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

Post by carlosjobim » Mon, May 25, 2026, 10:36 AM UTC

swores wrote: post #215

bborud wrote: post #212

What I don’t get is why the publishing industry never got its act together, listened to customers and got its act together. Yes, like many industries I have worked in I can imagine that they are unable to cooperate because of petty greed and short-sightedness: they would rather have the whole market taken away from them than endure the possibility that some of their direct competitors get a small, temporary advantage…

I'm not very familiar with anti-cartel laws (in any country), but I wonder if there would be legal issues preventing publishing companies from working together in such a way even if they otherwise had wanted to? (Though even if that is the case, I'd still think they could have at least agreed on open standards to use, to prevent anyone like Amazon from creating vendor lock-in.) But Amazon had advantages from its size…

Post by swores » Mon, May 25, 2026, 11:19 AM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #321

swores wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not very familiar with anti-cartel laws (in any country), but I wonder if there would be legal issues preventing publishing companies from working together in such a way even if they otherwise had wanted to? (Though even if that is the case, I'd still think they could have at least agreed on open standards to use, to prevent anyone like Amazon from creating vendor lock-in.) But Amazon had advantages from its size…

> I'm not very familiar with anti-cartel laws (in any country), but I wonder if there would be legal issues preventing publishing companies from working together in such a way even if they otherwise had wanted to? Then all syndication services would have been banned, including Spotify, Netflix, and so on.

Post by WhyNotHugo » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

torben-friis wrote: post #324

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What software do you use on the device itself? I recently got a Kobo Clara HD, but software support seems to be a big issue. On one hand, there's folks using the vendor's OS, which looks like an abandoned custom-made Linux distro, where compiling anything is a nightmare. It's not really made to be hackable, but just to read books purchased via their partners. OTOH, there's a near-mainline kernel, which works nicely,…

What custom software could you possibly want in an e-reader? Like, in my mind is about as dumb as an electronic device gets. Load epubs, a few options for font size and margins, you're done forever.

Post by expedition32 » Mon, May 25, 2026, 1:46 PM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #277

kuschku wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are — all non-flagships do still have headphone jacks, even the Pixel A lineup kept them for many many years after the mainline Pixel phones dropped them. And the reason most phones keep these is because wireless headphones are in the end luxury. They're not necessary, they're not even significantly better, but they're in the end a class symbol.

Earlier this year, the Guardian had a piece about the way in which wired headphones were now the status signifier among a certain cohort ...

Post by kuschku » Mon, May 25, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

anonymars wrote: post #290

kuschku wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are — all non-flagships do still have headphone jacks, even the Pixel A lineup kept them for many many years after the mainline Pixel phones dropped them. And the reason most phones keep these is because wireless headphones are in the end luxury. They're not necessary, they're not even significantly better, but they're in the end a class symbol.

This very much depends on region Also I think the more serious issue is the SD card slot. The missing headphone jack is annoying, but you can work around it with an adapter. Not so for the card slot