Shaun Bythell, a used bookseller in Scotland, has made a video showing how to repair a Kindle:
[SPOILER ALERT]
Here’s my favorite still from the video:
We already know that friends don’t let friends buy books from Amazon — Amazon’ s business practices have reduced author income while reducing the profitability of bookstores to a razor-thin margin. Friends certainly don’t let friends buy Kindles, because they don’t want their friends being tracked by Amazon — no one needs a faceless multinational corporation learning exactly how much of every book you read, and what you underline in your book, and what color your underwear is.
A good friend will tell their friends to buy their new books from a place like the Seminary Coop Bookstore, or used books from a place like Powell’s (but not from ABE, it’s owned by Amazon), or if you’re in the U.K. from Shaun Bythell’s The Bookshop — or better yet, buy your books from your local bookseller, so they don’t go out of business.
With Amazon’s Fire tablets, it’s possible to avoid using Amazon’s Kindle software and use another e-book vendor such as Kobo (independent bookseller e-book software).
Sideloading android apps on Amazon’s tablets is surprisingly easy to do. And Amazon sells them at a loss because they assume you will purchase all of your content from Amazon and price them accordingly.