You will probably kick yourself after reading this article wondering why you didn’t think about it earlier and enjoy yourself a few minutes of fame. Developer Yifan Lu has managed to jailbreak the Amazon Kindle Touch and he has done so in the simplest of ways, by playing an MP3 file.

As you might know, the Kindle Touch isn’t the best that is out there when it comes to specifications and hardware performance. But that does not mean developers will not be interested in the device.

Now, the developers have got a chance to start playing with the device all thanks to Lu who was able to root it with an MP3 file.

And the jailbreak was quite easy since the Touch’s OS uses a lot of easy-to-exploit HTML. The software is written mostly in HTML5 and JavaScript, not the Java on the other Kindles.

If you are planning to jailbreak it, you just have to download an MP3 file and play it on the Kindle Touch.

Lu assembled the special mp3 file which includes his hack buried in the ID3 tags. The ID3 tags execute commands on the Kindle Touch. The hack just installs a key to root the device, quite simple indeed.

But this has not brought any new features to the device. Still, it has definitely opened a door for all the developers out there. Now they can start working on a hack of their own and hopefully bring some awesome stuff.

Check out the video which is proof on the matter. Head here to download the zip file needed for the hack.

The post Amazon Kindle Touch Jailbreak Using An MP3 File [Video] appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

It’s official. The tablet wars are really going to heat up this holiday season, because Jeff Bezos has officially unveiled the Amazon Kindle Fire. This is an Android-based tablet, but it won’t look like other Android tablets. It’s also being priced at just $199, hugely undercutting competitors like the Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad.

The Kindle Fire will have a seven-inch IPS touchscreen display and a custom UI built upon an Android foundation. There’s a dual core processor, free data backup to the cloud, and the cloud-boosted Amazon Silk web browser. From what I understand, it won’t have Android Market, but Amazon will have an app store for the Kindle Fire too.

The overall look and feel appears to be quite similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook, but the killer price point plus the whole Amazon buying ecosystem (for books, movies, music, apps, and more) should give this a leg-up. Oddly, there is only one button; volume controls have to be done on screen, which might prove to be a pain to some. Even so, at $199, you’ve got to be pretty stoked. Look for shipments to start on November 15.

Announced at the same event is the bargain-hunting Amazon Kindle Touch. This e-reader is going to be ad-supported (“Special Offers edition”), which is how they’re able to sell it at $99. If you want to ditch the ads, the price jumps up to $139. It’s not as sexy as the Kindle Fire, but it might be easier on the eyes.

If you want the Kindle Touch with 3G, that’s $149 with ads or $189 without. In any case, the early hands-on reports say that the Kindle Touch is a “beautiful piece of tablet” and that the touch “works just swell” despite being an IR display. The X-Ray feature, which brings up supplementary Wikipedia info on whatever you’re reading, is an added bonus. Look for the Kindle Touch to ship November 21.

The post Say hello to $199 Amazon Kindle Fire, $99 Kindle Touch appeared first on Mobile Magazine.