After much research I’ve found something out about my new Kindle 3, it has hidden features and two simple (read: crap) games!

I must warn you though to please take care when using these instructions. Obviously they’re not supported otherwise we’d see them in the manual.  I have not broken anything by using these (yet) however I can’t take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.

The instructions for these ‘features’ are widely available elsewhere I just thought I’d consolidate them here, mainly for my consumption.  If you are unsure about using them my advice is don’t.

This is an expanding list, I have more technical stuff to put up but hey I thought I’d put up the easy stuff first.

Oh and if anything does go wrong please tell others, like me and comment on this page, I’ll make sure to add warnings or remove anything that causes problems.
Mmm keyboard…
Hidden Games (don’t get that excited)
  1. shift + alt + m = play minesweeper (from homescreen)
  2. GoMoku: press G from Minesweeper
  3.  

Hot Keys at any time
  1. alt + shift + G = screenshot (plug your Kindle in via the USB and navigate to the folder ‘documents’ screenshots are GIF and named something like “screen_shot-******.gif”)
  2. alt + G = screen refresh
  3. alt + home = Kindle Store
  4. alt + top row of letters on keyboard = numbers 1-0
  5.  

Menu
  1. Press menu to check the time
  2. Press menu on homescreen to see available memory
  3. To change the primary dictionary by going to settings then menu
  4.  

Power Switch
  1. Standby (uses minimal power is my understanding) Quick switch of the power slide.
  2. To turn off kindle 3 (i.e switch off the screen as well) by pressing and holding the power slide for 7 seconds
  3. To reset the kindle by pressing and holding the power slide for 15 seconds (restart is also in settings then menu)
  4.  

Hot Keys Whilst Reading
  1. alt + B = add and remove bookmarks
  2. shift + Sym = Turn text to speech on and off
  3. set cursor down the page to start text to speech from there
  4. right arrow on nav controller = skip to next chapter
  5. left arrow on nav controller = skip to previous chapter
  6.  

Music Controls
  1. alt + space = turn music on and off
  2. alt + f = skip to next track
  3.  

Kindle 3 Image Viewer (don’t get that excited Part 2)
Kindle has an image viewer, who knows why its hidden (other than maybe its not very good) still its there and simple to set up.  I’m assuming a windows based PC for these instructions, but it probably is similar for a Mac and others…
  1. Plug your Kindle 3 into the computer with the USB.
  2. Open the Kindle drive that is now in your displayed with your removable drives, in the root (i.e. not in another folder) create a folder called “pictures” within that folder you can create a number of other folders (think of them as collections), then add your images/pictures to this (or these) folders.  I’ve only tried Jpegs and they work fine.
  3. Once finished safely unplug the kindle and then press “alt” and “z” on the homescreen, this will refresh the screen and add your new folders.
  4. Click on the folder/collection and Image Viewer should launch.
  5.  


Image Viewer Functions
Page forward and back to see different images
  1. f = full-screen
  2. q = zoom in
  3. w= zoom out
  4. e = reset zoom
  5. c = actual size
  6. r = rotate
  7. nav controller = pan
  8.  

That’s it for now I’ll be posting some other functions in a bit.   Also I have not discovered most of these out myself by hacking the Kindle.  I’ve just found them out by searching the World Wide Web for Kindle features, hot keys and  easter eggs.

 

As Requested… by kuroikaze85





Update (1st October 2010): Acknowledgements
Apologies for not posting this sooner, I only compiled this list for my benefit (and limited followers) but now others are interested!


Articles and posts that made this page possible and some more I’ve found after I posted this list.   If you want some more technical stuff you could look at these but be careful.  NOTE Not all relate to Kindle 3 (latest version):



There are more sites with information just goto Google like I did and search for “Kindle hidden” or “kindle easter eggs”


Update (1st October 2010): This post was featured on Geek.com thanks Matthew Humphries!


Update (2nd October 2010): This post was linked to on Teleread.com Ebook Roundup from Resource Shelf


Update (3rd October 2010): This post was linked to on Mike Cane’s xBlog GeoPlanIT: Kindle 3 : Some Hidden Features


This Article now has a part 2 : Click Here

11 Comments

  1. Thanks for that I've updated it, to reflect your post! As to the screenshots, I should have put that in plug your Kindle in via the USB and navigate to the folder 'documents' screenshots are GIF and named something like "screen_shot-******.gif"

    Hope this helps!

  2. hi. thx for your tips. greatly appreciate it. however the picture foler doesn't work for me. i followed all your steps but when i pressed alt z no folders came out.

    could u help?

  3. Hello, glad you liked the post, in regards to the picture folder did you create a folder called "pictures" then a folder under that for example was called "holiday", now put your images in that folder. So browsing your Kindle using explorer you should be able to goto 'pictures/holiday'

    When you do the alt+z the name displayed on the kindle home screen should be "holiday".

    Hope this helps!

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