[echelon]

The 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]

> 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]

And 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.

[echelon]

Fair points. Much better sunsetting here than what most companies do. The network shutdown is out of Amazon's control, and the offers are generous.

[LorenPechtel]

A 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.

[laGrenouille]

Well, that's not exactly what is happening here. Devices will still work after the internet connection stops, books will still be readable, and it will still be possible to load books through USB (or in some cases WiFi). The free cellular connection was an extra service that was clearly part of the sale pitch but I doubt most people who bought these expected that component to last forever.

Also, there is a clear reason they are turning these off (dropping on 2G and 3G coverage) as opposed to companies that needlessly brick devices just because they turned off a easy-to-maintain DRM server somewhere without an alternative recourse.

[johannes1234321]

I'm fascinated how long they support that feature (while I haven't seen a software update on my old kindle for a while)

That feature was quite nice while travelling as it got me free Wikipedia everywhere, which is nice to read up on sights etc.

[BenjiWiebe]

https://xkcd.com/548/

[filmgirlcw]

> 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.

I don’t think this is true at all. Ten years ago, we had already gone through the analog to digital transition in a number of countries [1], obsoleting a lot of older television sets without the aid of a converter box.

In the US, TDMA and AMPS cellular networks were shut down by 2008 (TDMA shutdown started even earlier), obsoleting tons of early cellular phones, but also many phones from the early 2000s (again, TDMA). People were often given vouchers by carriers IIRC, since phones were largely subsidized by rate plans.

DIVX, a terrible DVD rental scheme that helped put Circuit City out of business, went under by 1999, leaving the devices essentially worthless (fortunately, most did receive a firmware update allowing them to be used as regular DVD players).

I’m sure there were some grumbles about some of this stuff (people were very mad about TV, even though converters were given away for free), but it is largely accepted that progress obsoletes certain technologies. This isn’t new.

[tomjen3]

TV updates coincided with the changeover to HD tv so I don't think people really cared - it ruined my portable since it had a builtin antenna, but that was that.

However there has been many more fights about turning of the FM signals, at least here in Denmark, mostly because people can't upgrade the radio in their cars easily but probably also because the new type of radio is a lot worse than FM. So now we have both.

I suspect that when/if they turn it of people won't get a new radio and will just play music from their phones.

[jhoechtl]

Thank you for the comment. As a ham radio operator and radio junky in general I was wondering how the transition to all dab+ went for Denmark. Here in Austria we have both (more important and larger stations not receivable via dab though) and my car head unit has both. I find the sound of dab awful (to much compression and artefacts) and on fringe areas it pales compared to FM which will deteriorate in quality but still be continuously receivable. DAB just stutters. A real set back at least when used mobile.

[tomjen3]

They had planned to shut it down in 2019, but it has been postponed until 50% of listening was done digitally.

I still think the major issue is our cars, the fleet is old because there is an extremely high tax on cars, and it isn't as easy to just upgrade the radios as it used to be - and of course with FM available (and as you said, better in many cases) there is no big incentive to update, although we have more channels available on DAB.

[filmgirlcw]

Yeah, the timing of HD Radio coincided with the rise of smartphones/iPods/nascent streaming, so it didn’t really take off in the US (and there was never a huge reason to b/c the FCC didn’t shut off analog radio waves), but I do agree that if they cut off analog radio signal (or more accurately, if more stations moved to a pure digital format), some subset of users would complain (tho less as you said, thanks to phones), but that’s sort of my point: this obsolescence acceptance thing isn’t new, it’s how we’ve treated the changing nature of tech for decades. Yes, there might be fewer loud neckbeards who are irate online about it, but the fantasy that we used to all care a lot more about the longevity of devices and tech just isn’t true.

[dhosek]

I'm pretty sure my first cell phones from the 90s and 00s won't work anymore because the networks no longer exist. I should get out the pitchforks and torches. I think there might not even be cellular network access for my first iPhone anymore.