Mike CaneAmazon kills old Kindles. @pluralistic
Email from X poster.
GirlCroosh@mikecane @pluralistic WTAF. I didn’t think I could hate them more.
rk: it’s hyphen-minus actually“In the future, you will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
Nicole Parsonshttps://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67911517
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate
Kill switches come in many forms.
Apple is paid by petrostate despots to increase planned obsolescence & surveillance-enabled newer devices. It's a monumental waste.
https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-crown-prince-visits-apple-google-2018-4
https://durabilitymatters.com/planned-obsolescence/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_timer
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We tend to ignore how much wasteful energy usage is tied up in an economy that relies on planned obsolescence.
Imagine a world where Apple made devices that lasted 10 years instead of 18 months.
How much fossil fuel would NOT be purchased?
Keeping consumers tied to a product longevity cycle that is deliberately shortened is lining the pockets of oil oligarchs & petrostate despots.
The same folks frying the planet & funding fascist movements.
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The #enshittification economy depends on oil that prods consumers to buy new, very often.
What happens when the most corrupt industry on the planet decides an AI-surveillance platform & kill switches embedded in every device is what they need to keep their lock on power?
This artificially amplified demand throws away perfectly adequate rare earth minerals & justifies wars to loot other nations' natural resources.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/world/europe/trump-lauder-ukraine-lithium.html
https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-to-attract-179-million-u-s-investment-in-key-lithium-deposit/
Neil Moffatt@Npars01 Remains staggering that people keep buying new iPhone iterations when each one adds precious little new. Yet costs a fortune.
The forces of fascism are experts at marketing.
FOMO is FUD for corporate fascists keen on psychological manipulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt
Malign influence campaigns, disinformation, and propaganda borrow a lot from marketing & public relations experts.
The same tactics that convince MAGA to vote for a dictatorship are also used to make consumers buy crap they don't need & can't afford
@Npars01 FOMO is one of the ways in which I find myself surrounded by head- and smart-phone zombies wherever I go. Quite how smart people I know also get trapped is baffling.
Seems few step back enough to observe habits ...
But what an evil power-axis in the world, garnering more wealth than they could ever have time to appreciate.
Rupert Reynolds@rk @mikecane @pluralistic Whoever said that hadn't reckoned on the independent spirit of some people.
Someone may make a FOSS-friendly e-book, but otherwise I'd rather use a Google-free Android tablet than give one of the big 5 monopolies* another penny.
*So far I haven't had cause to call Ebay 'evil' and on the rare occasions I've had trouble the sellers have been friendly and reasonable.
EssKah@mikecane @pluralistic that’s really good news IF this stops forced firmware updates that break jailbreak/sideboard on those devices.
Kevin Karhan@mikecane @pluralistic I guess #Jailbreaking them if #Amazon refuses to provide free upgrades is the only valid.move now.
Randall@mikecane @pluralistic for anyone that has one of these, there's free open source software: https://calibre-ebook.com/ that allows you to manage files on these devices and buy ebooks from other sources.
I have done so for years on my Kindle, which has not left airplane mode in about 5 years.
You can continue to use the devices, and not give Amazon any more money, if you wish.
eickot@rbmath @mikecane @pluralistic and with the correct configuration, it can rip of drms from the books, I use it to move the books from my kindle to my tolino/kobo
Ramnarayan Kalyanaraman@rbmath @mikecane @pluralistic
When i did have a kindle i used calibre extensively ans never ever got on to amazon or the net.
Still use calibre for managing my books.
An excellent software , just love it.
Ride Theory@mikecane @pluralistic Literally everything on my antique Kindle is from @gutenberg_org, and I have a library card, so I'm good.
Project Gutenberg@ridetheory @mikecane @pluralistic Enjoy your readings!!
Jakub Klawiter 
Robert Drózd
sch00b@mikecane @pluralistic jailbreak your kindle
https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/WinterBreak/
Install KOreader https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki
You can read freely now 🙂
sowa@sch00b @mikecane @pluralistic I have jailbreak and using koreader on my kindle and it’s so much better than default software provided by amazon
@mikecane @pluralistic I think my second-hand Paperwhite may be affected.
Must remember to jailbreak it, and/or choose better next time.
Katherine 🪴@mikecane My kingdom for an *actual* Linux mobile/tablet OS (not Android) that can be flashed onto older hardware.
waffles@webkitten @mikecane you talking like postmarketos?
Nine Stones Close@mikecane @pluralistic luckily you can just jailbreak such an old kindle and get all your books you bought from zlib
Eric BonoNot allowing loading of new material is just assholishness for the sake of assholishness. I don't even need to use Amazon to load a book at all. Nor have I ever needed their so-called support.
My Kindle isn't that old so I still have time but I will not only never buy a book from Amazon again, I will tell others about this and I will avoid their devices forever too.
DS@mikecane @pluralistic
Thank God just a day before this announcement I finished reading an Enshittification book from Cory Doctorow and decided to buy a non-amazon locked-in device as a replacement for my Kindle Keyboard 3G that I bought in 2010.
Thank God just a day before this announcement I finished reading an Enshittification book from Cory Doctorow and decided to buy a non-amazon locked-in device as a replacement for my Kindle Keyboard 3G that I bought in 2010.
@mikecane @pluralistic Thanks for asking. I decided to go with Onyx Go 7, but Kobo Libra 2 and Sage were on my list. I just couldn't find them anywhere in the EU.
@ddens @pluralistic I’ve watched Onyx Boox over the years. They’re really committed to eInk. But have a poor rep for Android upgrades.