Although Amazon added native support for PDF to Kindle DX they didn’t add the ability to download these directly from the Internet. I believe that this feature was left out deliberately rather than by chance because Amazon pays Sprint $0.12 for each megabyte downloaded. In the case of PDFs cost of downloading PDFs to users for free can easily top profits from book and device sales because as we know Amazon’s profit is not that big as they are trying to grab as much market as possible.
Recently Nirmal Patel created a hack for Kindle DX (based on the source code of UFHack) that enables direct PDF downloads. Since at the moment I’m outside US and don’t have WhisperNet coverage I can’t truly test it however I looked at the hack – it’s very simple and should work.
It installs and uninstalls just as any other Kindle hack:
- Download update_install_download_pdfs_from_browser.bin to install the hack or update_uninstall_download_pdfs_from_browser.bin to uninstall it.
- Connect your Kindle to PC using USB cable and copy the file to root folder.
- Press “Menu”, select “Settings”, press “Menu”, select “Update Your Kindle” and then select “Ok”.
- You Kindle will reboot and changes will be applied.
Learn how to open download file
.PDF download hack is compatible with other hacks such as unicode fonts hack and screensaver hack.
While I congratulate Nirmal Patel on this hack I do urge you to enjoy it responsibly and don’t abuse Kindle’s 3G connection because should this become a significant financial liability for Amazon they can easily start signing update packages with strong cryptographic keys and this would prevent any other hacks from working altogether.
Also keep in mind that when you download stuff using your Kindle, Amazon knows:
- What exactly and when you download since it all goes through their proxy server.
- Where you live since your address is in your account information.
- Where you are right now since Kindles can triangulate their position based on cell towers with accuracy of several hundred feet.
- Your credit card number since you have it on file so you can buy Kindle books.
Learn how to open PDF file.
Is there such a hack for the first Kindle?
I’ve uninstalled the mod at the moment. It was more of an experiment than an end goal.
For Kindle 2 there is Savory. As for K1 I don’t think there is anything – sure you can mod the browser easy enough to download PDFs but since there is no native support – it would be quite useless.
it would be easier (and more reliable) for amazon to implment blocks of downloading pdf’s in their web proxies than to go to all the effort of trying to lock down the kindle updates.
the obvious counter to that would be to download via https, but most places that you would download pdfs from don’t use https, so I doubt if that would result in a real problem
I am glad that both the writer of the article and Nirmal recommend using the hack minimally. I probably won’t use it at all because I value the free access to the Internet through Whispernet and want to avoid paying for it as long as possible. Even so, I am grateful to both people for sharing the knowledge.
I know this blog is for Kindle, but I’m wondering if anyone has tried this troublesome PDF file on the Sony Reader? I want to buy either a Kindle DX or Sony Reader since both allow you to view PDF files. The Sony Reader is more appealing because of cost. So, can anyone tell me of their experiences with both of these readers?
@CatReader Totally, I uninstalled soon after running the tests to see if it all worked.
Thank you, Andrei and Cat Reader. I agree with both of you though I’m glad that Nirmal showed how it can be done. Also, if someone is web browsing on the Kindle (and can stand that ‘speed’ — I am patient when things are free), one can open a small pdf that way to read it but I wouldn’t want to do it for a large file and I’m very sensitive about overusing the whispernet since I love the access to the Net when I’m away from my computers.
Me, I’d just hook the Kindle up to my pc as an extra drive and download to the Kindle that way via the cable connection I pay for.
– Andrys
The UFHack worked just fine on my DX, but this one doesn’t.
Any suggestion?
this is magic, can i use kindle outside USA
The mod does not work with Kindle DX International which serial number starts with B005
I think this hack cannot be applied on version 2.5.6 (Kindle DX U.S)