Amazon is the best Types are reliably good at their primary function: displaying ebooks in a cool, easy-to-view format. But Kindle e-readers are actually more versatile than you might think.
If you’ve recently upgraded to a new Kindle and are looking for something to do with your old one, or if you’d like to see just how affordable these e-readers can be, we’ve got three projects for you to try.
These projects vary in difficulty and the amount of time and effort you will have to invest, but complete instructions for all of them are available online, so you can follow the steps yourself on your Kindle.
Turn your Kindle into a Spotify Controller
Part of Spotify’s appeal is that it can run on many different devices and connect to many other services. There are many ways to use Spotify, and that includes your Kindle. All you need to do is provide your Spotify credentials, then make sure your Kindle is on the same Wi-Fi network as the other device you use to play your music, podcasts, or audiobooks.
This is made possible by Kindlify.co. Open the site in the Kindle’s built-in web browser, then tap Connect Spotify to enter. Once that’s done, you should see details of whatever you’re currently playing on Spotify—though you’ll need to use another device to select something from your library. There is more discussion about this hack on Reddit, that’s where I found it.
It all works through the magic of Spotify Connect, which you may already be familiar with. This feature allows you to play something on your laptop and control the playback on your phone, for example, or vice versa. You can also use the feature to manage playback through compatible smart speakers.
Remember that you don’t actually store any music on your Kindle or use the official Spotify app. This hack is just a way to connect to your Spotify account and control whatever is playing on it, right from your Kindle. You can skip forward and backward, and pause and resume playback, all from the e-reader.
Turn Your Kindle Into a Smart Home Display
Another way to reinvent the Kindle and its E-Ink screen is to turn it into a smart display that pulls in all kinds of data from other resources. You can use the e-reader to display various information related to your devices, including weather forecasts, calendar information, and your to-do list.
This is probably the most involved of the projects featured here, and you need to do everything from setting up a custom website to cutting a custom Kindle case. The developer Matt Healy, who put this all together, has actively contributed instructions online.
It’s the kind of project to try if you want to learn more about hardware hacking, coding, the inner workings of Kindles, and how different apps and services communicate. By the time you’re done, you might have ideas for similar hacks of your own to try.
The information you display is entirely from you, but it will need to come from platforms that allow third-party connections. You can see from the documentation provided by Matt Healy that he was able to pull real-time information from weather services, calendars, and status reports for upcoming deliveries.
Turn Your Kindle Into a Writing Clock
Finally, you can also consider turning your Kindle into a writing clock. This hack keeps the theme of the e-book but returns the device to a display that you can look at any time you want to know what time it is, each minute is represented by a different quote from the book about that time.
Like a smart home display, this requires a significant amount of work in terms of coding and configuring everything, but again, there are full instructions online, so you can tackle it yourself. You can make a stand or frame for the watch, but it’s not important if you don’t care about the original look of the e-reader watch.
