Overview

Yesterday I discovered that Amazon had decreed that my Kindle e-ink device was too old. This post is my 🧠-dump of a intensive afternoon & evening of researching what to replace it with.

Current Status

My Kindle

• It can no longer sync purchases.
• It can no longer access the Kindle Book store.
• Contrary to the claims in the photograph above, new books can not be delivered directly to this kindle.
• It no longer shows up as a USB device when plugged in to a computer.
  • Thus you cannot “Download & Transfer via USB”. When you choose that option it says “You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app.”
  • Thus Calibre can’t interact with it.

It can read the books that are already loaded on it, and it still receives new advertisements to display at me, because of course it fucking does.

As far as I can tell there is no reason it needed to be bricked other than greed.

Me

• Pissed at Amazon. Increasingly so as I learned more.
• Still want an e-ink tool to read books on. I have a Remarkable 2 tablet, but while it can display eBook format books it can’t run the Kindle app and thus can’t get around the DRM on Kindle eBooks
• Not afraid of a soldering iron if I’ve got decent instructions
• Really dislike e-readers without physical buttons to change pages.

Lessons Learned

A quick aside

Amazon has a tech called “Immersive Reading”. When you have purchased the Kindle and Audible copies of the same book, and that book is “Whispersync Enabled” You can listen to the Voice actor(s) narrating the story while the kindle software simultaneously highlights the words on the page.

It’s great for language learning, but also great for my ADHD because it gives me just enough additional stimulation that I don’t go trying to scroll social media.

There is only one company that makes e-ink hardware that supports Immersive Reading, and it’s not Amazon. It’s Boox.

Open Hardware

The Open Book

The Open Book project got a bunch of press a while back because it’s a decently documented DIY kit for building an e-ink e-reader. However it’s not a viable contender because

The canonical format for books is plain text with the book title on the first line, OR plain text plus some front matter and some ASCII control codes for chapter breaks and formatting.

In other words, it can’t read ANY of the eBook formats.

EPub-InkPlate

EPub-InkPlate is a project that does support ePub on InkPlate hardware. However the documentation is crap, and assumes a ridiculous amount of domain knowledge. I have no idea how to install it or how much custom twiddling is required to make it work.

It’s all Irrelevant

Even if there was an open hardware device that was physically identical to a modern Kindle it couldn’t read their DRM encrypted files.

DRM

For those who don’t know, Kindle ebooks are all encrypted with DRM. What most people don’t realize is that Amazon can, and does, sometimes remove books you’ve purchased from the marketplace and devices that have downloaded them. Additionally some kindle devices will delete all the files if the device can’t connect to the server within a pre-defined time window. For example, if you turn off wifi to conserve an old battery.

When you buy a kindle ebook you’re not technically “buying” the book. You’re purchasing a license to read the book which can be revoked at any time.

Unfortunately it appears that Calibre can’t strip the new DRM from their KFX (Kindle 10) format, as of July 2024.¹ The only tool I know of that can remove KFX DRM is Leawo Prof. DRM eBook Converter. However, the .epub file it generates lacks all the formatting. It’s just a big long piece of plain text that you’ll never want to actually read. Epubor Ultimate can also strip the DRM, but its file also seems to also lack formatting.²

Historically I would open up Calibre every now and then, import my recently purchased Kindle books, strip the DRM and have a backup so that Amazon couldn’t remove it. I could then load books non-kindle e-books that I’d purchased elsewhere onto my kindle over USB.

The combination of DRM that Calibre can’t strip, & the fact that My kindle no longer acts as a USB device you can connect to means that I am prevented from loading legally obtained books onto my kindle. This includes ones purchased from amazon with DRM left intact.

In the wise words of Cory Doctorow, “DRM Broke its promise”

Long Term Support

Amazon removes support for devices after 10 years. Kobo removes support after about 8. This seems a ridiculously long time in the world of consumer electronics, but you have to understand that there’s no reason an old e-reader can’t keep working just as well as it did on it’s first day, so long as it’s got a functional battery.

For context, the last update to the ePub format was updated was 13 years ago in 2011 & e-ink devices can, and do receive software updates to support new formats. The most recent kindle format is KFX which was released 9 years ago in 2015. My kindle has happily opened many Amazon purchased books since then.

There’s no good reason ereader devices shouldn’t be supported long after they’re sold.

Alternatives

Kobo

The Kobo Libra Colour is a beautiful device that has real buttons to turn pages. None of the currently available Kindle e-readers have buttons.

The Libra Colour is well reviewed, but it has the same problem all the other Kobo’s have. The Kobo store has a notably worse selection than Amazons. Their audio book selection is - comparably - even worse. Since it’s an Amazon competitor, there is no Kindle app that you can run on it.

They don’t have an equivalent to “Immersive Reading” in their e-ink devices or phone apps, and it wouldn’t matter if they did because their audiobook selection is much worse than Audible’s.

Them having a worse store is because Amazon has a functional monopoly on the publishing industry.

They also remove support for old devices after roughly 8 years vs. Amazon’s 10. It’s unclear if they brick devices after they’re too old like amazon does.

So, it doesn’t matter how good the Kobo software is. Unless you have “money to burn” and can afford a an Amazon device, and a Kobo device, it’s a worse choice as a consumer.

Boox

As far as I can tell, Boox is the only manufacturer who’s e-ink devices support “Immersive Reading”. I don’t know why. They’re not doing anything special to enable this. It’s just an Android e-Ink device running the standard Android Kindle software.

In the case of the Poke5 device they’re using the exact same screen as some Kindle devices so it’s not an issue of refresh rate.

Of Boox’s devices the Poke5 is the only one that’s directly comparable to a Kindle e-reader. The rest are significantly more expensive because they’re intended to do significantly more than just read eBooks.

Because it’s running Android it can run the Kindle software, the Kobo software, and apps to download eBooks from your library.

However, there are some issues, and one of them is a deal-breaker.

1. Despite using the same screen the hardware is objectively worse than the Kindle Paperwhite when it comes to the task of being an eReader. Lots of minor ways that add up. The most notable for me was that the layers of material they place on top of the display result in a visibly worse contrast ratio.
2. Boox devices run a custom flavor of Android, and they only guarantee support for a device for 3 years. Eventually, they’ll stop updating it, and it won’t be able to get updates from modern apps in the Google Play store. It’s just a question of “when” and there’s no way to predict the answer.

There’s also the fact that my library has a horrible selection of e-books³ and an almost non-existent selection of audio books. I’ve literally never found the book i was looking for when searching their options. As such, it’s not worth considering.

Nook

Tied to a struggling book store (Barnes & Noble), notably more expensive than comparable Kobos, the Boox Poke5 (despite doing much less), and the Kindle Paperwhite. Even a Refurbished Nook GlowLight Plus costs more than a Paperwhite. Like the Kobo, B&N’s store isn’t as good as Amazon’s because monopolies suck & DRM is a pain in everyone’s ass, except the monopoly’s. Like the Kobo, it also can’t run a Kindle app.

The Nook GlowLight 4 Plus does have buttons, which is a significant differentiator, and it does have a headphone jack.

Here’s a YouTube review from someone who is a fan of Barnes & Noble (~14 min), and overall seems to like the hardware, but titled his review “Nook GlowLight 4 Plus Review: Premium & Infuriating” because of software issues.

For example the top half of the home screen shows you books from your library, and the bottom half shows you “recommendations”. I loathe the similar behavior in Apple’s “Book” app on the iPad.

Unfortunately I see no good reason for anyone to buy a Nook right now, other than sheer hatred of Amazon, or physical limitations that require you to have physical buttons.

Conclusion

1. I don’t want to buy an ereader that’s going to be abandoned in 3 years.
2. There’s no realistic Open Hardware option & it couldn’t read any book I purchased even if there was one, because no-one’s cracked KFX’s encryption.
3. I can’t afford 2 devices, and I don’t want to limit my options for what I can read before I’ve even bought the device.

It’s all a compromise…a bad compromise.

The Boox is arguably a better choice with regards to what it can do, but I don’t want to have to deal with this crap again in 3+ years because they’ve dropped support. The Poke5 provides a worse reading experience than the Paperwhite because of the slightly worse hardware & backlighting, and it still doesn’t have any fucking buttons, and it’s not waterproof. I don’t plan on using it near water but I have ADHD which means I have motor control issues and spill drinks more often than most people.

The Kobo Libra Colour is the physical device I’d love to use, but the store’s worse, especially when it comes to audiobooks & there’s no equivalent of “Immersive Reading” with their e-Ink devices or phone apps.

I’m going to keep buying media from Amazon because I don’t have an alternative with the books I want (especially the audiobooks) & I really want to be able to keep using “Immersive Reading”.

So, I bought a Kindle Paperwhite, with a slight discount because it just happened to be “Prime Day”. I couldn’t buy one “Without Lockscreen Ads” because those were “sold out”. I’m honestly wondering if they ever have any in stock.

I’ll have to pay $20 more to get rid of the stupid ads. There was literally no Kindle reader I could buy that had physical buttons.

While I don’t want to, I can go without “Immersive Reading” on an e-ink screen, because when I use it I’m not focusing as hard on the words & “reading” so much as following the moving highlight to satisfy my stupid ADHD. I’ll compromise and use my phone when I want that.

Sadly, the new Paperwhite is wider than my bricked kindle, so I can’t use my beloved DodoCase cover and they don’t make Kindle covers anymore.

2 Month Update

I’ve read at least 26 books since writing this post. I regret buying the Kindle Paperwhite instead of the Kobo Libra Color.

• The touch screen is obnoxious. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to swipe back and it’s gone forward.
• “Whispersync” has not been available on any of those 26 books despite most of them being from very popular series. I’m pretty annoyed about this as it was one of the main reasons I bought the kindle.
• The official case has an uncomfortably sharp edge if you hold them with a finger under the bottom edge to support it.
• The power button is exactly where my finger goes when trying to support it, so even if i find a replacement case it’ll have an uncomfortable hole or bump in a bad location.
• The syncing between audio book and ebook is completely useless if you’ve dared to listen to / read the book before. It syncs the devices to seemingly random places that are always wrong. The only solution I’ve found is to mark the audio book as read, and reset it to the very beginning of the book. If you do this before you start rereading you’ll be ok. Probably.
• There are two different menus hidden at the top.
• Some preferences are hidden in weird places

The only thing i like about it versus the one they bricked is that it has a nicely backlit screen.