Easter Eggs, amazon, amazon kindle, ebooks, gadgets, kindle

Amazon Kindle Has Secrets: Faux-GPS Google Maps, Minesweeper, and More

So, you ~~wasted some hard-earned money on~~ bought an Amazon Kindle. Good for you! Now that you have one, it's time to exploit the crap out of it. I'm talking, of course, about easter eggs, otherwise known as functionality that should be available to everybody in the first place. Yes, there's Google Maps access with triangulation locating! Minesweeper! A picture viewer! And more!

Accessing the goodies requires fiddling with the firmware, so you've got to at least sort of know what you're doing in that regard, but once you do, you get all sorts of fun shortcut options. It seems strange that some of this stuff would be hidden, such as the faux-GPS Google Maps functionality. There are commands built-in, such as "find nearest gas station," that makes it seem like at some point these features were planned but scrapped for some reason. Oh well, if you really want them you can have them, just follow the link below for the details. [Reversing Everything via Interface]

3:20 PM on Fri Dec 28 2007
By Adam Frucci
11,471 views
21 comments

Comments

EaGle1337 at 03:27 PM on 12/28/07
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cool, now there's more of a use for a kindle.
OENOPHILE at 03:30 PM on 12/28/07
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Not bad, if you really don't have to pay for any wireless service...

I know people like my mom are comfortable with "The Google Maps" and are terrified by Garmin nav units and their interface...
nutbastard at 03:36 PM on 12/28/07
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@OENOPHILE:
yeah i was going to buy a GPS, but i just put Earth on my laptop and cached the bay area. in short, i realized that a friggin map works suprisingly well, and one you can text-search works better.
halfro at 03:47 PM on 12/28/07
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I'll have to try this out when my Kindle arrives. If it arrives...
Nick_M at 03:57 PM on 12/28/07
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It looks like Amazon is trying to resell DOS...
lpranal at 04:02 PM on 12/28/07
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This seems really cool, and made me want one of these... until i realized, that the $100 windows CE-based GPS i got for christmas is more powerful and will work anywhere on the face of the globe (except maybe antarctica and the UP of michigan-the two most barren, desolate places on earth). Plus, I hacked it to run the latest navigation software from either navigon or TomTom, in addition to a really sweet hiking / offroad program with bearing, speed log, custom waypoints, altimeter / accelerometer, etc...
rukasu at 04:04 PM on 12/28/07
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All in glorious, vibrant B&W!
Empire at 04:11 PM on 12/28/07
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@lpranal: Yeah, but does it offer you the opportunity to license DRM-crippled ebooks and pay for RSS?
Wilson Rothman at 04:12 PM on 12/28/07
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Word to the Kindle haters: I have been using the Kindle since the week of Thanksgiving, and everything I said in my original review is still totally true. I love the freakin' thing. I'm currently reading Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, a 600+ page book that's only (physically) available in $25 hardcover. I gave that edition to my dad for Christmas, and downloaded the $10 Kindle version for myself. Much easier to manage in the three cardinal reading locations: bed, toilet, coach-class airplane seat. We all respect Adam's opinions, but they don't necessarily reflect the opinions of Gizmodo as a whole. Now let's see about this hack...
bobdobbs at 04:18 PM on 12/28/07
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@nutbastard: You need to change your ID to CHEAPBASTARD.

I keed, I keed.

RON PAUL, FTW!
nutbastard at 04:36 PM on 12/28/07
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@bobdobbs:
hey watch out, the banhammer is active for flame-war spill over! and this is a frucci post!
nutbastard at 04:36 PM on 12/28/07
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...so no more RP spam
bunnypower at 04:48 PM on 12/28/07
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@nutbastard: "i realized that a friggin map works suprisingly well"--music to any females ears! HA! Nah, you've got much better with navigational techniques IMO, over the past 2 years.

RON PAUL! ; )
rukasu at 04:48 PM on 12/28/07
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ugh...Paultards
nutbastard at 05:14 PM on 12/28/07
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@bunnypower:
you wouldn't want Frucci to bust out the banhammer for RP spam on your second day on here, would you???

@rukasu:
It's spillover from the console flame war. Appearantly, I've created a monster.
bunnypower at 05:34 PM on 12/28/07
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@nutbastard: No. I was just kidding, aww shucks!
Dreamwriter at 08:53 PM on 12/28/07
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I don't have a Kindle to try, but I got the feeling that you DON'T have to do anything to your firmware to access these things, just know the key commands to get them. That was just how the guy accessed the file system so he could learn about them.
bobdobbs at 09:51 PM on 12/28/07
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@nutbastard: Libertarianism on the Internet goes way back, before Gizmodo fo sho.
Intro24 at 03:17 PM on 12/29/07
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But can it play Doom?
Los Reed at 08:49 AM on 12/31/07
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@DREAMWRITER...You're right. You don't have to mod your Kindle to get these features. Just type the codes. The only feature listed in the source article that requires a mod is the "demo".
berribrand at 12:37 PM on 01/02/08
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GPS lmao.

Uhm, they have, you know, actual GPS on cell phones that are probably more easier to use. Again, I think ebooks need to concentrate on adding features that help with the reading experience, and not trying to be a sub-par all-in-one device.