Amazon Kindle for SA

rurapente said:
Kindle is not just about digital media. Its a step towards where paper is evolving. Paper is ugly, its in the way, its messy, it ruins the environment and it can only be used once.

I would buy a kindle if for nothing more than to get books on it to replace having them in paper form. I dont like paper :)
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Well, to be more correct is that e-Ink (and similar) is the direction where paper is evolving. The Kindle is just one device, and a pretty restrictive device at that. There are many e-ink devices that have something more to offer than the Kindle. The main advantage of the Kindle is the Wireless distribution (a moot point for some) and the large amount of books they can currently offer.

The e-book world will be a completely different place in a year or two. B&N, Sony and Google will be offering ePub books, so either Amazon will have to follow the same route and make the Kindle ePub compatible (and start offering books to non-Kindle owners) or stand to risk losing their number 1 position as e-book retailer.

It's early days yet, and the future will be very interesting. Especially once flexible displays have matured and became affordable...
 
Crusader said:
Well, to be more correct is that e-Ink (and similar) is the direction where paper is evolving. The Kindle is just one device, and a pretty restrictive device at that. There are many e-ink devices that have something more to offer than the Kindle. The main advantage of the Kindle is the Wireless distribution (a moot point for some) and the large amount of books they can currently offer.

The e-book world will be a completely different place in a year or two. B&N, Sony and Google will be offering ePub books, so either Amazon will have to follow the same route and make the Kindle ePub compatible (and start offering books to non-Kindle owners) or stand to risk losing their number 1 position as e-book retailer.

It's early days yet, and the future will be very interesting. Especially once flexible displays have matured and became affordable...
Click to expand...

I don't care about Ebooks but would like to display text or html on a large A4 e-ink display of high resolution - that's A4 screen size sans the space for the controls and frame at say 1280 by 1024 or higher, with decent battery life and good storage - at least 4GB - heck flash is so cheap they could make it 16GB minimum.
 
rurapente said:
Kindle is not just about digital media. Its a step towards where paper is evolving. Paper is ugly, its in the way, its messy, it ruins the environment and it can only be used once.

I would buy a kindle if for nothing more than to get books on it to replace having them in paper form. I dont like paper :)
Click to expand...

True that!! Books are going the way CDs have gone. I very rarely buy a CD anymore - mainly download from iTunes. Think books will eventually move towards that direction. They will never die away completely but digital versions will become more and more popular.

Kindle rocks :D:D:D
 
Crusader said:
Well, to be more correct is that e-Ink (and similar) is the direction where paper is evolving. The Kindle is just one device, and a pretty restrictive device at that. There are many e-ink devices that have something more to offer than the Kindle. The main advantage of the Kindle is the Wireless distribution (a moot point for some) and the large amount of books they can currently offer.

The e-book world will be a completely different place in a year or two. B&N, Sony and Google will be offering ePub books, so either Amazon will have to follow the same route and make the Kindle ePub compatible (and start offering books to non-Kindle owners) or stand to risk losing their number 1 position as e-book retailer.

It's early days yet, and the future will be very interesting. Especially once flexible displays have matured and became affordable...
Click to expand...

Hmmm... we'll have to see what happens in the future. Same thing happened with Apple - everyone went MP3 whilst apple went AAC with DRM. Most successful online music store? Apple's iTunes Store!! (Think I heard somewhere that they have like a 70% market share for online music). Ok, they have stripped their DRM on their music now but even when they had DRM they were still the most successful.
Amazon "seems" to be following in their footsteps. They also have the largest market share out of all the e-book readers! Let's just see how it goes - hopefully one day all the publishers can strip DRM too ;)
In my opinion the Nook is the only real competitor for the Kindle. Hopefully they'll keep each other in their toes :D
 
rapidblue said:
Glad you loving your Kindle - they are just sooooo awesome :D

Thanx for the tip on the credit card. Means we don't have to keep our accounts topped-up with vouchers...
Regarding the $1.99 delivery fee on a US account. If your billing address for your credit card (under "Your Account" - "Manage Payment Options") is a US address - they charge $1.99. If it is set to a SA address then no more delivery fee ;)
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Yup can confirm this... so I now have best of both worlds... I have US books available at US prices and even if I order on the device I am not being charged the $ 1.99 I will order one or 2 more just to make sure :)

As for the sync there is a link on the "Manage your kindle" page for syncronization just turn it off...

Does any one know what happens with notes you make ? it seems if you have 2 devices these notes will be viewable on both ? it is on kindle for pc and my kindle... not a train smash but would be nice to have it only on spesific device ....
 
mmm on the whole future of ebooks... I agree with DRM actually...

I read alot but would rather pay for the content, how will anybody manage digtial rights with open ebooks ? and why wood good Authors go that route if they dont get money ?

I will continue paying so authors like Dan Brown and Clive Cussler will continue writing heaven forbid we end up with mills and boons books only lol....
 
herbertk said:
mmm on the whole future of ebooks... I agree with DRM actually...

I read alot but would rather pay for the content, how will anybody manage digtial rights with open ebooks ? and why wood good Authors go that route if they dont get money ?

I will continue paying so authors like Dan Brown and Clive Cussler will continue writing heaven forbid we end up with mills and boons books only lol....
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True. Maybe DRM should stay just so ppl keeping paying for books instead of getting them for free from friends. Maybe if more devices supported Amazon's DRM then more ppl would be open to the idea. Then again, Apple's DRM (like TV shows etc) is not available out of iTunes/iPods/iPhone/Apple TV and ppl aren't scared of downloading them...
 
herbertk said:
Yup can confirm this... so I now have best of both worlds... I have US books available at US prices and even if I order on the device I am not being charged the $ 1.99 I will order one or 2 more just to make sure :)

As for the sync there is a link on the "Manage your kindle" page for syncronization just turn it off...

Does any one know what happens with notes you make ? it seems if you have 2 devices these notes will be viewable on both ? it is on kindle for pc and my kindle... not a train smash but would be nice to have it only on spesific device ....
Click to expand...

Just don't send the book to a second Kindle via Whispernet - then you pay the $1.99 fee...
 
just ordered mine :) hopefuly they rushing to load it into the DHL Jumbo as we speak (i wish.. lol) :)
 
They actually deliver pretty quickly - ordered mine on a Wednesday evening, and had it in my hands the Monday morning at around 10AM.
 
simp said:
They actually deliver pretty quickly - ordered mine on a Wednesday evening, and had it in my hands the Monday morning at around 10AM.
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Same here, ordered early Thursday morning and had it Monday lunch time :D
Pretty cheap shipping for that service!! Then again, Amazon is probably a rather large client for UPS so they must get a lekker discount ;)
 
mine's on DHL, and it currently arrived at Cincinnatty sorting facility at 03am this morning. I can just picture her sitting there quietly in the box, all excited to find a new owner and waiting for the long-haul flight over the atlantic :)

They must hurry up and take-off now! :)
 
rurapente said:
mine's on DHL, and it currently arrived at Cincinnatty sorting facility at 03am this morning. I can just picture her sitting there quietly in the box, all excited to find a new owner and waiting for the long-haul flight over the atlantic :)

They must hurry up and take-off now! :)
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Glad to see I'm not the only one that tracks my packages everywhere I go. Checked my Kindle's location like 5 times a day ;)
 
yeah me too :) mine's still in cincinatti. local time now there is 16h15 and the device been there since 03h30 so i hope it pushes off soon.
 
oh my word this thing is booked on a round-the-world fare :) lol

Left Cincinatti, arrived Liepsig, Germany, then left and arrived at East Midlands, UK. Then left and no update since then. lol
 
rurapente said:
mine's on DHL, and it currently arrived at Cincinnatty sorting facility at 03am this morning. I can just picture her sitting there quietly in the box, all excited to find a new owner and waiting for the long-haul flight over the atlantic :)

They must hurry up and take-off now! :)
Click to expand...
Hope it brought along something to read . . . :D
 
rurapente said:
oh my word this thing is booked on a round-the-world fare :) lol

Left Cincinatti, arrived Liepsig, Germany, then left and arrived at East Midlands, UK. Then left and no update since then. lol
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Wow!! Think mine went straight from the States to France and then to SA :cool:
 
did any of u ever watch the DHL program on Discovery?

it showed a parcel travelling to another country, and also was a documentary on their flights. Its really amazing.

They operating some of their Jumbo jets (or at least 747s) on a non-stop cycle for up to a month. That means its never on the ground for more than like 3h or they lose money. It literally lands, empties, fills, fuels, changes pilots and its gone.

And their system is uber-sophisticated. chances are the route your kindle took was entirely chosen by a mainframe to be the most efficient and best-time vs cost to them.
 
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