this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I do almost all of my reading on a kindle - one of the ones with ads on the lock screen, and for months now all of the ads have been for this type of no-effort, low-quality, AI-generated garbage. Amazon clearly doesn't give a fuck as long as they make money.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

There’s ads on the Lock Screen now? Ugh.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Now? They've had the option almost since they first started selling them. It's like $10 to remove them permanently. Honestly didn't realize anyone would get the one with ads on purpose but hey, I didn't think people would use Twitter when I first heard about it either.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I bought a few of their tablets with ads on purpose - and then just blocked the ads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I just sent them a message asking them to disable the ads on the kindle I had recently purchased, and they did so for free, no root needed. That was a few years ago though, so I doubt they do that anymore...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Earlier this year I called them and let them know that some of the ads looked a little inappropriate for some of the children who use the device... They removed them no questions asked.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

They have sold two 'tiers' of kindles for awhile, the one with ads on the lock screen is usually discounted.

It's not my favorite thing but iirc the lock screen is supposed to be the only place with ads.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Yes, and in fairness to them that's how it has been. The ads are only for stuff sold on the kindle store too, so not like you're seeing ads for hot singles in your area or some shit on your kindle. It's only now that the store is flooded with this AI garbage that the ads have become annoying.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I believe you're right. However, if memory serves, the ads did change occasionally, meaning the screen had to refresh, leading to increased battery usage.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Well, if they didn't care about being flooded with machine generated trash, they wouldn't have set the limit to books you can self publish down to a mere three per day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't know how it is now, but the older ones you could root and disable the ads.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

You don't even need root, or at least you didn't when I had mine. You just need to turn on developer mode, and then the Fire Toolkit app can do the rest.