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Amazon upsets ebook lovers by ending support for old Kindle devices (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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The Wi-Fi broke on my Kindle Paperwhite years ago, and I have only one micro-B cable left that will connect to it.

Amazon is to stop supporting older Kindle models leaving longtime ebook fans unable to access new content from the Kindle store.

Devices released during or before 2012 will no longer receive updates from 20 May, affecting owners of older Kindles, including the earliest models such as the Touch and some Fire tablets. It is thought that 2m e-readers could be affected.

Users will still be able to read ebooks they have downloaded, and their accounts and their Kindle library will remain accessible on mobile and desktop apps. Active users have been offered discounts to help “transition to newer devices”. Amazon said performing a factory reset on affected Kindles would make them unusable.

Disappointed users have vented their frustration online, including in comments on The Verge, accusing Amazon of “causing waste at a large scale” and saying their devices would be reduced to a paperweight despite still working.

One wonders whether these old devices just don't have enough telemetry built in for Amazon's liking.

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[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Maybe time for a different system?

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Such as?

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

At this point, I feel the authors and readers need to practice collective action and boycott respectively.

Not a good time for it, but there's never a good time.

[–] definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Totally agreed, but authors are straight fucked if they try. Popular authors in my genre of choice have tried, and they all say it was a financial disaster for them, and that they can't afford to be a full time author without KU income. And readers will follow where authors are, since those are the books they want to read.

Amazon's monopoly on self publishing is probably illegal, but until regulators notice, network effects and anticompetitive practices from Amazon reinforce their monopoly.

Like, my options are, literally:

Stop reading almost all of the best books in the genre of books that I enjoy, or
Pirate the books, or
Read on Kindle Unlimited

Authors have also said that they're so dependent on The Algorithm, that pirating their books hits them double, from the lost revenue and from the reduced visibility. So that's a double dick move.

I hate it, but here we are.

At least I read so much that Amazon pays authors like 10× what I pay to subscribe, so that's pretty cool. (~300-400 books/year adds up to a lot of KENP pages!) And I'm not paying $3-5K/year for books to buy them all, sorry. I can't afford that!

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 2 points 10 hours ago

I feel ya. Collective action would seem to be required, but that's herding cats.