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Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

reuters.com

291–300 of 344 posts

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#291
Bought my kindle in 2012 or 2013, still works fine.

I put it into airplane mode years ago, and just never turned wifi on again. I use Calibre to add books to it. (I use a little usb-c to micro usb adapter).

There are places and ways to get books without DRM and still pay the authors. It's a faff first figuring things out, but once you do it a couple of times, and discover the treasure troves of standardebooks.org and the gutenberg.org, it really just becomes routine you don't even have to think much about.

In my experience it's a better device without the internet, no device updates, no weird book updates (books updating is an oddly unsettling concept to me).

Also battery life got way better, I get a few weeks of battery life as long as it's in airplane mode. (Sometimes a couple of months if I'm using it lightly.) Granted I usually leave the backlight off, there's sunlight and lamp light, you don't need backlight.

I've forgotten about it for years at a time, charged it up, and it kept working just fine.

eReaders that are really just eReaders (and not an android device with apps and nonsense) are a rare case of buy it for life devices. The best kind of device. Kinda like a good watch, I now expect an eReader to work for a decade or two. I would also expect battery replacement as a part of long term ownership, though I haven't had to replace my battery yet.

Anyways, you don't need Amazon to enjoy a kindle. Hek, it honestly gets better without Amazon meddling with it at random, and the device phoning home or w/e nonsense background traffic it runs over wifi.

Much love for Calibre!

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#292
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was before the public everything-connected internet era. Now, even Nintendo destroys your hardware if you do something they dont like. Like every one of these terrible companies, Im 100% sure that if they could update the NES firmware to destroy the console or sabotage it, they would.

My ps2 has Ethernet, so does my Xbox 360. They're two different phases of online access. The ps2 I wouldn't worry about putting on the Internet. The 360 is a bit different because it has firmware updates. That said, afaik Microsoft has not tried to remotely disable the 360, which is about 20 years old. Xbox live even worked a couple years ago when I really wanted to play rez. I think they disabled xbl finally but the…

Oh the PS2, as in the one that Sony sabotaged and removed an advertised feature, of OtherOS?

They only had a joke of a payout, and no criminal charges? Thats the console youre using as an example???

If we actually had real jurisprudence for the Public, Sony execs would be in prison for felony hacking, and the payout would have been treble the cost of console payable to each owner. Then lawyer fees would be on top of that (not removed from treble damages).

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hasn't changed, and I don't know why people are saying that most books don't have DRM. It is only a small minority. Tor books is the largest publisher without it (owned by Macmillan). Otherwise everything is truly hard DRM either ACSM with epub or Kindle's. They are both more or less easily defeated though.

Because these are people that don’t buy the books anyway. They pirate them and put them onto their 2010 Chinese ebook reader.

[deleted]

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#294
post #253
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long should a hardware and software product be expected to last? Try estimating doing win11 updates on a 20 year old piece of delphi spftware with hardware full go custom ASICs be expected to lsat?

This isn't about hardware "lasting", it's about basic software functionality on older hardware intentionally being disabled. Somewhat similar to Apple's Batterygate.

This is nothing at all like Apple. This is like having to continue to support BMP files in the browser for the next 20 years while fixing any potential exploits that are discovered and deciding there aren’t enough users to justify that expense and risk.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#295
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kindle from 2012 used to have ads you needed to pay for to get rid of. It was sold as separate product with or without ads at a time. I had one with ads. I keep it offline in airplane mode permanently from 2016 and haven't seen a single ad in a long long time.

The fact that having ads on a product designed for reading is so dystopian. A great new term has recently entered the lexicon to describe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

I'm reading a book by Asimov at the moment, printed 1989. The first page is an ad for a Robert Silverberg book adaptation of the Nightfall short story. Pages 2-3 are ads for other Asimov books. The last 5 pages are an excerpt of Edge of Eternity. And the final page is an advertisement for Voice of the Planet, a "5 episode TBS miniseries starring William Shatner and Faye Dunaway"

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#296
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hasn't changed, and I don't know why people are saying that most books don't have DRM. It is only a small minority. Tor books is the largest publisher without it (owned by Macmillan). Otherwise everything is truly hard DRM either ACSM with epub or Kindle's. They are both more or less easily defeated though.

Kobo does carry DRM-free books, and I've never encountered DRM on any books I bought directly from authors' or publishers' websites either.

[deleted]

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#297
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long should a hardware and software product be expected to last? Try estimating doing win11 updates on a 20 year old piece of delphi spftware with hardware full go custom ASICs be expected to lsat?

> How long should a hardware and software product be expected to last? Until it dies due to unintentional software or hardware defect. NOT when it is sabotaged by the manufacturer.

This isn’t sabotage, this is deprecation. Keeping old systems working that communicate with servers is a constant expense and a security vulnerability. No one can afford it.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#298
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are other people who can and will support it. Let them.

There are companies that will make deals with tens of thousands of book publishers and provide storage and access for millions of books, magazines and comics? I suppose they will do it for free?

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#299
post #175
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How well do those TVs pick up HD digital TV signals?

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#300
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.

My 20-year-old laptop still runs latest Debian with all security and (optionally!) feature updates.

And it will be deprecated as well one day.
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