The Kindle is good and Echo is great. Every other hardware product they've ever made has been complete dogshit, which is why the packaging for most of them advises buyers to set them on fire.

The newer kindles are kinda shitty for the consumer, much better for Amazon no doubt.

The switch to touch screen and adverts all over your library & store is really jarring. So much so that my tech friends now just buy second hand kindle 4s when their old ones break.

It's possible that library lock in will stop them migrating away from kindles when the supply of kindle v4s runs out but not I think certain.

If so, point them to Calibre. While I currently use the Kindle app to read my books, I have made it my "policy" to on each purchase ensure that I am still able to break the DRM and store a backup copy in a non-DRM'd format. The moment that changes, I'll stop buying Kindle books.

Some purists would prefer to avoid buying DRM'd products in the first place (and I do when I have an alternative), but this is "second best" to me - I'll tolerate easily breakable DRM, but not one I can't remove.

The upside is reduced lock-in - it may affect usability (the Kindle app is still the best reader app I've used for Android as well - if anyone has recommendations for any actually usable ebook reader Android apps I'm all ears) but I know I can read all my books on any device, using free/open apps.

That makes incredible sense. What tool do you use to back up your books?

Calibre, as I mentioned [1]. I don't know if I should link directly to DRM removal tools here, but if you search for DRM plugins for Calibre they're readily available.

[1] https://calibre-ebook.com/

A while back I stopped using kindle and migrated my library to epubs. Apple's ibooks reader is much better and I didn't find much benefit out of eink devices. With ibooks you can sideload your own epubs, so it isn't much of an issue. Adobe reader also has a good reader mode for pdfs. Also I have iCloud library for my sideloaded books, so it's all cloud synced.

The only real benefit of kindle is the library selection and prices. The ereader software itself is mediocre.

I agree with that last point. Beyond that the reader and the store could be better integrated. It's surprisingly difficult to, say, find out if any of my ten favorite authors has released a book since the last one I read.

I don't mind the touch screen. I very much do mind ads, but you can pay $20 more to not have any. If anyone says they don't like ads but isn't willing to pay slightly more money to not have any, then I have to question their sense of priorities.

Well, i know another company (G) with just 2 or 3 good products. Most others don't have even one.