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TheVerge purposefully left that out of the headline for clickbait. It's really not hard to write "Amazon's Older 2G/3G Kindles" or "Lose Their Cellular Connecti
by vessel 5y ago
TheVerge purposefully left that out of the headline for clickbait. It's really not hard to write "Amazon's Older 2G/3G Kindles" or "Lose Their Cellular Connections"
- eli 5y agoAlso really buried the fact that you are eligible for a free upgrade to a new Kindle
- echelon 5y agoIt's not free? You get a $50 coupon.
- eli 5y agoDepends which model I guess
- prophesi 5y agoFrom the article: For customers with Kindle (1st Generation), Amazon is offering a free Kindle Oasis (10th Generation) device and cover. Customers with Kindle (1st and 2nd Generation), Kindle DX (2nd Generation), and Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation) can receive $70 off a new Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis, plus $25 in ebook credits. Customers with Kindle Touch (4th Generation), Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation, 6th Generation, and 7th Generation), Kindle Voyage (7th Generation), and Kindle Oasis (8th Generation) can receive $50 off a new Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis, plus $15 in ebook credits.
- vbsteven 5y agoI’m not familiar with their product line but from reading just this comment I would guess that old devices that lose connectivity get a full new device and devices with WiFi losing partial connectivity get coupons and credit for their inconvenience (caused out of Amazons hands through the carriers) That sounds like a fair deal to me. Although it’s pure speculation. I haven’t checked if that is actually the case.
- cmiles74 5y agoI have a DX, as far as I can tell it does not have any WiFi capability. It's only network connectivity is cellular.
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoThat would make sense, but it's not in fact the case, many second-gen Kindles don't have wifi. ...I'm actually quite confused as to why the people with the oldest devices—whose Kindles presumably had the longest usable life—are the only ones getting free replacements.
- Sebb767 5y ago> I'm actually quite confused as to why the people with the oldest devices—whose Kindles presumably had the longest usable life—are the only ones getting free replacements. Maybe there is a lifetime clause in the AGBs? If they promised 15 years of usable time (for example), this might be their way to get out. Also, the longest customers are probably the most loyal and bought a lot of books over the years, while also being the smallest subgroup.
- filmgirlcw 5y agoGetting a $250 device and cover for a device first sold in 2007 is pretty great, honestly. Even getting $50 off a Kindle and $15 credit is a pretty good option, all things considered.
- kreddor 5y agoDoesn't "Kindle (1st and 2nd Generation)" include "Kindle (1st Generation)"? Getting a new device is a pretty nice gesture though I guess very few still have a working 1st generation Kindle.
- renewiltord 5y agoThis is a tremendous deal. Makes me so confident in buying first gen Amazon products. The Oasis is their high end reader. I have one and it’s better than the normal kindles by far.
- Cd00d 5y agoThat's very generous. And, now I'm kicking myself for dropping my 1st gen Kindle off at the e-waste recycler!
- rchaud 5y agoIt never occurred to me that the headline meant anything other than Whispersync, which uses 2G/3G bands.
- deadmutex 5y agoKudos to you? Clearly, a lot of people felt like the headline was misleading.
- dhosek 5y agoI think a lot depends on whether you actually had one of those early generation kindles or not. I saw the headline and figured it was about WhisperSync and guessed it was probably due to sunsetting of the cellular networks and not Amazon turning off a feature to get people to upgrade.
- echelon 5y agoThe default Kindle models did not have WiFi for several years. That cost an extra $30-50 or so. I remember thinking at the time that hacking these would make nice sensors to deploy in the field and that they could stay online for free, essentially. Kindle had a built-in web browser, so HTTP calls wouldn't be too hard to make. Controversial HN opinion: ten years ago everyone would be up in arms about this change. Something happened. We no longer care about device obsolescence. It's like our concept of ownership and longevity has been stripped from us. You stream music instead of owning it, you download games instead of owning physical copies, devices are locked down, you can't run software you want, and we tolerate devices no longer working after a certain date. It's okay if things stop working, because they weren't meant to work forever. It's sad.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago> Ten years ago everyone would be up in arms about this change. Something happened. We no longer care about device obsolescence. It's like our concept of ownership and longevity has been stripped from us. Broadly speaking, I absolutely agree. People are impressed that Apple supports 6-year-old iPhones, whereas I think that's an unconscionably short length of time. (Particularly given how Apple makes customers reliant on them for everything.) However, in the case of these Kindles, I'm a bit more sympathetic to Amazon here. They're not the ones who are turning off 3G networks, so I'm not really sure what they could do.
- ghaff 5y agoAnd they're actually giving pretty reasonable promo codes. For some reason, I didn't get one--probably because my device is no longer registered on Amazon.com. Not that I have any real reason to run out and buy a new Kindle anyway.
- LorenPechtel 5y agoA lot better than than what happened with my TracDot luggage trackers with lifetime service. They were 2G based and simply died when the 2G went away.
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoSeeing as how many of these older Kindles lack wifi (or any other way to get online), I actually find your headline more misleading. Headlines are hard.
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- spike021 5y agoThe Verge really fell off a cliff after the first year they launched. I guess that's too tangential for this post, though.
- knolan 5y agoIn fairness their attempt at building a PC was at least entertaining.
- httpsterio 5y agoRarely have I ever seen a serious tutorial or guide be so wrong on so many levels. I was flabbergasted, entertained and felt pity at the same time. Truly a train wreck of a video, would strongly recommend watching.
- arthurcolle 5y agoLink? This sounds funny. Like a "The Verge" branded pc?
- detaro 5y agoNo, just one of their people making a video showing "how to build a custom gaming PC" and ... not doing a particularly good job of it. After a few days of mocking they took the video down, and then a while later made sure everyone remembered again by copyright-striking some Youtubers that had made reaction videos using material from the original video. "the verge PC build" on youtube should find stuff.
- arthurcolle 5y agoHaha I saw it last night. So funny when he calls zip ties “tweezers” - maybe it was meant as a joke.
- skocznymroczny 5y agoMy favorite part was using a swiss army knife for assembly, hoping for an Allen key there which never got used anyway.
- jjeaff 5y agoI know that with many publications, the journalists don't get to pick their own headlines. There has been a lot of talk about how journalism is dead, but I have found that often, the article is well done, but the headline paints an inaccurate or divisive picture. I think the editors and maybe the MBAs are more of a problem than the journalists.
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- Rd6n6 5y agoSeems like a good opportunity to ask: what are some news agencies that do not use deliberately misleading headlines? For the blizzard thread, Bloomberg was the only article I saw linked with an accurate title
- danghacker 5y agoVerge is long form tabloid