Old Kindle projects are getting more practical than the usual drawer-to-e-waste pipeline. WIRED’s David Nield outlined three ways to reuse an Amazon e-reader after an upgrade: as a Spotify controller, a low-power smart home display, or a clock that tells time through book quotations.
The pitch works because a Kindle is already a cheap, battery-sipping screen with Wi-Fi and a web browser. Its E-Ink panel is poor for video and anything fast, which is the point: it is good at leaving static or slow-changing information visible without screaming for attention like a tablet. That makes it useful for controls, status readouts and odd little display projects.
What can you do with an old Kindle?
The least invasive option is turning the Kindle into a Spotify remote through Kindlify.co. According to WIRED, the setup runs in the Kindle’s built-in browser. The user signs in with Spotify credentials, keeps the Kindle on the same Wi-Fi network as the playback device, and then uses the e-reader to manage the current session.
This is not a secret Spotify app for Kindle, and the e-reader is not storing songs, podcasts or audiobooks. The mechanism is Spotify Connect, the same feature Spotify documents for controlling playback across phones, laptops and compatible speakers. WIRED says the Kindle can pause and resume playback and skip backward or forward, while another device is still needed to pick something from the Spotify library.
The more involved project turns a Kindle into a smart home information panel. Developer Matt Healy published instructions for building the setup, WIRED reports, and the work includes creating a custom website and making a frame for the Kindle. The display can show information from services that allow third-party connections, including weather, calendars, to-do lists and device-related data.
Healy’s scripts, according to WIRED, pull in live information from weather services, calendars and delivery status reports. That makes this less of a weekend sticker job and more of a small hardware-and-code project. The useful part is also the annoying part: the Kindle is only the display, while the real work happens in the scripts and services feeding it.
How does the Kindle literary clock work?
The third reuse keeps the Kindle closer to its original identity. A literary clock shows the current time using a book quotation that mentions that exact minute. WIRED notes that the project covers all 1,440 minutes in a day, using a static image for each minute.
The setup still requires coding and configuration, with instructions available on Instructables. A stand or frame can be added, although WIRED says it is optional if the owner is fine with the Kindle’s existing body.
The project also hides the book title and author from the main clock face, turning the device into a small literary quiz. WIRED says the answer can be revealed with a press on the Kindle’s screen. The prepared images and scripts are already available, so builders do not have to assemble the full quote collection themselves.
None of these projects changes the Kindle’s core limitation: it is still an old e-reader with a slow screen and Amazon’s hardware constraints. Used as a quiet control surface or dashboard, though, those limits become less embarrassing and more like a design brief.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
