Amazon has told owners it will soon stop supporting older Kindle models - a move which has left some users outraged.
In emails from the tech giant, affected users were thanked for being a “longtime Kindle customer” but told devices released during or before 2012 would no longer receive updates from 20 May.
The move will mean owners of older Kindles, including its earliest models such as the Kindle Touch and some Kindle Fire tablets, will be unable to download new e-books.
Amazon said it has supported affected models for years and their active users have been offered discounts to help “transition to newer devices”, but some have criticised it for making up to two million devices “obsolete”.
“I have a Kindle Touch that I’ve had since 2013, it works great, I bought a book on it a few months ago, and suddenly it’s obsolete,” one X user wrote in a post tagging Amazon.
Older kindles can and should be jailbroken.
Removing DRM is likely completely legal.
* is definitely legal in most of the world
That said, if anyone has better suggestions for a reader that doesn’t involve giving money to a shitty company like Amazon, this would be a great place to post them!
I recently got a Boox Go Color and really enjoy it. The nice thing is that it runs Android so can benefit from the app ecosystem.
I have a Kobo Clara 2E and like it very much.
Oo trying this today, thanks!
Edit: mission accomplished, my kindle now has doom (though it did immediately crash lol)
Not your tech, not your cloud, not your book, it ain’t fucking yours.
You have just been renting a device and access to their content. You have been paying for convenience.
Well, that’s what happens if you make yourself dependent on outside resources like that.
I moved to a Kobo e-reader a while back as part of de-Amazoning my life, and while I’m annoyed that they’ve stopped supporting my 2011 Kindle Keyboard, it means I can finally close my account.
The Kindle is still perfectly usable after all these years. I jailbroke it not long after I bought it because I hated the wallpapers. I found a website where you could create your own, so I have a lovely array of images on it. One time I dropped it in the bath, and bought a new one. That turned out to be one of a run of KKs that developed a crack in the case, so I phoned customer service and sent it off for a replacement (I know, right?!?). While waiting for it to arrive, I dug out my old drowned reader and charged it up - and it was fine!! I sold the replacement when it arrived.
And now this: “To minimize any disruption, we’re offering a promotional code for 20% off select new Kindle devices as well as a £15 eBook credit that will be automatically added to your account after purchasing a new device”. As if. Fuck off.
Theres an open source ebook called the PineNote, for those that dont want proprietary software shutting you down.
