this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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Yes I will jailbreak it to get KUAL and KOreader. Thanks kovid and open source.

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 19 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I think i have that model.

U7xoFwrfVJa11cI.jpg

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It really is. I baught a second one a few years after they stopped making them. So I've got a grey one and a black one. I love i can hold them like a book and the svreen doesn't move. Plus no backlight means it's easy on yhe eyes.

[–] sando_en_shorts@piefed.world 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

No backlight? Can't use it in the dark

[–] 46_and_2@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

There are snap-on small lights that would illuminate the Kindle screen, rather than glow in your eyes. People used to read books too without a backlight.

[–] sando_en_shorts@piefed.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yeah but thats additional item you need to have with you.

Not sure what you mean by no backlight is easy for the eyes. Is it really bad?

EDIT: not you, but the person i replied to

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Ill be honest i just read in the light. Or use a small 50c book light. Its a decade old ebook reader. It works and still lasts about a week with a very old battery.

[–] RedSnt@feddit.dk 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I see you're a fan of the classics.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I didnt expect references so when they pop up i get screenshots. cIZrZZyrc91XmSQ.jpg Men writing woman ref.

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[–] kajees@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So which book of the Wandering Inn is that from?

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Lol i have no idea. I have all the ebooks but this is quite a bit further than the last book that came out. I like tge books more because they are edited and i believe pirate aba deserves $$.

I downloaded the web serial a bit ago sp this is based on that. On a tangent, this is the only ebook reader that will load the wandering inn in completion. Over 100mb of pure txt. As an ebook it was 4.6 GB big. I started reading this series a coupke of years ago and om just now nraeing the 50% mark. God its massive. Its my soap opera of writing haha.

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[–] 000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Man Kovid Goyal is such a fuckin rockstar. What a lad

[–] spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

I use Kitty daily, and Calibre is excellent.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I installed Koreader on my Kindle Paperwhite 3 a couple months ago, and it has made me use my device so much more now. There’s only 3GB of storage to play with, so it’s not like I can carry my manga and comic libraries with me, but it’s breathed new life into my epub collection. Honestly, most useful upgrade I’ve made in a long time.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, jailbreak and KOreader actually makes the device usable. I have one of the older ones so the screen is way too small for manga anyway, but at least i can use whatever the font I want and I can even change the default screensavers which is a nice addition.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you happen to read manga on your phone, you may be surprised how capable your old ereader might actually be.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

I actually read manga on my old Nexus 7 since my phone's screen is not big enough. I tried some cbz mangas on the Kindle before but because of not every page is single, it was painfully slow to zoom and navigate. I would love the read them on Kindle if I can find mangas that don't need to be zoomed though.

[–] SorryQuick@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Can I ask what does it do? I’ve had a kindle oasis for years now and haven’t found anything to complain about. I already have a calibre script for things like margin, font, line spacing and css rules.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s open source software that lets you read epubs and cbz files natively without conversions, bypass Amazon’s “Send to Kindle” feature, and came at a time when Amazon was removing books from people’s devices. Koreader also has Calibre plugin support to transfer books that way as well (though this isn’t something I haven’t set up just yet).

Overall it provides a bit more granular control over your devices if you like to tinker, and provides an extended lifeline for devices Amazon may have stopped supporting.

[–] SorryQuick@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This could be interesting indeed, though in my case as I only really download epubs that are autoconverted to azw3 with my custom parameters and are loaded via the same usb I use to charge it anyway, I’m not sure I’d have much to gain here.

What do you mean stop supporting? Do they just stop providing updates? Do updates really matter on an ereader?

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Support is kind of topical at the moment if you’re deep into the Kindle Store. Honestly, it’s bullshit to get you to buy a new device.

Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets from 2012 or before will no longer have access to the Kindle Store to buy, borrow, or download new books or content.

Which models are losing support?

  • Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation (2012)
  • Kindle 5 (2012)
  • Kindle Touch (2011)
  • Kindle 4 (2011)
  • Kindle Keyboard (2010)
  • Kindle DX and DX Graphite (2009 and 2010)
  • Kindle 1st Generation (2007)
  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012)
  • Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012)
  • Kindle Fire 2nd Gen (2012)
  • Kindle Fire 1st Gen (2011)

ETA Kindle Fire tablet info

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[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

What is ko reader is it a replacement for the standard OS? My kobo could probably use that.

[–] palmtrees2309@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

You can watch This Video by DammitJeff great video about jailbreaking kindle and showcasing KOreader's various uses like Custom Lock Screen, Manga Reading, using Net Library / Calibre and much more using the plug-in Systems. The video can be used for Kobo reader too, I think.

[–] Anafabula@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago

It's not an entire OS, just an app that you can use to read ebooks with lots of features.

https://github.com/koreader/koreader

[–] Damage@feddit.it 3 points 1 month ago (3 children)

May I ask why? I've got an old Aura H2O and it's been great for years

[–] memphis@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

There's a lot of benefits but for me the biggest one is reduced lag

[–] redparadise@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago

More features, no rakuten tracking, advanced gestures, UI customization, file system access, sleep, advanced progress tracking and sync, cloud sync, wallabag (self hosted mozilla pocket), RSS/OPDS feeds and more, read more on their website, pretty easy to get started with however if you care about nothing except just basic reading like a book then it might be too featureful/complex

[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

Well, I thought it was an os replacement. I never got around to learning about it, but the current kobo I have can’t be activated if it were to get reset.

[–] redparadise@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago

It basically is since it takes over handling all operations of the OS, brightness, sleep, wallpaper, UI, settings etc, only time you will ever see stock OS is if the ereader dies, definitely recommend trying it out.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Kovid Goyal was extremely unhappy about python2 being sunsetted. He was pondering maintaining it himself at one point because it required such a re-write porting to python3.

[–] Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Absolute Chad

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I love this, but for me the biggest issue is that I don't own anything on kindle. I wish there was a way to easily buy and own ebooks like they're was with songs and bandcamp

[–] nile_istic@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Not a lawyer, but if you've already paid for something (i.e. "bought" an eBook on Amazon), then you've done your part to ensure the creator eats tonight. Pirating a digital copy of it that you can read/move/engage with wherever you want is no longer even slightly morally questionable at that point.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago

i'm pretty sure it's explictly legal, lol

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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

I bought an old single digit version of a kindle and just use Calibre. It's pretty great.

[–] lemmyausmister@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, what is this about?

[–] dajoho@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I believe this is about Amazon discontinuing support for pre-2013 Kindles and jailbreaking them to extend their life and escape the Amazon walled garden. KUAL is an app launcher and KOReader is an alternate ebook reader.

[–] DishonestBirb@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I’m fairly certain a big reason behind Amazon doing this is that older kindles make it trivial to pirate kindle unlimited books. Check out 20, move them off the reader into calibre, decrypt, return the books, get 20 more, etc.

(And before anyone says that the drm removal doesn’t work on kindle unlimited books, that check is two lines of python to fix.)

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Have that one too. It does the job and is easy to read on. They go for cheap now second hand and work well with calibre

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

I kinda want to get another one but im waiting on the open source https://diptyx.dev/

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