The article has a different title* which doesn’t mention bricking, because that’s not what they’re doing. I happily moved off Amazon onto Kobo and Koreader, but this post’s title is a lie:
They can continue to read books already downloaded on these devices but won’t be able to “purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date,”
Bricking would mean they’d been completely sabotaged so that they wouldn’t even boot, and would now only be useful as a paperweight or building brick. Again, not true.
* I’ve noticed the page title (as opposed to the visible heading) is the same as here, I thought that OP had made up this title.
“If you deregister or factory reset these devices, you will not be able to re-register or use these devices in any way.”
I’d be interested to know what actually happens in that case - I suppose they could have sent an update that fully locks out an old device but factory-reset Kindles are usable offline (necessary to set up WiFi).
You have to register Kindle devices on first boot after a factory reset with Amazon’s servers. They cut that off, so it’s effectively a brick that cannot be activated, so it’s stuck on a loop forever.
The article has a different title* which doesn’t mention bricking, because that’s not what they’re doing. I happily moved off Amazon onto Kobo and Koreader, but this post’s title is a lie:
Bricking would mean they’d been completely sabotaged so that they wouldn’t even boot, and would now only be useful as a paperweight or building brick. Again, not true.
* I’ve noticed the page title (as opposed to the visible heading) is the same as here, I thought that OP had made up this title.
If you factory reset it, it becomes a brick. They specifically warn of that.
You mean this bit:
I’d be interested to know what actually happens in that case - I suppose they could have sent an update that fully locks out an old device but factory-reset Kindles are usable offline (necessary to set up WiFi).
You have to register Kindle devices on first boot after a factory reset with Amazon’s servers. They cut that off, so it’s effectively a brick that cannot be activated, so it’s stuck on a loop forever.
Thats… weird. I have Kindle Paperwhite 1st gen. It never kissed a Wifi. It was factory reset at least twice.
I live in EU though. Maybe that’s a difference?
Could very well be, I also don’t know what the person you reply to mention, we never had to do that with our first gen Kindles either.
The oldest Kindle I had was a WiFi one, so maybe the process is different for the older ones.