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Technology@lemmy.worldbybeep@piefed.world
6 days

Amazon Illegally ‘Bricked’ Older Kindle Models, Class Action Suit Claims

www.classaction.org English

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1424043/amazon-illegally-bricked-older-kindle-models-class-action-suit-claims

45
    A class action lawsuit alleges that Amazon unfairly ‘bricked’ older Kindle devices by removing access to digital content and discontinuing software support.
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    • Yaky@slrpnk.netEnglish
      6 days

      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.

        • Pixel_Jock_17@piefed.caEnglish
          6 days

          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.

            • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
              6 days

              Nothing will change because of the experience you had?

                • Pixel_Jock_17@piefed.caEnglish
                  6 days

                  Because companies and people are greedy and divided. Look at you here adding a useless comment that doesn’t help solve the issue.

                    • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
                      6 days

                      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.

                        • Pixel_Jock_17@piefed.caEnglish
                          5 days

                          Okay boss, I concede.

                  • chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    5 days

                    It’s not even necessarily the end of support and updates for old products. If I have a Black and Decker drill from 1920, it’s not reasonable to expect them to still service it.

                    But what is unreasonable is allowing Black and Decker to break my drill. And that’s what Amazon is doing when they restrict access to content that was previously viewable on the older models.

                    • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                      6 days

                      Phones just recently got better about this. They’re all 7+ years now, which is enough specifically for phones. Maybe not for other things.

                        • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
                          6 days

                          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!

                            • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                              6 days

                              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.

                              • adjectivenoun@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                6 days

                                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.

                                  • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
                                    5 days

                                    The ram shortage will force optimization on sites and software, right? Right?

                                    ***Padme face***

                            • adjectivenoun@lemmy.worldEnglish
                              6 days

                              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.

                                • mofongo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                                  6 days

                                  I spend two hours the other night just getting nicer covers for my ebooks. I don’t regret it.

                                • nieceandtows@programming.devEnglish
                                  6 days

                                  KOreader has been a godsend on my daughter’s kindle. Even has screen time features

                                    • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
                                      6 days

                                      I just jailbroke mine last week. KOreader + Bookfusion plugin gives me access to my entire library anywhere, anytime. Good stuff.

                                        • 50MYT@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                          6 days

                                          I did mine a month ago and have been using Anna’s library and ocean of pdf.

                                          What’s book fusion do?

                                            • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
                                              6 days

                                              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.

                                                • 50MYT@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                  6 days

                                                  Oh that sounds excellent.

                                                  Thank you

                                            • brem@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                              6 days

                                              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.

                                            • BitsAndBites@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                              5 days

                                              I bought a Kindle last year. Hated the experience. Returned it and bought a Kobo instead. Love it and I’ve been reading a ton. I’ve also been sleeping better by reading on it at night until I get sleepy instead of looking at a traditional screen.

                                              • expatriado@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                6 days

                                                the kind in kindle was a lie

                                                  • everett@lemmy.mlEnglish
                                                    6 days

                                                    But the kindle in the Kindle was the truth.

                                                      • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                        6 days

                                                        Who on their marketing team decided that books and burning go together?

                                                          • ouRKaoS@lemmy.todayEnglish
                                                            5 days

                                                            Some Guy…

                                                            I think his name was Montag.

                                                        • ghosthacked@feddit.ukEnglish
                                                          6 days

                                                          Meandle

                                                        • skisnow@lemmy.caEnglish
                                                          6 days

                                                          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. :(

                                                            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                              6 days

                                                              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

                                                              • Jo Miran@lemmy.mlEnglish
                                                                6 days

                                                                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.

                                                                • verdigris@lemmy.mlEnglish
                                                                  6 days

                                                                  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.

                                                                • mofongo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                                                                  6 days

                                                                  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.

                                                                  • yesman@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                    6 days

                                                                    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.

                                                                    • deliriousdreams@fedia.io
                                                                      5 days

                                                                      From what I know (never bought a kindle) it seems like the modding scene for older kindles is alive and well. I think a channel called damnitJeff does a breakdown of the firmwares and mods available. Worth a look if you’ve got a kindle that hasn’t been turned on in awhile and you want to mod it so they can’t brick it.

                                                                        • dermanus@lemmy.caEnglish
                                                                          5 days

                                                                          Can confirm, I did this with mine and got new life out of it. Also, it can finally open PDFs.

                                                                        • DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth
                                                                          6 days

                                                                          Gross. Love my Kobo Libre though!

                                                                          • kaitco@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                            6 days

                                                                            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. 🙄

                                                                            • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                              6 days

                                                                              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.

                                                                              • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                                6 days

                                                                                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).

                                                                                  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.todayEnglish
                                                                                    6 days

                                                                                    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

                                                                                      • Carl@anarchist.nexusEnglish
                                                                                        6 days

                                                                                        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.

                                                                                        • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                                          6 days

                                                                                          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?

                                                                                            • thisbenzingring@lemmy.todayEnglish
                                                                                              5 days

                                                                                              No it doesn’t LoL but I think that’s why it is what it is. I think you have to come to the conclusion that Don is a terrorist and if you don’t see it yet, here’s another chance!

                                                                                                • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                                                                                                  5 days

                                                                                                  lol thanks!

                                                                                                    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.todayEnglish
                                                                                                      5 days

                                                                                                      the revelation of understanding hit me so hard when I figured out that all those jackasses that walk around with their gun exposed or the dicks that bring their AR into a coffee shop… they are Don Quixote in real life! And that is frightening!

                                                                                                      JDVance is fucking Sancho Panza almost as a mirror… life imitating art

                                                                                              • GreatWhiteBuffalo41@slrpnk.netEnglish
                                                                                                6 days

                                                                                                !ebookreaders@lemmy.zip has some good info too

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