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Reverse Engineer Finds Kindle's Hidden Features
bensafrickingenius writes "CNET's Crave site has an interesting article on Amazon's Kindle eBook reader, and the extensive reverse-engineering that fans of the device have accomplished. The site specifically points out the work of Igor Skochinsky at the Reversing Everything website. His work on the Kindle's Root Shell has revealed some fascinating goodies: 'Among the ones uncovered and described on his blog are a basic photo viewer, a minesweeper game, and most interesting, location technology that uses the Kindle's CDMA networking to pinpoint its position. There also are some basic location-based services that call up a Google Maps view to show where you are and nearby gas stations and restaurants.'"
...location technology that uses the Kindle's CDMA networking to pinpoint its position...
Ok, that's it I'm never buying my "Catcher in the Rye" through Kindle... (Apologies to Mel Gibson).
Shh.
Photo's, location?
Where's me tin-foil hat?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What, no "Don't Panic" screen saver? Who writes these product requirements anyway?
and what does he do?
my names richard kimble!
im a cop u idiot!
Yertle the Turtle? Granted, my knowledge of Seuss has been waning since the first grade, but I don't remember the good Dr. at any of our underground resistance meetings.
Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
"Sir, it appears that headkase is holding his underground resistance meetings in the restroom."
Well, I must say that, again, we've seen some delightful programming coming out of the former Soviet Union. They just make great programmers there. Bravo to this guy for reverse engineering the Kindle.
I always like to read things like this, it's stuff I am not industrious enough to do myself but certainly enjoy reading :D
With an impressive servo-mechanism to turn the pages and push them real close to the screen class.
Honestly, why was it even included in the article posting? It's just a pointless summary of the content present in the original blog postings. 'course, I'm sure they appreciate the additional ad revenue...
That's right. Useless until I can play Duke Nukem Forever on it...they didn't find that, did they?
OK, I'll admit that I don't know everything that this device might have been advertised to do, but my understanding is that it is an e-book reader. If that is the case, a built in tracking device that was not disclosed is WAY over the top in unacceptable behavior. Is it even legal to install tracking devices in peoples belongings without their knowledge? At the very least I would consider this stalking. Really, this is tin foil hat stuff. If people started complaining that they were being tracked by this device prior to it being proven it has tracking capabilities, everyone else would have thought the complainer was insane.
A root password of "Fiona"? Wasn't that the name of the girl in Neal Stephenson's novel _The Diamond Age_? The one who was educated by the nanotechnological Primer book?
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
All current CDMA chipsets have location capability, due to E911 requirements for cellphones. They go through all sorts of gyrations to get a fix quickly when starting the GPS from cold (can't leave it running all the time or it would kill the battery), and to get a fix in "difficult" environments like urban canyons. They get a rough location by triangulating on cell towers, determine available satellites, doppler and code phase estimates, then tell the GPS what it should be listening for. Instead of taking several minutes from a cold start, they get a fix in a second or two.
When you get a cellphone the service agreement will say that you agree to be located if you call 911 (read it, it's there). Any other location must be initiated by you, or with your permission, due to privacy issues. I did software for dedicated CDMA location devices and users got a special service agreement from Sprint. It said if you buy and use this thing, you are agreeing to be located.
It's pretty slick.
...laura
Alt-1 show current location in google maps
Alt-2 find gas station nearby
Alt-3 find restaurants nearby
Alt-4 request department of homeland security respond to current location to investigate suspicious brown-skinned person
Alt-5 find custom keyword nearby
Alt-D dump debug info to the log and toggle highlight default item
Alt-Z toggle zone drawing and show log
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Okay, I's like to explain what makes ebook readers so bad and what needs to be done to fix them. Most Slashdotters will recall the days of the internet appliance (remember the i-opener?). What made them so bad is exactly what makes ebook readers so bad: they are only slightly less costly than computers, but are not nearly as useful. The internet appliances were essentially full computers with low specs because they only needed to browse the web. This made them almost as expensive as real computers. Their functionality was limited. They were proprietary and one had to purchase a service plan from a specific vendor. Now we see the same thing happening with ebook readers. They are as complex as computers and are just as expensive. They have limited functionality. They are proprietary. Here is the device I would like to see. A Bluetooth/USB ePaper display. Let a person's smart phone, computer render everything and tell the display what to do. The display wouldn't have to implement all sorts of complex file formats, the external device will take care of it. A display like this could be useful beyond ebooks. You might want one sitting next to your desk or in the server room displaying information. You might attach a keyboard to it with extra battery power and processing power. Maybe a bluetooth keyboard with extra battery power for charging your smart phone and ePaper display, allowing your smart phone to handle all the processing. The main point is that someone needs to produce a simple ePaper display around which others may innovate.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
OMG!!!1!! They;ve located our Secrit HQ!!! Frank, Joe, let's get out of here!!! Frank?? Joe?? Oh yeah, they're just figments.
Shh.
The Kindle silicone case w/anti-dust(TM) technology and Faraday Cage
Like an LCD Monitor?
When you buy the "wrong" books from amazon?
Is it just me, or is this another reason to not have devices attached to a network all the time?
It is probably in the CDMA chipset anyway, since it's required by law to be included in phones. It probably would have cost them a lot more to build the device without the position sensing capability.
you mean this thing's a phone too? (I haven't read much about it)
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
The market that can use these devices is any area where manuals must be referenced or should be referenced throughout the day. Think car repair. No way can anyone know everything about any car out there. Build a more sturdy form of these machines (grease/solvent/drop resistant) and let it load books on the fly from a local server. Instead of having to have bulky stations fixed throughout the center, let alone paper manuals or such, they can now follow the worker...
e-books need a business use first, then after people get used to using them at work they will want that functionality at home and that is when the sales will take off.
Besides, ironing out usage issues in a business environment is much better than a consumer market where control isn't available.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It connects to a cellular telephone network to allow download of books and newspapers over the internet wirelessly. I don't think you can use it to make phone calls, but it's got all the chips in it you would need for it to be a phone too.
...is certainly more comfortable than the alternatives.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
No phone calls, but it does have a web browser under experimental features... Just tried the shortcut, and google maps is coming up (nice way to get my current location at least), but I'm not getting an actual map. All I get is the google topnav, a little location arrow and my latitude/longitude over the text 'Make this my default location', the map itself just displays 'Loading...'
Likely it's a limitation in the internal browser, something that may get fixed in the future, at which point, I would expect the google maps shortcut to be documented.
Realities just a bunch of bits.
I was wrong, google maps does work, you just have to turn javascript off... And now that I can actually see the map, it's figuring my location within 6 blocks of where I actually am. Could be because I'm inside, I'll have to test some more outside.
Realities just a bunch of bits.
From what I've seen, there's only one fan of this device, and his name is Jeff Bezos.
Advice: on VPS providers
Whats the name of this guy? Is he always driving in reverse? Walking in reverse? How, what and why would one become a Reverse Engineer?
It's all about reach, it's the same with newspapers they repost things years after it happens, as long as it's news for their readers. But usually blogs are better because you can actually trace where the source is.
Is documented in Berke Breathed's latest comic:
http://www.comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20071230.html
Personally, I wouldn't mind if there was a way to track lost or stolen items - especially if they contained any sort of account information whatsoever.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
Seeing as how the Kindle doesn't even have a backlight, it wouldn't help with that.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
My dream UMPC is a stylish WiMax Enabled, PC compatible(AMD Geode or Puma based), novel sized, combination, PC, Video Player, Music Player, Book Reader etc... Mashup the iPod, Amazon's Book Reader, a notebook PC(see the OLPC) and WiMax. That's what I want. Like the OQO but with better battery life(AMD Geode or Puma instead of VIA), that charges over a USB connection, and has built in WiMax.
It should be a PC on the inside, but not on the outside:
My UMPC should be able to easily switch screen orientation between portrait and landscape. It should be possible to set the default screen orientation to be portrait, like a novel, a sheet of paper, a picture frame, or half a newspaper broadsheet. Like the OQO it should have a slide out keypad, but the screen should automagically change orientation to landscape with the keypad out. Navigational controls on the frame should be convenient in both the portrait and landscape orientations.
It should come in a hard diskless configuration that costs under $500. A not for profit OLPC costs $176, so it should be possible to make a for profit UMPC for $500 including a nice markup.