The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite may have a new high resolution E Ink display and light that can illuminate the screen. But the hardware and Linux-based operating system are close enough to those for last year’s Amazon Kindle Touch that it didn’t take long for hackers to find a way to jailbreak the Kindle Paperwhite.
Members of the Mobile Reader forums put their heads together and figured out how to modify an existing Kindle Touch jailbreak tool to work with Amazon’s newest eReader.
By jailbreaking the device you can run code that wouldn’t normally be supported, customize the user interface, and even install third party apps including VNC viewers, GameBoy emulators, and more.
You might want to wait a little while before installing any apps or hacks on a jailbroken Kindle Paperwhite though. If you take a wrong turn and end up with a bricked Kindle, you’ll need a serial cable to “unbrick” your device, because USB Downloader mode isn’t available for the Paperwhite yet.
Of course Kindles aren’t the only eReaders that can be hacked. The Barnes & Noble NOOK Simple Touch is running an Android-based operating system, and you can root the device and add support for the Google Play Store and third party Android apps.
via HackADay