Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 Rooted
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday, XDA Developers forum users kinfaus and pokey9000 were discussing how the latest devices from Amazon (the second-generation 7 Kindle Fire and the 7 Kindle Fire HD) come with more sophisticated protection than their predecessors, including locked bootloaders and 'high security' features offered by their OMAP processors. Today, the devices have been rooted."
Using a known bug in busybox dating to April even.
Finally, the Kindle Fire HD just got a whole lot more attractive!
...which, apparently, it hasn't.
So go ahead, keep on buying your fancy iPads and Kindles and whatever. Keep on telling yourself that there's no problem because Joe Hacker somewhere in Paris managed to figure out a way around. Then we'll see where this gets us in 30 or 40 years when all computing is like that. When politically inconvenient or embarrassing content can be made to disappear. When even the last shards of privacy have been obliterated.
Um... isn't it *already* too late for that?
In the case of the Kindle, it's not a traditional product, but rather a reduced-price conduit for consumption from the store who sells it. Kind of like the iPad, except without the reduced price.
And here's the thing - most people don't care. Enough, in fact, that it's not cost competitive (including captured sales and support costs) to create an unlocked version.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I litterally just bought a Nexus 7 about an hour ago. My main concerns? No expandable memory and the forced ads on the Kindle. Yes, maybe I could have waited for this root to come out so I could get rid of the adds, but do I really want to deal with that?
As far as the lack of a memory slot, that only bothers me because I'd like to take movies on vacation with me... But then I learned I could connect the Nexus 7 to an external hardrive via USB on the go and viola.
Sorry amazon, forcing me to watch ads is not a way to get me to buy your product.
I wanted a larger Android tablet and thought maybe the new Kindle Fire HD 8.9 was what I was waiting for so I ordered one the day they were announced, but yesterday I cancelled my order, and decided I will wait for a larger Nexus or maybe go with something from Samsung, Asus or Motorola. For me, any Android tablet that cannot access the Google Play Store cannot really be called an Android tablet. It's not what I'm looking for and it really can't be fairly compared to other tablets running Android that have access to the Play Store. Android's promise of being more open and being able to share applications purchased through the Play Store on all my Android devices is a big selling point and one of the main reasons I stick with Android and avoid Apple products. Sorry Amazon. I love the Kindle readers, and I ordered a Paperwhite reader which I'm looking forward to getting, but if I wanted a closed system tablet I could have bought an iPad. I don't want it from Apple, and I don't want it from Amazon either.
I don't think most people want to control their own devices. For home users a computer is an appliance that they will use for a handful of tasks. As long as the hardware does those things, they don't really care how open it is. To use a car analogy, the software in your car likely makes the air to fuel ratios inaccessible to tinker with. Most people don't care as long as the car runs right. For the people that do care, there are after market engine management systems and even cars that have those things directly accessible.
I'm also not convinced that all computing will end up locked down. Even with a fairly dystopian view of the future, there are two things I think will prevent it: 1) Server grade hardware. It's one thing to lock down a consumer grade device but business will not stand for a locked down server and I can't imagine vendors thinking they would. 2) Hobby markets. Things like the Raspberry Pi and similar devices are going to keep getting better, cheaper and more common. The vendors of those types of hardware have no incentive to lock down the hardware. I understand that at the moment not all the drivers for these devices might be open source but, this is still a fairly new market and I think going forward, a lot of interesting things are going to happen with these types of devices.
The greatest mistake that Amazon made with this device is in fundamentally undermining the strength and appeal of the Android platform. Android is open, Android is free; You can install what software you want; you can customize to your hearts content. If you're tech savvy you can build your own ROM. Amazon takes this and turns it on it's head: They take Android and try to force it to conform to the Apple model; You use the software WE approve, you read the books and listen to the music WE sell you, and if you don't like it too bad. What's worse is, unlike Apple, what they are forcing on you is noticeably inferior to the alternatives.
What I see when I hear people whining about why they won't use ___ because it isn't "open enough"
I want an Open Toaster. All toasters are locked down and proprietary, and I want to hack my toaster so that I can use it to toast my mittens and socks. That's why I won't own a toaster. My BBQ does all these things and more! I've even built it myself, and it runs on Charcoal, Pellets, OR Natural Gas, giving me much more flexibility in my toast making endeavors. And when it snows, I like the fact that I can clear the snow off using my specially made "snow removal device" that I hacked together myself.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
This is an honest question. Is there any reason to consider a Kindle Fire over the Nexus 7? Any reason at all?
I'm not intending this question as flamebait; I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would buy one of these devices. Locked bootloader? Android fork? Crappy interface? Ads?
Clearly people are buying them. I'd just like to know why.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
"They" spend millions on "locking down" their devices just so some "hacker" can undo it all and make their investors feel cheated! Open devices make for a more attractive product, speed application development and make for a loyal customer base.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
I want a toaster to toast whatever I throw it in. That's an open toaster. A toaster than only toasts Wonder Bread, on the other hand, would be a closed toaster.
If you buy a Nexus 7, do you have access to all the Amazon Appstore and other Kindle Fire features? What about HTC Sense or Motorola Blur for that matter?
The reality is, TODAY Google has control over what "the full Android experience" means, but they may not tomorrow, due to its open source nature.