If you own a Kindle, then you’ve probably seen the recent news that Amazon is cutting an estimated two million Kindles off from Amazon’s services and updates.
On the face of it, this is outrageous. What’s the point of a Kindle that can’t, well, Kindle?
But take a look past the headlines, and this isn’t a tale of planned obsolescence or Amazon being irresponsible.
It’s actually one of the highest benchmarks for software support we’ve ever seen in modern smart devices. As much as I hate to give Amazon props, that does need to be celebrated.
And don’t just chuck away your old Kindle because it’s still useful in a couple of ways.
The best ways to give an old e-reader a second life
Everything deserves a second chance, even E Ink devices
All of these Kindles have lasted a very long time
It sucks when a beloved device is cut off from services and updates, but it’s rare that any of us are talking about decade-old hardware when we do.
Let’s be absolutely clear here: Any device that is getting to be 14 years old and still functional is an achievement in itself.
But getting to 14 years old and still being supported by its parent company? Quite frankly, that’s close to being unheard of.
I got excited when Google and Samsung boosted their update promises to seven years.
Many of us thought that Apple held the gold standard for long-lasting software support. And yet, here was Amazon, still putting out updates for the very first Kindle.
Without many of us realizing it, Amazon was still updating a device from 2007. A device from before the 2008 financial crisis, that pre-dated the first Obama presidency, was still being updated until this year.
And while I don’t have much love for Amazon, that’s pretty incredible.
Sure, e-readers don’t age the same way as tech like smartphones and tablets, but other e-readers haven’t lasted anywhere near as long as these now-discontinued Kindles have.
The original Kobo e-reader, for instance, was launched three years after the first Kindle, but was discontinued long before today.
As much as I dislike giving Amazon credit, it’s fair to say it’s gone above and beyond, where support for these models is concerned. And it’s not as if they don’t still work, because they do.
‘No more Amazon’ doesn’t mean ‘no more Kindle’
It’s important to be clear about what’s actually being lost here.
According to Amazon, Kindles and Kindle Fire tablets from 2012 and before will no longer be eligible for software updates and will no longer be able to buy, borrow, or download new content from the Kindle store.
That’s a pretty big part of why you’d want a Kindle for sure, but it’s important to note that it doesn’t mean your Paperwhite has become a paperweight.
You’ll still be able to read all the content you’ve already downloaded, for one thing. So if you intend to keep using your Kindle, your priority should be downloading as much from your Kindle library as possible to keep on your device.
That still leaves you without new e-books. Except, it doesn’t. You’ll still be able to “sideload” new content onto your Kindle — use a USB cable to send files from your PC to your Kindle.
It’s a bit more of a pain, but since Send to Kindle will also no longer work for those devices, it’s your only real option for new books.
Probably your best option, though, is to explore jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is the act of removing the restrictions that Amazon placed on the device’s software.
Jailbreaking gives you a lot more options for your device, and a jailbroken Kindle can read e-books just as well as a regular Kindle. But it can also have access to anything from calculators and calendars to basic emulators for playing games.
And now, since Amazon is putting your Kindle behind it, you can jailbreak without worrying you’ll be missing out on anything new from Amazon.
Jailbreaking a Kindle isn’t usually a complex process, but you will need a guide, and you may need a different guide depending on the specific Kindle you own.
The Kindle Jailbreaking wiki is the best place to start jailbreaking your Kindle, and you should do plenty of research before, because messing with anything in this sort of way can end up breaking it entirely.
However, the risk is low, and if you’re planning to abandon the Kindle, what’s the harm?
Hardware has limits, but companies should do more
I can’t blame you if you’re mad about your Kindle being discontinued. In your shoes, I probably would be too. And you have a reason to be.
Some of these devices are ancient by hardware standards, and the fact that Amazon has been supporting them for this long is mind-boggling. I wouldn’t expect support like this on any other smart device.
But software updates are one thing. Access to Amazon’s services is another.
When my phone runs out of software updates, it isn’t cut off from the Google Play Store immediately. I can still use it in the same way I did before, and the device tends to conk out long before it’s declared ineligible for access to the Play Store.
But Kindles aren’t that frail, and as such, cutting them off like this feels a bit wrong.
There are unofficial ways around this, as discussed, but should we be asking companies to put post-support policies into place?
Why should the owner be more responsible for avoiding a device becoming e-waste than the company that decided to cut it off?
I’m not saying Amazon should be forced to support devices forever, but would it really be so bad to let them download from the Kindle Store?
If the security concerns are too big, jailbreak every device that asks for it. At least then, people can do something with their old devices without going out of their way.
This may be asking too much. After all, some of these devices have been around for almost two decades. That’s value for money, no matter how you slice it.
Still, it feels bad to lose a beloved device after so long, through no fault of your own.
