Buying a Kindle, please help

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NotVeryTechie

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Hi there

I hope this is the right forum to post this.

I would like to buy a Kindle for my dad. I live in the UK, my dad is in Roodepoort. I have researched this is bit and it seems that I would need to buy the Kindle from Amazon.com, not UK. Does any one know how I can do this?

Will my dad be able to sign up after receiving the unit so that he can buy books?

My parents don't have Wi-Fi, so I would get the 3G version. How well does that work?

Any other thoughts and advice on this.

Hope you can help
All the best
NotVeryTechie
 
I believe that Makro sells them as well.
Might be quicker for him.
 
there are local places where you could get it, but as they import them as well, it could work you out cheaper to buy direct from Amazon.

bought 1 and it arrived in less than 1 week.

they only have the 2 models as far as I know: WiFi+3G and WiFi only. the 1st being more ofc.

father bought one for his gran and since she doesn't have stable WiFi, the 3G is great.

no WiFi meaning no internet at all? I don't see it being an issue as long as some1 creates him a Amazon.com account to which he will be linking his Kindle.

from there he will be able to browse the store via the Kindle.
 
NotVeryTechie said:
Hi there

I hope this is the right forum to post this.

I would like to buy a Kindle for my dad. I live in the UK, my dad is in Roodepoort. I have researched this is bit and it seems that I would need to buy the Kindle from Amazon.com, not UK. Does any one know how I can do this?

Will my dad be able to sign up after receiving the unit so that he can buy books?

My parents don't have Wi-Fi, so I would get the 3G version. How well does that work?

Any other thoughts and advice on this.

Hope you can help
All the best
NotVeryTechie
Click to expand...

Order it from Amazon.com and set the delivery address to your dad's .

The 3G is built in and "just works" , no setup needed. You turn it on, and there you go. It is free.

Your dad will need his own Amazon account (or you can create him one) where he will link his Kindle to and buy ebooks from. You can link the kindle to an account when you first start it up and connect. You can manage which devices are linked to which account on the web also.
 
Last edited:
Did this 3 weeks ago so i'll give you a rundown:

Create an Amazon account for yourself if you don't have one
Next,go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZ1Y7M and Specify the Product as South Africa in the country of use and mark it as "This will be a gift" - This prevents it from being Automatically registered to your Amazon account
Set the delivery address etc and buy the sucker
Once it arrives and he starts it up he can "Register" the kindle to his own Amazon account under the Home screen by pressing Menu -> Settings -> Registration

The 3G Roaming runs on the Vodacom network if I remember right,never had any issues

Buy a cover if possible for it as well :)
 
Absolutely do not buy from local outlets like Makro, because their markups on Kindles is nothing short of criminal and you will pay many hundreds of rands for the 'convenience' of buying locally. The simple procedures mentioned above work an absolute treat and the device will be here within a week. As mentioned, the free-for-life 3G works out of the box in South Africa.
 
Thanks everyone! Sounds like it will be easy to do. Can't wait to surprise the old man.

He does have internet, but no wi-fi, so I think 3G will be best.

Thanks again all!!
 
Don't forget you can also manually transfer books across from the PC to Kindle via USB.
 
My suggestion is to wait. It seems that a new kindle will be launched soon. My bet close to the end of this month
 
Will do, creeper, my dad's birthday is a bit later in Sept, so I can wait until the end of the month.
 
Also note that when your dad has his Kindle he could also set up a Kindle Cloud Reader app up on either iPad, iphone, or via Chrome Browser in Windows or Linux. He can then access his Kindle books from a variety of hardware.
Just choose to download the book in the Cloud reader app for offline reading. It will save him data costs.
 
Great idea.

I am still having problems figuring out how to do this. My IP address is in the UK and I keep getting pushed to the .co.uk Amazon address, but I need to buy from .com for a South Africa delivery. Having fun trying to get information from Amazon!
 
creeper said:
My suggestion is to wait. It seems that a new kindle will be launched soon. My bet close to the end of this month
Click to expand...

If only! Not even close, unfortunately. Despite persistent trade rumours and digging, the prototypes for a Kindle 4 have not even been revealed yet. Amazon is expected to announce within a month or so, and then there will be a delay before they actually go onto the market, which some industry-watchers suggest is likely to be late October -- certainly in time for the Christmas rush. So don't hold your breath while awaiting a new model!

Speculation is that there may be both a touchscreen and a keyboard model available -- and that's in addition to Amazon's actual tablet, a separate device awaiting release.
 
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