# Screen hacking = problem with buying ebooks at amazon?



## allvinc (Jul 9, 2012)

I have been thinking of doing a screensaver hack, as I am not so fond of the ones that come with my Kindle 3. I would just like to know if this will cause any problems whatsoever if I connect to any wifi network and buy ebooks at amazon's site.    Any information/feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Allvinc,

welcome to KindleBoards!

I've moved your thread to our Let's Talk Kindle forum where I think you'll get a better answer.

Betsy


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## Hadou (Jun 1, 2011)

I did a screensaver hack for the sake of saying I hacked my Kindle...  But, I didn't experience any issues with stuff straight from Amazon.  Then again, I went back to stock just because I didn't want to risk any other potential problems if they should arise.  

I never really paid much attention to the screensavers since they wind up covered by a cover when I flip the switch.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

You mean, are Amazon suddenly going to know you've hacked it because you've connected to their system with it and then they'll block it something? No, nothing like that. I used my K3 with screensaver hack for months before I got the KT and I carried on buying books as normal with no problems. It would be a pretty useless hack if it prevented you from buying or easily buying Kindle books.


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## allvinc (Jul 9, 2012)

Cool. Thanks for all the replies 

If I get enough courage, I just might do this


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

By most accounts the hacks cause no problems whatsoever. But some people have had issues, possibly user error, and had to basically reset their device to factory settings -- meaning all books were deleted. Not completely gone, of course, because they're stored at Amazon, but off the device. I haven't heard of anyone who screwed it up so badly that it wasn't possible to recover at all, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's happened -- someone either not using a well vetted hack or trying to modify it themselves without the knowledge as to what they're doing.

You also should know that, technically, doing any sort of software modification is against the Terms of Service and the 'screensaver' and font 'hacks' both count as software modification. In practice, Amazon hasn't really cared much, except to make it a little harder with each new Kindle to do them, but if the kindle failed sometime later, they'd be within their rights to deny warranty service to you. Again, they've not generally done that, especially if the failure is clearly hardware related and there's no possibility it was caused by the hack. But they could. They _don't_ so far because the value to them of you having a working kindle is greater than the value of enforcing the ToS in these cases.

Mobile Read has much more info on the various hacks available. . .as well as links to ones that are well vetted and supported by reliable developers -- making them much less likely to cause you any problems. There are some folks here that have used them and can advise a bit. . . you'd want to post in the Tips/Tricks/Troubleshooting area. The main thing is to be sure you have the correct version for YOUR kindle. . .they're slightly different depending on what generation you have and all. To my knowledge there are no hacks (from reliable developers) to get rid of ads on a kindle purchased at a discount under the 'special offers' label.


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## LadaRay (Apr 6, 2011)

Really good t o know, it seems everyone's jailbreaking their devices nowadays and it's possible to leave trojan backdoors open. So far so good, I haven't experienced any problems


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## SusanCassidy (Nov 9, 2008)

Be aware that resetting to factory defaults does not remove hacks.  You have to uninstall them per the directions for the hack.


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## allvinc (Jul 9, 2012)

@ Ann - thanks so much for the comprehensive info  a few friends have done it and have been successful, although they haven't been able to answer my query regarding buying books at Amazon after the hack, since they just get from free ebook sites.. but as for the hack itself, they say they had no problems whatsoever.  I have a Kindle Keyboard with firmware 3.3 by the way 

@ Susan - Yeah, I heard. The hack they used came with instructions on how to remove it if you want to. I'm just not sure if anyone has tried it yet


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

SusanCassidy said:


> Be aware that resetting to factory defaults does not remove hacks. You have to uninstall them per the directions for the hack.


It may not remove the hack file(s) but it definitely disables the hack. I did reset to factory default when I gave my mom my K3/Keyboard (after getting the KT) and my custom screensavers were gone, dead authors back.


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## allvinc (Jul 9, 2012)

Just want to thank you guys for answering my queries.  I did the hack this afternoon, and it worked beautifully.  No more default creepy portraits for my kindle!


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## Vicki G. (Feb 18, 2010)

I don't have any hacks these days on my KT but if I remember correctly, the only time one encounters difficulties with a hack is when you need to do a Kindle software update.  THEN you have to remove the hack in order to load the update.  And of course, the hack is longer viable with the new software so the hack has to be updated too.  

I got VERY familiar with hacks back in the days of the Kindle2 when the contrast was so bad, I couldn't see the words on the screen.  Font hack made life soooooo much nicer.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Vicki G. said:


> I don't have any hacks these days on my KT but if I remember correctly, the only time one encounters difficulties with a hack is when you need to do a Kindle software update. THEN you have to remove the hack in order to load the update. And of course, the hack is longer viable with the new software so the hack has to be updated too.


That wasn't the case with my K3 - you could do updates seamlessly with the hacks. I remember because I wasn't prepared to do the hack if it messed with my ability to do Kindle updates and the details on the hack specifically said something about how you can now do updates with it. I was still a little sceptical but they were right, I never had any problems with updates.

Anyway, the KT screensavers are really good so I haven't had any need to do a hack.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

And the last two posts indicate the importance of knowing exactly what you're doing and being sure to use the right file:  both posters are correct!  

In the early days the hack would prevent a software update from happening automatically. Some folks liked this, if they didn't care for the changes the update would provide, but it annoyed others who wanted the updates.  And the update almost always meant the existing hack files no longer worked.

But with recent Kindles, the hacks may not do that. . . . most of the ones discussed here and at Mobile Read, at least, were designed that they didn't cause a problem with auto-updates.

And there does seem to be much less desire for sleep picture hacks with the change from the classic authors and illustrations to more modern 'graphics' types images.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

As I recall, with the later hacks, although they allowed the update to go ahead, the update disabled the hack and made it impossible to remove until the hackers came up with an updated version - with no guarantee of course that they could.

It was that last that made me give up on hacks - it was OK when I could take it off whenever I wanted to, but I didn't like being stuck with a hack that didn't work anyway.

Thankfully the KT has much more acceptable sleep pictures - and the font was never a problem for me.


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