Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Not buying another Kindle

androidauthority.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 288 posts

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#11

Post by devilbunny »

georgeecollins wrote: post #3
laweijfmvo wrote: post #2

> Amazon recently confirmed that starting May 20, these older models will lose all access to the Kindle Store. While you can technically keep reading books already on the device, the real kicker is the factory reset limitation built into the software. If you ever need to reset your device or try to register it to a new account after the deadline, it becomes a literal paperweight. is this true though? You can't browse…

You won't be able to read library books on it after it resets (which it will eventually) unless you jail break it. My son jail break'd his kindle so I guess its not too hard and you can read library books that way.

No Kindle Unlimited, though, and library apps will probably drop support for the older stuff in time.

Jailbreak on very old Kindles is reasonably straightforward and the fact that Amazon hasn't even put out point releases to stop it (as the do with newer models) is a strong hint that they've just given up on maintaining them. I still have a K3 (Kindle Keyboard) that not only is jailbroken: it runs Tailscale.

Unprotected books, no problem. Anna's Archive + Calibre will keep working just fine.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#12

Post by jihadjihad »

seabrookmx wrote: post #7
jihadjihad wrote: post #5

The site causes cancer but the conclusion of TFA is sensible: just get a Kobo and be done with it. I had a Kindle for years but there's no reason to stick to Amazon for e-readers anymore.

Kobo + Libby + Calibre has been my loadout for a decade. Works great!

Agree, though for me it's only been a year, so all I can feel toward your "for a decade" is jealousy. It really is a much more enjoyable experience. If only I'd switched sooner!

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#13

Post by paulnpace »

Insanity wrote: post #4

The devices were supported for more than a decade. Sure, this forced deprecation isn’t great but it’s still had a longer lifetime than many other devices. I’ll happily keep reading on my kindle, it’s the most ergonomic way of reading for me especially when traveling. I get that there are other options like Kobo, but I don’t see it as significantly better than the Kindles. And I like the fact that I can also use the i…

IIRC, part of the original sales pitch was replacing physical books, for whatever reason one might like to do that. I did it because I was doing a LOT of travel.

I haven't had a job that requires travel in a long time, so looking at it from that perspective, having my library also require some kind of additional device maintenance cycle or whatever really adds a layer of complexity I don't want to deal with, so depending on what options I have and what I'm buying, I'm finding myself these days purchasing physical books more frequently just to avoid the hassle for future me.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#14

Post by boplicity »

jihadjihad wrote: post #5

The site causes cancer but the conclusion of TFA is sensible: just get a Kobo and be done with it. I had a Kindle for years but there's no reason to stick to Amazon for e-readers anymore.

I really want to like the Kobo. I really do. But I've had such bad luck with their devices. For example, sometimes the pages randomly start turning, really fast, so I completely lose my place. It also never reliably syncs between devices. And the integration with Overdrive is unreliable, only working some of the time. I also read it in the bath sometimes, which supposedly is one of the features available due to the water resistance, but the steam causes random clicks on the device, which makes it not really functional.

For me, I've mostly switched to reading on my phone. Dark mode, plus OLED, works very well for my needs.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#15

Post by wao0uuno »

boplicity wrote: post #14
jihadjihad wrote: post #5

The site causes cancer but the conclusion of TFA is sensible: just get a Kobo and be done with it. I had a Kindle for years but there's no reason to stick to Amazon for e-readers anymore.

I really want to like the Kobo. I really do. But I've had such bad luck with their devices. For example, sometimes the pages randomly start turning, really fast, so I completely lose my place. It also never reliably syncs between devices. And the integration with Overdrive is unreliable, only working some of the time. I also read it in the bath sometimes, which supposedly is one of the features available due to the w…

I bought a Kobo Libra about a year ago and it's rock solid although I'm not using any sync features. I turned on the airplane mode on day one. Just works.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#16

Post by andrewla »

Has anyone done any interesting work on transflective / reflective frontlit LCD panels? It seems like this is rife for progress; LCDs can achieve densities and response rates that are beyond the reach of any eink device, and only the lack of good contrast stands in the way.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#17

Post by andrewla »

In my view the death of the eReader is just the price fixing on ebooks -- that ebooks are sold at par with at a premium to physical books still bothers me, and I think is responsible for the fact that the Kindle is dying -- Amazon can't move enough ebooks at these price levels to be worth investing anything in interested new hardware.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#18

Post by andrewla »

I'm still using a Kindle Oasis (and bought a couple of unopened used ones on eBay). I need the physical page turn buttons so Amazon has basically abandoned me. Trying out the Boox and Kobo readers I was immediately struck by their leggy and unresponsive UI (and this is saying something, coming from the kindle, which is already pretty laggy). I used a Nook in a demo and was impressed, but I'm leery of buying the ereader equivalent of a Zune.

Have things improved since the last time I checked in? I really hate so much about the kindle and its ecosystem but it seems to be the best out there.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#19

Post by evanrelf »

andrewla wrote: post #16

Has anyone done any interesting work on transflective / reflective frontlit LCD panels? It seems like this is rife for progress; LCDs can achieve densities and response rates that are beyond the reach of any eink device, and only the lack of good contrast stands in the way.

The Daylight Computer[1] is the only thing I'm aware of.

[1]: https://daylightcomputer.com/

Post reply on HN