3 smart things you can do with your old Amazon Kindle

Best Amazon Kindle devices are reliably good at their main function: displaying e-books in a clear, easy-on-the-eye format. But Kindle e-readers are actually more versatile than you might imagine.

If you’ve just upgraded to a new Kindle and are looking for something to do with your old device, or if you’re simply interested in seeing how hackable these e-readers are, we have three projects you can try.

These projects vary in difficulty and the amount of time and effort you’ll have to invest, but full instructions for each are available online, so you can follow the steps on your Kindle.

Turn your Kindle device into a Spotify controller

Part of Spotify’s appeal is that it can work across many different devices and connect to many other services. There are many ways to use Spotify, including through your Kindle device. All you have to do is provide your Spotify credentials, then make sure your Kindle is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the other device you use to play music, podcasts, or audiobooks.

This is made possible through Kindlify.co. Open the site in your Kindle’s built-in web browser, then tap Connect Spotify To log in. Once that’s done, you should see details of everything you’re currently playing in Spotify, although you’ll need to use another device to choose something from your library. There’s more discussion about this hack on Reddit, where I found it.

All of this works through the magic of Spotify Connect, which you may have already encountered. This feature allows you to play something on your laptop and then control playback from your phone, for example, or vice versa. You can also use the feature to manage playback through compatible smart speakers.

Keep in mind that you’re not actually storing any music on your Kindle or running the official Spotify app. This hack is just a way to connect to your Spotify account and control everything that plays through it, through your Kindle device. You can skip forward and backward, pause and resume playback, all from your e-reader.

Turn your Kindle into a smart home display

Another way to reuse your Kindle and its e-ink display is to turn it into a smart display that pulls all kinds of data from other services. You can use your e-reader to view a variety of information about your devices, including weather forecasts, calendar information, and your to-do lists.

This is pretty much the most popular project featured here, and you need to do everything from setting up a custom website to cutting a custom frame for your Kindle. Developer Matt Healy, who put it all together, has diligently provided online help.

It’s the kind of project you can try if you want to learn more about hardware hacking, cryptography, and the inner workings of Kindles, and how different apps and services communicate with each other. By the time you’re done, you may have some ideas for similar tricks you can try.

The information you display is entirely up to you, but must come from platforms that allow third-party connections. You can see from the scripts provided by Matt Healy that he was able to get real-time information from weather services, calendars, and even status reports for upcoming deliveries.

Turn your Kindle into a literary watch

Finally, you could also consider turning your Kindle into a literary clock. This hack keeps the e-book theme but repurposes the device into a screen you can glance at anytime you want to know what time it is, with each minute represented by a different quote from a book that mentions that specific time.

As with a smart home display, this requires a fair amount of work in terms of coding and setting everything up, but again, there are full instructions online, so you can handle it yourself. You can design a stand or frame for the watch, but that’s not necessary if you don’t mind the original look of your e-reader watch.