WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.360 When the clock touches the 12th hour, this Kindle e-reader will transform from Cinderella 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.040 into a brick. And this ain't no fairytale. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:18.640 Amazon is officially killing support for pre-2013 Kindle devices on May 20th, 2026. 00:00:19.200 --> 00:00:22.560 To be fair, 14 years is a pretty good run 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:26.400 for a modern device. But the part that sucks here 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:31.240 is that it doesn't have to be this way. It's not like books are getting any longer. 00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:35.720 It should be able to open the same file formats that it always has. 00:00:35.720 --> 00:00:40.040 And yet, due to the nature of Amazon's locked down ecosystem, 00:00:40.040 --> 00:00:43.720 this perfectly functional piece of tech 00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:47.280 is counting down its days to the dump. And this isn't the first time 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:52.080 that Kindle services have changed the rules after you've given Amazon your money. 00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:56.040 So here's an idea. Let's stop doing that. 00:00:56.040 --> 00:01:01.320 It's an area that I haven't personally really explored before, but after our recent video on the Kindle ColorSoft, 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.720 you guys pointed out that there are plenty of e-reader options out there 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:08.800 and none of them seem as restrictive as Amazon's Wald Garden. 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:13.280 So let's talk about what Amazon's doing, why its Kindle ecosystem kind of sucks, 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.480 and how you can turn the page on the Kindle chapter of your life. 00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:20.720 But first, let's turn the page on this segue 00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:32.000 to our sponsor. Before we get into the alternatives, 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.880 I want to cover off some of the finer details of Amazon's upcoming old Yeller here. 00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:40.800 First, while it is true that you will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:45.320 or download books from affected devices, you can still read books 00:01:45.320 --> 00:01:50.960 that you have already downloaded to the device. However, even that saving grace is pretty hollow 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:56.480 since Amazon says that deregistering the device, either through your device options or a factory reset, 00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:01.240 will make it so that you cannot re-register or use it in any way. 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:06.200 So, bricked. By comparison, Amazon's biggest competitor, 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:09.760 Kobo, takes an approach that feels downright open. 00:02:09.760 --> 00:02:13.040 For instance, Kobo also has DRM protection 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:17.120 for e-books from its store, but they have a first party guide 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.400 that tells customers how to read those DRM e-books 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:25.360 on third party devices. And the way that Kobo plays nice with other platforms 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.720 makes its own devices way easier to use in the first place. 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:31.840 With a Kobo, if I want to get a DRM free e-book 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:37.440 from some other store, I can plug it in, drag and drop my files to it, and that's it. 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:42.000 It's good to go. Meanwhile, Amazon does allow a few file types 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.640 to be dragged and dropped, but generally relies on the Send to Kindle online tool 00:02:46.640 --> 00:02:50.760 that only works when your device is registered and online. 00:02:50.760 --> 00:02:55.360 And since that's the only official way to add third party e-books to Kindle, 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.760 come May, you might be plum out of luck. 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:05.840 That is, unless you're willing to open up a pathway to abilities that some might consider to be unnatural. 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:11.240 More on that later. First, aside from making your files easy to move around, 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:14.400 Kobos also have native Libby integration, 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.520 so you can just download e-books from your local library 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:21.840 directly to your device. Kindles, meanwhile, can use Libby as well, 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:26.880 but it's a little convoluted, requiring you to borrow from another device before syncing, 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:31.920 because, I don't know, screw anything that doesn't give Amazon an extra buck, right? 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:36.640 Kobo, so far, kind of looking like a no-brainer here. Having its own ecosystem means you keep 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:40.800 all the ease of use benefits of a Kindle, but without giving up the freedom 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:45.960 to take your stuff and move on later. And did I mention that the entry-level Kobo Clare AW 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:49.680 costs just $10 more than the cheapest Kindle? 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:53.840 Or at least the cheapest Kindle that doesn't fart ads in your face every time you use it. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:58.960 Of course, there are other options, including one that is even more open. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.320 Books, or as I like to call it, books, with its Android-based e-readers 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:06.600 just does away with ecosystems entirely. 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:10.720 That could make it the easiest possible transition if you want to bring your old libraries with you, 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:14.880 since you can just download Kindle, Kobo, and Libby as apps, 00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:19.480 and then have access to everything on one device. Then, going forward, you can obtain e-books 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:22.960 however you see fit, and read them in a third-party reader app. 00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:26.880 The Books Go 6 would probably be the most basic Kindle-like six-inch reader, 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:30.800 and at $149 is just $20 more than the Kindle. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:34.400 Though, again, this is compared to the one that doesn't belch ads in your face. 00:04:34.400 --> 00:04:38.280 Both Kobo and books have alternatives to higher-end Kindles as well, 00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:44.480 like the Scribe, which has a touchscreen and stylus, and the Kindle ColorSoft, which is in color. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:49.600 If neither of those sound right for you, though, Pocketbook, Bigney, and Nook are also around, 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.600 but while each of them does have their die-hard fans, 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:57.280 none of them seem to have reached the same critical mass as Kobo or books. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:04.120 Of course, none of what I've talked about so far helps the folks whose devices are being bricked. 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:07.360 Amazon said, ha-ha, too bad, go buy a new one, 00:05:07.400 --> 00:05:11.560 and so far, we've offered just more of the same. 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:15.960 Is there an alternative to spending more money right now? Actually, yes. 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:19.800 Even if it's been deregistered, you can side load eBooks to your Kindle 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:22.960 with the third-party tool, Caliber. We're gonna link a detailed guide 00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:27.560 in the description down below, but pretty much all you need to do is connect your Kindle via USB 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.880 and click Send to Device in the application. It will automatically convert eBooks 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:35.400 to a file that your Kindle can read, and you should be good to go. 00:05:35.400 --> 00:05:39.480 It is worth noting. We don't know for sure that this is going to continue to work 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:43.000 after Amazon's sunset date. That's for the asterisk 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.720 that you might have noticed before it comes in, but we think that it should still be okay. 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.520 We bought this old Kindle touch on Marketplace. We left it unregistered 00:05:51.520 --> 00:05:55.080 and we tried Caliber side loading on it. There wasn't a problem. 00:05:55.080 --> 00:05:58.240 Then we tried the same process on an unregistered Kindle scribe 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.280 and our file opened just fine. So Amazon surely knows 00:06:01.280 --> 00:06:04.480 about all of this unregistered side loading tomfoolery 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:10.400 and hopefully doesn't intend to block it, but probably just didn't want to acknowledge it publicly. 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:15.320 So it may be then, ironically, that the only eBooks that you can't read 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:20.160 on your pre-2013 Kindle will be Kindle eBooks. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:25.200 If you're the daring type, you do have other options. You could just jailbreak your Kindle. 00:06:25.200 --> 00:06:28.440 I actually didn't know this was a thing, but depending on your firmware version, 00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:32.160 it may be possible. Amazon is constantly playing whack-a-mole 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.080 with the Kindle modding community. So jailbreaking guides become obsolete very quickly, 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:39.520 but it looks like Kindle firmware below 5.18.6 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:42.840 can be jailbroken, which expands your device compatibility. 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:47.600 So you don't need a special app to side load anything. You can just drag and drop files 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:51.560 and it can even let you do things like remove ads for free. Of course, as far as we can tell, 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:54.840 none of this will help you read, purchase Amazon books on your device 00:06:54.840 --> 00:06:58.580 if it's been deregistered, but hey, there you go. 00:06:58.580 --> 00:07:03.820 Now we're not going to go into detail about how to do a jailbreak today, but there is a healthy community around modding Kindles 00:07:03.820 --> 00:07:07.380 that includes a dedicated wiki and ZDNet has a great walkthrough 00:07:07.380 --> 00:07:12.420 where they jailbroke a pre-2013 Kindle DX. We're going to link to both of those in the video description. 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.980 Now at this point, I want to reiterate that I don't blame Amazon 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.980 for wanting to shed some weight for their development team. 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:24.180 As I said before, 14 years is a long time to support a device 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:29.780 and some of the alternative manufacturers we highlighted today have also ended support 00:07:29.780 --> 00:07:33.540 for older products. Including Kobo. 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:38.460 No, not Kobo. But the difference as far as we can tell 00:07:38.460 --> 00:07:42.080 is that those devices retained their core functionality 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:48.700 by accepting files over USB or manufacturers have made moves to make them more open. 00:07:48.700 --> 00:07:53.860 But because Amazon seems hell bent on locking their users into their ecosystem, 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:58.140 they've created this problem for themselves. They are the exception in the industry now 00:07:58.140 --> 00:08:03.340 for thinking that it is okay to render devices unusable in any way. 00:08:03.340 --> 00:08:08.100 Now granted, Amazon does sometimes inch towards good things. 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:11.620 They added an option for DRM-free eBooks in the store 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:14.980 just this year, but just last year, 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:18.780 they removed the option to download DRM protected eBooks 00:08:18.780 --> 00:08:24.700 to your computer. So, it does still remain to be seen 00:08:24.700 --> 00:08:28.380 exactly what Amazon's bricking is going to look like here. 00:08:28.380 --> 00:08:32.260 And they could still do a better job of this and be a good guy. 00:08:32.260 --> 00:08:37.180 We want that. That's actually why we're making this video before they pull the plug. 00:08:37.180 --> 00:08:39.180 But as it looks at the moment, 00:08:40.300 --> 00:08:43.420 seems like Amazon is not going to give up 00:08:43.420 --> 00:08:46.980 on controlling their users with an iron fist, 00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:52.660 which is unfortunate. And this is an unfortunate segue to our sponsor. 00:08:53.780 --> 00:08:58.180 If you guys enjoyed this video, my son did his first review for the channel recently. 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:01.820 He was actually on the Kindle ColorSoft. He liked the device, 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:06.860 but didn't like the way that Amazon treats customers that are locked into their ecosystem. 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:07.780 That's my boy.