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Old 10-27-2010, 11:02 PM   #1
lowpis
Junior Member
lowpis began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 2
Karma: 10
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: Kindle 3 - 3G
Exclamation [HACK] Google Translate on Ebook search menu

Just jailbroke my new Kindle3 and this is my first hack!
The context: I'm Brazilian but bought a Kindle because I read a lot of English books. I love the builtin dictionary in Kindle but I need a full Google Translate sometimes to understand some sentences. (and I guess it's a problem to other non english speakers too).

So here is how I solved my problem: changed the Wikipedia's search URL to use Google Translate URL. Not a big hack, but maybe something useful for someone else. (And, yes, you loose the Wikipedia search from the ebook search menu; for me a very good tradeoff)

So here is how:

1) Jailbreak your device

2) Enable USBNetwork

3) Mount root as rw

4) Edit file /opt/amazon/ebook/prefs/search_prefs
(For me it was easier to download the file, edit in my machine and upload it back)

You can change any URL in this file. I chose Wikipedia's and replaced with Google Translate URL:

Code:
http://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=pt&q={searchTerm}
The parameters explained:
  • sl - source language code (or 'auto' for detection)
  • tl - to language code ('pt' for portuguese, for example)
  • q - the search term (just put '{searchTerm}')

The file should look like this:

Code:
SearchGoogleURL = http://www.google.com/search?q={searchTerm}
SearchWikipediaURL = http://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=pt&q={searchTerm}
5) Don't forget to leave rw mode, turnoff USBnetwork, eject etc

6) To test it, go to any book (not samples) and highlight some text: press Middle-Button to start highlighting and finish the highlight pressing Space (not Enter). The text appears in the search box, select "Wikipedia" and voilá.


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Hope this helps someone too. And sorry for the simple hack. Maybe someone can figure out how to put a proper "Translate" button in the search menu
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