Amazon Kindle

[alpha-acid]

One of our guys received his 3G Kindle today and it works quite happily in our office via 3G

 

 

When I got mine, about 1 week ago, 3G worked fine for about an hour and then was cut off and has not worked here since, works fine on the wifi though

[immortalpuppet]

 

You trying to make a point with that link? A single reference to Europe with an out of date link from before the full european launch? Coverage is superb, as you can see from the map. They signed plenty of operators.

 

When i had a look at the kindle the whispernet access was dire and not many operators had signed up. you challenged my fact as being untrue, i highlighted the service as it used to work, even on the old 3g devices last year.

[Slim]

When i had a look at the kindle the whispernet access was dire and not many operators had signed up. you challenged my fact as being untrue, i highlighted the service as it used to work, even on the old 3g devices last year.

 

So you're talking about a year ago, pre europe launch, and that's somehow relevant?

[immortalpuppet]

yes

[Pragmatopian]

I received my Kindles on Monday and I have to say I've been impressed so far:

• The screen is incredibly clear and crisp.
• The device is very light yet feels pretty robust.
• The battery seemingly lasts for ever: I haven't turned it off since I initially charged it (although it sleeps after being idle for a while), and even with wireless on and about 10 hours of reading and half an hour of web browsing the indicator is still showing 80% charge. I can see that it might match Amazon's claim of lasting nearly a month if you left the wireless off.
• The interface is very intuitive: I've seen some moans that the keyboard has foregone numeric keys to shrink the unit's size, but as Alt+QWERTY row keys combined function as numeric keys I don't really see the problem unless you're making lots of notes which include numbers. Integration with one of two built-in dictionaries (American or British English depending on your choice) is very handy, especially when reading more archaic or obscure stuff: just place the cursor in front of the word you don't know and the definition pops up at the bottom or top of the page.
• The 3G works well in Prague (although it fell back to a GPRS connection when I was on one of the deeper Metro platforms) and with my Wi-Fi network at home. There seems to be 3G/GPRS coverage across most of Europe according to the current coverage map (the Isle of Man being a notable exception).
• The web browser is pretty servicable for text-heavy pages (e.g. Wikipedia, BBC News) when you put it into 'article mode', and all sites I've tried have worked over 3G, although I'd understood from the Amazon website that I would only be able to access Wikipedia and the Kindle store when outside the US (except on Wi-Fi), so that was a nice bonus.
• I've stuck mostly to free and out of copyright books that I downloaded from Feedbooks, but got a trial subscription to the Independent from the Kindle store on the device: the first edition downloaded to the device within a few seconds, and each morning the latest edition has downloaded itself to my Kindle by the time I'm having my breakfast (about 6am UK time). It's a real boon when you're used to being charged rip-off prices for 'foreign' newspapers at airports and specialist newsagents locally. The Kindle subscription prices are roughly comparable to buying the newspaper every day in the UK: probably not as cheap as they should be given the reduced production and distribution costs and the very limited pictorial content in the Kindle edition compared to the print edition, but just about worth it for the convenience (and certainly if you're somewhere where the print edition isn't readily or cheaply available).
• Obtaining samples of books before deciding whether to buy is almost effortless, although I had understood that when purchasing from within a sample it would automatically extend the sample to the full book and allow you to continue from where the sample had ended. It didn't work like this for the book we downloaded to my partner's Kindle: a separate full book was downloaded (again within a few seconds) and she had to open the full book and find the place within it where the sample had ended. The sample book remained on her Kindle, and this apparently needed to be deleted manually (although perhaps it would have automatically deleted itself after a while).

If you read a lot of books or other text-heavy material (newspapers, blogs) I'd definitely recommend it: far easier on your eyes than smartphone, tablet or computer screens!

[alibaba]

Can you read it in the bath, or lying down in bed?

[Slim]

Thanks for the write up Prag. I've heard some complaints about the Indy Kindle version missing much of what's in the print edition. Noticed that much?

[Grandma]

Update to my last post in this thread. Ordered the 3G kindle this last Monday 27th. Had an email just now that the item (Kindle) has been despatched! Will it get here tomorrow? Appears that there is no waiting list at the moment. There was also an Amazon email giving me a few hints on 'how to' for when I get it out of the box.

Will let you know if the 3G works down South of the island.

[John]

I popped into MT and Danny the sales lad told me the 3G will work!!! Glad I never ordered one.

[Amime]

I popped into MT and Danny the sales lad told me the 3G will work!!! Glad I never ordered one.

 

Hi

 

As a new person on the forum I am unable to post new topics, hence my hi-jacking this one for a question.

Does anyone know where I can buy a Sony e-book reader in the Isle of Man?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Slim]

 

 

As a new person on the forum I am unable to post new topics, hence my hi-jacking this one for a question.

Does anyone know where I can buy a Sony e-book reader in the Isle of Man?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Waterstones have em. They don't look particularly good value compared to the kindle though.

[Mr. Sausages]

That was a mirage.

[jimbms]

That was a mirage.

Or it could have been a MIG 15

[Amime]

 

 

As a new person on the forum I am unable to post new topics, hence my hi-jacking this one for a question.

Does anyone know where I can buy a Sony e-book reader in the Isle of Man?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Waterstones have em. They don't look particularly good value compared to the kindle though.

 

 

Hi

The reason why I would prefer a Sony to a Kindle is due to the book format. Sony uses .epub whilst Amazon uses .azw and their DRM policies.

[parchedpeas]

Amazon uses mobi doesn't it? And Callibre converts everything to Kindle format anyway.