His Hermeneuticalness, priest and hacker

I saw at the blog of my friend, (still) the P.P. of Blackfen, His Hermeneuticalness himself, Fr. Finigan, that he has hacked his Kindle.

Don’t have a Kindle yet.  What on earth are you waiting for?  USA HERE (for one type, a Paperwhite, you can surf to others) and UK HERE

Fr. Finigan managed to jailbreak his Kindle and change the screen savers.  I’ve GOT to do this.

Here is a shot he posted:

Fr Z kudos.

Meanwhile… (why not…) my Kindle Wishlist is HERE.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. SKAY says:

    I love the screen saver.
    Your reading list is always so interesting, Father.

  2. Giulio says:

    Interesting. I did the same as the default pictures in Kindle 4 are ugly. Some family, some Bloch and our beloved Papa emerito.

  3. Stephen Matthew says:

    I am all in favor of jail breaking the kindle, but…

    If you have the cheaper, advertisement supported version, the one that shows ads for various books as a screen saver, then I think it would be somewhere between dishonesty and theft to jailbreak it and change those screens. I am happy to have gotten the kindle for… what was it… $20 less in exchange for letting Amazon sell ad space on the screen saver.

    Now what someone really needs to do is come up with a version of the breviary and missal (with lectionary readings) for the kindle, and then distribute it for free or very cheep. I looked into the logistics of such a project, and I think I could have done the reformatting needed, but I gave up completely when I realized how troublesome it would be to navigate the ICEL and USCCB and potential Vatican copyright bureaucracy.

    Of coarse, if you jailbreak your kindle, which uses an Android derived OS, you may be able to find a way to install and run iBreviary, which would be a great item for the kindle.

  4. yatzer says:

    OK, so how did he do it? Inquiring minds want to know. I do like the pics on my Kindle, though: birds, old lithographs, and such.

  5. Will D. says:

    Stephen Matthew raises a good point about the special offers, but there is an ethical way to deal with them. If you go to the Amazon site and go to “Manage my content and devices” and then to the devices page, you can pay a fee to unsubscribe to those offers. I’m not sure exactly what they charge since I bought an unsubsidized Kindle. Having done that, you can jailbreak the machine with a clear conscience, I think.

    I don’t mind the wallpapers on my Kindle, except for the ghastly portrait of Emily Dickinson. I usually power-cycle my Kindle an extra time when she pops up on the screen.

  6. LeslieL says:

    yes – here’s hoping that your friend will share how he did it….
    and I too wish there was a version of the breviary and missal for the Kindle. If any one figures it out, would be a wonderful thing to share :-)

  7. JudicaMe says:

    @Stephen Matthew
    Re: Jailbreaking – That’s what I had in mind, too.

    I use my kindle as a missal (EF) and Graduale (1961 and 1974). It feels weird to have those ads at Mass as it can be distracting. But I feel wrong jailbreaking it.

  8. SebascoNun says:

    @Stephen Matthew: For the OF, you can download the Liturgy of the Hours from universalis.com and one option is a Kindle version. It is inexpensive. The site is UK based.
    If you prefer or need another version, you can send any PDF or Word document to your Kindle.
    Save the document on your own hard disk. Then send it as an email attachment from your regular email address to your Kindle email address. (You’ll find your Kindle address in the “settings” section of your Kindle – it will be something like YourName123@kindle.com). In the subject line of the email write Convert. (This is important). There’s no need to put anything in the body of the email. Send, wait for a few minutes (while the document receives the grace of conversion!), make sure your kindle is connected to wi-fi, and behold, it will download in a readable form.

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