ajit verghese

Manually getting content on your Kindle app (PDF, text, .mobi, .azw, .prc)

Here’s the quick and dirty conversion for text/pdf to Kindle App on iPhone.

Items required:
1) File to convert (text, PDF, doc)

2) Converter program - I prefer Stanza Desktop. its free: http://www.lexcycle.com/download

3) Jailbroken iPhone

4) A program to navigate the filestructure of your phone. I prefer DiskAid. It has a 14-day full trial / and you can pay $9 for full version. Its pretty useful: http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/

If you care to geek out you could also SSH into your phone via Terminal or also use an SFTP program such WinSCP (PC) or Transmit (Mac). Instructions here: http://gizmodo.com/300323/short-and-sweet-ssh-guide-for-the-iphone

There are 3 basic steps in this process:

1) Convert the text/PDF file to Kindle friendly format
2) Convert the Kindle file to Kindle App friendly format
3) Copy over the file to the appropriate location on your iPhone

As with all hackery involving your iPhone - make sure you have backed up your phone/contacts/data/photos/etc. Just.In.Case

Step 1a) Convert your document to Kindle friendly format if you own a Kindle…..
If you own an actual Kindle in addition to your iPhone with KindleApp installed the easiest way to convert your document is to send it to the  free Kindle conversion email address that Amazon has given all Kindle owners. The email address is <yourkindleusername>@free.kindle.com. Attach your word/text/PDF file to the email you send to this address and Amazon should in short order send you back a file in AZW format. Head to Step 2 if you own a Kindle and were able to convert the file.  


Step 1b) Convert your document to Kindle friendly format if you DON’T own a Kindle…
If you don’t own a Kindle, you’ve got to use Stanza to convert your file. Hopefully you’ve installed Stanza. Launch Stanza, Open your document and make sure it looks okay. Most conversion programs don’t like pictures, embedded images and tables - so the simpler the better. There are some other programs that are better for converting ‘complex’ documents to Amazon friendly format, but they’re not great for iPhone app Go to File»Export Book As»Amazon Kindle and then Save it to the appropriate place on your computer.

Step 2) Convert the Kindle file to Kindle App friendly format
The actual Kindle reads books in the .azw format - but the KindleApp on the iPhone only reads .prc files. Thankfully the .azw format for non-DRM’d files is really nothing more than a regular .mobi file with an Amazon wrapper on top.

Take the .azw file that you’ve either received from Amazon’s free conversion service OR created using the Stanza Desktop program and rename the extension from .azw to be .prc.

3) Copy over the file to the appropriate location on your iPhone  
Now that you have the file you want to move over to your iPhone, you’ve got to actually copy/paste it - and Apple does not make it very intuitive.
But it isn’t too difficult if you use DiskAid.

So launch DiskAid and make sure your iPhone is plugged into your computer. You should see a standard file navigation interface.

The top of the DiskAid program has the limited set of commands you use to copy/paste files from your computer to the iPhone. The middle portion is the actual file structure of your iPhone which you navigate by pointing and clicking. Look to the bottom left corner of the DiskAid program and you’ll see a pulldown with 3 options: ‘DiskAid Folder’, ‘Media Folder’, and ‘Root Folder’.

Select ‘Root Folder’ - you will get a warning telling you to proceed with caution. Accept.

Now you’ll see the root directory structure of your iPhone. Here is where it gets a little confusing - but with DiskAid - hopefully not too painful.

You need to get to the eBooks folder which is located here: var » mobile » Applications » random_hash_number » Documents » eBooks

In order to get to the eBooks folder click the Var folder in the lower left column - you’ll see another set of folders in the right hand screen appear - then click the ‘Mobile’ folder . You’ll be offered another set of folders in the right hand screen.  Click Applications and you will see a list of folders with random hash numbers for titles. Click on them one by one - each click will show you the contents of the folder in the far right column. You’ll have a lot of folders to go through IF you have a lot of apps installed on your phone.

Fear not - keep scrolling and clicking through each random hash labeled folder  - ONE of the folders will have a ‘Kindle.app’ folder in it. That’s the folder you want Note that in addition to the ‘Kindle.App’ folder there will also be a  ‘Documents’ folder, a ‘Library’ folder, a ‘tmp’ folder and two files named ‘iTunesArtwork’ and iTunesMetadata.plist.

Navigate to the ‘Documents’ folder (that is located in the random hash labeled folder which also contains the Kindle.app folder) and then to the eBooks folder. If you’ve bought a decent amount of books via Amazon you should see a lot of files with .mbp and .prc extensions. Make sure that the ‘eBook’ folder is highlighted in DiskAid. Then click ‘Copy to Device’ in the upper navigation bar of DiskAid. You’ll be asked to navigate to the file you want to copy - find the document you converted and copy it. That’s it.

Eject your iPhone from Finder and restart it for good measure.

You should now be able to go to the Kindle App and find your document.