I will just stick with Kindles. Indian heat and humidity make a Kindle unusable in 7-8 years, unless you have a 100% AC life.<p>Kindles last a month on a charge or two. It's very light. It's affordable.<p>It doesn’t show colors, but I have an android tab to read papers and technical content, anyway.<p>I tried looking at alternatives, but low price + extreme power efficiency + being able to sideload books is just great.
There is a Kindle Color<something>. Haven’t used that yet either.
I was about to complain that my Paperwhite only lasts a couple of days between charges (it shuts down when battery drops to ~50%) but then realized that I've had it 7-8 years. No Indian heat here though, I'm in the UK.
Kobo is all that but without Amazon.
There are other similarly priced and equally capable e-readers.
Just as long as you stay in India.
Amazon's attitude towards its Kindle device customers is one of lofty disregard.<p><i>Every</i> time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc.<p>But they appear to exult in dashing the hopes of their customers, or at the very least they don't care about them at all. They've doubled down on no-key devices with stupid pens, pointless and poorly-implemented color, and tiny or excessively large form factors with little in between. It's kind of crazy just how much they don't seem to care.<p>The subtext of the article indicates that the problem isn't discontinuing support alone, but discontinuing support without offering those customers a reasonable replacement for their old devices that had keys and buttons. (Even if it's just a couple of buttons.)
14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.
> Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc.<p>WWII fighter plane with red spots on it dot gif.<p>The vast majority of people who buy Kindles simply read books on them and don’t repeatedly cry online about features that are never coming back.<p>I’ve bought about 10 of the things dating back to 2012 either because I wanted to have the latest model or because I wanted to give one as a gift. They are all amazing devices.<p>I’ve never thought, “boy I better go online and complain about this one.” I’ve just been too busy buying and reading books on them!
So their inhouse AI which they are forcing all their devs on is not capable of figuring out how to render what is basically the equivalent of an .md onto the older Kindles?
Does anyone has experience with Android e-ink ebook readers? Are they worth it?<p>Brazilian Government just released a great public library of e-books: <a href="https://meclivros.mec.gov.br/" rel="nofollow">https://meclivros.mec.gov.br/</a><p>An Android e-ink reader would be perfect for it. And I'd use kindle app to read my kindle ebooks. But I don't really see people using them.
This seems to be a hot e-reader right now:<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/xteinkereader/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/xteinkereader/</a>
I bought a second hand Meebook M6 on ebay. At least, it was listed as second hand but seemed to be fresh out of the box when it arrived. I completely love it.<p>For actually reading ebooks, I'm using Koreader instead of the built-in reader because I find the UI a bit easier to get my head around. I mostly use it for PDFs related to classroom learning, but have the odd epub knocking around from project gutenburg etc.<p>It has Google Play support, so I can use the Libby app to access my local library's ebook collection (including offline access to travel guides - so useful). I also use the Sefaria app to read Hebrew scripture (also supports offline). These apps tend to use the battery faster than Koreader and having scrolling controls instead of page-turning controls is a bit of a pain, but quite manageable.<p>I haven't tried the Kindle app, but I'm sure it would work fine.
Having used an early kindle and a recent kindle, they are incredibly similar. One of the main innovations of the new models appears to be adverts you have to pay to get rid of.
The "library" UI has also gotten radically worse over time (in my family there is a 3G, an early Paperwhite, and a relatively recent base model, and each has a worse and sparser UI than the last). The pages turn faster though, due to improved display/display driver tech.
Also gradually phasing out support of formats like mobi, in such subtle ways that if you open a mobi file you cannot go back to the library, but have to cold-reboot your device...<p>My current kindle is my third one, and is the last. I will never ever pay for a kindle to Amazon, due to its user hostility.<p>Oh, and also you cannot move ebooks between accounts, even not with a lot of friction, eg. support tickets, which would be a fair way to game piracy and unwanted lending, which was some inconvinience for me in a situation. Not a huge monetary loss for me, rather a reminder that when you pay to Amazon (or Valve, or any other contemporary DRM-burdened vendor) you are only leasing...
My kindle from 2012 used to have ads you needed to pay for to get rid of. It was sold as separate product with or without ads at a time. I had one with ads.<p>I keep it offline in airplane mode permanently from 2016 and haven't seen a single ad in a long long time.
There are cracks for older firmware and others for newer. You can have it online and adfree with a little forum reading.
You'll get a new ad if you take it online again, but they only persist for about a month or so before falling back to the generic 'read books' amazon ad.<p>I have my 2016 one setup without a password so when I open my cover the device unlocks, so I never really even see the ad unless I try.
I have a similar one and I never bothered to pay to get rid of the ads or keep it in aeroplane mode.<p>The ads are only shown while it's off, they're static black and white images, and 99% of the time they're for books. Totally unobjectionable.<p>If they were in the actual UI and for stuff like cars and perfume I might mind, but they aren't so I never cared.
> The ads are only shown while it's off, they're static black and white images, and 99% of the time they're for books. Totally unobjectionable<p>Speak for yourself. Aside from the principle, some of us don’t want to be advertised to in the comfort of our own home/bed/while we’re camping or whatever. Ads don’t have to be actively flashing, spaz-inducing insanity to be objectionable.<p>Not to mention that by definition an ad like this WILL be seen and attended to, even if only momentarily. That in itself is also objectionable.
Actually, the old Kindle had physical buttons, which I find more ergonomic when reading in bed
That's what your nose is for. (I'm quite skilled at advancing or going back by gently tapping the kindle against my face. It helps that I'm very nearsighted so it's kind of already there)
There are newer ones with physical buttons.
Really wish my 1st gen Paperweight had split forward and back buttons on the right side.<p>But then I also understand that'd increase the price by 10% and only help right handed people with weak hands so... c'est la vie.
Good. Kindle customers are morons and deserve everything get.
Just got an xteink x4 and flashed crosspoint on it, I've been tuning fonts by modifying the font generator and now it renders great.<p><a href="https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x4" rel="nofollow">https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x4</a>
Maybe I'm getting old, but I don't see the appeal of reading on an eink device that's smaller than my phone, which I'm always carrying. Maybe if I'm reading outside in sunlight rather than in bed? Or if I'm worried about getting distracted by a FB/X notification?
Same. It’s the best ebook experience I’ve had so far despite its size and I’ve tried a myriad of ereaders.<p>The only missing feature is a backlight for reading at night.
Love my x4! I saw 1.3 allows you to bring in your own fonts - any suggestions?
I guess I've never been strongly compelled to ditch mine. It sits there next to my bed. I pick it up and read it every night. Every few weeks I remember that you have to actually charge it. My last Kindle started malfunctioning after about 8 years of constant use. I opened a chat with Amazon support and they gave me a 50% coupon off the current version. That was two years ago and I'm still using it.<p>I do get the argument about lockdown. And there's some mediums I feel more strongly in that area. I suppose Amazon just has me exactly where they want me :)
My 14 year old Kindle functions so perfectly I've no desire to upgrade. This is exactly why KOReader and all the jailbreaks exist.
I was looking for a good rationalization to leave the ecosystem, one-click e-books is great and having old device that I can take anywhere not caring about it getting beaten up even more was another major advantage.<p>Removing some old book I had was the first major red flag.
I gave up on Kindles long ago. They wake up and drain their batteries, so they're always dead when I pick them up to read something. Not a problem with Kobo. But I really want to pick up one of these little Xteink readers next. They just seem perfect for pulling out of a pocket and reading. Also, I'm a smaller person, and they look like they would fit my hand. Modern phones feel like tablets to me.
14 years support window is so insanely good. But as it goes...<p>You either die a hero or you live long enough to become the villain.
My local library has some dead tree format books with a 500 year support window. Or dead animal or dead reed format books with more like a 2000-year support window.<p>Planned obsolescence is always bad.
Unless they are very popular books, they will be weeded (thrown out or or sold) in a matter of a few years though. People imagine that libraries are infinite storehouses of material, but except for places like the Library of Congress they really aren't. There is limited storage space, and in order to get new books they need to discard the old ones that were rarely checked out. Even the example of old books on parchment aren't immune to this trend -- the books we have from Ancient Greece or Rome are just the really popular ones that were copied over and over again, and the vast majority of works from those times are lost.
Your local library keeps papyrus scrolls on open stacks? I mean, sure, yes, there are libraries that haves such things (the university I work for does), but generally they will be kept in special boxes and you need to ask nicely to get to see them. And don't get me started about the crapitude of your average new book these days. Personally, I prefer print books too, but lasting forever is not really why.
I think the bigger issue is that there's market segments that old product reached and that newer ones don't... and you are locked into their devices by the content you've "bought."<p>14 year support window is pretty good. Not being able to get a modern device with buttons, and having no way to read your books with buttons, isn't.
A bookshelf can have books that are 100s of years old.
Maybe for ebook readers, but not for books.
Tip: if you let kids and others in your home use a Kindle and they might unintentionally turn off the airplane mode ...<p>Go to your router settings and blacklist the Kindle's mac id.<p>Sleep peacefully that your kindle will never be bricked or wiped by a software update.
One benefit of jailbreaking - <a href="https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/post-jailbreak/disable-ota.html" rel="nofollow">https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreaking/post-jailbreak/disabl...</a>
Yeah mines been on airplane mode for probably a decade now, really not seeing a reason to ever connect it to the internet
My kindle will not be aware of it. It has been in airplane mode ever since I bought it.<p>Its clock no longer tells correct time; but it’s fine, a book doesn’t have to do that - and I have a watch.
>Amazon said it had supported the devices for 14 years or more and could not keep doing so indefinitely. "Technology has come a long way in that time," said a spokesperson.<p>Wasn't the original concept of the Kindle that it shouldn't need to be replaced by newer models?
> Amazon said it had supported the devices for 14 years or more and could not keep doing so indefinitely.<p>Why -- Aren't they also claiming productivity enhancements with AI? ;-)<p>And did they calculate how much environmental damage may result the decision?
I can and will still use mine to read files.<p>What is discontinued is integration with Amazon account. Which seems fair to me to be fair.
Glad I went the Kobo route. Koreader beats Kindle any day of the week.
Deadwood loyalists raise an eyebrow and keep reading.
I have a Kindle which I think is surviving this purge. But after looking at alternatives like the Kobo, I wondered where people got their books?<p>Ofc there's the high seas, but I'd quite like to support the authors and I can afford ~£10 for a book now and then. But are there any stores as good/convenient as the Amazon one?
I buy the books of my favorite authors on kindle store, while sailing the high seas to read the books on my Kobo. I don't buy all the books I read though.
is the kobo store not good/convenient compared to kindle? I thought the kobo
store was pretty good, but it is my first and only e-reader.
Inversely, try to use a kindle as a Korean.
Joke's on them, I keep the Kindle permanently on airplane mode anyway.
Not sure if you’re joking but is it possible to even do that? I understand some books are kept on their cloud servers and only some get downloaded.
Yes, it’s possible. Note: no downloads work in airplane mode. Cable works just as well though.
I had an old kindle that I never connected to the net or with an amazon account. I loaded books by USB.<p>Damn near impossible to find DRM free books to purchase though.
> Damn near impossible to find DRM free books to purchase<p>My method has always been to buy physical books (which is also better to support the author, because they get a bigger % of the price you pay.<p>And then, there are other creative ways to download the ebook... (without buying from Amazon, or other monopolists.)
It is still possible to remove DRM and export to PDF or epub. Not point-and-click easy, though.<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1q1uza4/successful_dedrm_with_kindle_for_pc_28_in_january/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1q1uza4/successful...</a>
While Calibre makes it easy, it's even easier to just download a copy someone else has already stripped of DRM.<p>If publishers/authors want my money, they can release a version without DRM.
No, you choose what is downloaded locally. You can also get .mobi files and copy them to the kindle directly.
Not anymore, they have removed the option to download files for transfer via USB <a href="https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2025/02/12/download-transfer-for-kindle-ebooks-going-away-on-february-26/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2025/02/12/download-transf...</a><p>Ironically, files downloaded from "other" sources have no issue. So they're just making it harder to buy from Amazon legally.
The first time I got an ad on mine I did that and switched to the Calibre + z-library workflow. It's been most of a decade since.<p>It's like people have to be taught the same lesson about SAAS over and over and over again. Like what did they expect, to not get rug pulled eventually? Crazy. You own your shit or you don't. Simple as.
Two of my paperwhites died so i took the opportunity to switch to kobo and couldn't be happier.
I was in the market to buy a new E-Reader since my old Kindle started to act funny (Random shutdowns while reading and it won't come back for several minutes).<p>After the announcement I decided to switch to physical books
Is it possible that Amazon views the Kindle as less than profitable, and so they’re taking the hard line tactic to try and boost revenue?
I’ve been looking into getting an e-reader, but I’m scared to get one from Amazon due to things like this. Are there any decent hackable and/or trustworthy ones out there?
Kobo's devices let you bypass the account signup via a single option in a config file. Whether you do so or not it's easy to install koreader and start writing plugins for it. You can also hack on the linux OS they use
Yep, there's a plethora of tweaks and stuff out there to mess with Kobos to make them your own, and it's not hard to do.<p>Been super happy with my Kobo Clara.
You can also sync to your own library - eg calibreweb.<p>It’s not too disgusting, and over-the-air is nice to have.
There are Android e-Readers, like Boox, but that does not imply it is easy to do fun stuff. Seems pretty locked down.
I have a PocketBook myself, no complaints there and you can install software (at least I can on the one I have but it is a few years old now) and thus never had the need to hack the thing.
Crap like this is why I 1.) export my Kindle books to plain PDF 2.) use a Nook Simple Touch. They work perfectly well 100% offline and are CHEAP now.<p>Primarily use two of these for a prepper book cache. (Two is one and one is none.) The battery lasts about a month on low cost chargers, and a pair of 32GB SD cards holds my entire collection. (A redundant pair since two is one.) Whole thing sits in an EMP bag in the bugout bag of my car, so I always have my library everywhere I go.<p>Exporting to PDF used to be pretty straightforward; the newest encryption is a lot harder to bypass but is still possible:<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1q1uza4/successful_dedrm_with_kindle_for_pc_28_in_january/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Calibre/comments/1q1uza4/successful...</a>
Brought a Kobo after Amazon locked my account. There is no going back to a Kindle.
The price of convenience.
If only there was a way to download e-books and upload them to a Kindle with Calibre.
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but there is!
I've jailbroken my Kindle Scribe and installed coreader and feed it my Calibre library and its awesome.
Oh and i kept it in airplane mode from the first day, which is important so it doesnt self update and break the jailbreak.
Excuse me, but I am not sure what to make of people who:<p>- use Chrome, by Google, a company earning money with selling ads and wonder why the adblocker is not working<p>- use Kindle, by Amazon, a company that earns money by renting out DRM-protected content, that sees the Kindle just as a vehicle to (1) sell more of that content and (2) as a vehicle to lock you to their platform<p>Please for the love of the universe, just start to factor in the incentives a company has when selling you a thing. Before buying my Kobo reader 12 years ago (still going strong!), the first thing I researched is how to get out of Amazon DRM hell. The answer is: get a reader by a company that sells readers as a main business and has an incentive to make sure they work and use it together with something like Calibre, so you have all your books if you lose the thing somewhere. If you're going to the powerful quasi-monopolist, that may be cheaper in the short term, but what about the time you lose when they eventually hold your whole library hostage or decide to drop support on something you relied on? You're not the person picking when that happens.<p>If I sum up how much I spent on books in 12 years that Kobo has paid for itself 50 times over and I still don't think there is any reason to replace it with something newer.
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