Redditor hacks their 13-year-old Kindle Paperwhite to make a Stream Deck and 'calm desk assistant' — and you'll be able to try it soon

• This clever hack turns a Kindle into a handy desk assistant
• It features to do lists, app shortcuts, timers, and more
• The developer says the source code will be made available

A few days ago, we were treated to some brand new Kindle models for 2026, but one clever Kindle owner has come up with a way of repurposing their 2013 6th-gen Paperwhite model — and the hack has added an impressive number of new features.

As you can see over on Reddit (via XDA Developers), the hack was achieved by jailbreaking the 13-year-old device and adding some custom software on top. It now works as a to do list manager, a Stream Deck-like app launcher, and a Pomodoro timer.

"It stands sideways on my desk next to my laptop, and it's honestly become one of my favourite things on there," writes Redditor Witespace, under a demo video (below). "Just need a proper stand for it now instead of leaning it against something."

One of the more impressive aspects of this bit of DIY engineering is that the Kindle syncs with both a MacBook and a PC, via a Cloudflare web account, and it can switch between the two systems automatically or via a manual button push.

Source code coming soon

Completed to do tasks slide off screen automatically, and thanks to a calendar sync, the Kindle can provide alerts five minutes ahead of any scheduled meeting. It even provides a button for joining the call with a single tap.

Also of note are a weather app, a dark mode, and a screensaver clock — though it seems the custom Paperwhite software can also disable the screensaver if needed and stay on indefinitely (with the occasional battery recharge where needed).

There are improvements on the way as well: the Redditor has plans to create new shortcuts that link to specific Spotify playlists and Slack channels, while the ability to control lights is also in the pipeline.

The reactions on Reddit are all positive — "great", "cool", and "awesome" are the main superlatives used — and the developer has said they're planning to release the source code on GitHub so anyone can install it on their own ancient Kindle.

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