After three and a half years, my Kindle krapped out. Kaput. I turned it off a couple of days ago. When I went to turn it on again. . .nothing but gray areas and lines. A call to technical support got me the answer: yup, it’s dead, you need a new one. So I went at it with a screwdriver to get the back off, and removed whatever chips I could find, because YOU NEVER KNOW (!). After butchering the Kritter, the scraps went into the garbage.
Now I need to decide which new one I want. I’m thinking the keyboard version, which has 3G and wi-fi. The Fire gets a lot of hate, so that’s out.
I have and love the Keyboard, but if I had to replace it I’d definitely go for the Touch. If for no other reason, the lighted cases for the new generation Kindles are so much smaller and sleeker.
For straight reading, it’s the Kindle Keyboard. The Kindle Fire is cool, but it’s a tablet, not a reading machine. The keyboard has the e-ink page, and doesn’t strain the eyes. I adore it. I have a Fire, too, which is marvelous for being out and about, and far less expensive than the iPad.
No point in saving the chips. The Amazon Cloud saves all your shit. It’s a pain in the ass to reload it – takes about a half-hour, depending on how much of a book junkie you are (I am a junkie) but it’s easy to do.
Not saving the chips, just destroying them. There are always horror stories about people accessing your online account and running up a bill. Many new Kindles are stolen off the porches of the homes they’re delivered to. Since they arrive already linked to your account. . .well, you get the picture.
If I recall correctly, you need to enter your password to access your account and register the Kindle. I’d do the same thing you did were my Kindle to kack, but I’m paranoid that way.
Think about getting the one with ads (“special offers”). You save $50 and the only ads are a banner at the bottom of the home screen and as screensavers. The ads never actually show up anywhere where you’d actually be looking at them a whole lot, and if it turns out you absolutely hate them you can pay the difference later on to get rid of them.
I had a Fire and a Touch (as well as some of the older Kindles), and I think the Fire is a better e-Reader than the Touch. I’ve posted in detail about why on various threads, so if you’re interested I’ll see if I can dig one up.
Mine has ads, I don’t believe the ads actually run when you have it on. They cycle when you have it in standby mode. And they cycle slowly. Like one every 15 hours or so if I had to guess.
Also, someone with an e-ink device just came out with a backlit e-ink device. If my Kindle broke today, I might wait a month or so just to see if Kindle came out with their own version of that.
If it’s a gift, that’s the case. If it’s for you, it comes preregistered and accessible to anyone who turns it on. At least according to some of the reviews I read on Amazon.
Huh. I purchased mine myself and had to confirm/register it by signing in to my Amazon account, even though the Kindle was already listed in its software as mine. (This was a while ago, when there was only The One Kindle.) Maybe I have that set in my account options somehow, but I think it’s probably because I don’t have a wireless connection and have to do everything Kindle related via USB and PC.
I suppose one solution would be for everyone buying a Kindle to claim it’s a gift :D.
Pfft. You are an amateur. I’ve murdered two Kindles and one-and-a-half Kindle covers with built-in lights.
Kindle #1 died when I knocked it off my bedside table in the dark. I purchased a new one.
Kindle #2 died for unknown reasons, possibly related (based on my discussion with the customer service rep at Amazon) to compression in my well-stuffed backpack while traveling. Amazon replaced it free of charge.
Cover #1 died because it was, as far as I can tell, defective from the start. (Amazon replaced it free of charge.)
Cover #2 nearly died when the cat knocked the Kindle, inside of the cover, off the back of the couch, where I had stupidly left it, onto the floor. Luckily, it still works as long as I prop the Kindle forward a little inside the cover. Thankfully, the Kindle itself escaped uninjured.
From all of this I deduce two lessons: First, Amazon is wonderful. Second, you need to treat your Kindle, cover and all, with a bit of respect - the disadvantage of electronic readers is that they are not nearly as resilient as good old-fashioned paper books are.
It’s not murder if it’s already dead - what you did was perform an amateur autopsy.
And from your account it doesn’t sound like its death was caused with malice aforethought - therefore at the worst you are guilty of third-degree tabletslaughter and desecration of tablet remains.
The first thing I thought when I read that was that the OP was saving them for something (electronic project), since that is what I would do with any I could possibly reuse, although it is mostly other parts (no idea what they might have, many chips are proprietary and/or for specific functions that I don’t have any need for, or way too complex, especially with SMT parts); I do this all the time with electronics that break, either my own or other peoples.