Kindle Is Coming

[white.grant]

This may be a bit librarian of me but, Amazon are going to make the Kindle available internationally - :beerbang: YAY :beerbang: - so all of your favourite brewing books, newspapers, magazines and other content can be on one handy device. They also are promising that the wireless connection will be free, so you don't have to worry about the ginormous 3g data costs.

This will really change the way we think about reading and at $279 USD is reasonably priced.

I'm almost redundant

more on amazon.com

cheers

grant

 

[peas_and_corn]

Will the wireless/internet stuff be available? Last I heard it wasn't because they hadn't stitched up an appropriate deal with the telecoms in Australia

 

[Adamt]

They'll find some way to justify a ridiculous charge for bandwidth to keep on par with the rest of Internet services in Australia.

 

[white.grant]

Will the wireless/internet stuff be available? Last I heard it wasn't because they hadn't stitched up an appropriate deal with the telecoms in Australia

Yes, I understand that was the initial hurdle, but while not mentioning any telco names, they appear to be ready to go. The international license agreement reads

General. Amazon provides wireless connectivity free of charge to you for certain content shopping and downloading services on your Device. You may be charged a fee for wireless connectivity for your use of other wireless services on your Device, such as Web browsing and downloading of personal files, should you elect to use those services. We will maintain a list of current fees for such services in the Kindle Store. Amazon reserves the right to discontinue wireless connectivity at any time or to otherwise change the terms for wireless connectivity at any time, including, but not limited to (a) limiting the number and size of data files that may be transferred using wireless connectivity and (B) changing the amount and terms applicable for wireless connectivity charges.

I imagine the relative data costs will be factored into the "book" prices anyway.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I know downloading the books is free, as well as some of the newspaper services. Wikipedia is free to browse.

However, this is based on what they can do in the US.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'm with you though, GrantW, if it's as good as the reviews say they are, then as Kindle might very well be on my Christmas wish list. Since they're already up to version 2 (or is it higher now?), they have sorted out some of the design flaws and programming bugs that existed with version 1.

The whole 'digital ink' stuff and all the auto save points and other such little nifty features makes the Kindle seem pretty nice.

 

[bum]

It seems a cool bit of kit but I really like books.

Death to Kindle!

 

[peas_and_corn]

For me the biggests attraction is the option to subscribe to newspapers and have them automatically download every morning. I'd love to get up to have The Australian and New York Post ready for me to read.

 

[bum]

Nah, it does seem cool. I hope it's awesome for anyone who buys one.

Feel better soon, Kindle.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

kindle seems cool ... but I have had a stock standard PDA for the last 5 years and been doing all that stuff anyway. Free newspapers, free books if you are willing to limit yourself to the huge public domain stock (or are unscrupulous enough to download pirate copies)

I rarely read paper books anymore, at first I didn't think I would like the screen based reading.. but you get over it really quickly and realise its the words that matter not the medium in which they are presented. As long as you can read in all the same situations - curled up on the couch, in bed, on the bus etc etc. Then it ceases to matter when the content is good. In fact my PDA is better, because I can read it in the dark and dont have to have a light on to read in bed... which pisses off swmbo.

The always online thing is a big bonus, though. I have to either pre-download or schlep to a hotspot - and thats a bit of a pain. I wouldn't worry about downloads... e-books are pretty light and the mobile versions of the papers only add up to a few MB per day.

I'm gonna stick with my PDA till I am no longer able to resist my desire for an iphone ... which I believe is able to access all the kindle stuff anyway??

 

[tcraig20]

I just cant come at the idea that Amazon has the capacity to interfere with my library remotely.

Its all, well, a little Orwellian.

 

[white.grant]

Well it's just arrived and now is charging up from the usb on my puter.

First impressions are that it's quite nice looking but a lot heavier than I was expecting. It's still charging up from my puter usb but I've quickly checked the wireless connectivity which seems to browse at about the same speed as my blackberry and will download some content later this afternoon. Its pretty simple otherwise.



cheers

grant

 

[peas_and_corn]

Awesome, I look forward to a review.

What's the screen glare like? ONe review said there's a little but nowhere near the glare of say, an iphone.

 

[Maple]

I'm wondering if the Apple 'tablet' will be antything like this. sounds interesting, but not sure that I can go back to Grey scale screens. Definately interesting bit of gear though.

 

[peas_and_corn]

I'm wondering if the Apple 'tablet' will be antything like this. sounds interesting, but not sure that I can go back to Grey scale screens. Definately interesting bit of gear though.

To be fair it's not an LCD, it's a different type of screen altogether. Besides, you really don't need colour to display text... right??

 

[Adamt]

But how will I find Wally in black and white?

 

[peas_and_corn]

But how will I find Wally in black and white?

:icon_offtopic:

I have a mini where's wally book, and one of the maps is 'land of woofs' which is full of dogs that look like him, and you need to find the one with three stripes on its tail. Outrageously hard.

 

[Maple]

To be fair it's not an LCD, it's a different type of screen altogether. Besides, you really don't need colour to display text... right??

Fair point, but how may really just read 'mags' for the articles...

 

[white.grant]

So far its pretty impressive. I purchased a book from Amazon and it downloaded in about 15 seconds and was ready to read.

Standing out in the sun the readability of the screen is excellent. Compared to my blackberry or other LCD screen devices the glare just doesn't factor into it.

The look of the screen reminds me of the early B&W MAC IIs, its got that same feel to the font and the screen layout

I haven't read the instructions yet and most things are falling into place so that's a good sign that its easy to use. Apparently there's an email address that i can send word docs and pdfs to and it will translate them into the kindle format and then drop them on the device.

cheers

grant

 

[peas_and_corn]

I haven't read the instructions yet and most things are falling into place so that's a good sign that its easy to use. Apparently there's an email address that i can send word docs and pdfs to and it will translate them into the kindle format and then drop them on the device.

Sadly they will charge you a per MB rate to do that :-(

I believe there is a way of transferring directly, but you have to make the .pdf into the proprietary format with a program first.