The Illusion of Ownership Back to posts The Illusion of Ownership Yash Garg<br>The Illusion of Ownership<br>It's yours... until it isn't.<br>June 25, 2026 &middot; 4 min read<br>personalgadgets

Contents 1. Sony<br>2. Amazon<br>3. Apple<br>4. Bambu Lab<br>5. Spotify<br>6. Preservation<br>This is kind of a retrospection on all the hardware I own and the annoyances I’ve faced over the years.

None of these products are bad. In fact, I like most of them. What frustrates me is that the companies behind them keep trying to control how I use hardware I’ve already paid for.

#Sony

The infamous PS5 — probably one of the best-selling consoles to date.

You cannot use most third-party accessories; instead, you have to pay for official, overpriced accessories from Sony.

The PS5 feels like it was designed to work with TVs only. There’s no AUX port on the console itself; it’s on the controller instead, which kind of throws the whole “wireless” part down the drain when you have to plug your headset into the controller anyway.

Volume control also doesn’t work with a DAC supporting UAC 1.0 and speakers, even though Sony says it is supported. It’s so random that it’s just annoying.

#Amazon

Kindle is another great product with firmware restrictions that downgrades the experience as a whole. I fully support jailbreaking your Kindles. I’m not promoting piracy — you should definitely buy books, but the DRM-heavy approach is something I do not prefer.

KOReader is a great option, and there are many digital bookstores that provide DRM-free eBooks which you can then load onto your Kindle. KOReader supports a lot of things; for example, a News Downloader that fetches RSS feeds and downloads them as an EPUB for you to read on your E-reader. I can also use plugins to modify the UI however I like, which makes it feel much more personal.

Kobo is a much better option nowadays, but it doesn’t have as good of a used market as Kindle. You can get a used Paperwhite for roughly $50-60 on eBay.

Also, the ads! I’m in a region where I can’t even pay to get them removed. Thankfully, jailbreaking solves that.

Check out kindlemodding.org if you’re interested ;)

#Apple

The Apple hardware ecosystem is probably the most prominent one of them all. I’m also in too deep, and the convenience is definitely unmatched. I don’t think I can leave it anymore…

Features like AirDrop, Universal Clipboard, Handoff, and iMessage are genuinely great. But they’re also the reason leaving the ecosystem feels like giving something up. Once you’re invested, it becomes increasingly difficult to switch.

Sideloading is another one. If I own the device, I should be able to install whatever software I want. If I end up installing something malicious, that’s my mistake to make.

#Bambu Lab

This is quite similar to Apple, to be honest. They charge money for the ease of use, great software, and great hardware.

The not-so-great part is that Bambu Studio uses a custom networking stack for printers and remote connections.

People reverse engineered the protocol and added support to other slicers, which Bambu didn’t like, so they sent cease-and-desist letters to the developers.

If you’re interested, these cover it in more detail:

Bambu Studio’s AGPL Violation by Software Freedom Conservancy

Bambu Lab is Abusing the Open Source Social Contract by Jeff Geerling

Why can’t they just let people use the hardware they bought with whatever software they like?

#Spotify

I don’t know if everyone knows about the Car Thing, a streaming device Spotify released in 2021 and discontinued in 2024. They definitely lost money on it, but killing the whole thing and making it unusable (e-waste) wasn’t the right way to go about it. It cost around $80-90 per unit, which is quite a lot.

Thankfully, OSS projects like Nocturne and DeskThing exist, making it usable and extensible again.

#Preservation

I recommend donating to any of the OSS projects mentioned above. I rely on many open-source projects myself, and I donate to a few that I use on a daily or weekly basis. They make my life easier, and I’d much rather support the people keeping hardware alive than big companies with their shady tactics.

I’m not asking them to support every modification or third-party tool. If I brick my device while tinkering with it, that’s on me.

What I don’t like is being prevented from trying in the first place. There’s a difference between owning hardware and merely having permission to use it. Lately, it feels like we’re moving toward the latter.

Until next time! 👋

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