Amazon Is Now Sending Postcards To Remind Kindle Owners To Update Their Devices (the-digital-reader.com) 71
Reader Nate the greatest writes: Amazon's getting serious about a recent required firmware update. Last month Amazon sent out emails, asking everyone to update, and this week they stepped up their game. Several Kindle owners say they've received postcards from Amazon with reminders to update their Kindles. Sure, this is an important update which adds security certificates, but don't you think this is overkill?
proposed department transfer (Score:1)
Why (Score:3, Interesting)
Amazon's diligence on this issue raises my tinfoil hat feelers.
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It makes me believe there must be an easy jailbreak out there for rooting the device and they are desperately trying to stop people from doing so.
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Do you think it's overkill? (Score:3, Informative)
If you worked for Amazon Kindle support you'd be doing all you can to head off the hoard of screaming customer wanting to know why their device has stopped working.
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Not if the lack turns my Kindle into a brick I don't. I wonder if the update contains something that they are going to activate in the near future, that will lock out those that don't have the update. Say some sort of underlying security update, or a change in the address for updates themselves. Like from themselves to say the NSA's home website :)
Note : I really like my Kindle Paperwhite, and use it extensively, but only as an book substitute.
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They've contacted me on multiple occasions about what will happen if you don't update: You won't be able to buy new books.
So if you're happy with what you've got then you're fine.
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No bricking. You just won't be able to use Amazon online services on your Kindle until you update.
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That sounds a bit like a bonus to me.
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Actually AFAIK mine is up to date. I'm not really concerned with the privacy aspect of my paperwhite since all I do with it is read e-books and I've no problem with my choice in literature being public knowledge. Right now I'm reading David Drake's 'Books of the Elements' series. I just recently finished some books by David Gatwood, an author I 'found' either here or Soylent can't remember which, but whom I do recommend.
I do use an alternate ID and password for it as opposed to devices I regularly use for m
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The main thing is a certificate update. If you don't update it now, you won't be able to talk with their servers to get your books or automatically obtain updates once the old cert expires/is invalidated.
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*whoosh* A swing and a miss.
Lighten up Francis. Perhaps you should loosen your garter and corset a wee bit and let the blood flow to your brain.
Cheers mate
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Overkill? (Score:4, Insightful)
Speaking of overkill, how about somebody burning lean tissue blogging over the fact that Amazon decided to send postcards to people.
Why in god's sweet FUCK would I object to them going out of their way to send me a postcard to remind me that, if I want my Kindle to continue working, I better update the firmware?
It's like all the tards who took the internet in droves because they got all bent out of shape that they got a free U2 album they'll never listen to from Apple.
Jesus christ, talk about manufactured melodrama.
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Re:Overkill? (Score:5, Insightful)
Finally, some common sense in here. So we're punishing a company for not going the Microsoft route with upgrades and treating their customers with respect?
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More the assumption that they are going the Microsoft route. This is an update that essentially bricks your device if you don't get it.
Not it is not. Your device will work, you just wont be able to use it with Amazon online services.
I hate to play Devil's advocate for a corporation here, but c'mon. They're not only being nice enough to keep supporting old hardware but actively letting you know on how to update.
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"Punishing"?
This is simply news as it's a somewhat unorthodox approach. Where did you get the idea that this was a negatively charged article? Not everything written on the internet is aggressively negative.
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Where did you get the idea that this was a negatively charged article?
The use of the word "overkill" is a dead giveaway.
This is no more "overkill" than the repeated letters Comcast sent me telling me I needed to upgrade my cable modem to "take advantage" of faster speeds. I think they said that in billing inserts, too, but they sent me at least a half a dozen letters over a six month period with that information.
Of course I haven't upgraded my modem and nothing has stopped working, so we see how well that push campaign worked.
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It's like all the tards who took the internet in droves because they got all bent out of shape that they got a free U2 album they'll never listen to from Apple.
I'm one of the people you're calling names, here: The reason I got 'bent out of shape' is not because I received a free album, but because I went to resume an audio book and instead that album started playing.
Ridicule from you does not deter me from wanting to be in complete control of what my music device plays.
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First world problem, that's for sure.
Cop out.
It could have easily have been something else on your phone that played instead.
If hitting play was really that random on my phone then this wouldn't have upset me. Not that it matters anyway, if I wanted to listen to music that others have decided I should hear then I'd listen to the radio.
All Apple needed to do was send out a coupon for the free album instead of shoveling it onto people's devices. Despite your protestations, no, you don't actually want the door to this particular form of marketing to be opened.
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I'm with you, but the U2 thing isn't a great comparison. Many people had to pay for that "free" album in terms of data usage or overage costs when their iPhone automatically downloaded it over a metered telco data connection, which was the default setting at the time. Hopefully none of Amazon's postcards are arriving postage due!
Irony (Score:1)
1) Get a Kindle in an attempt to reduce wasting paper
2) Amazon sends everyone paper in the mail instead
3) ????
4) Profit...?
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Yes, one postcard is just like multiple bound piles of paper.
encryption (Score:2)
is this the update the disables encryption for the Trump fbi. /obvious troll
Yeah, Firmware update (Score:1)
Hah hah! (Score:2)
I've got the Kindle Keyboard (third gen) - still my favorite model, I'll install if it prompts me - or if it quits working.
My wife's first gen Paper-White - I'll leave that in her hands.
My daughters cheap I believe fifth gen - I'm not sure she's been able to locate it for the past year. I've told her to tell me if she loses it so I can boot it from the account for financial security reasons, but that would require admitting she lost it so she would be happier if I weren't able to pay rent because they got
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Poor Update Process (Score:3)
Re:Poor Update Process (Score:4, Informative)
Their instructions missed a step because I had the same problem. It had to be plugged in with airplane mode off, which they got right. But instead of syncing, I had to actually navigate to the Kindle store from the device. When I did that, it grabbed the update automatically that night while it was charging. Even so, I still got the postcard.
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I had the exact same problem. Had to connect it to my laptop usb and transfer the firmware that way.
And here we thought. . . (Score:1, Flamebait)
I, for one, welcome our new Corporate Masters, and await the ultimate fusion, when we worship the fuzed heads of Bezos and Gates as our God. . .
Irony: (Score:2)
Isn't this distressingly similar to sending smoke signals to tell people to move to the newer dial type telephones?
Good to see proactivity on updates (Score:2)
Amazon update bricked stock Fire TV (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe they're sending out paper postcards because their update system broke electronic updates altogether on specific Kindles, so a special manual fix is needed?
While that is just speculation since I don't own a Kindle, I do have a Fire TV, and Amazon's automatic updates broke its wired networking about a month ago. The device reports that "Your Ethernet cable is disconnected", when it is clear that it is connected and working properly since switches confirm the link on their LEDs just fine, and I can even
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I had this same problem and decided to replace it with a chinese-built android set-top box with Kodi and google play pre-installed on it. The experience has made me very wary of updates pushed by amazon.
Still, if anyone knows how to fix networking on the fireTV so it works again, I'd like to know.
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Not going to. (Score:1)
Sorry, you removed encryption for some unspecified reason, I"ll take my business elsewhere and SIDELOAD books to my kindle.
Return address (Score:1)
Huh, the return address on my card read:
FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Certificates certificates. (Score:2)
Where have I heard about certificates before?
Oh yeah now I remember the AT&T Motorola 2210-02 dsl modem if it wasn't connected to the dsl network before the certificates expired it would be unable to connect to the dsl network and update its firmware if it was connected later.
Great fun if you bought an extra to keep a spare on hand.
http://thinkdiff.org/blg/?p=41 [thinkdiff.org]
RED FLAG (Score:3)
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Transparency... (Score:3)
Urgency without transparency is the issue...
I called my sports book... (Score:2)
...to ask what the odds were on "government mandated back door", to which he replied "redacted."
I'm not updating after they sent me 3 emails (Score:2)
Of course they'd send postcards (Score:1)
It's not like Amazon has any other way to communicate with me about my Kindle. Someone should invent a device - preferably a portable one, that I could hold in my hands. This device I'm envisioning would have the ability to connect DIRECTLY and SEAMLESSLY to services owned and controlled by Amazon. Amazon could then deliver messages to me, through this device.
Maybe some day, in the far future, I could even read books on such a device! If it was ever to be invented.
WiFi Only? (Score:1)
It is a tiny update with new certificates. Why are they requiring WiFi for third generation Kindles? Why could not they just push it over the air?
Third generation Kindles require B or G WiFi and just do not work on new WiFi networks with legacy (less secure) modes off.
Ridiculous.
Drones Are Next (Score:2)
Update your Kindle by April 1 or receive a visit from our friendly drone fleet!