A big amount of user loyalty comes from products that feel finished more than always evolving. Early Kindles felt closer to bookshelves than software platforms
Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
171–180 of 344 posts
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.
14 years is impressive? Wait until you find out how long a real book can last.
It's not like old books are particularly rare and fragile either (although many which did not use acid-free paper can deteriorate quite rapidly); I have a few from the early 19th century, which are still in good condition.
(They have also been scanned and are available on archive.org; the copyright is long expired and they're public domain.)
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve been on one side, looking at usage numbers of older iOS versions, and arguing that low single digit percentages were fine to stop supporting with the new version. On the other hand, I view my kindle as an appliance, and I don’t need it to have updated functionality. I think this is true of many electronics: digital cameras, printers, misc USB peripherals, etc. I believe Amazon c…
I'm supporting a 30 year old product, the oldest one in the field are 20+ years old, we still support them. I'm just in the process of developing a lifecycle policy, being able to cut off support for a 12 year systems would make my life much more full of joy.
I have a customer that had to be talked into ending support for a product they built in the 80s and provided unlimited, material cost only, repair plan for.
They replaced the product, but they kept buying the parts and updating the software for the old one. And customers were absolutely still sending back their broken ones getting at cost replacements.
It was like looking at a well engineered, thoughtfully maintained hole in the bottom of a cruise liner.
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.
I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve been on one side, looking at usage numbers of older iOS versions, and arguing that low single digit percentages were fine to stop supporting with the new version. On the other hand, I view my kindle as an appliance, and I don’t need it to have updated functionality. I think this is true of many electronics: digital cameras, printers, misc USB peripherals, etc. I believe Amazon c…
I'm not sure if they ever changed away from it, but early generation kindles were running an old version of embedded java (4 I think? Pre-generics), that was already quite painful to deal with, with the team having to maintain their own forks, build tools etc. because nothing supported it. Reportedly there wasn't a way to actually upgrade the version either. While I wish they'd support them longer, I'm not surprised that they've finally decided it's not worth it.
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#175Amazon's attitude towards its Kindle device customers is one of lofty disregard. Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc. But they appear to exult in dashing the hopes of their customers, or at the very least they don't care about them at all. They've doubled down on no-key devices with stupid pens, pointless and p…
14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.
I still remember support for life.
TV, refrigerator, recorder, whatever electronics, broke down and I or my parents would take it to one of several repair locations around town.
Software coming in eproms or disks meant QA was actually a thing to get right, not as online updates that eventually stop.
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#176Amazon's attitude towards its Kindle device customers is one of lofty disregard. Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc. But they appear to exult in dashing the hopes of their customers, or at the very least they don't care about them at all. They've doubled down on no-key devices with stupid pens, pointless and p…
> Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc. WWII fighter plane with red spots on it dot gif. The vast majority of people who buy Kindles simply read books on them and don’t repeatedly cry online about features that are never coming back. I’ve bought about 10 of the things dating back to 2012 either because I wanted…
Ultimate consoomer. Eats whatever shit it’s being fed and doesn’t complain. Powers that be know better what is good for you anyway, right?
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Different way to think about it: Whatever failings device might have, people still buy it for Amazon service integration. Also "but people buy it anyway" is terrible way to disregard legitimate criticizm without thinking
“But people cry about it” doesnt mean the criticisms are legitimate. To be fair, I don’t think the criticisms are illegitimate by your definition, I just think they’re pointless and from vocal crybabies.
You don’t really care about any buttons or
Kindles, you just want to complain about “vocal
crybabies”, do you?
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are only making complaints about criticisms (which you acknowledge as legitimate). If complaints from consumers about consumer devices are pointless and the consumers are "vocal crybabies", then how would you categorize yourself and your complaints about their complaints?
I’m no better than anyone. I was using the other persons definition where it seems there is no illegitimate criticism. I honestly think anybody crying that there aren’t buttons on a kindle needs to come to terms with reality and move on with their life.
> I’m no better than anyone.
> dismisses user wishes and calls people “vocal crybabies”
I’m honestly amazed how someone can lack so much self-awareness.
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#179I will just stick with Kindles. Indian heat and humidity make a Kindle unusable in 7-8 years, unless you have a 100% AC life. Kindles last a month on a charge or two. It's very light. It's affordable. It doesn’t show colors, but I have an android tab to read papers and technical content, anyway. I tried looking at alternatives, but low price + extreme power efficiency + being able to sideload books is just great.
Kobo is all that but without Amazon.
I did consider a Kobo, but the terrible website did turn me away. When trying to browse it was wait for button on tracking consent to be active so I could click reject. Then change language to what I'm fluent in instead of getting language based on IP, reject tracking, reject changing region back to IP based and the same two reject for every link clicked. Half the times pages was still shown in language based on my location instead of what I have set or what my user agent tell I want.
When a site ask about allowing tracking for every page shown I assume the company care more about selling PII than getting customers, so not a company I want to use
Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason people complain is because the old kindles used to have buttons, and honestly the touch screen is really fucking janky if you're used to the page turning buttons of the kindle 4, or the onscreen keyboard is janky if you're used to the kindle 3g. And the sad part is that there's no best of both. You can't get a kindle paperwhite with buttons.
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