whizbo pointed out that you can buy Kindle Paperwhite devices on ebay cheap that are locked in “demo” mode. But you can open it up, get access to the serial, and reinstall it with stock firmware.

• ebay
• Kindle Paperwhite Demo Unlock
• Kindle Touch/PW1/PW2 5.0.x - 5.4.4.2 JailBreak. Plus FW 5.x USBNetwork.
• kual - application launcher
• mrpackages package update tool
• general info
  • hacking PW forum post
  • mobileread.com’s kindle touch (and PW) hacking page
• unbricking (hasn’t been needed yet)
  • How to unbrick an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
  • Need help unbricking a PW1
  • Kubrick, bootable LiveCD with kindle tools
• ad removal (hasn’t been needed yet)
  • ad removal hack by MitM’ing the ad server
  • ad removal that uses jailbreak

The serial on the PW uses 1.8v.

• We can make a board to voltage divide the 3.3 to 1.65v which works, link
• You can buy a 1.8v serial breakout board here for $15, I got one
• Here is a picture of my serial setup. The tape gets things close and then I have to press my finger on it when using it, but it works and is faster/easier/less destructive than soldering.

Kindle and EPUB

• taggart read lots of forums, 95% of people say use Calibre to convert epub to the amazon format. But there are some people out there that have jailbreak’d and there are a couple apps for reading epubs link

Hardware¶

I ordered 4 on ebay and got them, they have “kindle” printed on the back which is supposed to indicate paperwhite 1 (vs “amazon” for paperwhite 2).
They appear to have 3g modems and after I had them turned on for a bit they all updated their firmware to a newer version of the demo firmware!
lsusb:

Bus 001 Device 116: ID 1949:0004 Lab126, Inc. Amazon Kindle 3/4/Paperwhite

Update process¶

• first do the demo unlock using serial
• after reboot, do the jailbreak, important to do this BEFORE upgrading
• the demo unlock gets you 5.2, next upgrade to the latest available here (5.6.1.1 currently)
• install mrpackage so that packages can be installed
• FIXME: install epub apps, games, etc

Battery¶

• the battery on mine wasn’t holding a charge very long so I order a new one from ebay. It looks like the OEM battery and has a 1420mAh capacity. There are unbranded ones that have 1600mAh that might be interesting, but I decided to get the OEM looking one.