Amazon has released a software update for two previous gen Kindle models that haven’t been updated in over a year, the 10th gen Paperwhite (also know as the Paperwhite 4) and the 10th gen Kindle, that breaks the ability to jailbreak them, and makes it harder to remove the DRM from Kindle ebooks.
If you own one of those older Kindles, you might want to put it in airplane mode right now if you ever want to be able to jailbreak it. The new software version that locks them down is 5.18.1.1.1.
It’s really quite remarkable how much effort Amazon’s software developers put into locking down Kindles and making it so Kindle ebooks cannot be read on anything but Kindle devices and Kindle apps.
It’s gotten to the point where they put more effort into that than they do improving the reading experience on Kindles. They used to add useful new features to Kindles all the time, but now it seems like most updates are focused on blocking jailbreaking and breaking DRM-removal methods.
Since the beginning of 2025 they’ve removed the ability to download and transfer ebooks over USB, they’ve started using a new DRM on ebooks downloaded to Kindles that currently can’t be broken, they’ve ended support for the first 5 generations of Kindles so they can no longer be used to download Kindle ebooks at all, and they’re discontinuing the Kindle for PC app in favor of a new Windows 11 version that’s sure to be more locked down than the old app (there are a lot more things I could add to this list, but you get the picture).
If they put half as much effort into improving the UI on Kindles and adding features to upgrade the reading experience Kindles could the undisputed best ereaders on the planet. But Amazon would rather control how people use Kindles and how people read ebooks than work on making them better.
Do what’s best for the customer until you do what’s best for the company. Dominant market position. Do I need to have Cory Doctorow come over and tell you what this is called?