3 Clever Things You Can Do With an Old Amazon Kindle
3 Clever Things You Can Do With an Old Amazon Kindle
旧款亚马逊 Kindle 的 3 个妙用
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. 亚马逊 Kindle 最核心的功能表现一直非常稳定：以清晰、护眼的方式呈现电子书。但实际上，Kindle 电子阅读器的用途比你想象的要广泛得多。
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. 如果你刚刚升级了新款 Kindle，正在寻找旧设备的用途，或者只是对这些电子阅读器的可玩性感兴趣，我们为你准备了三个可以尝试的项目。
These projects vary in terms of difficulty and the amount 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. 这些项目的难度以及所需投入的时间和精力各不相同，但所有项目的完整指南都可以在网上找到，你可以按照步骤在自己的 Kindle 上进行操作。
Turn Your Kindle Into a Spotify Controller
将 Kindle 变成 Spotify 控制器
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. Spotify 的魅力之一在于它能跨越多种设备运行，并连接到许多其他服务。使用 Spotify 的方法有很多，其中就包括通过 Kindle。你只需提供 Spotify 登录凭据，并确保 Kindle 与你播放音乐、播客或有声读物的设备处于同一 Wi-Fi 网络下即可。
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. 这一切可以通过 Kindlify.co 实现。在 Kindle 内置的网页浏览器中打开该网站，然后点击“Connect Spotify”进行登录。完成后，你应该能看到当前在 Spotify 上播放的内容详情——不过，你仍需使用另一台设备从库中选择曲目。Reddit 上有关于此技巧的更多讨论，我最初也是在那里发现的。
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. 这一切都归功于 Spotify Connect 的神奇功能，你可能已经接触过它。该功能允许你在笔记本电脑上播放内容，然后通过手机控制播放，反之亦然。你还可以利用此功能通过兼容的智能音箱来管理播放。
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. 请记住，你并没有在 Kindle 上存储任何音乐，也没有运行官方的 Spotify 应用程序。这个技巧只是让你通过 Kindle 连接到你的 Spotify 账户并控制正在播放的内容。你可以直接在电子阅读器上进行快进、快退、暂停和恢复播放等操作。
Turn Your Kindle Into a Smart Home Display
将 Kindle 变成智能家居显示屏
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. 重新利用 Kindle 及其电子墨水屏的另一种方法是将其变成智能显示屏，从其他服务中获取各种数据。你可以利用电子阅读器显示与设备相关的各种信息，包括天气预报、日历信息和待办事项列表。
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. 这几乎是本文介绍的项目中最复杂的一个，你需要完成从搭建自定义网站到为 Kindle 切割定制边框等一系列工作。最初整合这一切的开发者 Matt Healy 已经在网上提供了详尽的指南。
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. 如果你想深入了解硬件改造、编程、Kindle 的内部工作原理以及各种应用程序和服务之间如何交互，这是一个非常值得尝试的项目。当你完成后，你很可能会产生一些自己可以尝试的类似改造想法。
The information you display is entirely up to you, but it will need to come from platforms that allow third-party connections. You can see from the scripts supplied by Matt Healy that he’s managed to pull in real time information from weather services, calendars, and even status reports for upcoming deliveries. 显示什么信息完全由你决定，但这些信息必须来自允许第三方连接的平台。从 Matt Healy 提供的脚本中可以看出，他已经成功获取了来自天气服务、日历甚至即将到来的快递状态报告的实时信息。
Turn Your Kindle Into a Literary Clock
将 Kindle 变成文学时钟
Finally, you can also consider turning your Kindle into a literary clock. This hack keeps the e-book theme but repurposes the device into a display you can glance at any time you want to know what time it is, with each minute represented by a different quote from a book that mentions that particular time. 最后，你还可以考虑将 Kindle 变成一个文学时钟。这个技巧保留了电子书的主题，但将设备重新定位为一个显示屏，让你在想看时间时随时扫一眼。每一分钟都由书中提到该特定时间的不同引文来表示。
As with the smart home display, this requires a significant amount of work in terms of coding and getting everything set up, but again, there are full instructions online, so you can tackle it yourself. You can fashion a stand or frame for the clock, but it’s not essential if you don’t mind the original look of the e-reader clock. 与智能家居显示屏一样，这需要大量的编程和设置工作，但同样，网上有完整的指南，你可以自己动手完成。你可以为时钟制作一个支架或边框，但如果你不介意电子阅读器原本的外观，这并非必须。
One of the bigger steps you have to work through here is getting all the images in place. There are 1,440 minutes in each day, and this project will give you a static picture with a literary quote for each one of them. The good news is that all the images and associated scripts have already been prepared, so you don’t have to create or source them yourself. 这里需要完成的一个大工程是整理好所有图片。每天有 1,440 分钟，这个项目会为每一分钟提供一张带有文学引文的静态图片。好消息是，所有的图片和相关脚本都已经准备好了，所以你不需要自己去创建或寻找它们。
A nice touch is that you don’t get to see the name of the book or the author on the time quote, so the clock doubles as a sort of literary quiz. See if you know—or can remember—where each line comes from when you see it. You can then reveal each answer with a press on the Kindle’s screen. 一个巧妙的设计是，你不会在时间引文中看到书名或作者，因此这个时钟也兼具文学测验的功能。看看当你看到每一行文字时，是否知道或能想起它出自哪里。然后，你可以通过点击 Kindle 屏幕来揭晓答案。