Kindle has Minesweeper, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Maybe More

A few days ago we reported that the Kindle had been hacked to allow mobipocket eBooks to run on the device. The guy behind the hack was hacker Igor Skochinsky. It seems Igor has done it again, this time uncovering a handful of exciting hidden features.

The most exiting of which, as you can see from the image above, is a crude GPS system which uses Google’s experimental MyLocation service to pinpoint your approximate location. Google’s MyLocation also allows you to look for local gas stations, hotels and restaurants or whatever else you want to search. Interestingly though some of the commands such as “find nearest gas station,” are built into the Kindle, which suggests at one time this the feature was planned for release, but for whatever reason was scrapped. My feeling is that it was probably the extra bandwidth costs that made them scrap this feature since Amazon is paying Sprint for using the Whispernet service at no cost to Kindle owners.

For those of you who are concerned about your privacy, I dont think Amazon is using this hidden feature to track your location, like I said before, it was probably a planned feature which got scrapped, and somebody probably forgot to remove the code. Rest assured we’ll keep you up to date of any new information that comes out regarding this hidden feature which may effect your privacy.

Other hidden gems include a hidden picture viewer, slideshows, a screenshot utility, a clock, a diagnostic mode, quick-look, the classic Minesweeper game and many more. You can read up on all the new features by clicking the link below. We’ll try to get some snaps of these up on the blog as soon as we get them.

Getting these hidden features requires fiddling with the firmware, so in that sense you need to know what you are doing. If you dont know how to use the modification scripts, you stay well clear as they could damage your Kindle.

Source: Igor Skochinsky (via Interface)