Thread: Rooting PB 611?
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Old 02-17-2013, 03:07 PM   #6
rkomar
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Posts: 2,977
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathrick View Post
That's understandable, although really pretty unfortunate in the sense that they could've done so much better with regards to openness -- it's hackable, but at the same time, third-party apps still stay very much second-class. Had they made it fully open, and defined proper protocols, extension points and ways to install things without requiring poorly-documented changes in five different places (like when you install CoolReader), it could've combatted a lot of the ecosystem disadvantage they have compared to Kindle and other products offered by companies with huge platforms to back them with.

Either way, thanks for the detailed reply!
In PB's defence, they do include proprietary dictionaries, and the text-to-speech engine may be proprietary, as well. They are probably legally required to keep users from using those features in an unlicensed way, which means no root access on the device. It's unfortunate, but I don't expect them to make their platform more open that way without first removing those features for everyone.
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