Is a hack necessary to add screensavers?

[mldavis2]

Sorry if this has been hashed over elsewhere (I did a screensaver search and came up with nothing specific).

I am not really interested in hacking my new K3. Firmware updates and Amazon's continued connection to my K3 makes me a bit wary of doing anything to jeopardize my new toy. My simple question is, where are the default screensaver images stored and may I add some of my own without resorting to a hack of the K3?

[FF2]

I can't speak to all of your concerns or an alternate method but it was pretty simple to add the TWO hacks necessary to alter the screensaver images.

I was prompted to do it because I engaged the Password Protection function on my K3 and want MY OWNER info displayed when the unit went to sleep and displayed the screensaver. In order to display that info I needed to install my own edited images (or even the default but edited) with my Owner info. So I went for the hack. It was very easy.

From reading about it in the subforum, it does not sound like there should be any repercussions from installing the hacks.

[clarknova]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

My simple question is, where are the default screensaver images stored and may I add some of my own without resorting to a hack of the K3?

They are stored in on the write protected portion of the Kindle's internal storage. You cannot access or change/replace them without a hack.

[OakIris]

To my knowledge, the only way to change or add to the default Kindle screensavers is to install and implement the jailbreak and screensaver hacks.

For whatever reason, the developers of the Kindle OS did not include a way for the end user to do this natively; this has been true since the Kindle 1 and thus far Amazon has ignored all requests from users to include this capability in the OS. Why?? Who knows - maybe they are just control freaks, or maybe they think their customers are too ignorant to be able add their own screensavers without generating another million "how to" requests for customer service!

As stated by FF2, the hacks are very easy to install and use, no programming knowledge is needed as all of the work has already been done by the hack author. In my case, I used the tried and true hacks programmed by NiLuJe. No damage was done to my Kindle, and the "anti-hack" police haven't shown up at my door.

If you aren't comfortable using the hacks, then you will have to wait for Amazon to implement "self-service" screensaver choices in some future version of their OS - and you may have a very long wait indeed.

Holly

[mldavis2]

Sounds like yet another e-mail to Amazon is in the works from me. Perhaps there is strength in numbers.