Free data for Kindle in SA

Gekco said:
Ahh. Good news.
What attracts me to the idea is the cheaper prices of the books and the portability thereof.
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That will depend on the books. Don't expect to find many new releases in the Kindle store, at least not ones that will be available to South Africans. Unless Amazon sorts out some deal for geographic restrictions then some people are going to be severely disappointed. Also all international users will have to pay a premium of 40% for releases. Some publishers even seem to charge more for a ebook than the physical version.

Portability is the major plus of any e-reader device. You can actually carry a whole library's worth of books with you (provided that you have that many ebooks).

risingtide said:
Can the books or pdf document be printed? $0.99 per PDF page is ridiculous. Even per document it would be too much. I am not going to buy any reader if i can't just upload my own PDF's to it.
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The DRM will most likely prevent any printing to be done from the files unless it's not a DRM-ed file. Also if my understanding is correct the Kindle doesn't support any other DRM versions (PRC, PDF) of files and does not support the newer ePub format that is becoming the standard for ebooks.

Another fact to keep in mind is that books from the Kindle store will be locked to your Kindle. You won't be able to transfer your collection of books to any other device except another Kindle, so that means if a new and better device comes along you will have to stick to a Kindle and hope Amazon releases a comparable version of it.

You can actually buy from other stores than Amazon (provided that they sell you a supported format), but the reverse is not true. Someone with another device will not be able to currently buy from Amazon.

Conversions of files can be done locally on your PC and transfered via USB, so you don't need to use Wispernet (the online facility) so you won't have to pay the $0.99 conversion fee.
 
Another option is to just get the USA version, and have access to the entire catalog (there are however books which are not available in the USA, and are avail. in other regions).

I've had the international version for a few months - works really well, and is easy to use. Only limitation being the lack of wireless. Its not really a big issue.
 
Ap0c said:
Another option is to just get the USA version, and have access to the entire catalog (there are however books which are not available in the USA, and are avail. in other regions).

I've had the international version for a few months - works really well, and is easy to use. Only limitation being the lack of wireless. Its not really a big issue.
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Mmm... how does that work. Obviously with the US version you won't be able to use the wireless connection to download the books so I assume that's done via a PC.

The thing is that it seems as if Amazon detects where you are based on your IP and physical location of your CC. So unless you have a US credit card I don't think you will be able to buy from the US Kindle store.
 
ooooh i want i want! will have to wait for December though :(

And it shouldnt be backlit, its supposed to look like the page of a book. when you backlight it doesnt, and secondly cannot provide such long reading times without straining the eyes as anything backlit will strain the eyes from the contrast.

I want i want!
 
I may have read somewhere that international sales have an addition $1.99 fee per purchase, I may be wrong though.

$1.99

So yeah, your "free download" is actually at R14 currently.
 
Not long ago I had to stay at a guest house in the platteland somewhere and the only connectivity that was available was GPRS. I wonder how long a book will take to download at 5kB/s ;)
 
v3gout said:
Hmm ... what does RICA say about such a device?
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Now there's a good question - can someone take the provided sim out and use it for data? And even if you can't, surely there is a rica implication...?
 
Suprisingly most books are quite small in filesize. I'm not familiar with the Kindle filesize but ePub and PRC files tend to be around 300 - 500KB including cover art.

The Kindle won't be using a SIM so there won't be a way to remove it.
 
NightTimeHornets said:
Pros:
Relatively cheap 'books';
No massive library of physical books;
Your collection is always accessible online;
Portability;

Cons:
Can't lend books to friends;
Some people desire to display their physical libraries;
Somewhat crumby interface (based on web reports);
Can only purchase through Amazon, so cheaper e-books elsewhere become irrelevant.
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I'll put no library of physical books under cons. The price of the books is another con; very high considering there are no printing costs involved. Portability would go under pro if carrying large technical or non-fiction books, but fiction is in general already completely, easily portable and I have no need to be able to carry hundreds of books of fiction with me.

And of course the cost of the device itself is a huge con.

krycor said:
R44(old)/R88(new)

hrm.. according to exclusive books, e.g. a typical dan brown novel(old) goes for about R177 excl. delivery.
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Why would you buy from Exclusive Books in the first place?
 
I'm considering one at that price.

Could anyone that's bought one please indicate the final price including customs, delivery etc. Whether I'll ever buy books from Amazon via 3G is debatable, maybe some quick-read stuff but it'll depend entirely on price & availability.

I don't fancy begin locked into any device, so if I purchase non-DRM books elsewhere, convert & load them via USB, will Amazon still have the ability to delete them like they recently did with the Orwell books? Perhaps more an issue of principal - I'd obviously keep off-device backups.

One last thing, how does the experience (build quality, reliability, readability) compare with the Sony's? The PRS-505 (discontinued now?) goes for R1800 on ebay, the newer PRS-600 for R2700. So in terms of choice, the Kindle list price is cheaper than the 600 but is it better than the 505?

Thx!
 
TheMightyP said:
Now there's a good question - can someone take the provided sim out and use it for data? And even if you can't, surely there is a rica implication...?
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I believe the device is simless. In other words, a "hard-coded" sim, giving it its IMEI, managing network profiles and whatever else GSM needs a phone to do to logon to the network.

it would make big sense to have hardcoded the APN details too. Cause if not that would leave a way open for someone creative - depending on what you could get its ROM to boot - to make it act as a router. I really doubt this thing has much processing power though.

And as for the $1.99 delivery fee, i thought this is what they meant by "free" delivery now for SA. Before you paid $1.99 to cover the roaming costs, now AT&T have a contract in place with Vodacom (pls no!) or MTN and it seems to be cheap enough to drop the $1.99 fee. Thats how I understood it anyway.

I would like to hear from someone who gets one though. Cause im very skeptical of getting 60sec downloands here. i mean our cellphone providers can hardly run a 3G network short of a disaster.
 
rurapente said:
I believe the device is simless. In other words, a "hard-coded" sim, giving it its IMEI, managing network profiles and whatever else GSM needs a phone to do to logon to the network.

it would make big sense to have hardcoded the APN details too. Cause if not that would leave a way open for someone creative - depending on what you could get its ROM to boot - to make it act as a router. I really doubt this thing has much processing power though.

And as for the $1.99 delivery fee, i thought this is what they meant by "free" delivery now for SA. Before you paid $1.99 to cover the roaming costs, now AT&T have a contract in place with Vodacom (pls no!) or MTN and it seems to be cheap enough to drop the $1.99 fee. Thats how I understood it anyway.

I would like to hear from someone who gets one though. Cause im very skeptical of getting 60sec downloands here. i mean our cellphone providers can hardly run a 3G network short of a disaster.
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I was under the impression the price would be automatically added to the book, so for internationals the price is $11.99 while US get it at $10 - but when you broswe the store, the book is at $11.99, you wont even know of the fee, it's just hidden in the book price.

I may be wrong though.
 
While the cost of a eReader device is expensive prices will go down in the future. It already has by quite a margin.

Depending on your reading habits and where you buy your ebooks your savings on books could pay for the device within a year. Savings per book can range between R20 - R70.
 
I've been using e-books for some time now - some great, some not - kindle falls in my opinion in the latter category.

Remember the US versions have a different radio to to what the rest of the world use and see as 3G - so they will not work anywhere except the US with their pathetic GSM networks.

So it's take us around 10 minutes to figure out how to change the e-SIM's APN and tunnel out for tethering to a computer - yippee - free surfing...!

I seriously doubt that data charges will be free in SA. Although most books are small, some are rather big - I have a couple of 50meg+ books on some of my readers - Who is going to cover that costs...???

Lastly - anyone who forces me to use their own proprietary money making scheme sucks big time. Why would I want to use someone who charges me to load something on a device I have already paid for? For instance - I write a book called "Kindle sucks" and to get it on the device I have to pay Amazon a fee...????...WTF - who is so gullible...???!!:sick:
 
Oh, forgot to mention - If Apple comes out with the tablet we think they will bring to market, kiss the e-ink reader market goodbye.

If I have two devices - one can only display books in shades of grey and the other can surf the web, show the books and magazines in full colour, get mail, watch a video, and load a couple of other apps such as a presentation for the important meeting later the day - guess which one 99.9% of people will choose...

Everybody else will start copying Apple's tablet sending the e-ink company exec's running to draw up the next business plan. All e-ink companies think they have cracked the market - especially those based in Holland.

Suggest we hold of and wait till middle next year to see the announcements....
 
HDC said:
Oh, forgot to mention - If Apple comes out with the tablet we think they will bring to market, kiss the e-ink reader market goodbye.

If I have two devices - one can only display books in shades of grey and the other can surf the web, show the books and magazines in full colour, get mail, watch a video, and load a couple of other apps such as a presentation for the important meeting later the day - guess which one 99.9% of people will choose...

Everybody else will start copying Apple's tablet sending the e-ink company exec's running to draw up the next business plan. All e-ink companies think they have cracked the market - especially those based in Holland.

Suggest we hold of and wait till middle next year to see the announcements....
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Sure, a device that could do all that would be nice - but it wouldn't be an eInk screen. And believe me, the eInk screen is worth it, it's a million times better than an ordinary screen.
 
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