I wanted to share my thoughts on the Kindle DRM hacks that occurred over the 2009 winter holidays. For those unfamiliar, recently a team of hackers broke open the digital rights management (DRM) features of Kindle books. This DRM protects the content and effectively “locks” the books to your particular Amazon account, allowing only your personal devices (PC, Kindle, iPhone, etc) the ability to view the books you have purchased. The hackers were able to completely circumvent this DRM, making it possible for anyone to convert their purchases (or perhaps other people’s purchases) into a DRM-free MOBI file. This .mobi file is still readable on the Kindle, but will also let any other MOBI compatible eReader or program view the book. Additionally, it now makes it possible for purchases to be shared with other people, albeit illegally.

Normally, I applaude hacker communities to break apart hardware and software in efforts to extend functionality or serve as educational exercises for how to further secure various platforms. For many, many years I have strongly agreed with activities that give users more flexibility to the hardware they buy, especially when the manufacturer implements limits that prevent basic functionality (such as Apple with the iPhone). And really, I still support it.

However, with that said, I am very concerned with the possible outcomes attached to the recent Kindle DRM hacks. While quite revolutionary, Amazon’s relationship with publishers and the offering of low-cost eBooks may be further at risk moving forward. It seems that publishers already have the upper hand, considering they are capable of forcing Amazon to remove key features (such as the text-to-speech) from the platform with simple threats. It’s very understandable, since Amazon made large steps forward in changing the publishing industry; that can frighten anyone in the publishing industry. This makes for an instable, but new and exciting world of opportunities for everyone involved.

Knowing that Amazon may be struggling to keep publishers offering eBooks for $9.99 and under, we must realize that excessive theft of eBooks moving forward will only force publishers to subsidize the losses by increasing the cost of books significantly (even if some of the pirates would never have purchased an eBook to begin with). This hack will intensify publisher requests that Amazon fix their DRM problems, further removing Amazon from the ability to innovate and improve the platform, because let’s remember this: Amazon is no longer the only player in the field, and likely has no ability to force their publishers to avoid DRM entirely. Sadly, this will force paying consumers to consider other platforms that have lower pricing (due to better agreements with publishers as cause of more effective DRM), or, accept the responsibility to pay higher product prices.

As an entrepreneur and software developer, I do believe that people should pay a fair price for quality products, and not just get everything for free. The people making quality products need the ability to sustain their efforts to build those quality products. They should be rewarded. If they aren’t, the products will no longer be of top quality, and your favorite products will begin to disappear, leaving only the corporate giants to making them (big business has often shown us that their products are not always superior; often quite terrible). DRM allows the publishers to feel secure offering their wares to the public electronically, and Amazon’s excellent negotiation tactics have helped us get reasonable pricing ($9.99 and below for most books).

With all that said, I don’t believe that DRM is the right approach to begin with, but, it’s the only thing keeping publisher pricing reasonable. Without DRM, I believe the Kindle book pricing would more closely reflect print pricing, making the platform less attractive and versatile. Publishers would also avoid participation, reducing the availability of eBooks on the Kindle platform by huge numbers. Subverting the DRM entirely may lead to mass theft of these products, possibly upsetting the balance that Amazon has created with their publishers. I worry that my investment in the Kindle platform by purchasing the Kindle and many eBooks may be at risk, if the platform begins to become unsustainable or incredibly overpriced.

Only the future can really reveal itself, day by day. I do vie for a day when information is ubiquitously available, for prices so reasonable that anyone can afford to educate themselves anywhere in the world (hopefully electronically). In the meantime, I hope that Amazon can mend the imbalances possibly caused by this recent attack at the DRM, even if breaking the DRM was “the right thing to do.”

Read more about the Amazon Kindle DRM hack:

Hackers break Amazon’s Kindle DRM (The Register)
Kindle DRM cracked (Hack-a-Day)

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Kindle Firmware Version 2.3

Amazon has finally released an update for the Kindle with version number 2.3. This update comes over 6 months after the release of bug patch firmware version 2.0.3. This is the first firmware update for existing and new Kindle 2 (US Wireless), Kindle DX, and Kindle 2 (Global Wireless) users that actually adds features (unlike previous 2.0.x patch that removed Text-2-Speed functionality from some ebooks).

New Features

The primary new features for the Kindle 2 (US Wireless and Global Wireless) are:

• Longer battery life with wireless on. This feature has been reported to be for Global Wireless users, but does seem to exist for US Wireless Kindle 2’s as well according to some articles.
• Native PDF reading. Long at last, all Kindle 2 users can now natively view PDF files without having to first convert to another format.
• Manual screen rotation to portrait or landscape. You may now rotate the screen manually in 4 different directions (2 landscape, 2 portrait).
• Ability to convert PDF files to Kindle format. While this does not actually seem like an entirely new feature, you may convert PDFs to native kindle format by typing “Convert” in the subject of the email when submitting your PDF to your @kindle.com address. This will obviously not work with local USB transfers.

The primary new features for the Kindle DX are:

• Better cropping of PDF files. Documents are now properly cropped to maximize use of the screen real estate, and show less white margins.
• Ability to convert PDF files to Kindle format. Like above, this does not seem like a new feature, but does let you explicitly convert the PDF to the Kindle format, instead of just sending down the PDF.
• View pages longer. Screensaver comes on in 20 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

Hands On

Icon for PDF Files

At first, the update seemed unavailable to me via WhisperNet (and of course wireless was turned on and there was a signal). Since the firmware just came out, I assumed Amazon was rolling this out in phases over the population as many tv settop box companies do. A quick search showed that the firmware update was available from Amazon’s Kindle Help website for performing manual updates via USB. Amazon has made three firmware versions available, each corresponding to the type of Kindle you own. Kindle 1 users are not eligible for this update unfortunately (the latest version is 1.2 for Kindle 1).

Once you’ve downloaded the appropriate .bin file, be sure to copy it to the Kindle via USB. Plug the USB cord into your computer, and drag the file over to the base path. Do not place the .bin file in a subfolder, or you will be unable to update the Kindle until you do put it in the top root path. Now eject/disconnect your Kindle. The “Update Your Kindle” option in the Settings Menu should be available to you now. The update takes about 5-10 minutes.

Loading the first page of a PDF

After you’ve updated it, you should be on Kindle 2.3. This can be confirmed at the bottom of the Settings page.

My build number is 399380047. Yours will probably be different if you have the Kindle 2 Global Wireless edition, or a Kindle DX.

Cover image loaded for first page of a PDF

Once you’ve added PDFs to your Kindle (by either emailing them to your @kindle.com address, or dragging them into the “documents” folder via USB), you will see the word “pdf” next to items that are PDFs. This is similar to free samples that you download, which show “sample.”

It appears that the PDF rendering engine requires a “conversion” to an image for each page in the PDF, which appears to occur on demand. When you click into your PDF, it will show a message showing the page you last left off on, indicating that it’s loading it.

Shortly after (about 3-5 seconds) it will load the page. The first page seems to render more slowly than successive pages in the current document.

It’s not that simple though

Text in a PDF is not very legible on such a small screen

An unfortunate downfall with PDFs on the Kindle 2 is that the text is incredibly small in most cases since it’s trying to squeeze a larger format onto a smaller screen. Most PDFs are formatted for larger print, and were not necessarily laid out in a way that allows fonts to be more legible on a smaller screen.

Orientation Selector

However, Amazon included the ability to change to landscape mode to make this more legible. Press the Aa key to change the screen orientation. When you choose a landscape mode, you will notice that you can now read the text more comfortably, however, you will now have to scroll the page once or twice to see it completely.

Viewing part of a PDF's page when in Landscape mode

In most of my tests, I have only been able to see 1/3rd of the page at a time. Do note that Amazon changes the functionality of the cursor so that the directions make sense, depending on which orientation mode you’re in.

This can be very annoying when your PDF has a lot of blank pages separating chapters, or padding various areas (such as the front of the book) because you have to skip 2 or 3 pages per blank page.

Thanks Amazon, it’s a start!

But let’s hope this is the beginning of a slew of new updates on a regular basis. There are numerous basic features that users are clammering for that would make this the killer eBook platform. (You do have a lot of competition now Amazon. You want to keep up right?)

Some things I hope we see in the near future:

1. Basic Folders. Let’s face it, I can’t navigate all these custom documents, purchases, and free books. I need the ability to stuff these into real folders (and not some weird tag hacking junk). A long list, ordered by date or name, is unacceptable!
2. Book Lending. Even though publishers are disabling this feature on the Nook in droves, I think it’s an awesome idea. This would attract a ton of people to the eBook world, because a large complaint they have is the inability to let a friend read it when they are done.

I’m an easy man. Only 2 necessary features!

Further Reading

More can be read about the latest Kindle firmware update via these articles:

• Kindle gets better battery life, native PDF support | Crave (CNET)
• Amazon Improves Kindle Battery Life and Adds PDF Reader (Mashable)
• Amazon Kindle Adds Better Battery, PDF Reader (FOX Business)
• Amazon Boosts Kindle Battery Life, Adds PDF Reader (eWeek)
• Amazon Boosts Kindle Battery Life, Adds Native PDF Reader (MaximumPC)

How about your experiences?

What are your experiences updating to the new 2.3 firmware, and do your PDFs look fantastic?

There are all sorts of rumors lately, about Amazon possibly releasing the Kindle 3 (or Kindle Student) any day. Even the a writer at the Wall Street Journal recently wrote about the impending release of a larger format Kindle (ideal for newspaper reading).

If this is true, those of us who purchased the Kindle 2 only months ago, might feel a little scorned since we would probably have considered the larger format from the get-go. If the next device won’t come out for at least 6 months after the release of the Kindle 2 (August), then that is probably a very fair release date. However, if it’s coming out next week as these rumors are implying, then it seems premature, and it may be OK for people to feel a bit scorned about a third release that came out less than 3 months after the Kindle 2 was released. I know I will. I know it’s hopeful wishing, but a hardware trade-in program would be a very welcomed process from Amazon.

Is it really coming?

Kindle Site is Unavailable

Out of curiosity, I pointed my web browser to http://kindle.amazon.com, and I was greeted with the image above. Does this mean that Amazon is prepping their site for the upcoming release? Perhaps. The details will unfold this week.

Hacking the Kindle to get it to do more than it was intended is certainly not a new thing, but lately it seems to be much more possible. The Director of the Kindle at Amazon is even publicly open to people hacking and reverse engineering the Kindle to extend its functionality. Here is a round up of the current hacks available for the Kindle 2:

1. Unicode Fonts Hack – Change the font to another one of your liking, or to another language or script altogether! Blog Kindle came up with this hack and has kindly provided a solution. It is completely reversable.



2. Kindle 2 Screensaver Hack – The Kindle and Kindle 2 come with some very nice imagery used as a screensaver that is displayed when the Kindle goes to sleep. The screensaver isn’t to protect the screen because there is no harm to the pixels to have content displayed at all times. The main purpose is to show off some art when you’re not using the Kindle (which of course doesn’t use any extra battery since it’s eInk). However, this hack lets you customize which images show up. Blog Kindle has also written about this hack.
3. Savoury – Automatically convert PDFs and ePub documents to Kindle/Mobi format. It will not convert DRMed files! Jesse Vincent created this hack (along with hacks for lots of other devices as he exposes himself to them thanks to wicked curiosity). He can be found on Twitter as @obra.

   

4. Network Tethering to your Kindle 2 – This easter egg was disabled by Amazon in Kindle firmware 2.0.3.

Amazon has recently acquired LexCycle, the company who built the leading free eBook application on the iPhone called Stanza.

Stanza aggregates content from multiple free and paid eBook providers, and made it very easy to discover, organize, and read content on the Apple iPhone. In recent times, Amazon released Kindle for iPhone, which allows you to read your Kindle content from an iPhone (but not browse the Kindle Store for purchasing at this time).

One can only hypothesize that Amazon wants to reduce mobile eBook competition, and bring some of this intellectual property in house in order to product the best mobile eBook experience to the Kindle line.

In the end, I think it’s a great opportunity for the LexCycle team to now further their innovative abilities by having the backing of Amazon (as long as Amazon truly blesses them with that opportunity and doesn’t just shut them down).

I’ve been a huge fan of Stanza, so I’m excited to see what Amazon does with this acquisition to improve the Kindle experience.

You know, one of the things that bugs me with the Kindle (yes, there are a few things) is that it removes the artistic value of publications. Specifically, you miss out on a few characteristics:

• Paper type and quality
• The smell of dead trees aged by their siblings in a book store
• The binding of the pages
• The physical qualities of the cover (hardback, padding, art, texture)

While it may never be truly possible to dynamically simulate these things (that is, until they are able to create custom bound full ePaper books filled with blank pages that you can “connect” into a service), there are some things that I hope Amazon considers as they move forward:

• Clean up the “Home” page. We need categories! Paging through lots of samples, purchased books, subscriptions, and our own content is painstaking difficult to navigate through.
• Cover images! We should have the ability to browse by book cover (the same one you already have in the Kindle Store would work fine) so that we can get a feel for the book as we would if we saw it on a shelf.
• Emit a stinky musty smell of dead trees. OK, I’m kidding about this one.

What do you think about having cover images on the Home screen?

Reported by blog kindle last week, Amazon released a small update to the Kindle operating system as version 2.0.3, which by now your Kindles should have automatically upgraded to. blog kindle reports that the update only appears to have minor bug fixes but nothing visually has appeared to have changed. They also note that if you have hacked your kindle, you will have to uninstall your hacks before the update will apply.

If you’re a Kindle owner, and you also happen to be a programmer or technical enthusiast, you’re going to be excited to know that The Pragmatic Programmers have released many of their eBook versions of their print releases in .MOBI format, which the Kindle and Kindle 2 will very happily understand. The eBooks look great on the Kindle, so it seems like they actually put some effort into layout when they ported their content over to the new format, rather than a generic automatic conversion, which can have unyielding results with technical book layouts and images. If you’ve ever converted a PDF for viewing on the Kindle, you can agree that the experience isn’t completely flawless.

The Pragmatic Programmers offer books about Ruby, Ruby on Rails, iPhone development, high level programming concepts and techniques, and several other topics. They’re worth a gander if the topics interest you. Their eBook FAQ points out that they are continually converting their eBooks to the new formats and hope to have all of their offerings available in .MOBI soon.

With technical books starting to get visually formatted for eBook readers now, the Kindle is starting to make an excellent reference library. When Amazon releases the “Kindle Student” (presuming that’s what they would call it for an educational version), you can expect that more technical references will quickly become available.

Do you know of other technical book publishers who have recently made a Kindle or .MOBI format of their content? Share it with my readers by leaving a comment.

One of the things I recently noticed recently on Amazon’s Kindle forum, was a posting by a user nicknamed bbug asking for the ages of Kindle users. Granted, the posting is quite old, and most of the respondents were Kindle 1 users. Even initially, I bypassed the posting altogether until something caught my eye:

There were 1329 replies to his posting. Compared to the average count of replies on Amazon’s Kindle forum, this was a killing!

If you spend a few minutes reading people’s responses, you will very see that the ages vary amongst Kindle owners. There is a surprisingly large group of older people (65-80) who are very happy with the device. There is a lot of chatter about arthritis, but I do not believe there is any correlation between it and the device right now. Some have noted that the Kindle feels lighter than a book in their hands, allowing them to read through longer periods of time than they could with their dead tree counterparts.

A Kindle book titled “The Cook’s Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking” was formatted to really shine on the Kindle. Not only is it a great cookbook filled with meaningful recipes and instructions (rather than a TON of mediocre ones), it feels like it was designed for the Kindle.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a promo for this illustrated cookbook for Kindle owners. To celebrate the Kindle, this book was selling for a mere $0.00, available on pre-order. Even though the Amazon Kindle Store page for this item shows that it’s not available until March 26th, my Kindle 2 somehow managed to get it delivered this morning. I ordered the book on February 13th, long before the Kindle 2 was released.

Based on seeing existing books that have no exciting Kindle formatting, I expected this book to be unattractive. In fact, I expected that the illustrated cookbook would come without illustrations, and just not be formatted with the Kindle in mind. Newspapers and magazines seem to be poorly formatted on the Kindle, with their authors often leaving out pictures and illustrations, and only doing a text export. But for this cookbook, boy, was I wrong! It looks great!

The book has a table of contents, with clickable links to take you into the chapters you’re interested in. The illustrations seem to fit perfectly on the page, and you can tell that they intentionally put page breaks in place so that its layout is maintained, even if you increase the font size.

This is an example of a Kindle book formatted to maximize the Kindle experience. Thankfully, the book is still available for free pre-order, and if you’re lucky, you’ll receive it early like I did.

What do you think about publishers taking more efforts to setup their content for the Kindle’s particular format?