My wife loves her Kindle page turner, but I can't believe how it actually works

I'd never considered getting a page turner for my Kindle. When my wife got hers, I finally understood the appeal, but I couldn't believe how the device actually worked.

I never really got page turners before

I can see the appeal of my wife's setup

It took me a long time to understand why anyone would want a page turner for their Kindle . Older models have physical buttons that turn the pages, and modern touchscreen Kindles only require a tap on the side of the screen to turn the pages forward or backward. When you're holding your Kindle to read, these options are right under your thumbs, so having to hold a page-turning device seems less convenient, not more so.

It was only when I saw my wife's reading setup that I understood. For her last birthday, she asked for a few accessories for her Kindle , including a pillow stand and a page turner. I couldn't see why she'd want them until I saw them in action.

The pillow stand holds the Kindle and has space to keep snacks or drinks. My wife can lie in bed with the covers pulled up and the pillow stand on her knees. The Kindle is held at the perfect height for reading, while she stays cozy under the covers.

The problem is that to turn the pages, she'd have to take one arm out from under the covers and keep reaching forward to tap the screen. With her page turner, she can keep both arms warm under the covers and turn the pages just by clicking the button.

The way that it works is ridiculous

You shouldn't need to clip something to your Kindle

While I now see why a page turner can be useful, the tech geek in me shudders every time I see her using it. That's not because I think it's unnecessary, but because of the way that the Kindle page turner works.

You would imagine that in 2026, the page turner would send a wireless signal to the Kindle over Bluetooth. The Kindle would receive that command and perform the page-turning action. All that you'd need would be a simple Bluetooth button.

The reality is very different. Kindle page turners use the same basic concept: you physically clip a receiver to the Kindle screen. Pressing a button on the remote causes this clip to simulate a touch on the screen , just as if you had tapped it with your finger. In effect, the clip is tapping the screen for you.

I had no idea how they worked when I bought the product for my wife. When we set it up, Icouldn't actually believe how much of a janky solution it was.

Other brands don't have the same problems

Kindles have the necessary hardware

The thing is that this is entirely an Amazon problem. The issue isn't that you can't create a truly wireless page turner that doesn't require clipping something to your eReader. It's simply that Amazon refuses to allow it to happen.

Other brands of eReader don't have the same problem. Kobo sells its own branded Bluetooth page turner for several of its current eReaders that works like you'd expect, with no clip required. BOOX eReaders and some other Android eReaders can also work with remote page turners that don't require clips.

Early Kindles didn't have Bluetooth, but it's been a feature since 2016, so it's not that the hardware isn't there. For some reason, however, while a Kindle can connect to Bluetooth headphones and speakers, Kindles still don't support standard Bluetooth input devices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers, and presentation clickers.

Exactly why Amazon still hasn't added support for Bluetooth input devices to Kindles is a mystery. It shouldn't be hard to do, and it could then sell its own range of branded page turners.

I turned my fingers into a page turner

I can turn the pages of my jailbroken Kindle without clips

The reality is that clipping a page turner to your screen isn't the only way to turn Kindle pages remotely. However, if you want to use a different method, you need to bypass Amazon's locked-down software by jailbreaking your Kindle . This comes with risks, as you may brick your device or affect your warranty coverage.

As Amazon has now dropped support for my old Kindle 4, these concerns weren't a major issue. My jailbroken Kindle is now far more useful than it ever was, and the reading experience is better , too.

I wanted to see if I could make a truly remote page turner now that my Kindle was free of Amazon's restrictions. It took about five minutes to set up a working page turner that I could use by entering a URL in any browser on my local network.

I then got a little carried away and tried to find the coolest way to send this URL to the Kindle. I ended up using the accessibility features of my Apple Watch, and now I can turn the page of my Kindle just by tapping the fingers of my left hand together. Tapping them twice goes back a page.

This is what's possible on a nearly 15-year-old Kindle without any additional hardware. In comparison, having to clip something to your Kindle's screen feels ridiculous.

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I get page turners now, just not Kindle ones

I finally see the appeal of being able to turn the pages of a Kindle without touching the device. It still blows my mind that unless your Kindle is jailbroken, you have to rely on a Rube Goldberg machine to make it happen.