Kindle theft (not mine)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:00
Odd benefit of the insane scrutinizing of our shopping behavior:
A co-worker's Kindle was stolen today. (Not stolen from my office; he works remote.) Amazon phoned him to ask whether he had loaned it to his wife. 'No, my Kindle was stolen today, and I was going to call you when I got home.' Someone had bought a bunch of books on the Kindle, and they didn't match the kinds of things he'd bought before.
And another look at the walled garden:
Amazon's Kindle is cheaper than other tablets with comparable hardware. It's a device designed for (1) consuming media and (2) buying things from Amazon. (Unless you jailbreak it) All the apps come from Amazon's AppStore, not Google's (it's an Android device), and there are ads displayed when you turn it on. You make up that price difference by consenting to this captive-consumer relationship with Amazon. You can pay to have those ads disabled. At that price you could have just bought one of the other, comparable tablets.
So Amazon's routinely pushing out content to the device - individualized content, because that's what big data is all about. You register the device before you can use it, giving them a starting point in their marketing data. But if you lose the device, you can call Amazon, and they can disable it, block downloads, make life unpleasant for whoever has it.
We learned today that they can download an app that sets the volume to max and incessantly repeats (something like) "THIS KINDLE IS STOLEN!" The screen is locked, and the app can't be disabled by the user. (Perhaps the Kindle can't even be turned off - the power switch is just another input to the software.) Could just keep going until the battery runs out. (And the battery's not accessible, so removing it is not a quick shut-off.) I suppose that might prompt someone to try to smash (or drown) it to silence it. But it should prevent repeat offenders.
My friend's wireless keyboard was also stolen. ☹
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/768643.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Odd benefit of the insane scrutinizing of our shopping behavior:
A co-worker's Kindle was stolen today. (Not stolen from my office; he works remote.) Amazon phoned him to ask whether he had loaned it to his wife. 'No, my Kindle was stolen today, and I was going to call you when I got home.' Someone had bought a bunch of books on the Kindle, and they didn't match the kinds of things he'd bought before.
And another look at the walled garden:
Amazon's Kindle is cheaper than other tablets with comparable hardware. It's a device designed for (1) consuming media and (2) buying things from Amazon. (Unless you jailbreak it) All the apps come from Amazon's AppStore, not Google's (it's an Android device), and there are ads displayed when you turn it on. You make up that price difference by consenting to this captive-consumer relationship with Amazon. You can pay to have those ads disabled. At that price you could have just bought one of the other, comparable tablets.
So Amazon's routinely pushing out content to the device - individualized content, because that's what big data is all about. You register the device before you can use it, giving them a starting point in their marketing data. But if you lose the device, you can call Amazon, and they can disable it, block downloads, make life unpleasant for whoever has it.
We learned today that they can download an app that sets the volume to max and incessantly repeats (something like) "THIS KINDLE IS STOLEN!" The screen is locked, and the app can't be disabled by the user. (Perhaps the Kindle can't even be turned off - the power switch is just another input to the software.) Could just keep going until the battery runs out. (And the battery's not accessible, so removing it is not a quick shut-off.) I suppose that might prompt someone to try to smash (or drown) it to silence it. But it should prevent repeat offenders.
My friend's wireless keyboard was also stolen. ☹
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/768643.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]