The Amazon Kindle was the most effective e-readers on the planet, with rock-solid stability. Issues in 2024 are the other; numerous firmware updates have resulted in nothing however hassle. With the firmware 5.16.10.0.1, issues have been going downhill quick. The studying progress bar system has modified, and the fonts are too small to learn, and it takes some time to indicate up. Battery drain is a critical challenge, with the Kindle taking solely days to expire of juice as a substitute of weeks. Typically, the Kindle turns into unresponsive and must be rebooted to work, and even customized fonts are reverting to the default Bookerly as a substitute of the one you need.
The problems with the Kindle’s firmware are simply the tip of the iceberg. Kindle Limitless titles are vanishing from libraries, and sideloaded books are being deleted when in Airplane mode for prolonged intervals. Opening a e book now takes twice as lengthy, and Voice View’s performance is erratic, beginning and stopping at random.
High quality and management of Kindle firmware improvement are at an all-time low. Lots of the high executives at Amazon, who had been in control of software program and {hardware} of stop the corporate or retired. A brand new era of expertise is on the high ranks, and lots of long-term Kindle builders had been additionally laid off final yr when Amazon fired hundreds of employees. That is doubtless as a result of Alexa, Kindle, and Hearth tablets had been dropping 5 billion {dollars} per yr and didn’t have any finish in sight for making them worthwhile.
It’s unhappy to see the Kindle, which used to have lethal {hardware} and an intuitive software program expertise, fall so quick within the eyes of its prospects. Amazon has not publicly acknowledged any issues with the Kindle, although hundreds of customers on Reddit and the Amazon Boards are complaining en masse. If Amazon can not get the Kindle in a superb place someday quickly, the following e-reader they purchase may doubtless be from their competitors.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the previous fifteen years. Newspapers and web sites such because the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Put up and the New York Instances have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
