sized device (my e-reader is 6 inches), so it’d be an upgrade.
The reMarkable 2 has built in sync capability for dropbox, google drive and a few others. That device is seriously awesome.
My lawyer has one of those. It’s pretty cool.
It’s remarkable, really.
I’ve wanted one of those ever since seeing a professor use it… but their price point is intimidating. I’m also not a fan of being limited to certain cloud services (I use neither Google Drive nor Dropbox).
Still, it’s a pretty nifty device, and the pen capabilities seem the best of all of them.
I’m also not a fan of being limited to certain cloud services (I use neither Google Drive nor Dropbox).
Good news!
Boox will run any cloud sync that has a recent Android app available. It’s just an Android tablet, at heart, and it’s already unlocked.
In particular, the local NAS sync client for Synology runs like a dream.
Edit: Oops. I missed that we switched from Boox to reMarkable, there.
I guess I’ll leave this since Boox sells eInk tablets that are feature matched to reMarkable, anyway.
I have been looking at Boox, yes. Though their price range is seemingly not much better than reMarkable… I’m still waiting for a decent used market to develop around some of these newer models. I’m okay with being patient on e-ink tech.
There are other integrations, those were the two I used so I could remember them.
Certainly wasn’t cheap, but I do need to take quite a few notes during meetings with my engineering team, clients, shareholders etc., and being able to sketch something out real quick and project it over onto the screen in our meeting room with two clicks is pretty awesome.
My company even offered to pay for it, but I wanted it to be mine.
project it over onto the screen in our meeting room with two clicks is pretty awesome.
Didn’t know that was a feature, that’s pretty cool.
what is a good kobo to invest in on the cheaper side?
$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.
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
Omg this is so exciting, I love jailbreaking devices and jailbreaking my mom’s old ass kindle was oddly tricky.
Can it play doom now?
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?
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.
Interesting choice of screensavers.
Image requested not available
It was a bunch of diagrams from old patents.
How did you set the custom screensavers?
I ran the jailbreak on my Kindle PW6 following the instructions linked here but everything I’m finding when searching how to set custom screensavers is extremely out of date.
IIRC, I just connected via SSH and replaced the files in the default screensaver folder. Can’t check anymore though, because I’ve sinced switched to a Kobo.
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?
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
Kindles are easy to come across 2nd hand for free or a few bucks
Haven’t done a thorough research so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems in my country kindles are significantly cheaper than kobos.
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
hell yes i will be doing this right away so i can continue To not use my kindle or read books because im FUCKED
mood
Behind me I have physical copies of books I want to read SO BADLY and they’re all like 40-69 pages in and haven’t been touched in months
Why are we like this
the internet
Can this make Overdrive/Libby integration easier? Thats really the main thing pissing me off about Kindles.
What for? Cuz loading pirated books is trivial?
Well for one, koreader is awesome.
It has preferences I like, syncs reading position to anything else running koreader, and syncs my current reading queue from Dropbox.
Kill ads on the cheaper one would be my main if not only use case.
Installing an alternative reader that can read other formats is mentioned a few times, but honestly, with Calibre that became a non-issue decades ago. Need to transfer them via cable anyway, converting in the process takes a few seconds at most.
Isn’t a cracked (old, I think?) Kindle the only way to pirate KU/DRM titles? At least, that’s what I recall from the last time I looked into it. There’s a book I really wanted to format shift from KU since Google TTS was fucking up all the proper nouns, but I gave up. (It was an obscure book that isn’t available anywhere pirated.)
Ah I wouldn’t know about THAT. I just download and convert epubs from the likes of z-library/libgen, and have done so since getting my first Kindle circa 2012
What does it do?
Giving me something to do with my current kindle. I wasn’t sure how to load to it my downloaded books, so I’ve been suffering on my phone, but hopefully this helps me out a bunch. Thanks. This is a rabbit hole I never knew existed.
What this make? I have my kindle in planemode because I don’t want to get updated and loss my USB connection capabilities
edit: I jailbreaked it, now it can’t get amazon updates anymore!
Sick luckily mines already jail broken but will keep this saved for future. I would love to see a bigger modding scene like custom os akin to android
That title was extremely disappointing to read. Initially read it as, “All kinds can now be jailbroken, thanks to new jailbreak method.” and was like, “What?! Yeahhhh we’re gonna jailbreak all the things!!!”
Then I saw what it really said. Cool, but meh. Happy for all the Kindle owners but I already solved that problem by just not buying a Kindle. Such disappoint. (눈_눈)
Thanks, Amazon, for motivating a bunch of people to fucking hate you.
More!
