This one is sure to kindle your interest . A Kindle (Amazon’s eBook reader) retails for $300.  It has a black and white screen and you have to purchase and books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs to read on it. Sure, it saves a lot of trees, but it definitely has it’s limitations.

However, hope is not lost! We’ll show you how to turn a Tablet PC into a DIY eBook reader which can search thousands of free ebooks online, far from the clutches of Amazon.  The project below is to design an eBook reader with a high resolution, full color display.  All that, at a fraction of Kindle’s cost.

The building block of his version of a personal eBook reader is a tablet PC. Though it’s not meant to be a clone, it comes pretty close. The tablet PC is born again as an eBook reader in four steps:

1. Find a cheap tablet PC

Scrounge eBay for a cheap tablet PC if you don’t have one lying around.  Older makes like Motion M1400 or Fujitsu Stylistic are recommended which can be bought for around $200.

2. Tweak the OS

The idea is to uninstall unwanted software and tweak the settings to make it more eBook reader like. For instance, a high contrast/white for the background, larger icons and remapping the buttons for page switching.

3. Install reader software

Choices are plenty with Calibre , Adobe’s PDF reader and ComicRack for eBooks. Zinio for digital mags, FeedDemon for RSS. Another suggestion is to bookmark newspaper sites like the New York Times Article Skimmer version and sites like Project Gutenberg for no-fee, copyright-free books.

4. Boot it up and enjoy!

A Wi-Fi connection really helps for instant downloads. With all the downloading done, all that’s left is to choose a quiet corner and turn the pages.  Once you get hold of a cheap tablet PC, the rest is dirt simple. Your own Kindle replacement for $200.

As you start off with hacking the Windows OS, some of these tips and tricks from our windows hacks will help:-

• The Windows XP Optimization Guide
• Windows Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks Collection
• Download 762 Free MP3s From Amazon

Using a magnetic strip reader incorporated with, of course, an Arduino, you can scan what those strips and see the data stored on it.  A bit more hacking and you could also write data back onto the card and create duplicates as well. If you’re willing to set up additional hardware, you can check out the Stripe Snoop software.  It will turn that computer lingo into actual decipherable characters.  Check out the tutorial to get started.