PROTIP:
Ebooks are trivially easy to find online, or you can check them out from your local library.
There’s a free and open source program called Calibre that can manage your ebook library, change file formats, edit visual formatting, and even remove proprietary DRM.
Don’t let Amazon being a bad company prevent you from using your old Kindle.
I spend two hours the other night just getting nicer covers for my ebooks. I don’t regret it.
Gross. Love my Kobo Libre though!
My friend bought a used Kindle paper, it worked perfectly for a month, even bought books for it. Then randomly bricked.
The same happened to me, but with a Kindle fire stick. I loved how nice it looked on my old led tv, even better in my more modern led monitor. The only device i could actually stream at 1080p without image downgrade. It didn’t last 6 months, stuck in a bootloop and i have no idea on how to troubleshoot. Never again.
I have an old 2012 Nook that has literally never been connected to a network: I bought it to sideload epubs and pdfs onto, and that’s all I ever did with it. I never got a Kindle because you can’t sideload pdfs (or couldn’t at the time) and I didn’t like that Amazon was already sneakily retracting/editing purchased digital content.
It could use a new battery but it still works fine, and I bet these Kindles will too as I recall seeing guides out there about how to jailbreak/root them. If you can disconnect your Kindle from all network access and make it sideload (or non-Amazon-connected load) only, you’ll still have a usable device, as well as all your local content. Fuck Amazon.
I have a Kindle Touch and IDGAF if it can connect to Amazon. I don’t connect it to the internet because I’m afraid it’ll update and break. Right now I’ve got it set to never sleep because the wake button doesn’t work. But that little hack only works on old versions of the firmware.
The only service I wanna connect my kindle to is Calibre.
I didn’t realize that the old Kindle Fires were part of this.
I have an ancient one that lived in the bathroom for when I wanted to keep reading whatever was on my Kindle in there, and it suddenly stopped working.
I’ve already replaced it with a tablet from Temu that will be running just the Kindle app, but I’m fantastically glad I never bothered to purchase another Kindle Fire. My next e-ink device will likely also not be a Kindle either since I haven’t bought a Kindle book since they removed 1984 from devices like a decade ago. 🙄
I hope the outcome is they unbrick it, not just do a payout. Reason being I own one of the recently-bricked models and it sucks donkey balls that I can’t download books I already paid for. :(
you’ll get the depreciated value for your device minus lawyers fees.
So look foward to getting a check in the mail for $1.37
What firmware version is it on? Boot it away from any wifi and turn on airplane mode before checking.
You might be able to jailbreak it and make it permanently usable.
Can’t you still transfer content to them? Just pirate everything you paid for and manually put it on there. I have a newer Kindle and I have never once connected it to their servers, just use Calibre.
by removing access to digital content and discontinuing software support.
I really hope this gets somewhere, because then it sets the precedent to slow down the shitty cycle of modern connected technology. Sue phone manufacturers for dropping support after X years. Sue Google and Apple for relentlessly upping their OS version, dropping old API support, restricting old apps and making independent installs difficult. Sue ISPs for shutting down 2G, 3G, (and now 4G?) and making a pile of e-waste in an instant.
Nothing will change. I bought myself a brand new iPad mini for university back in 2013 and used it like twice for notes and stuff but ended up getting annoyed and just going back to pen and paper.
Fast forward about 5 years and I had barely used the thing and kept it clean as a whistle and stored. I turn it on, update it all and its just a fucking brick. Can’t load shit, can’t browse, can use apps without freezing, crashing, etc. Its just a thing, expensive POS brick.
Nothing will change because of the experience you had?
Because companies and people are greedy and divided. Look at you here adding a useless comment that doesn’t help solve the issue.
The original comment is literally about what precedents would open if this class action is won and how things can change based on it.
Things CAN change. It’s not easy but possible, but they will definitely not change if we all have your attitude here.
Phones just recently got better about this. They’re all 7+ years now, which is enough specifically for phones. Maybe not for other things.
Not all global manufacturers do that yet, and not for all models. It’s not a victory yet, we need to pressure them for it to mecome a norm and to be honored without playing any tricks on us.
Also, we were so conditioned for obsolescence, that the idea of a phone lasting more than 7 years looks like absurd for a lot of people, but in reality, it’s very plausible, just like a laptop can last like 15 years, or even more. We can do even better!
That’s a fair point. It might not be the device I carry 24/7, but it sure would be nice to use as a display panel in my house.
I should look for alternative software that will let me just display a webpage.
It feels like we’re losing ground. Why does 8GB of RAM feel totally insufficient to browse the same websites I used 12 years ago with 4? I’m so happy I maxed out my motherboard’s RAM (32) when I built a PC in 2021.
KOreader has been a godsend on my daughter’s kindle. Even has screen time features
I just jailbroke mine last week. KOreader + Bookfusion plugin gives me access to my entire library anywhere, anytime. Good stuff.
I did mine a month ago and have been using Anna’s library and ocean of pdf.
What’s book fusion do?
It’s just a cloud based bookshelf and e-reader service. Think of it as a Kindle service replacement for your personal library. It also ties into your public library memberships if you have any. I primarily use it so I can switch between laptop, desktop, eReader, ipad, and phone on the fly without loosing my place.
Oh that sounds excellent.
Thank you
I feel like we’d all be fine with giving the proceeds of this class action lawsuit to KOreader, since they are the only reason many of us are still able to use our Kindles.
the kind in kindle was a lie
Meandle
But the kindle in the Kindle was the truth.
Who on their marketing team decided that books and burning go together?
I really enjoy an e-ink display, but I’ve never owned a Kindle. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
In any case, there is a good chance you can unlock/jailbreak an older kindle and make it usable again (arguably for the first time).
!ebookreaders@lemmy.zip has some good info too
if you take mass transit, its a great way to pass the time
for me the biggest most amazing feature was the opendyslexia font being built into the system. Reading with dyslexia can become a difficult thing, especially if its Time Roman. But I found that I could read and comprehend effortlessly with that font. I read Candide, Don Quixote, Count of Monte Cristo… books that I would have never imagined that I could have read and wouldn’t have been able to without that font and the kindle to make it accessible and always kept my page and only gave me a page at a time so I wouldnt get overwhelmed with the size of the book. DQ and CoMC are very long stories
Yeah, phones are fine for passing the time until your train goes into a tunnel. Then you’re just stuck with your own thoughts, trying to stave off the existential dread without anything to keep you distracted. One of the nicest parts about an ereader is that in an age where everything is always online, they still work when offline.
Well done. I’m still trying to make it through Don Quixote, so I get it. I was expecting a quick, fun read, but it is really more like trying to binge a soap opera. sure, it has very episodic chapters, but also a through-line and recurring characters that disappear and come back later, and it just keeps going.
Don’t tell me how it ends, but just tell me if it’s worth it… does it eventually build to something satisfying?
