Amazon's Older Kindles Will Start To Lose Their Internet Access In December (theverge.com) 122
Amazon's Kindle e-readers with built-in 3G will begin to lose the ability to connect to the internet on their own in the US in December, according to an email sent to customers on Wednesday. The Verge reports: The change is due to mobile carriers transitioning from older 2G and 3G networking technology to newer 4G and 5G networks. For older Kindles without Wi-Fi, this change could mean not connecting to the internet at all. As Good e-Reader first noted in June, newer Kindle devices with 4G support should be fine, but for older devices that shipped with support for 3G and Wi-Fi like the Kindle Keyboard (3rd generation), Kindle Touch (4th generation), Kindle Paperwhite (4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th generation), Kindle Voyage (7th generation), and Kindle Oasis (8th generation), users will be stuck with Wi-Fi only. In its email announcement, Amazon stresses that you can still enjoy the content you already own and have downloaded on these devices, you just won't be able to download new books from the Kindle Store unless you're doing it over Wi-Fi.
Things get more complicated for Amazon's older Kindles, like the Kindle (1st and 2nd generation), and the Kindle DX (2nd generation). Since those devices relied solely on 2G or 3G internet connectivity, once the networks are shut down, the only way to get new content onto your device will be through an old-fashioned micro-USB cable. For customers affected by the shutdown, Amazon is offering a modest promotional credit (NEWKINDLE50) through August 15th for $50 towards a new Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis, along with $15 in-store credit for ebooks. While arguably the company could do more to help affected customers (perhaps by replacing older devices entirely) this issue is largely out of Amazon's hands.
Things get more complicated for Amazon's older Kindles, like the Kindle (1st and 2nd generation), and the Kindle DX (2nd generation). Since those devices relied solely on 2G or 3G internet connectivity, once the networks are shut down, the only way to get new content onto your device will be through an old-fashioned micro-USB cable. For customers affected by the shutdown, Amazon is offering a modest promotional credit (NEWKINDLE50) through August 15th for $50 towards a new Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis, along with $15 in-store credit for ebooks. While arguably the company could do more to help affected customers (perhaps by replacing older devices entirely) this issue is largely out of Amazon's hands.
Is the author 12? (Score:5, Insightful)
the only way to get new content onto your device will be through an old-fashioned micro-USB cable
What's "old-fashioned" about micro-USB? Wikipedia says it was introduced in 2007.
Re:Is the author 12? (Score:4, Informative)
USB-C is the new hotness, get with the program gramps!
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I wish someone made a USB-C socket that had the footprint of common Micro and Mini USB sockets so I could upgrade older devices. Maybe one to replace USB-B as well.
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Actually I think the article wasn't talking as much about Micro-USB in general. But needing to plug it into a computer to download a book or a song, is the old-fashion way of putting information into a device.
Today with Wi-Fi and Cell Data, wireless charging, Touch screens... We really don't have the same requirement like we did 10 years ago with the needs of wires in general.
USB-C is mostly for High Speed Charging, or external devices that need rather high speed data transfer. Such as External Drives, or
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think back then there were not many combined wireless chips that were modem and wifi in one.
Having said that even old wifi from around that era often doesn't work now because it doesn't support WPA2 and all the older ones like WEP have been cracked and are no longer offered.
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:3)
1) the D footprint was so tiny that its very easy to fail to insert correctly. The procedure seems to be: insert, fail, flip it over, insert, fail, flip it over again, success.
2) the micro-usb socket is so thin-walled that it stretched over time making the cable so loose it wobbles and can lose connection. Fixes include either disassembly to squeeze the metal shell or the socket back down; or flare the end of the mail plug to consume more space.
I
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The biggest issue with older types of USB socket seems to be that they come away from the PCB. The amount of force they would have to deal with seems to have been underestimated.
USB-C is better in that regard too.
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
The BIGGEST biggest issue is that most circuit board layouts put an inductor right behind the micro USB socket. So when your socket gets torn off and takes the traces with it, one of your pins usually disappears under the inductor and reappears God-knows-where on the underside of the board. Makes jumping the connections such a pain in the ass.
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An inductor? Maybe a ferrite for noise on the 5V rail... Do you mean a capacitor? Even those are supposed to be small for USB.
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
I don't even know why micro USB was introduced aside from "n0w wE cAn hAvE tHiNNuR dEvIsIz!". Terrible standard, fails too much, and now there are 3 different USB plugs to have to deal with. Mini-USB is better by far, and it even *feels* better when plugging a cable into the device, nice and solid.
It sucks that I have to hunt far for a mini-USB cable for the devices I have that uses it because this micro shit has replaced mini-USB entirely.
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Unless you are willing to resolder the connector on your device why not just use an adapter that takes the mini/micro usb on your device and converts it to usb-c? There are multiple manufacturers of such cables/adapters.
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That's what I want, to solder a new connector on.
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Gluton for punishment? 8^)
It wouldn't be a perfect fit but you could match the pin-outs on a USB-C connector and (using jumper wires where necessary) solder it to the controller board then hot glue/crazy glue the connector in place. Admittedly I don't know if the pinouts can be matched at all (and I'm too lazy to search for the answer) but since USB-C is backwards compatible to earlier USB theoretically it should be possible. You would also probably need to modify your cases (either cutting or filling).
So
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With USB B connectors you could just make a PCB that fit the original pads, but Mini and Micro are too small I think.
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What's "old fashioned" is that legacy purpose-use devices can't be brought over to a system it recognizes, basically making landfill of certain types of car systems, kindles etc. (yes, kindles have some use otherwise, but the price you paid was for hassle-free).
AT&T "got" my dad with a "free" iPhone because one of his
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I had them unlock my phone and gave them the finger. I reduced my costs going with an MVNO that
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With most MVNOs you can bail out at any time if the service is bad and move to someone else. You're not stuck with a shitty plan for two years. I used to use Straight Talk since my work had AT&T radios in all the buildings. I'm now on Google Fi for over five years and only pay about $25 per mon
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As you get older 14 years doesn't seem like a long time anymore.
But think back in 2007 With the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU was the new hot CPU, Apple just transitioned to the Intel CPU shocking the industry. During that time if you given a 486 50Mhz PC, That had 100meg hard disk, and a 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch floppy disk drive. (which was a good computer back in 1993, 14 years prior to 2007) You would say it is an old computer back then. With the only way to get content on that 486 was via magnetic floppy disks.
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People still drive 1934 Fords. I still use RS232 cables daily.
The fact that something is old does not inherently make it worthless. The American approach to consumerism is what makes old things worthless.
Instead of putting your old stuff in the bin, put American politicians and corporations in the bin, and create a sustainable culture.
Look around you at the weather, and see what the alternative is.
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
Typically, a 486 would have a 9600 or 14.4 modem, at least if you were buying preassembled.. Even my Crappard Belch with the all in one card plugged into a riser board had a 14.4 modem.
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I remember back then it was the cheap computers that typically came with a modem. Such as the Craphard Hell which we had, a lousy 2400 modem built into the motherboard, to go along with the 4MB of soldered RAM and the (actually somewhat rare) 486SX2.
On higher end computers, it seemed generally expected that if you needed a modem, you'd add your own, such as a US Robotics Sportster (which I still have, though probably at least 2 decades since I last used it). Or with something like a Gateway 2000 which cou
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
486 DX/2 66
Going southward tward 91 or 92 I would expect some low end 486 systems to come with a 2400 baud modem, but even then 2400 was rather outdated. Soldered in modem? Ick! I hope you were able to change the IRQ on that piece of garbage or disable it altogether.
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
The only thing that would make it worse if if that modem was a Losemodem. If Windows 95 existed back then you can be sure of it.
My PB had a regular modem, but my machine came out just before the Win 95 era. Sadly, our HP Pavillion P166 had a Losemodem. :-\
Re: Is the author 12? (Score:2)
Kids with their newfangled USB doohickeys.
I use a 20ma loop to connect my Kindle to the internet.
14 years seems reasonable (Score:5, Informative)
Well the oldest kindles are like 14 years old, and this is a technical change and not something amazon just decided to do to fuck with people. And also $50 isn't a "modest" credit, the regular Kindle is like $55 and Paperwhite is around $80 during prime days.
Re:14 years seems reasonable (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd love for a lot of my electronics to be working 14 years after I purchased them. I don't believe I'm typing this, but Amazon should be commended for supporting these devices as long as they have instead of forcing us to by new devices every few years like some fruity companies out there.
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You may be talking trash about Apple, but their support for older devices is better than most companies out there. For example, I'm typing this on my 2010 Mac mini and it's still working fi{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
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The price during prime days (Monday, June 21 to Tuesday, June 22) is completely irrelevant, as they have already passed.
Riding Bezos' dick into the sunset will only get you a sore ass
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That's where you're wrong! Bezos' dick does not fly toward the Sun, it goes into orbit!
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It doesn't even go into orbit, it barely reaches space!
Re: 14 years seems reasonable (Score:2)
You still get to see the stars which is all anyone wants when riding a dick.
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It is reasonable, but this is Slashdot. We still have people pining over the fact computers don't come with Floppy Disks, and Parallel Cable Interface anymore.
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Real nerds still have floppy disks and parallel cables (Well, I have, anyway).
Yes, my razor does run netBSD.
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Floppies/zip/jazz/syquest were arguably more flexible than their optical replacements and the was period where USB interfaced flash sticks were still pretty expensive.
I certainly don't miss them 'Now' but there was period of years around 1999 where the floppy started rapidly disappearing before there was an optimal replacement for many use cases. It was premature; pushed by manufactures who wanted to cheap out.
The parallel port is fine example of something that should still be common. Yes it won't fit on la
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Re: 14 years seems reasonable (Score:2)
AT&T is giving away $63 phones to avoid losing a customer, that's a trivial expense compared to the hundreds of dollars competitors offer/spend to pay off competitors early termination fees and get a customer to switch to a new carrier.
Re: 14 years seems reasonable (Score:2)
Re: 14 years seems reasonable (Score:2)
Is Prime Day between now and August 15th, the end of the trade-in period?
A paper white Kindle is $150 for ad-supported model, $110 for a refurb.
Still, it is $50 more than most manufacturers would offer on an upgrade of a 10 year-old device.
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Yeah well, they axed the DX form factor; so I'll be keeping mine until the heat death of the universe.
Sure the newer models are smaller, faster, lighter, and have back lit screens. but you know what they can't do? Read an 8x11 sized document without scaling.
So until amazon brings back the larger DX sized kindles; hard pass.
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You can get replacement batteries on ebay. They're straightforward to replace. But you apparently won't have networking on it after Dec.
Ah, the amazing Amazon Kindle Keyboard (Score:4, Interesting)
My Amazon Kindle Keyboard was my favourite device for years. I bought it back when they gave you free 3G internet for life and would take it with me wherever I travelled (Europe, N. America) and would always give me a working basic browser to access my emails, google about places etc, apart from carrying my books. Back then, it would have been very expensive to use internet when travelling across several countries etc, so it has made its cost several times. And it's cost was quite low in the first place (got it with "offers" which meant an advert, or sometimes a coupon was shown, but only when it was off! - it hasn't actually shown any adverts for years though). And it's still going strong, but I don't rely on it for internet nowadays, phone plans with data roaming are not expensive and that old basic browser does not play well with modern sites anyway (cause modern sites consist of huge piles of mostly crappy js frameworks).
I no longer live in the US and in Europe I see my phones fall back to 3G (HSPA usually) quite often when I am in rural areas. Is 4G so ubiquitous in the US now that they can disable 3G and people will still have the same data coverage?
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Some networks in the US have been dropping 3G quite aggressively, which does cause problems for some industrial customers with long lived devices. Some older cars are losing connectivity (some Nissan Leafs and Teslas) and some of my old products for the water industry now only work on certain networks.
They announced the switch off long ago and stopped certifying new 3G devices for use on their networks.
Your experience in Europe shows just what a rip off roaming charges are. On the industrial side you can bu
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Are you fuc*ing out of your mind? (Score:5, Insightful)
Quote: "While arguably the company could do more to help ..."
Why? I ask, why on Earth SHOULD they do it?
I mean, why would Amazon do "more" than offering "advice and money help to upgrade"?
Did the companies that sold old PCs offered you money to buy the "new" 3 1/4 disk reader when you had 5 1/2? Because 5 1/2 stopped delivering...
Did the companies that sold you LP players offered you money to buy the "new" cassette tape reader (portable or not)? Because (sadly) LPs stopped delivering... (gladly they came back).
Etc.
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There isn't really anything else Amazon can do, 3G is going away and anything that is 3G only will stop working.
Some older cars are losing features because their modems are no longer compatible or the networks are turning off SMS.
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I wonder if this will break OnStar in older cars.
Re: Are you fuc*ing out of your mind? (Score:2)
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It said "they could", not "they should".
People should read what is there and not what they want to read into it. It's just like back with the slogan "yes we can". Of course we could, nobody said anything about actually DOING anything, though.
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The commentary also added nothing of value to the summary.
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Did any promise lifetime internet [quora.com]? Yes they could have designed the device to have the wireless on a separate board easy to replace.
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And a class action for "obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception" resulting in jail for the responsible decision makers could ensure that they do next time.
However, in the land of the free^h^h^h^h bribed politicians this will not happen anytime soon.
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-Now I feel better.
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Re: Are you fuc*ing out of your mind? (Score:2)
We are talking about customers that went 10 years plus without upgrading their eReader, these are the customers that deserve more than a $50 discount on a replacement Kindle?
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Quote: "While arguably the company could do more to help ..."
They could release a 4G version of the Kindle Voyage. I prefer the Voyage design over the Oasis, for many different reasons.
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If Amazon makes lots of money selling/renting content to these customers, that might be a strong-enough incentive for them to subsidize maintenance/upgrades to the "player device."
It might be disadvantageous to Amazon for those long-time customers to start shopping around for new hardware. What if they don't pick Amazon?
OTOH (Score:3)
On the other hand, if your (great) grandpa still has an old candlestick phone, you can still wire it to a POTS line and use it normally.
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If you disconnect the magneto, you can actually still use that too. You'll want to add a dial or a DTMF box unless you just like tapping out numbers on the switch hook.
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I'll be picking one up from my father in a couple of weeks.
I'm planning on mounting an old iPhone inside.
Some days, I think of using the crank to charge the battery . . .
Re: You insensitive clod... (Score:2)
Oh, your mother is modern enough to still call them Negroes? Well, let me introduce you to MY mother's struggles...
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That's if you can get a POTS line and have it work.
Last POTS line I had was always crap, and ATT (like SBC and Pac Bell before them) stole my pair twice and I had to call them and have myself switched to another pair to get dialup working again. The last time it went out they told us it would take six weeks before they got a tech out to even look at it. We cancelled our land line and went full cellular, obviously not on ATT because fuck them.
Re: 3G and backwards compatibility (Score:2)
There's a grain of truth here.... in the sense the transition from 3G to 4G wasn't designed with any interest in keeping the older equipment viable. The RJ11 POTS line is a standard that's been kept for many decades now because the transmission over the wires and protocols for dialing are basic and "just work". You can exponentially increase the functionality of the end devices that plug into the jack without needing to change that part of the equation. (Even going to VoIP, you can keep RJ11 and generate
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I'll bet they're not offering to upgrade people's onstar and other embedded devices that use 3G.
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What's a POTS line? I connect a phone to my wall and I don't get a dialtone. Why would I? I don't pay for the service.
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And how much cell service do you get if you don't pay?
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Ironically for your argument you never needed to pay for cell service for the Kindle.
But to my point: POTS is no longer universally available. You can't just plug it in and expect it to work as not everyone has one anymore.
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Actually, you could easily enough wire a candlestick phone up to a VoIP adapter.
2G might be around for a while yet (Score:2)
I don't know about the US but here in the UK 2G is used for a lot of low bitrate automated and/or embedded monitoring systems which not many companies have the inclination or money to rip out and replace. 3G is slowly being shut down but 2G is still going strong and I suspect will be for quite a while.
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Still trying to wrap my head around the idea of (Score:2)
Anyhow, wouldn't the batteries for surviving devices be just about shot by now?
Re: Still trying to wrap my head around the idea o (Score:2)
Are you assuming the Kinfle batteries aren't replaceable? I recently bought a replacement battery for a first gen kindle for about $10 I think on Amazon.
The disposable modern world (Score:2)
If you have a physical rotary telephone, it can still make calls today. But good luck getting a website made today working on a computer from 15 years ago, or vice versa. You're supposed to throw your perfectly good but slightly old device in the garbage and buy a new one.
Not only does this encourage pollution, it wastes money, and forces people to learn a new system when they were perfectly happy with the old one. "Who cares", right? Until you too are old, don't have much money, and it is genuinely difficu
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So at what point in history should all progress have stopped (which is what you seem to be suggesting)? Should web techology have been 'frozen' 15 years ago so all computers in use at the time could work forever? If we applied your '15 year' rule back then, websites made in 2006 would have had to run on computers made in 1991! Good luck with that.
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> should all progress have stopped
Did I say it should stop? Or did I say old shit should keep working? How about we refrain from stuffing words in each others' mouths?
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That good luck is called Linux.
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Linux and Noscript... Definitely helps backward compatibility of the web, at the expense of some slickness.
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I powered on an old Linux laptop with an old version of Firefox last year, and I could not browse most of the web; if pages worked, they were half-broken, barely displaying, like the web turned into a Lego Picasso artwork that fell apart.
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That's because you were running an old version of Firefox. At least with a PC, you can install a more modern OS and browser and a 15 year-old laptop can be used to view current web sites, as I have laptops that old that are still usable. The problem is for these purpose-build devices, that can't be upgraded and you're dependent on the vendor for support and updates, and when they lose interest in that the device quickly becomes obsolete.
The sad thing is that PC's are moving towards becoming more like purp
Re: The disposable modern world (Score:2)
A 15 year-old eBook reader is not "slightly old" technology.
The fact that the hardware still works as well as it does after 15 years is great - are you still rocking your 15 year-old TV at hone? Playing tunes on your 15 year-old iPod?
And, the careful reader will note, the issue is the lack of carriers supporting 15 year-old devices, as an eReader the devices are fine, it's the loss of free wireless data on the device.
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are you still rocking your 15 year-old TV at hone?
Yes. When Netfix put out a streaming client for the Nintendo Wii, we decided we should try out this HDTV thing.
It was made before someone had the bright idea to have your TV ask you for your wifi password, so I believe it's called a "dumb" TV.
That's right; my TV doesn't spy on me or advertise to me. I can't think of a reason to replace it.
New firmware to reduce power, (disable 3g)? (Score:2)
What I would like to see, is new firmware that by default, disables the 3G radio. So when I enable wireless, it only tries the WiFi and leaves the 3G radio fully disabled. This would be to reduce power while wireless is trying to make a connection. And of course, this would be after the 3G network is disabled. Meaning the firmware update would have to be installed via WiFi.
Wait do more? (Score:2)
$50 credit is enough to buy a new kindle. How much more do you want of them?
(Bought a Kindle fire tablet for $55)
You want them to give it to you for free install all your stuff on it and have a special discard of the old one?
Re: Wait do more? (Score:2)
No, it's only good on certain, over $100 devices (paper white is $150, $110 for a refurb, for example).
Hmm (Score:2)
As a first gen Kindle owner... (Score:3)
Re: As a first gen Kindle owner... (Score:3)
They buried the lede - the story is a $50 credit for older kindle owners to upgrade their soon to be unsupported kindle to a new current model, but since the story is about Amazon they have to emphasize the negative.
Imagine Intel offering a $50 credit on a core 2 processor twards a 10th or 11th Gen processor, or a TV manufacturer offering a $50 credit on a 10-14 year-old TV?
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I don't see how those things are in any way comparable. The old processor or TV is still capable of performing the same function as when purchased (normal wear, etc excluded). The old Kindles can not perform the same function. In addition, it benefits Amazon for you to continue to be able to purchase books.
I am not in any way knocking Amazon for doing this, but the comparison is really dumb.
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I certainly do remember it. However, those TVs are still capable of receiving analog TV signals, which is all they were ever capable of doing. The fact that there are no signals to receive is immaterial. That is not the same as the Kindle situation, where the device was capable of downloading ebooks and now it isn't.
Re: As a first gen Kindle owner... (Score:2)
Ok, I'll play - by your standard, they still do what they were designed to do - the kindles also still work. They were built to use 2G phone network, and they still work on 2G network, just as your analog TV still receives analog signals - it's just that there are no more 2G phone networks or Analog (OTA) broadcast TV signals.
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I remember! (Score:2)
That's why I only bought WiFi ones (Score:2)
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Back when these devices came out, they came with a free lifetime cellular connection. And they aren't just e-readers, they have a web browser and can check email and stuff like that. So after you paid the initial cost of buying one, you had a device that you could take with you and browse the internet any place you had a cellular connection for no additional cost. This was kind of a big deal for some people before everyone had a smart phone in their pocket.
In many ways, it's actually remarkable these dev
Planned obsolescence (Score:2)
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2G will be cut down to something like 2x5MHz, probably shared by several carriers. It will work fine for alarms, but downloading anything on it will be at best very slow.
Re: Free internet access back in the day.. (Score:3)
I remember when I got my first kindle I had no idea that it had whispernet (or what that was). When I found that I could surf the web in the beta browser on 3G *without paying for it* my mind was blown.
It wasn't great browsing but it was pre-smartphone (for me), so having free mobile internet was just awesome.
Also, I'm continually amazed by e-ink displays - such a simple and energy efficient idea.