Reverse Engineer Finds Kindle's Hidden Features

bensafrickingenius writes "CNET's Crave site has an interesting article on Amazon's Kindle eBook reader, and the extensive reverse-engineering that fans of the device have accomplished. The site specifically points out the work of Igor Skochinsky at the Reversing Everything website. His work on the Kindle's Root Shell has revealed some fascinating goodies: 'Among the ones uncovered and described on his blog are a basic photo viewer, a minesweeper game, and most interesting, location technology that uses the Kindle's CDMA networking to pinpoint its position. There also are some basic location-based services that call up a Google Maps view to show where you are and nearby gas stations and restaurants.'"

Flagged.

[headkase]

...location technology that uses the Kindle's CDMA networking to pinpoint its position...

Ok, that's it I'm never buying my "Catcher in the Rye" through Kindle... (Apologies to Mel Gibson).

Saver?

[ZuluZero]

What, no "Don't Panic" screen saver? Who writes these product requirements anyway?

Re:Flagged.

[Dun Malg]

Whoosh!

What the Yertle?

[Facetious]

Yertle the Turtle? Granted, my knowledge of Seuss has been waning since the first grade, but I don't remember the good Dr. at any of our underground resistance meetings.

Re:Your Kindle is watching you

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sir, it appears that headkase is holding his underground resistance meetings in the restroom."

instide there is a real printed book

[peter303]

With an impressive servo-mechanism to turn the pages and push them real close to the screen class.

They're watching you!

[foo fighter]

OMG, Amazon is tracking Kindle users' physical locations via GPS!

It seems there is a location capability (GPS?) in the CDMA module. I cannot check it as I'm not in USA but the following shortcuts are programmed inside the browser.
Alt-1 show current location in google maps
Alt-2 find gas station nearby
Alt-3 find restaurants nearby
Alt-4 request department of homeland security respond to current location to investigate suspicious brown-skinned person
Alt-5 find custom keyword nearby
Alt-D dump debug info to the log and toggle highlight default item
Alt-Z toggle zone drawing and show log

Re:eBook readers are all wrong

[ubuwalker31]

<i>Okay, I's like to explain what makes ebook readers so bad and what needs to be done to fix them.</i>
<p>
Thanks to that first sentence, I read the rest of your insightful comment with a really freakin annoying Jar Jar Binks voice.
<p>
Thanks

PS
Meesa gonna upmod yousa comment, since Isa hava mod points...

Re:They're watching you!

[SQLGuru]

OMG, Amazon is tracking Kindle users' physical locations via GPS!

Yep, all four of them!

Layne

Re:Why bother with the Crave article at all?

[glop]

Exactly. And Slashdot relies on people like you to write insightful comments that add something to the news however old and repeated it may be ;-)

Re:eBook readers are all wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Old Slashdot Proverb read: Opinion with no paragraphs not worth reading.

How do you become a Reverse Engineer?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whats the name of this guy? Is he always driving in reverse? Walking in reverse? How, what and why would one become a Reverse Engineer?