3 Clever Things You Can Do With an Old Amazon Kindle

The best Amazon Kindles are reliably good at their main job: displaying ebooks in a crisp, 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 one, or if you’re simply interested in seeing how hackable these e-readers are, we’ve got three projects for you to attempt.

These projects vary in terms of difficulty and the amoung of time and effort you’re going to have to invest, but full instructions for all of them are available online, so you can follow the steps on your own Kindle.

Part of the appeal of Spotify is that it can work across so many different devices and connect to so many other services . There are lots of ways to use Spotify, and that includes through your Kindle. All you need to do is supply your Spotify credentials, and then make sure your Kindle is on the same Wi-Fi network as the other device you’re using to play your music, podcasts, or audiobooks.

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

It all works through the magic of Spotify Connect , which you may already have come across. This feature lets you 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.

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

Another way to repurpose a Kindle and its E-Ink screen is to turn it into a smart display that pulls in all kinds of data from other services. You can use the e-reader to show a variety of information related to your devices, including weather forecasts, calendar information, and your to-do lists.

This is just about the most involved of the projects featured here, and you need to do everything from setting up a custom website to cutting out a custom-made frame for your Kindle. Developer Matt Healy, who originally put all this together, has diligently provided instructions online .

It’s the sort of project you can try if you want to learn more about hardware hacking, coding, the inner workings of Kindles, and how various apps and services talk to one another. By the time you’ve finished, you may well have some ideas about similar hacks of your own you could attempt.