14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon’s Kindle eReaders are a popular solution for those of us who like the idea of digital reading. The Kindles are inexpensive machines that allow literature enthusiasts to read for days on end, due to their E-ink display and low-power processor.
The Kindle might seem like a one purpose gadget, but folks who like to tinker with devices have found a way to turn Kindles into secondary displays or simply hacked them to add an extra level of choice, involving custom wallpapers and fonts.
But what if we told you the Kindle could be turned into a thermometer? You’d probably shrug off a little in disbelief, but a hacker has recently proved this is possible after all (via Hackday).
To attempt this, one should have a jailbroken Kindle 4 eReader. Anyway, if performed successfully, the tweak should display the temperature in Fahrenheit or Centigrade on the device’s screen by using a large font.
By now you’d probably be wondering already, how does the eReader figure out the temperature?
Well, the Kindle actually embeds a temperature sensor that has a purpose of monitoring the Freescale CPU. But the CPU isn’t being overworked or anything, and most of the time it runs cool, close to room temperature (unless you’re living in Sahara).
The tweak will add a piece of software that is capable of checking temperature once a minute and displaying it on the screen. Furthermore, it can even display a graph showing the recent temperatures it has picked up or connect the Kindle over a local network, so you can view the temperatures on your computer via a web server that’s built into the software.
When you’re done reviewing the temperature, you can easily exit the thermometer app and go back to using your Kindle eReader by virtue of a simple button press. However, the Kindle might necessitate a re-boot if you want your Wi-Fi back on board.
The tweak uses a separate computer that runs a scrip capable of picking up weather-related info online, after which it proceeds to create a vector graphic. The Kindle will display the image with a refresh rate of five minutes. That, plus reminders regarding your recycling schedule.