Amazon has told owners it will soon stop supporting older Kindle models – a move which has left some users outraged. In emails from the tech giant, affected users were thanked for being a “longtime Kindle customer” but told devices released during or before 2012 would no longer receive updates from 20 May.

The move will mean owners of older Kindles, including its earliest models such as the Kindle Touch and some Kindle Fire tablets, will be unable to download new e-books.

Amazon said it has supported affected models for years and their active users have been offered discounts to help “transition to newer devices”, but some have criticised it for making up to two million devices “obsolete”.

“I have a Kindle Touch that I’ve had since 2013, it works great, I bought a book on it a few months ago, and suddenly it’s obsolete,” one X user wrote in a post, external tagging Amazon.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said: “Starting May 20, 2026, customers using Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 and earlier will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new content via the Kindle Store.

“These models have been supported for at least 14 years—some as long as 18 years—but technology has come a long way in that time, and these devices will no longer be supported moving forward.”

It says the affected Kindle models are:

Kindle: Kindle 1st Generation (2007), Kindle DX and DX Graphite (2009 and 2010), Kindle Keyboard (2010), Kindle 4 (2011), Kindle Touch (2011), Kindle 5 (2012), and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation (2012)

Kindle Fire Tablets: Kindle Fire 1st Gen (2011), Kindle Fire 2nd Gen (2012), Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012), Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012)

Users will still be able to read e-books they have already downloaded, and their accounts and their Kindle Library will remain accessible on its mobile and desktop app. Amazon also warned performing a factory reset on affected Kindles will make them unusable.

Kay Aaronricks, 46, told the BBC she was surprised by Amazon’s announcement – and by the sadness that came with the thought of potentially losing full use of her 14-year-old Kindle.

“It does show how much of a part that Kindle plays in my life,” she said, adding it had allowed her to “take all of my books with me” when working and travelling. “I love paper books like anyone does, but the Kindle is more practical,” Kay added.

Kay said she was concerned she might be “forced to give up a device that works perfectly” with Amazon’s changes

Kay said she was also concerned about the presence of adverts on some newer, discounted Kindle devices, and how these might alter the reading experience. “It’s about taking yourself away from reality and disconnecting from advertising, marketing, social media, all those other things that we’re surrounded with in life,” she said.

Tech industry analyst Paolo Pescatore said while Amazon’s move may frustrate owners of models which still work, the decision was “understandable from a security and support perspective”.

“The challenge is that these devices were built for a different era and are not equipped to run newer, more data-hungry services and features,” he told the BBC, adding “ageing hardware” can also pose problems.

But Pescatore said older devices losing the ability to connect to newer products and services can also “turn a once seamless device into a far more limited offline tool”.

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Another of Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) most senior technology executives is leaving the company less than a year after its operations were devastated by a cyber attack.

Sky News has learnt that Josie Smith, the retailer’s chief technology officer, is stepping down just 18 months after joining the company.

Her departure was disclosed internally this week in a memo which said she had “decided to leave M&S”.

Ms Smith, who previously worked at BT Group and Vodafone, will be replaced by Darren Gibson, the fashion, home and beauty technology transformation director.

Her exit comes four months after Rachel Higham, M&S’s chief digital and technology officer, left the business.

Last year’s cyber attack cost M&S hundreds of millions of pounds and underlined the extent to which leading British companies are now vulnerable to widespread disruption from hackers.

The April incident, which was conducted by a group called Scattered Spider, brought its online operations to a halt for weeks.

Earlier this month, it reported a fall in like-for-like clothing sales during the crucial Christmas trading period, which it partly blamed on “the long tail” effects of the cyber attack.

Monday’s internal memo also said that Krista Nordlund, M&S’s chief product officer, would leave the company in July to return to the US.

An M&S spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo.

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The European Union on Tuesday demanded Big Tech players including Apple and Google explain what action they are taking against financial scams online, as Brussels seeks to show it is not shying away from enforcing its rules.

The European Commission sent a request for information under the Digital Services Act to the companies, including Microsoft and Booking, “on how they make sure that their services are not being misused by scammers”, an EU spokesman said.

The DSA is the EU’s landmark law demanding Big Tech firms do more to tackle illegal content but it has faced retaliation threats from US President Donald Trump, and censorship claims from the US tech sector.

The EU has vowed it will not back down from enforcing its stringent rules to protect Europeans online.

Tuesday’s request could lead to a probe under the DSA and even fines, but does not itself suggest the law has been broken, nor is it a move towards punishment.

“This is an essential step also to protect users across the EU from certain of these practices, and to make sure that platforms in the EU also play their role,” EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters in Brussels.

The request relates to Apple’s App Store, Google Play, online travel agent Booking and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

The EU fears app stores could be used by scammers to create fake apps posing as legitimate banking providers or fraudsters could publish links to fake websites on search engines.

The EU has a bolstered legal armoury with the DSA and its sister law, the Digital Markets Act, which seeks to ensure fair competition online.

Brussels has already launched multiple investigations under the DSA into Meta’s Facebook and Instagram as well as TikTok and X.

But its rules have faced the wrath of Trump — who has shaken up global trade by hitting America’s trading partners with higher tariffs and threatened more levies on those he accuses of targeting US tech companies.

The US State Department, Trump allies and critics including Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk have called the EU’s rules censorship.

The EU rejects such claims, stressing that whatever is illegal in the real world is also illegal in the online realm.

It has also pushed back at accusations it is targeting American titans, pointing to investigations into China’s big players that face DSA scrutiny including shopping platform AliExpress.

Defenders of the bloc’s tech rules have meanwhile attacked the EU for failing to complete its probe into Musk’s X, which opened in December 2023. X is expected to be hit with a fine but Brussels says technical work in the investigation continues.

EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen told AFP last week that probes into online platforms including X will be completed in the “coming weeks and months”.

She warned more investigations could also be on the way. “We will probably start new ones because the DSA, of course, it’s a huge legislation,” she said. 

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Apple has issued an urgent plea to millions of iPhone users to update their devices immediately after a significant security threat emerged, with “extremely sophisticated” cyber attacks having targeted them.

Millions have been alerted about the potential Apple security breach, as iPhone hackers could potentially gain “full admin access”, allowing them to operate any software in the name of the device’s owner. Apple cautioned: “A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”

The products at risk encompass the iPhone XS and subsequent models, including various iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini generations.

This alarm was raised following the failure of the USB Restricted Mode security feature, which is designed to prevent third-party software from accessing Apple devices once they have been locked for over an hour.

As of now, there are no confirmed cases of hackers gaining such access. On Monday, Apple introduced updates to its mobile operating systems, iOS and iPadOS, in response to the issues, which “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals,” reports the Daily Mirror.

While Apple is generally considered to have strong security measures making it pretty difficult to hack, it is not immune to cyber attacks.

However, according to recent reports, data breaches affecting Apple users have become more frequent,.

A recent study found that around 2.6 billion records had been compromised over a two-year period, highlighting the growing threat of data breaches across the industry. This can directly affect Apple users.

However, due to Apple’s robust security, these breaches are considered relatively rare compared to other platforms. There is no such thing as 100% hacker-proof security, despite Apple’s claims.

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US President Donald Trump is reported to have said that Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a “bidding war” over the sale of the social media app.

The BBC is reporting that when asked by reporters whether the US tech giant was preparing a bid, Trump replied: “I would say yes” – before adding that there was “great interest in TikTok” from several companies.

Both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have been trying for years to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operations on national security grounds.

It comes as Trump signed an executive order last week to delay a Biden Administration ban on TikTok that briefly took the app offline for its 170m users in the United States.

Despite granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban, Trump had been the first president to start pressuring ByteDance to sell its app.

In August 2020, ByteDance approached Microsoft as a possible buyer – something which the US company’s chief executive later described as “the strangest thing”.

Later, TikTok chose rival Oracle as a potential partner – although that deal also never happened.

Trump has previously said that he was in discussions with several parties about purchasing TikTok and expects to make a decision on the app’s future within the next 30 days.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company had “nothing to share at this time”. The BBC has also reached out to TikTok for comment.

Earlier on Monday, the US president had addressed a gathering of Republican politicians in Florida and spoke about the proposed sale of TikTok.

“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it,” he said. “If we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and China won’t be involved, we don’t want China involved, but we’ll see what happens,” he added.

Previous names linked with buying TikTok include billionaire Frank McCourt and the Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary – a celebrity investor on Shark Tank, the US version of Dragon’s Den.

The biggest YouTuber in the world Jimmy Donaldson – AKA MrBeast – has also claimed he is in the running after a number of investors contacted him following an earlier tweet signalling his interest.

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The UK’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Google has too much power in online search. Google accounts for 90% of UK web searches – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking at whether it is using that dominant position to harm competition or choice for users.

It is its first investigation after gaining new powers to investigate and enforce changes at firms it determines to have “strategic market status” in digital markets.

The CMA says it wants to ensure the tech giant is “delivering good outcomes for people and businesses” and that there is a “level playing field” for rivals.

Google says it will cooperate with the investigation but has warned against, external what it calls “overly prescriptive digital competition rules.”

In a statement Google said: “We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting edge services.”

It is the latest in a series of investigations Google faces worldwide.

In the US, the government wants it to sell its browser, Chrome, to address what a judged ruled was its illegal monopoly in search and related advertising.

The CMA says potential changes it could impose include sharing data Google collects with other businesses, or giving publishers more oversight of how their data is used for its artificial intelligence (AI) features.

“Millions of people and businesses across the UK rely on Google’s search and advertising services,” said Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive on Tuesday.

“And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.” she added, especially given the potential for AI to “transform” the market.

‘A fair deal’

The CMA’s announcement of its Google search and advertising investigation follows the digital market competition regime coming into force in January.

It gives the CMA powers to investigate firms it believes may dominate or occupy a key strategic position in a certain sector.

An explainer on its website, external says a company must meet several conditions before it can be determined to have “strategic market status”.

These include having a UK turnover of more than £1bn or global turnover of £25bn, occupying a position of strategic significance or “entrenched market power” in relation to a certain digital activity.

The CMA says, external it will look at whether Google is using its position in search to prevent rivals from innovating or entering the market, or if it is “self-preferencing” its own services.

It will also look at whether Google is collecting large amounts of user data without proper, informed consent.

“It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal – for example in how their data is collected and stored,” said Ms Cardell.

It will have nine months to carry out its investigation and two options at its disposal if it finds Google to have strategic market status – imposing rules on how it behaves, or making interventions designed to boost competition.

Pinar Akman, professor of law at the University of Leeds, says it is “highly likely” the CMA will launch further, similar investigations under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer (DMCC) Act in coming months.

“There is a general trend of regulating digital markets with large players around the world and the DMCC Act represents the UK’s response to that growing trend,” she told BBC News.

Prof Akman added that the regime offers more flexibility than regulation such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act in tailoring any interventions or requirements to market specifics.

It comes after the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer lauded AI’s “vast potential” to transform public services.

In a speech on Monday, Sir Keir said recommendations from the AI Opportunities Action Plan – a set of proposals backed by several tech firms – would be implemented across a range of areas to help grow the economy and make AI “work for working people”.

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The switch was paused at the end of last year after several incidents where telecare devices stopped working.

Nearly two million people in the UK use personal alarms which rely on landlines.

BT, which is also responsible for EE customers, has now abandoned the timeline of completing the national switchover by the end of 2025, and will instead aim to complete the move by the end of January 2027.

But a campaign group for elderly people has told the BBC the revised timeline is “a token concession”.

“The delay is for just over a year, which we don’t think is long enough to make sure there are sufficient safeguards for vulnerable customers,” said Silver Voices head Dennis Reed.

“BT and the other telecoms firms haven’t even worked out what a vulnerable customer actually is, and we are calling for a more defined definition. We feel the deadline of January 2027 is very premature.”

The move is highly controversial because it will mean an outage, which can be a frequent occurrence in some rural areas, could cause landline phones to no longer work.

It means there is a risk that customers who need personal alarms, which are potentially life-saving, could be left disconnected and without a working device.

BT said its new timetable followed the introduction of a series of improvements to better protect vulnerable customers and those with additional needs.

“The urgency for switching customers onto digital services grows by the day because the 40-year-old analogue landline technology is increasingly fragile,” said BT head of security and networks Howard Watson.

“Managing customer migrations from analogue to digital as quickly and smoothly as possible, while making the necessary provisions for those customers with additional needs is critically important.”

BT said it will protect vulnerable customers where it is made aware of them, and it plans to provide “resilient solutions” to those who are dependent on their landline.

The measures include providing free battery back-up units and offering hybrid phones which can use both broadband and mobile networks.

But some campaign groups said these solutions were still confusing.

“For many older people or those who need a simple landline running even through power cuts, there is still much to be done to communicate what the changes mean for them,” said Digital Poverty Alliance head Elizabeth Anderson.

“Who pays for new phones, battery packs or other kit, and support for people to learn new skills or behaviours – such as keeping emergency backups charged 24/7?”

The move is part of BT’s digital voice changeover plan, which requires all households to have an internet connection.

It has not yet been confirmed whether other firms will follow suit.

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The House of Lords will today see a debate on what is known as the Mr Bates amendment, named after the campaigning subpostmaster Alan Bates.

The amendment to the Data and Digital Information Protection Bill, laid by crossbench peer Beeban Kidron, has cross-party support, with peer James Arbuthnot, who has been campaigning for the wrongly prosecuted subpostmasters since 2009, providing his backing.

In 1999, a presumption that a computer system has operated correctly unless there is explicit evidence to the contrary was introduced into law on how courts should consider electronic evidence. This was the same year the Post Office introduced the Horizon software, from Fujitsu, to automate accounting in thousands of branches.

The 1999 legal rule replaced a section of the PACE Act 1984, which stated that those introducing computer evidence should be able to prove the computer sytsem was operating properly. The amendment made it easier for the Post Office, through its private prosecution powers, to convict subpostmasters for financial crimes when there were accounting shortfalls based on data from the Horizon system.

This led to about 900 subpostmasters being prosecuted and convicted of financial crimes after they experienced unexplained account shortfalls. Since 2021, about 100 have had these wrongful convictions overturned and hundreds more are set to follow after the government announced a law to overturn the remainder en masse.

Arbuthnot told Computer Weekly that Fujitsu’s access to subpostmaster accounts, combined with the complexity of the Horizon system, made the computer evidence used in trials unreliable.

“With programs containing millions of lines of code, nobody can understand the unintended consequences, which makes computer programs inherently unreliable even though they may appear to be working properly. For there to be a presumption that they are working properly is wrong in principle,” he said.

“Maybe our amendment has flaws, but so too does the present position in law. Our amendment is a good start on hammering out the solution we need to reach,” he added.

Paul Marshall, a barrister who represented the subpostmasters who successfully overturned wrongful convictions by the Post Office, said one of the factors that caused the Post Office Horizon scandal is the fact lawyers and judges failed to understand that computers “have a propensity to fail”.

“There is no basis in reality that computers are reliable all the time,” added Marshall.

As Computer Weekly revealed in 2021, following a response to a freedom of information request made by computer scientist Steven Murdoch at University College London, the Post Office wrote to the Law Commission in 1995 when the law change was being proposed, and said the rule at the time – that computer evidence should be subject to proof that it was in fact operating properly – was “somewhat onerous” when prosecuting people charged with crimes, such as the subpostmasters who run and own its branches.

Marshall added: “The change in the law at the turn of the century coincides exactly with the Post Office Horizon system’s introduction and the dreadful harm that it inflicted on hundreds of innocent people.”

He said the law needs to be changed to avoid a repeat of the Post Office scandal, which is seen as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.

The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to the accounting software.

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It comes as prices of chips have recovered from a post-pandemic slump and demand for artificial intelligence (AI) related products booms.

South Korea-based Samsung is the world’s largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions.

The company is scheduled to release a detailed financial report on 30 April.

The technology giant estimated that its operating profit rose to 6.6 trillion won ($4.9bn; £3.9bn) in the January-March quarter, 931% higher than the same period in 2023. That beat analysts’ expectations of around 5.7 trillion won.

Its earnings are expected to be boosted by a rebound in semiconductor prices on the global market after a severe downturn a year earlier.

Global memory chip prices are estimated to have risen by around a fifth in the last year.

Samsung’s semiconductor division is usually the biggest revenue earner for the firm.

Demand for semiconductors is also expected to remain strong this year, helped by the boom in AI technologies.

The earthquake that hit Taiwan on 3 April may also tighten the global supply of chips, which could allow Samsung to raise prices further.

Taiwan is home to several major chipmakers, including TSMC – which is a supplier to Apple and Nvidia.

While TSMC has said the earthquake did not have a major impact on its production it saw some disruption to its operations.

Samsung is also expected to get a boost from sales of its new flagship Galaxy S24 smartphones, which were launched in January.

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