Live data from Hacker News

Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

theverge.com

101–110 of 114 posts

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#101
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just glossed right over that e-waste part, eh?

yes, just like everyone does lol. people only bring up e-waste when they’ve run out of real points to make. The save-the-environment ship has sailed. It’s not even a point worth engaging with. You really think that if every kindle ever made would magically last forever that the environment still wouldn’t be fucked beyond belief?

Defeatism is gross.

We can all of us individually, and all of us collectively, do better.

You are quite literally the problem.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#102
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just glossed right over that e-waste part, eh?

yes, just like everyone does lol. people only bring up e-waste when they’ve run out of real points to make. The save-the-environment ship has sailed. It’s not even a point worth engaging with. You really think that if every kindle ever made would magically last forever that the environment still wouldn’t be fucked beyond belief?

E-waste, monetary waste (all this work in a good product-- only to be actively destroyed so that you have to buy a new one!), customer rights (it wouldn't be legal for someone to break your item with a hammer, so why with code?), and also just generally monopolistic anti-competitive market manipulation (this wouldn't fly in any competitive sector!)

We, as consumers, have a right to be mad about this stuff... this is why we have the Consumer Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#104
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, just like everyone does lol. people only bring up e-waste when they’ve run out of real points to make. The save-the-environment ship has sailed. It’s not even a point worth engaging with. You really think that if every kindle ever made would magically last forever that the environment still wouldn’t be fucked beyond belief?

Defeatism is gross. We can all of us individually, and all of us collectively, do better. You are quite literally the problem.

We are all quite literally the problem.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is how it worked for nearly all of history I don’t see you saying this about how we used to die if we got an infection. Times change. > Buying a Kindle over and over again benefits no one but Amazon and their stock holders. It benefits me! The kindle I bought last year is many times more enjoyable to use than the one I bought a decade ago.

>The kindle I bought last year is many times more enjoyable to use than the one I bought a decade ago. I know you're trolling, but in what way? Ebooks were always light, the only meaningful innovations have been sort of having color, getting bigger, and a stylus. Those are legitimate reasons to upgrades, everything else is software that could be updated. >Times change. People being in abusive relationships and thinki…

> I know you're trolling, but in what way

No, I am not trolling.

It is faster to turn pages, it has more storage, the screen is better, it has a light. If you want to include the scribe, it has a much bigger screen and I can write/draw on it.

It’s like your computer or phone. Would you really be thrilled to be using the 2015 version of those things today?

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#106
post #79
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries purchase the copies they loan out. In the US, libraries can typically only loan out an ebook a fixed number of times, and in other jurisdictions (like the UK), authors are paid per check out. Please check out a book from a library instead of pirating it; it's much better for the author and your community!

I agree that you should do this but I also completely get why people don't It's just SUCH AN ARTIFICIALLY STUPID process, basically actively engineering the technology to work worse than "by default." As in, it's literally more difficult to do this lending thing than to just dump the books on the device and have them all there forever with their essentially infinite storage space.

> it's literally more difficult to do this lending thing than to just dump the books on the device and have them all there forever with their essentially infinite storage space

True, but you could say the same of music streaming platforms, but we're still experimenting with ways to make that work. In both cases, the platform is trying to replicate via policy what was previously an inherent limitation of physical media, and different offerings have made competing choices about what limitations are critical to the business model and which can be let go of.

I personally see a lot more promise in the model where libraries use a policy to enforce a loan period but pay per-checkout royalties instead of trying to recreate wear and tear like Libby/OverDrive does. It makes it more feasible for small libraries to have an "infinite catalog" of ebooks, and authors seem to like it better: https://bsky.app/profile/premeemohamed.com/post/3liafq4gsoc2...

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#107
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defeatism is gross. We can all of us individually, and all of us collectively, do better. You are quite literally the problem.

We are all quite literally the problem.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, then just buy a new Kindle if you feel groveling is beneath you? I’ll admit that’s an even quicker solution.

>When companies fuck you over you should keep buying from them Yea this is dumb advice. Are you a stock holder?

[deleted]

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#109
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are all quite literally the problem.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Lol I sleep fine at night.

I don’t eat meat, I live in a small apartment, I don’t drive, I don’t fly, I don’t have kids. I buy crap I don’t need though.

I’ll put myself up against nearly anyone else in the developed world as far as carbon footprint goes.

Re: Amazon's killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's really not possible anymore. Even if you upgrade the firmware as far as possible, which I've done, you still can't log into the Kindle store on the device. For a while there was a trick you could do involving requesting a one-time password, but even that just doesn't work anymore, even on devices newer than mine. They stopped supporting the device, end of story.

Reread my comment.

The part about asking for a free Kindle?
Post reply on HN