Amazon’s new Kindle case is an insult to my fellow lefties

Amazon announced a refresh to the chief Kindle lineup final week. There's several new fun colors (ube! seaglass!) for the regular Kindles, and several insignificant upgrades akin faster leaf rotate speed throughout the Paperwhite and Colorsoft versions.

Excitingly, there are two nifty new accessories for leaf turning: a distant authority called the Kindle Click and a case alongside bodily buttons.

The distant I have no beef with. Seems nifty.

It's the case that I discover to be a microaggression — no, perchance macro — to my beingness as a left-handed person. In fact, it makes me wonder: Does Amazon HATE left-handed people?

Early Kindles had click buttons on the two sides

Let me explain alongside a bit of history. The earliest Kindle models had bodily buttons on the two sides of the bezel. The top clasp went leaf back, the larger lesser clasp went leaf forward. This meant it was uncomplicated to clasp the Kindle comfortably in either hand — you had the identical buttons on the two sides.

But by the Kindle Paperwhite's debut in 2012, everything changed. Now, alternatively of onward and rear buttons on the two sides, you tapped the remaining flank of the display to go back, and the correct flank to go leaf forward.

This method that it's much easier if you're holding the equipment in your correct hand. If you're holding it in your left, you have to either use your another hand or awkwardly extend complete the display as you hold.

Click buttons on the two sides made it easier for lefties

As a left-handed person, I much favor holding a phone or Kindle in my remaining hand. The fact that the older models of Kindles made it uncomplicated for lefties to peruse during holding in their foremost hand was among the finest things concerning them! Better than bodily books, equal (there, I stated it! I am unashamed!)

Here I was, stuck alongside my crummy fifth-gen Kindle since I never wanted to upgrade to the better, faster, backlit Paperwhite versions alongside lone right/left display taps. At several point, my display cracked, and I had to origin a replacement on eBay, since they had been discontinued on Amazon years earlier.

This all worked fair fine for me until this summer, whenever Amazon announced it would no longer assistance older Kindle models. You could motionless peruse the books you had on there, but couldn't add new titles through the Amazon store.

Incredibly annoying from a kind of libertarian right-to-repair benevolent of way, but particularly annoying for lefties akin me who had been holding onto the click clasp devices for years.

The new case lone has buttons on the correct side

So, rear to the new Kindle cases. The new cases have click buttons (yay!) but lone on the right-hand side. It doesn't resolve the issue of us lefties being close out of uncomplicated page-turning!

Technically, you could flip the case upside downward so that the buttons go on the remaining side, and the case folds from the right. The buttons can be tailored so you can toggle the top and base to be forward/backward. So yes, it's technically imaginable to create this additional left-handed-friendly. But afterward you've got a case that's notably upside-down, beginning the "wrong" way. Not ideal.

What I really desire is to have the buttons on the two sides — I prefer holding it in my remaining hand, but I akin to toggle hands all now and afterward for comfort.

Look, there are a lot of scary things out in the earth correct now alongside tech. AI is (maybe) going to slay us. iPhones are getting additional expensive. People are strolling about whispering into weird AI devices. There are obnoxious pranksters in Meta glasses messing alongside Walmart workforce for content. Sure, the clasp placement on a Kindle case isn't the biggest emergency of the moment.

But we lefties have been forced into uncomfortable situations all our lives in a earth meant for right-handed people. It's been years since I've had to sit in one of those address hall or academy desks meant for righties, but you all cognize the pain. We all endure alongside argent graphite residue on our hands, alongside scissors that don't work, alongside measuring cups you have to wrangle about to see.

For one concise moment, we had the ambidextrous utopia of the click-button Kindles, accommodating us as we are. It's not too much to challenge to ask to be remembered in person scheme — us lefties exist! We buy person electronics!

Andy Jassy, comprehend my words: provision us lefties the rear our buttons!