5 more methods to repurpose an old Kindle

Released Oct 3, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT[19659004]Adam has a degree in Engineering and has a life-long interest in innovation. He has actually been composing for over a years for numerous print and online publications, with a concentrate on customer tech. He signed up with How-To Geek in 2024 while operating at Pocket-lint
As being a long-lasting fan of Apple items, he likewise has a strong interest in wise home tech, running a Home Assistant server at home to automate all his clever home gadgets.

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There are lots of things you can do with an old Kindle, from packing it with kids’s books and providing it

to your kids to trading it in for a more recent design. You might be amazed by just how much more you can do with an old Kindle. Here are 5 genuine jobs that I’ve

finished with my jailbroken fourth-generation Kindle. Develop an offline Wikipedia

A Kindle can become your offline referral book

We tend to take Wikipedia for approved. You can discover info on an unbelievable variety of subjects, all on a single site. The problem is, you generally can’t inspect Wikipedia without a web connection. How are you expected to settle that dispute when you’re camping off the grid?

An easy service is to turn your old Kindle into a little Wikipedia library that will work entirely offline. Kiwix is complimentary, open-source software application that makes sites and other recommendations readily available offline. The material is readily available as compressed ZIM archives, and you can produce your own bespoke Wikipedia library to submit to your Kindle and examine whenever you desire, even without a network connection.

Turn it into a devoted bundle tracker

E-Ink is ideal for info that only modifications sometimes

When I purchase something online that I’m anticipating getting (such as a brand-new small eReader), I will routinely inspect my phone to see when it’s due to get here. Typically, I’ll examine several times before there are any updates. I chose to turn my old Kindle into a bundle tracker so that I might see updates without needing to inspect them.

The task pulls info from the e-mails Amazon sends me when an order status modifications. This details activates an automation operating on a Raspberry Pi that updates the image showed on the Kindle’s screen. I can see my plan’s existing status with a glimpse at the Kindle.

Utilize it as a slow-refresh security video camera You do not require 30fps to see who is at the door

A Kindle was never ever developed to reveal video, and while the sluggish refresh rate of the E-Ink screen implies that it will never ever be useful for seeing your most current Netflix fascination, it is possible to get a Kindle to reveal a really slow-refresh video feed.

I established an automation in Home Assistant that consistently takes photo images from my video doorbell. It then serves these to the Kindle, and my Kindle 4 can upgrade the images about as soon as a 2nd, developing a really fundamental video stream.

When my doorbell rings, the Kindle can show the feed. Even with the sluggish refresh rate, it’s more than sufficient to see who is at the door so I do not go response needlessly.

Utilize it as an E-ink image frame

Black-and-white images look remarkably excellent on an old Kindle

While a Kindle’s E-Ink screen isn’t perfect for high-resolution, full-color images, black-and-white images can look remarkably excellent on the screen, even on older designs. The very best part is that a Kindle utilizes barely any power when showing a fixed image, so the Kindle can possibly leave the image on the screen for weeks without requiring to be plugged into power.

Jailbreaking does provide you extra alternatives. With a jailbroken Kindle, you can establish a folder of images and have the Kindle immediately cycle through the images, much like a normal digital image frame.

Develop a distraction-free composing device

A Raspberry Pi does the work while the Kindle becomes your screen