WEBVTT

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When the clock touches the 12th hour,

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this Kindle e-reader will transform from

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Cinderella into a brick.

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And this ain't no fairy tale. Amazon is

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officially killing support for pre203

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Kindle devices on May 20th, 2026.

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To be fair, 14 years is a pretty good

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run for a modern device. But the part

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that sucks here is that it doesn't have

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to be this way. It's not like books are

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getting any longer. It should be able to

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open the same file formats that it

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always has. And yet, due to the nature

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of Amazon's locked down ecosystem,

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this perfectly functional piece of tech

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is counting down its days to the dump.

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And this isn't the first time that

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Kindle services have changed the rules

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after you've given Amazon your money.

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So, here's an idea. Let's stop doing

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that. It's an area that I haven't

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personally really explored before, but

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after our recent video on the Kindle

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Coloroft, you guys pointed out that

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there are plenty of e-reader options out

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there, and none of them seem as

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restrictive as Amazon's walled garden.

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So, let's talk about what Amazon's

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doing, why its Kindle ecosystem kind of

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sucks, and how you can turn the page on

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the Kindle chapter of your life. But

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first, let's turn the page on this segue

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to our sponsor,

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linked down below.

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Before we get into the alternatives, I

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want to cover off some of the finer

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details of Amazon's upcoming old yeller

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here. First, while it is true that you

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will no longer be able to purchase,

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borrow, or download books from affected

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devices, you can still read books that

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you have already downloaded to the

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device. However, even that saving grace

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is pretty hollow since Amazon says that

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dregistering the device either through

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your device options or a factory reset

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will make it so that you cannot

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reregister or use it in any way. So,

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bricked. By comparison, Amazon's biggest

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competitor, Coobo, takes an approach

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that feels downright open. For instance,

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Coobo also has DRM protection for ebooks

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from its store, but they have a

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first-party guide that tells customers

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how to read those DRM ebooks on

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third-party devices. And the way that

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Coobo plays nice with other platforms

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makes its own devices way easier to use

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in the first place. With a Coobo, if I

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want to get a DRM free ebook from some

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other store, I can plug it in, drag and

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drop my files to it, and that's it. It's

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good to go. Meanwhile, Amazon does allow

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a few file types to be dragged and

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dropped, but generally relies on the

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send to Kindle online tool that only

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works when your device is registered and

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online. And since that's the only

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official way to add third party ebooks

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to Kindle, come May, you might be plum

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out of luck. That is, unless you're

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willing to open up a pathway to

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abilities that some might consider to be

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unnatural.

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More on that later. First, aside from

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making your files easy to move around,

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Kobos also have native Libby

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integration, so you can just download

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ebooks from your local library directly

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to your device. Kindles, meanwhile, can

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use Libby as well, but it's a little

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convoluted, requiring you to borrow from

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another device before syncing because, I

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don't know, screw anything that doesn't

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give Amazon an extra buck, right? Coobo

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so far kind of looking like a no-brainer

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here. Having its own ecosystem means you

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keep all the ease of use benefits of a

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Kindle, but without giving up the

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freedom to take your stuff and move on

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later. And did I mention that the

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entry-level Cobalt Clar costs just $10

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more than the cheapest Kindle? Or at

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least the cheapest Kindle that doesn't

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fart ads in your face every time you use

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it. Of course, there are other options,

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including one that is even more open.

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Books, or as I like to call it, Books

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with its Android based e-readers, just

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does away with ecosystems entirely. That

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could make it the easiest possible

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transition if you want to bring your old

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libraries with you since you can just

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download Kindle, Coobo, and Libby as

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apps and then have access to everything

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on one device. Then going forward, you

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can obtain ebooks however you see fit

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and read them in a third party reader

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app. The Books Go 6 would probably be

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the most basic Kindle-like 6-in reader

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and at $149 is just $20 more than the

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Kindle. Though again, this is compared

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to the one that doesn't belch Chads in

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your face. Both Coobo and Books have

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alternatives to higherend Kindles as

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well, like the Scribe, which has a

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touchcreen and stylus, and the Kindle

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Coloroft, which is in color. If neither

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of those sound right for you, though,

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Pocketbook, Biggney, and Nook are also

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around. But while each of them does have

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their diehard fans, none of them seem to

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have reached the same critical mass as

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Coobo or Books.

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Of course, none of what I've talked

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about so far helps the folks whose

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devices are being bricked. Amazon said,

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"Haha, too bad. Go buy a new one." And

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so far, we've offered just more of the

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same. Is there an alternative to

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spending more money right now? Actually,

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yes. Even if it's been dregistered, you

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can sideloadad ebooks to your Kindle

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with the third party tool, Caliber.

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We're going to link a detailed guide in

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the description down below, but pretty

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much all you need to do is connect your

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Kindle via USB and click send to device

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in the application. It will

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automatically convert ebooks to a file

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that your Kindle can read, and you

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should be good to go. It is worth

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noting, we don't know for sure that this

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is going to continue to work after

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Amazon's sunset date. That's where the

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asterisk that you might have noticed

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before comes in. But we think that it

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should still be okay. We bought this old

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Kindle Touch on Marketplace. We left it

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unregistered and we tried caliber

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sideloading on it. There wasn't a

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problem. Then we tried the same process

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on an unregistered Kindle Scribe and our

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file opened just fine. So Amazon surely

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knows about all of this unregistered

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sideloading tom foolery and hopefully

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doesn't intend to block it, but probably

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just didn't want to acknowledge it

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publicly. So, it may be then,

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ironically, that the only ebooks that

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you can't read on your pre203 Kindle

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will be Kindle ebooks. If you're the

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daring type, you do have other options.

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You could just jailbreak your Kindle. I

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actually didn't know this was a thing,

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but depending on your firmware version,

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it may be possible. Amazon is constantly

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playing whack-a-ole with the Kindle

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modding community, so jailbreaking

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guides become obsolete very quickly. But

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it looks like Kindle firmware below

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5.18.6 6 can be jailbroken, which

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expands your device compatibility, so

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you don't need a special app to

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sideloadad anything. You can just drag

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and drop files. And it can even let you

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do things like remove ads for free. Of

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course, as far as we can tell, none of

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this will help you read purchased Amazon

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books on your device if it's been

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dregistered, but hey, there you go. Now,

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we're not going to go into detail about

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how to do a jailbreak today, but there

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is a healthy community around modding

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Kindles that includes a dedicated wiki,

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and ZDNet has a great walkthrough where

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they jailbroke a pre203 Kindle DX. We're

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going to link to both of those in the

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video description. Now, at this point, I

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want to reiterate that I don't blame

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Amazon for wanting to shed some weight

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for their development team. As I said

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before, 14 years is a long time to

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support a device. And some of the

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alternative manufacturers we highlighted

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today have also ended support for older

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products,

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including Coobo.

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>> NO, NOT COOBO.

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>> But the difference, as far as we can

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tell, is that those devices retained

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their core functionality by accepting

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files over USB or manufacturers have

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made moves to make them more open. But

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because Amazon seems hellbent on locking

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their users into their ecosystem,

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they've created this problem for

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themselves. They are the exception in

00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:49.680
the industry now for thinking that it is

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okay to render devices unusable in any

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way. Now granted, Amazon does sometimes

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inch towards good things. They added an

00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:02.399
option for DRM free ebooks in the store

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just this year, but just last year they

00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:07.279
removed the option to download DRM

00:09:04.880 --> 00:09:10.080
protected ebooks to your computer. So,

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uh,

00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:14.800
it does still remain to be seen exactly

00:09:12.640 --> 00:09:16.959
what Amazon's bricking is going to look

00:09:14.800 --> 00:09:19.519
like here. And they could still do a

00:09:16.959 --> 00:09:21.200
better job of this and be a good guy. We

00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:23.120
want that. That's actually why we're

00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:27.440
making this video before they pull the

00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:30.320
plug. But as it looks at the moment,

00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:32.640
seems like Amazon is not going to give

00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:36.320
up on controlling their users with an

00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:39.200
iron fist, which is unfortunate.

00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:41.600
And this is an unfortunate segue to our

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sponsor, meter. Once your business hits

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a certain threshold, a basic networking

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setup just isn't going to cut it.

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Especially if you have to juggle things

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like vendors and ISPs and all these

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other things that take away from you and

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your team's precious time. Well, good

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news. Meter builds enterprise level

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accordingly. So go to meter.com/LTT to

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book a demo now. That's me tter.comtt

00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:28.240
to book a demo. Now, if you guys enjoyed

00:10:25.680 --> 00:10:29.600
this video, my son did his first review

00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:32.000
for the channel recently. It was

00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:34.079
actually on the Kindle Coloroft. He

00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.600
liked the device, but didn't like the

00:10:34.079 --> 00:10:37.920
way that Amazon treats customers that

00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:41.440
are locked into their ecosystem.

00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:41.440
That's my boy