5 ms·

Ditched kindle years ago when Amazon “unlicensed” a book I “bought.” Only real paper for me since then. Good luck exploiting it. :)

shkkmo 5y ago
That's kinda throwing the baby out with the bathwater. My kindle never has wifi turned on so never talks to Amazon. All books are loaded via Calibre.
- shrubby 5y ago
  I have two ancient Kindles too as offline versions. Converting and transferring via Calibre. I like to read on these so the UX outside the reading mode is minimal and perfectly justifiable. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.
- BiteCode_dev 5y ago
  Then why use a kindle at all ? There a better and or freer brands if you don't use amazon ecosystem.
  - something98 5y ago
    Define better. Eink, lightweight, and perfectly sized for books. What is missing?
    - pjerem 5y ago
      Kobo and PocketBook readers have all those features and can be fed with every format you wish just by plugging them to any computer without conversion or by sending them anything by email, or Dropbox. And you can turn pages by pressing a good old button standing right under your finger.
    - Johnythree 5y ago
      The essential page-turn keys.
    - otherme123 5y ago
      I never understood the no-epub stance of Amazon. Some carefully edited epubs gets botched when transformed by Calibre. That said, at hardware level the Kindle is hard to beat.
      - leucineleprec0n 5y ago
        Dialing in the precise transformations needed for every copy got so annoying I eventually accepted the botching.
    - chmod775 5y ago
      Nicer screens/features and hackability mostly. The Kindles so far are midrange hardware at best (and their pricing reflects that). Only the Kindle Oasis 3 approaches a resolution on which you can open a comic/manga/pdf full page and read smaller fonts. Entirely missing from the Amazon lineup (and where we're entering the $400-$1000 range) are ebook tablets. Having gone through a dozen different reading devices, I can say that I prefer Kobo devices. They admittedly have a special place in my heart for being fixable after I soft bricked one by messing around with the OS via ssh - their "internal" storage is an actual physical micro sd card sitting on the board that you can pop out after opening the device. A kind stranger on a forum sent me a good firmware and a 'dd' later I had a working device again.
    - rualca 5y ago
      Not having to fight the device to stop it from phoning home might also be a feature that's missing from Kindle devices.
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    My paperwhite 3 was the best choice at the time for a pocket-sized waterproof reader.
  - brnt 5y ago
    I pcik up refurb Kindles for 30-50 EUR. Plus Calibre makes for a fine and hassle free experience.
- TylerLives 5y ago
  How do you know the WiFi is never turned on?
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    I have to trust the closed source software does that it purports to do. This is something we all have to do when we use computers. I certainly don't know that Amazon doesn't program the wifi to turn on, find open networks, and phone home while it pretends to be in airplane mode. It does seem rather unlikely given the risks/rewards that Amazon would face in implementing such a system.
dredmorbius 5y ago
There are numerous other e-book readers.
disabled 5y ago
Luckily, I have a print-related disability. So... * I get access to 1,038,733 DRM-free books in several formats (including Word, EPUB, computer-narrated audio) via Bookshare.org * I get access to 40,000+ professionally narrated books via the National Library Service through the Library of Congress in the US * I get access to 80,000+ volunteer narrated books via LearningAlly.org (formerly Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic) * I get access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including breaking news services, via the National Federation for the Blind NewsLine * I get reciprocity with other countries' libraries for the print-disabled around the world, which is useful as I am in progress with learning new languages. It's nice because I never have a need to go to websites that serve ads to me. Of course it's called uBlock Origin and using ProtonVPN with Anti-tracking + Ad-blocking features...but still...I have it good.

shkkmo 5y ago

That's kinda throwing the baby out with the bathwater. My kindle never has wifi turned on so never talks to Amazon. All books are loaded via Calibre.

shrubby 5y ago
I have two ancient Kindles too as offline versions. Converting and transferring via Calibre. I like to read on these so the UX outside the reading mode is minimal and perfectly justifiable. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.
BiteCode_dev 5y ago
Then why use a kindle at all ? There a better and or freer brands if you don't use amazon ecosystem.
- something98 5y ago
  Define better. Eink, lightweight, and perfectly sized for books. What is missing?
  - pjerem 5y ago
    Kobo and PocketBook readers have all those features and can be fed with every format you wish just by plugging them to any computer without conversion or by sending them anything by email, or Dropbox. And you can turn pages by pressing a good old button standing right under your finger.
  - Johnythree 5y ago
    The essential page-turn keys.
  - otherme123 5y ago
    I never understood the no-epub stance of Amazon. Some carefully edited epubs gets botched when transformed by Calibre. That said, at hardware level the Kindle is hard to beat.
    - leucineleprec0n 5y ago
      Dialing in the precise transformations needed for every copy got so annoying I eventually accepted the botching.
  - chmod775 5y ago
    Nicer screens/features and hackability mostly. The Kindles so far are midrange hardware at best (and their pricing reflects that). Only the Kindle Oasis 3 approaches a resolution on which you can open a comic/manga/pdf full page and read smaller fonts. Entirely missing from the Amazon lineup (and where we're entering the $400-$1000 range) are ebook tablets. Having gone through a dozen different reading devices, I can say that I prefer Kobo devices. They admittedly have a special place in my heart for being fixable after I soft bricked one by messing around with the OS via ssh - their "internal" storage is an actual physical micro sd card sitting on the board that you can pop out after opening the device. A kind stranger on a forum sent me a good firmware and a 'dd' later I had a working device again.
  - rualca 5y ago
    Not having to fight the device to stop it from phoning home might also be a feature that's missing from Kindle devices.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  My paperwhite 3 was the best choice at the time for a pocket-sized waterproof reader.
- brnt 5y ago
  I pcik up refurb Kindles for 30-50 EUR. Plus Calibre makes for a fine and hassle free experience.
TylerLives 5y ago
How do you know the WiFi is never turned on?
- shkkmo 5y ago
  I have to trust the closed source software does that it purports to do. This is something we all have to do when we use computers. I certainly don't know that Amazon doesn't program the wifi to turn on, find open networks, and phone home while it pretends to be in airplane mode. It does seem rather unlikely given the risks/rewards that Amazon would face in implementing such a system.

dredmorbius 5y ago

There are numerous other e-book readers.

disabled 5y ago

Luckily, I have a print-related disability. So... * I get access to 1,038,733 DRM-free books in several formats (including Word, EPUB, computer-narrated audio) via Bookshare.org * I get access to 40,000+ professionally narrated books via the National Library Service through the Library of Congress in the US * I get access to 80,000+ volunteer narrated books via LearningAlly.org (formerly Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic) * I get access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including breaking news services, via the National Federation for the Blind NewsLine * I get reciprocity with other countries' libraries for the print-disabled around the world, which is useful as I am in progress with learning new languages. It's nice because I never have a need to go to websites that serve ads to me. Of course it's called uBlock Origin and using ProtonVPN with Anti-tracking + Ad-blocking features...but still...I have it good.