11/16/2024
I don't normally advertise negative reviews, but this one just keeps coming up in my work. I hope I can save some people some grief beforehand. If you use e-readers, consider reading the entirety of this post. My apologies for the length, I felt it was important to explain the issues. Please feel free to offer corrections if you have valuable contradicting information.
TLDR; Ditch your legacy Kindles and *especially Nooks* before they are placed on the discontinued list, because they become a security risk.
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The long version:
I know it's hard to hear when we are emotionally attached to our e-readers, but B&N NOOK and AMAZON KINDLE only support their devices that are fairly new. This is a new policy this year for both of them. If you don't keep buying new devices every so often, they do not offer you account support. This doesn't only mean they merely don't update or support it anymore; it means they intentionally cripple your device once it passes a certain number of years. You can still turn it on and read your current downloaded books, but that's it. But the minute it becomes a 'discontinued device' it immediately becomes a security risk whenever you decide to pass it on. Not a brick, but a huge pain in the tail.
They disconnect your device from your wifi intentionally. This means you can't update required firmware even if there is an update available, you can't update your account, and you can't load any free or paid books onto it from the device anymore. You can still load them from the internet, but it get extremely difficult to navigate. And both have eliminated side loading from their new models. With no wifi access, I'm not sure if you can even load a current book that you already had, but that wasn't loaded. That would need to be tested before relying on your current offloaded library in the extended future.
But the very biggest issue is that you can't deregister your device when you're done with it, to remove the security risk of your visible account information. They want you to buy a brand new device but make it impossible to get rid of your old one safely. So you can never sell it or even gift it to someone else when you are finished with it. You are stuck with physically destroying a perfectly functioning device yourself, or turning it in to be recycled at Best Buy. But I do not recommend ever turning over a device that is still registered to any service, even to recycling. There are too many cases out there of an account getting compromised through a device they thought was long gone and recycled. And yes, hackers can get past a screen lock, too.
Nook is an even bigger offender than Kindle. You can try to call customer service to get your old e-readers deregistered from their end (which definitely would brick them), but all your info is still visible on the device after they claim it isn't. If they really did deregister but all your info is still visible, the only one they protected was their own account services. Your device is still a serious security risk, unfortunately. When asked how we can tell if it's deregistered if we can still see all the account info, they hang up. I just had 3 agents hang up on me, in a row. And this is the same experience as every other time I've tried to deregister devices this year, since the new announcements. So there's something suspicious going on there when they refuse to verify deregistration.
I don't suggest purchasing secondhand Nooks or Kindles, due to the probability that you won't be able to put your own account on them if they are discontinued devices. Or you pay good money to buy one and it is discontinued in one year. I would only consider a used purchase if you are paying little to nothing for it, and you mostly just want to transfer your current books to it. But remember, I'm not sure if you can open/download those books after you transfer them.
If you are the type who has concerns about account security, I would deregister your Nook devices while you are still able to before the wifi gets shut off by B&N, and maybe your Kindle devices as well. Or you could do what they want and buy a new device every 3 years, then bricking your prior one while it's still very nice?
Maybe it's time for a different e-reader brand to serve the public better, especially their legacy customers who have been loyal to them for decades?
