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AIBU?

Amazon are about to fuck up your Kindle Fire

35 replies

totallypissedoffwithAmazon · 26/04/2017 01:51

If you have a Kindle Fire and you watch videos somewhere where you don't have wi-fi, then Amazon are about to put a stop to it.

I connected mine to the internet for the first time in months this week to download a book, and was bemused to find that, at the same time, Amazon took it upon themselves to install Prime Photos.

That bemusement turned to fury when I discovered that trying to play my "Personal videos" now gets a message saying "This video cannot be played at this time. Please try again later". I never buy any video downloads from Amazon, so I don't know whether it applies to them as well, but it means that none of my MP4s which I've copied into the Movies folder play any more.

If I connect to the internet, then they will play, even if I put the tablet to airplane mode immediately. However, switching the tablet off means that it needs to be online again before they will play.

So it's no big deal as long as you near wi-fi, but if, like me, all you want to do with your Kindle Fire is to watch videos on long train and plane journeys, then you're screwed.

A complaint in the form of feedback for Prime Photos resulted in a polite and apologetic but unhelpful message explaining that Prime Photos cannot be uninstalled, and a promise to pass my feedback "to the relevant department". It then rubbed salt in by giving guff about how important customer satisfaction is to Amazon.

Fuck off, Amazon. I'm so pissed off that this piece of shit was installed without my agreement, and that Amazon have just made my tablet useless to me.

So if you watch videos offline, and haven't connected to the internet recently, for the love of God don't.

Oh year, the AIBU. AIBU to be thoroughly pissed off with Amazon?

Please bear in mind that YABU's will not be listened to. Angry

OP posts:
toffee1000 · 26/04/2017 02:42

If YABUs won't be listened to, then WTF is the point of putting this in AIBU?? The very nature of the board is that some will disagree. Don't be ridiculous.

NotCarylChurchill · 26/04/2017 03:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Guepe · 26/04/2017 03:28

I'm pro huge corporations fucking up consumer's property to the point it's unusable without their knowledge, therefore YABU.

SapphireSeptember · 26/04/2017 03:40

Trying to download the album I'd paid for onto my tablet from Amazon was fun, it wanted me to download the Amazon music app, when all I wanted to do was put it with my other music. I figured out I could download it onto the computer, then get a USB cable and copy it over, success! I love sticking it to companies who want me to use their shitty apps, that I'm not even sure I can use offline anyway. Confused

Back on topic, YANBU. That sounds stupid, Amazon are a PITA.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 26/04/2017 04:12

YANBU and ignore Toffee's inane "contribution".

I also hate it when things get squirrelled onto devices, almost without knowledge, and then fuck it up completely. Something similar happened with a program I had for security - they updated it to the point where I apparently have to pay EXTRA money OVER AND ABOVE the annual licence I pay to actually gain access to the internet once past a certain download point. No. Fuck Off.

NightWanderer · 26/04/2017 04:15

I just tried turning my Kindle Fire onto airplane mode and I can still watch videos in my My Video folder. Maybe it's the format that's the problem. You don't have to pay to download free content on Amazon Prime so I'm sure you can download their movies and TV shows and watch them without wi-fi, probably just not stuff downloaded from a non-Amazon source. The Kindle Fire is very cheap, partly because its a merchandise tie-in for Amazon. They want you to do everything through Amazon. That's how they make money.

totallypissedoffwithAmazon · 26/04/2017 04:40

Thanks for the replies.

NightWanderer, perhaps I didn't explain it very well. When I switch my Kindle Fire on, then I have to connect it to the internet before it will play any of my videos. Once it has connected, then I can switch it to airplane mode, and watch them without any problem.

The irritation is that if I want to switch it off and then on again, I have to connect to the internet again, even if just for a second, before I can watch them. Otherwise I get the "cannot be played now" message.

I suspect you are right - it probably is the format. I have never purchased any downloadable videos from Amazon, so they probably are trying to make me do so. But I don't think they should be able to remove this function all of a sudden.

OP posts:
ThumbWitchesAbroad · 26/04/2017 04:48

I got the hump recently with Microsoft Office as well - Got a new laptop and bought Office 2016 for it. Fine until I dowloaded photos and went to try and modify them - except they'd removed Office picture manager from the suite! Bloody annoying. I managed to acquire it via other means (installing a free download of some other Office 2010 thing, that also included Picture manager) so all is well again but gah!

NightWanderer · 26/04/2017 04:56

Oh, I see. It might be just a glitch that they fix at the next update then.

I'm still irritated by iPhone removing the earphone port. It's so annoying that you can't use earphones while charging your phone.

CheesyCrust · 26/04/2017 05:12

@nightwanderer

<a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-Headphones-simultaneously-Lightning-Connector/dp/B01M4N90YI/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493179460&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=headphone%20charging%20split%20plug&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">£3


@OP

Have you tried opening the videos using another app like VLC having navigated to the folder. Are you able to view the same video again having connected once? It sounds like an annoying bug.

"I'm so pissed off that this piece of shit was installed without my agreement"

The T&C of Amazon's will have included giving them the right to install additional software or apps like Prime Photos - the same way iOS added Apple Health in a roll out. They had your agreement.

Amazon are about to fuck up your Kindle Fire
HermioneJeanGranger · 26/04/2017 05:49

Sounds like a temporary bug to me. But I'm one of those people who never turns their iPods/tablets off so I'd probably never see this as an issue!

totallypissedoffwithAmazon · 26/04/2017 06:31

The T&C of Amazon's will have included giving them the right to install additional software or apps like Prime Photos - the same way iOS added Apple Health in a roll out. They had your agreement.

I thought about that, and whilst it does say "without your notice", it says we may offer updates to keep the software stable.

"Offer" implies, to me, at least, that I can decline them if I want.

OP posts:
pluck · 26/04/2017 06:58

Amazon Kindle "doesn't play nicely with others" in general. For example, many libraries now offer ebook borrowing... but Kindle doesn't support Overdrive.

Kindles belong to Amazon, body and soul (software)!

CheesyCrust · 26/04/2017 07:15

@totallypissedoff

Did you agree to a software upgrade either explicitly or by having settings that auto install them? I don't have time to go through or find the applicable T&C but it would be amazing if they were in the wrong, from a legal standpoint.

@Pluck - nor do Apple products. It's about creating an entire ecosystem to stay afloat in modern e-commerce markets. You don't just want to sell a generic Android-based product and then hope people will come back. Tesco tried this with the Hudl and Hudl2. The tablets were great and I think even loss-leaders as when you bought them you were given vouchers to music stores, video stores, ebook stores etc. Tesco didn't manage to make it work for them and their partners and have left the market.

Apple have succeeded and Amazon have to some extent to, in creating an ecosystem where the tablet is the first step. After that, everything you want to consume digitally, comes from them. Amazon apps (their underground store), integrating Prime services for shopping with giving access to streamable content, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Now, Alexa... They have embraced open standards somewhat and it takes 15 minutes of watching youtube to be able to access Google Play store on your Fire (Google being another ecosystem approach yet not being compatible with .docx) but not too much as it defeats their business plan.

Kindles will be redundant in the not too distant future as screen technology improves but, in the mean time, Amazon have done incredibly well with their 'not playing nicely' approach and Kindle has become synonymous with ebook reader.

scaryteacher · 26/04/2017 07:19

Why will Kindles be redundant Cheesycrust?

Justjibberish · 26/04/2017 07:23

Have you tried installing a different video player, such as VLC, I haven't watched videos on my Kindle for a while, but this allowed me to watch formats that didn't play on the default Kindle player

CheesyCrust · 26/04/2017 07:36

At the moment they have a purpose / market because they are excellent at what they do and can differentiate themselves through price (~1/4 the cost of an iPad), battery life and screen technology. The latter two being most important as e-readers, I suspect, are often purchased despite the customer owning a tablet. They* have found a niche in the market due to being highly specialised. However, people like consolidation when they can. Remember when you had a watch, pedometer, calculator, camera, camcorder, notebook (paper) and pen, a phone that could only text and call, a GPS, a big bulky laptop, dictaphone ... ? Every single on of those can, in the most part, be replaced by a phone or tablet. Of course, big DSLR cameras take better pictures, £200 calculators can do calculations that some apps can't, a nice touchscreen GPS in the car is better and so on, but on the hole there isn't enough differentiation for people to usually have all of these individual things. A Swiss Army knife is usually better than an entire tool box.

Technological improvements will remove the differentiation. Screens which can give both glare-free reading, responsive digitising and beautiful, high-contrast films will appear within the next 10 years and trickle down to cheaper devices. Battery life too (kinetic energy collection in devices will be the next big thing).

As soon as tablets are able to give the specific screen qualities a Kindle can, e-readers will cease to exist.





*ebook readers, not specifically kindles

friskybivalves · 26/04/2017 07:44

Cheesy what a lifesaver. Have just ordered two of those splitters.

MintToBee · 26/04/2017 07:49

I downloaded some episodes of a show I was watching on my Amazon Prime so I could watch on my commute. I couldn't access them without WiFi. Which is going to be a pain tomorrow as our power will be off for 8 hours and I have three episodes left.

cdtaylornats · 26/04/2017 07:50

I haven't been on any sort of train journey in years that didn't have onboard wifi

MintToBee · 26/04/2017 07:51

On my Mobile that is. Not Kindle.

DamnCommandments · 26/04/2017 07:51

Kindle Fire works with Overdrive, pluck - at least, ours do.

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totallypissedoffwithAmazon · 26/04/2017 07:57

Did you agree to a software upgrade either explicitly or by having settings that auto install them? I don't have time to go through or find the applicable T&C but it would be amazing if they were in the wrong, from a legal standpoint.

I haven't got it with me (seeing as how I can't watch my videos) at the moment to check, but I always turn off auto-update functions when I see them.

Every so often it prompts me to upgrade the system software - when that happens, I do a quick google to see if anyone is complaining about the latest version before doing so.

This time, I downloaded a Kindle book, which I had purchased, and got the message that Prime Photos had been installed. When I tried to watch a video, I couldn't, until I had connected to the internet.

You are probably right, re the t's and c's, but you can see how, even after reading them, people could not be aware that they were agreeing to let Amazon make whatever changes they like to your device, stripping away basic functions if they wanted to. It was sold to me as something that played MP4s when offline, and now it no longer does.

I haven't put any aps on it - as a last resort, I suppose I'll check out this VLC player - thanks for the advice. However, I really shouldn't have to, when the device should be capable of doing it by itself.

OP posts:
scaryteacher · 26/04/2017 08:03

Cheesy I have a watch, a desktop, TomTom, a phone that just does calls and texts, lots of notebooks and pens, a calculator, as they all work, and I have no need to replace them with a single device, neither do I want to, nor will I. I don't like consolidation, I prefer to have the specific tool for the job....the Swiss Army knife can't do everything, as my engineer dh would tell you, especially on Range Rovers and nuclear submarines.

I think Kindles have a huge advantage over tablets in size. I have a Fire HDX 8.9, but I find my reading Kindle far easier and lighter to hold, or slip into my bag if I want to read when out and about. It sits comfortably in my hand like a book, more so than some of the huge paperbacks I have on my shelves, and I can alter the font size if needed. I hope they don't cease to exist...I have too many books on mine for that to happen.

SaucyJack · 26/04/2017 08:08

Thanks for the warning :-)

I'm not too annoyed tho. We got the DCs a Fire 7 each when they were thirty quid in the Black Friday sales.
For that price I fully expect that Amazon would want to recoup profits elsewhere by other tied-in sales.

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