Kindle

landranger

Sooooo has anyone here got one?

My gf wants one, just for the book reading really, a bit of internet that's all. She doesn't want an ipad. Tooo pricey.

My question is this, what's the difference between the Kindle wi-fi and the Kindle wi-fi with 3G? (apart from 40 quid) What more can you do with the 3G than you can't without.

Plus, what other stuff can you do on these things??

Cheers all

Mynameisdann

New WebKit-Based Browser - Free 3G web browsing (experimental)

Think thats about it not sure how worthwhile it will be apart from the slow sites such as google.

landranger

So with the 3G you can surf the net - a bit - but it's not a full on web browser?

gdcfc1

You can browse the web with both 3G and wifi. For wifi browsing you obviously need to be near a router and able to connect to it (eg at home connecting to your wireless router or in Starbucks, etc). With 3G you can pretty much browse anywhere in the world - and its free even if a bit slower.

Reason I love the 3G is that I travel a lot for business and so can browse - but, and better, shop for kindle books anywhere I go. The Kindle nicely links right in.

Just read "In Search of Robert Millar" by Richard Moore on my Kindle - a great read and a cycling book that really gave the sense of the speed those guys ride at and effort they put in.

Daz555

My wife has the wifi Kindle - has no need for the 3G version as the browser is not that great to be honest and as the Kindle holds several thousand books has no need to just have to suddenly buy one when out and about via 3G.

If you want a web browser and multimedia showboat buy a tablet. If you want a ebook reader, buy a Kindle.

I bought my wife the Kindle for Christmas and after initial skepticism, she is now a total convert.

bartimaeus

Daz555 wrote:

I bought my wife the Kindle for Christmas and after initial skepticism, she is now a total convert.

Yep - I too got my wife a Kindle for Christmas. It's a great eBook, and as you only need connectivity to download new material the wi-fi only version is fine.

The main limitations seem to be that it has no in-built lighting, and it's not a great choice for reading in the bath. It's also not multi-touch so everything is done with the buttons. Button navigation and a black and white screen limit its appeal as a browser. Apparently it will play music... I must load some up.

Best of all, anything out of copyright is free - either from Amazon or from other sources. I pre-loaded the wife's with the complete works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Jane Austen amongst others.

ashleymp777

I bought my GF the 3G version which enables you to download the books you want via your Amazon account straight away.

I've had a quick play with it and I was well impressed. So easy to use, navigation is great and the page easy to read!

Tartanyak

I bought kindle. My girlfriend bought kindle. My sister got kindle. We bought my dad a kindle. Mine goes everywhere with me.

If you travel at all, it's wonderful. I got the 3G version and that's happy in every country I've been in.

kindle.

Although, it did crash this morning.

Anonymous

I haven't used either (although I fancy one), but I have read that the WiFi only one has better battery life, apparently. And that there's a big difference in battery life.

jairaj

I think the 3g version is supposed to be for people wanting to download newspapers or magazines daily while on the move, eg on train commute to work etc. TBH its not hard to remember to update it before you leave home via wi-fi. The 3g is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion.

.blitz

Had a play with one a while back. Doesn't the screen go negative every time you turn the page?

Complete pants IMO.

Anonymous

.blitz wrote:

Had a play with one a while back. Doesn't the screen go negative every time you turn the page?

No :?

Chunkers1980

How do you pay for 3G access?

bartimaeus

You don't - it's free... I think it may be through vodafone. It's not like you are likely to use an enormous amount of bandwidth with your Kindle.

Daz555

Chunkers1980 wrote:

How do you pay for 3G access?

It is included. Amazon have factored it into the cost of the books/mags etc which you download.

.blitz wrote:

Had a play with one a while back. Doesn't the screen go negative every time you turn the page?

Complete pants IMO.

You can see the page refresh for a fraction of the time it takes you to turn a page on a paper book. Thankfully Amazon decided not to include some naff page turning animation and went for the purely functional. Far from pants.

Tartanyak

Made up for by actually nice to read on.

3G ones do suck more power, but the clever people just turn all wireless off (it's straight on the main menu) when you don't need it. You only need it on when you're getting new books anyway.

The 3G isn't a gimmick if you travel lots, read lots, aren't near wifi connections constantly and/or aren't that organised.

The 3G cost is indeed factored into the price of the books. you think about it - a book is about a MB in size (give or take). Compressed, that's gonna hit about 100KB. That's not a lot of data to send. There's an agreement so that wherever you are in about 100 countries, the 3G will work and cost you nowt. Far from a gimmick. I've used mine lots.

They aren't ipads nor are they tablets. The screens have a visible refresh. They can't show fast moving things. But, importantly, they take no power if they're not changing and they look like paper, so comfy to read for much, much longer than a backlit LCD.

phz

got my wife a wifi one for xmas - she loves it - reads daily and the thing hasn't needed charging yet!

For what its intended to be for (ebook reader) I'm not sure there's anything better - certainly not for the money.

slainte 8) rob

tlw1

I had a play on one & was very impressed. I nearly bought one but needed the better web access & PDF reading (without work arounds) that the iPad offered, but thinking about getting the wife one.

Anonymous

matthew h wrote:

I had a play on one & was very impressed. I nearly bought one but needed the iPad offered, but thinking about getting the wife one.

Yeah, cause an iPad is exactly what everybody needs

The kindle is a thing for reading books on. Like, properly reading. That is it's purpose.
It's like saying
"I nearly bought a Canon EOS 1Ds, but I also needed to make phone calls, so I bought a mobile phone with a camera on instead"

ol\'gregg

I bought my girlfriend a book it was much cheaper

The Northern Monkey

ol\'gregg wrote:

I bought my girlfriend a book it was much cheaper

was gonna say...

buy 50 books from an old book shop instead!

tlw1

yeehaamcgee wrote:

matthew h wrote:

I had a play on one & was very impressed. I nearly bought one but needed the iPad offered, but thinking about getting the wife one.

Yeah, cause an iPad is exactly what everybody needs

The kindle is a thing for reading books on. Like, properly reading. That is it's purpose.
It's like saying
"I nearly bought a Canon EOS 1Ds, but I also needed to make phone calls, so I bought a mobile phone with a camera on instead"

I am using it for reading course material - which I believe is still classed as reading

Anonymous

Yeah, I read several engineering, and programming books too. But apart from that, I love to sit down with a good novel.
It's a neat way of carrying a book around, with almost no bulk.