Jeff Bezos wants the Kindle to have some healthy competition. That’s why Amazon just released their source code for all the Kindle devices. It’s basic Linux underneath (kernel 2.6.22 on the latest 2.1 software), but includes E Ink drivers and other hardware support.

We don’t know whether Amazon stripped out its various DRM and licensed codec support, MP3 and Audible seem very likely candidates for explosion, even if turns out Amazon did leave in its own Kindle Book DRM. Hopefully manufacturers can take and repurpose this code to build their own Kindle clone.

Gameboys are cheap these days. You remember Gameboy. That monochrome handheld with the sort of greenish urine colored background. You can get one for about $20. But why not make your own? Some guy named Matt decided to build an “open source Gameboy” called Gamepack, using off-the-shelf parts, including an Arduino microprocessor. The Arduino providse the brains, while the 128×128 TouchShield Stealth color OLED touchscreen takes care of the rest. An Inputshield board provides a tiny joystick that even sports rumble, with control buttons and a flat Lithium battery pack.

Lucky for you the Gamepack system is available in kit form so you can build one yourself. Thing is, at the moment, the Gamepack only runs some rudimentary homebrew demo code, but the idea is that others will contribute more advanced games, or maybe even a Nintendo emulator. It’s steep at $249, but a pretty cool project.