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Amazon thanks loyal Kindle devotees by bricking their kit
(www.theregister.com)
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this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Enshittification
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I mean, honestly they should have bought a new one by now 14 years old and older. Like you could go to a pawn shop and get one cheap that isn't affected.
Why should they replace it if it still works? Thats just wasteful.
But I saw shiny one new with ai written on it
What a bizarrely hyperconsumerist opinion.
It's not that bizarre. Is the understanding that devices change, technology advances, storage grows, etc.
Except it hasn't, and they are still functional. If anything they could have disabled WiFi to remove an exploit vector if they were out of support but retained the USB functions, but they promise to brick them on factory reset instead.
The devices still work. They display book pages, that's all they need to do. There's zero reason to upgrade just because something is shinier. That's literally just consuming for consumption's sake.
Except that the file format hasn't changed, the delivery methods haven't changed, and these devices are perfectly capable of downloading new books from Amazon. This is not a technological decision. This is purely to extract more money from repeat customers.
(1) The only reason I had one of these old ones was because removing the drm on stuff you purchased was trivially easy. The new ones use OTA updates to prevent that (old ones allowed transferring purchases via USB, so you can download the books online directly to your PC)
(2) What if the particular form factor you like is no longer produced (e.g. the Kindle Oasis, while not in this list, was discontinued because "nobody needs physical buttons anymore". Amazon gets to decide that, not you)? It doesn't mean what you own should turn into a paperweight.
(3) Sometimes, the device itself has sentimental value. My Kindle was an engineering sample gifted to me as a teen by an uncle that worked at Amazon at the time (I can say that now, he's retired for ages). Replacing it with another kindle isn't the same.
At this point, just go get a refurbished Kobo. A forma or libra 2 would do you much better.