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Companies should be required by law to completely open devices when they end support for them

If they don’t, the penalty should be that the CEO has to eat the bricked devices

theguardian.com/technology/202…

Amazon upsets ebook lovers by ending support for old Kindle devices

Up to 2m e-readers made before 2013 will no longer be able to download new titles
Caroline Davies (the Guardian)
in reply to dnparadice

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Eatsbluecrayon

@dnparadice I have been trying to 100 percent avoid Amazon, but with a lot of places to buy eBooks from, it's more walled gardens. Kobo requires their own hardware or an Adobe ID. The books I want to buy are rarely available at other sources. I have tried so much, but everything is so complicated and time consuming and in the end I'm not owning my books.
I am back to sailing the high seas and instead of paying publishers I'm donating to the authors directly. If they offer that.
@dnparadice
in reply to Human Brain Enthusiast

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Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

> “The challenge is that these devices were built for a different era and are not equipped to run newer, more data-hungry services and features,” he told the BBC, adding that “ageing hardware” could also pose problems.

It's a fucking book reader, why would it need any "newer, more data-hungry services and features"

in reply to Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

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Joe W

@IngaLovinde Yes. I wanted to quote exactly that.
It's a bloody ebook reader. My ancient Kobo that I never activated nor connected to the net works. It helps that I avoid DRM media like the plague it is. Or read dead tree books. They are nicer anyway.
Still: ebooks are really light weight and do not take up a lot of space, nor do they come with computing heavy features. So the reasoning is just... BS
@Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸
in reply to Joe W

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Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸

@drchaos I'm using e-ink book readers since Sony PRS-500 which in 2006 IIRC was the second commercial e-ink reader ever (the first one being some other Sony device that was only available on Japanese market).
It never occurred to me that they need to have "services" or "features". Although having dictionary support in my current Kobo Aura H2O (released in 2014) is nice.
@Joe W
in reply to Human Brain Enthusiast

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Stu

Absolutely. I have the Kindle Keyboard (2010) that's still going strong, after a battery replacement ($20 or something?). There should be significant laws against this constant e-waste churn, on top of everything else.

I guess I could root it and look at KOReader, or stick it in airplane mode and copy files via cable. What's worrying is that you can't factory reset it after this deadline.

in reply to Human Brain Enthusiast

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Peter Linss

and all the proprietary information that went into making it, i.e. source code, CAD files, testing info, etc. (including server-side components and factory tooling) should need to be placed into escrow as part of any legal protections such as copyright. If the company fails to open the product, or goes out of business, it’s all released into public domain.
in reply to Human Brain Enthusiast

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Julie Howlin

Not only are they greedy b****s forcing people to buy stuff they wouldn't otherwise need but also abject cowards since the news was broken to customers, as always, with a no reply e-mail. They are scared of people telling them what they think. I dread no reply emails because they are mostly telling me I'm being forced to do something onerous/massively inconvenient or something is being taken away from me.
in reply to Human Brain Enthusiast

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Herr Bischoff

I’ve just jailbroken my Kindle Paperwhite last night, installed KOReader, adjusted some stuff to my liking, set up Calibre content sharing and won’t look back.

But the real issue is that it requires doing steps that most Kindle users cannot or will not do. Opening up the device for proper alternative software should indeed be required by law.

I’m afraid it will take a permanent major resource shortage before any of it has a chance of succeeding politically.

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