Sony Librie Hacking

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2008/02/29 @ 3:03 pm
Category Computers & Mobile

The Sony Librie is an e-ink ebook reader. It’s stunning. The display looks so “real” it appears as if it’s a sticker or printed on the screen. The bad news is, the ebook format is some wacky DRM Sony put on it, so you can’t get any ebooks on it you own. But with some firmware hacks, converters and the step by step how-to I’m writing up you can- it’ll take me awhile, there’s lots to do- but for now here are some photos of some tests (MAKE Blog and Cory Doctorow eBooks so far…)

In the Maker Shed

Cube 3D Printer

BeagleBoard BeagleBone Black

Make: Getting Started with Soldering Kit

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit - Includes 512MB Raspberry Pi

8 Responses to Sony Librie Hacking

eric_dolecki on June 2nd, 2005 at 7:18 am said:

Wow that does look pretty sweet. $549 ?!?!? Ouch!

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lilorfnannie on June 2nd, 2005 at 8:06 am said:

That thing is gorgeous. When it comes out in English, and I don’t have to know how to solder to get it to do my free downloaded e-books, then I will definately consider it.

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jmassaglia on June 2nd, 2005 at 10:38 am said:

That does look nice, but I’ll stick to my clie until the price comes down.

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dumky on June 2nd, 2005 at 12:27 pm said:

I also wish the Librie would be available in English.

One thing I don’t understand: why do you need to hack the Librie to upload your own content on it? Can’t you just use the “Printer for Librie” software to convert your documents to Librie format?

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deadsunrise@gmail.com on June 2nd, 2005 at 12:43 pm said:

@lilorfnannie: You don’t have to solder anything to see your e-books, just use the free programs available to convert them to the librie format.

An english firware is available, just download and flash with the new firmware and you will have all menus and dialogs in english.

I’m very interested in that how-to you are writing, if you need someone to review it or any kind of help please feel free to ask me at deadsunrise@deadsunrise.com

I’ll be buying my librie this week so I think I’ll be able to help. If you live in europe you can buy it from japan for less than 400 euros including shipping and considering than in japan it costs 40000 yens (350 euros) its not so expensive.

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freecia on June 2nd, 2005 at 2:42 pm said:

Any chance of taking it outside and getting a few photos? I always stick to pulp when outside instead of bringing a laptop because the screen gets completely washed out. Same for my clie.

And possibly put it next to a regular paperback/hardback to compare the screen size?

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nzheretic on June 2nd, 2005 at 5:53 pm said:

I would love such a pad if it had wireless connectivity and a VNC client. How about hacking the Linux system to add USB bluetooth dongle support and RealVNC. You could then run a monochrome VNC server on your PC with for a suitably themed Firefox.

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David Pucheta on June 7th, 2012 at 12:28 am said:

Hi, can anybody help me?. I need the windows XP driver for the Sony librie, i canot find it anywhere in the net. Help very much appreciated.
Thanks

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