Thanks, everyone. Mawvellous, thanks for the offer to try out your Kindle. I think that shop on Bade might have reduced the price a bit now. Going over there this evening to take a look. However, if they don’t have stock, then I’ll be in touch!
One more question for now - if you already have an Amazon / Kindle account with a linked credit card, you can just register your Kindle device using that account name and password, is that right? That’s how it looks from the user guide and from a comment Jlick made last year. I already have some Kindle books that I’ve been reading on the PC Kindle app, and I don’t want to have to create a new account.
Yup, just register it with your current account. Your Kindle will then have an ‘Archived’ folder with your currently purchased content which you can click on to download to the Kindle.
Be careful though as it’s one-click shopping. I assumed one-click would have an intermediary step asking if you were sure but nope, bought myself some really awful first time novel.
If you do accidentally buy something on your Kindle, there’s a small link on the next page something like “bought by mistake” which you can click to cancel immediately. If you miss it, or buy through the web, you can also contact kindle support and ask for a refund. They’ll give you a refund within the first seven days no problem as long as you don’t abuse it.
Has anybody tried out the Kindle with Special Offers? I’m assuming the ads would not be Taiwan specific, not that it really matters too much for most people. However, is the current $25 in savings worth it for putting up with ads on the screen saver and the homepage?
Mine just arrived but its F*ing broken. I am furious now. I’ve been waiting months for it to arrive. On the phone now with Amazon but they aren’t much help. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a way to replace these in taiwan?
When the screen on mine froze, they sent out a replacement immediately. I was very impressed with their customer service.
How did your Kindle take months to arrive? They should take a couple of weeks maximum to get from the US and clear customs in Taiwan.
When the screen on mine froze, they sent out a replacement immediately. I was very impressed with their customer service.
How did your Kindle take months to arrive? They should take a couple of weeks maximum to get from the US and clear customs in Taiwan.[/quote]
The ‘taking months’ part was because I ordered it awhile ago and had amazon ship it to a friend to bring when he visited me in Taiwan. He forgot it there and it had to be shipped. Its been a long wait and just when I think I’ve got it, its broken. I called Amazon and they’re gonna ship another. Overall I’m impressed with the customer service, but it seems that this is a widespread problem with screens breaking and I’m a bit anxious to see if there is a problem with the next one.
I had a screen problem wih mine also. It happened about a week after I got it but I think it was because I had it in my scooter and I put too much stress on it while riding. CS was great and I had a new one within about 4 days. I still have the old one and I took it apart just to see what it looked like. I wasn’t too surprised to see it had a large label indicating “Made in China”. I think Amazon is trying to improve QA but it seems to be a long time coming.
Be sure to try to charge it for a couple of hours just to make sure. If it’s been sitting around for a couple of months it’s quite possible the battery is drained. When the battery is completely discharged it can take 15 minutes of charging before it’ll wake up again.
The new Kindle that came out recently looks great - lighter, page numbers, improved pdf abilities, and better screen contrast. The problem is that none of the books I’ve ordered over the past few months are available on the Kindle. In fact the one book that was available cost more than a paper copy!
Am I missing some secret source of Kindle-friendly books or is there still a huge number of books unavailable for the K ?
It depends on what you read. For new releases, nearly all of the mainstream/bestseller books come out at release or at most a couple of months later, and most releases for the past 2-3 years are also available. The major exception is children’s/YA books where most books are not released in ebook. If it’s anything older than 5 years then it’s quite spotty whether or not it is available, though publishers are steadily converting over their back catalogs. They tend to concentrate on their titles that are still selling well, though, so the more obscure stuff will wait.
For really old stuff that’s out of copyright there’s a lot of sources where you can look. Google the title along with terms like ebook, kindle, mobi, etc. Copyright terms vary by country so sometimes an older title is public domain in one country but not another.
[quote=“Dial”]The new Kindle that came out recently looks great - lighter, page numbers, improved pdf abilities, and better screen contrast. The problem is that none of the books I’ve ordered over the past few months are available on the Kindle. In fact the one book that was available cost more than a paper copy!
Am I missing some secret source of Kindle-friendly books or is there still a huge number of books unavailable for the K ?[/quote]
Sometimes Kindle books are available “in America” but not elsewhere.
Quick way to check: use Firefox, turn on private browsing, shop in the Kindle store, and change your area to United States. That will let you know if the book is available in America or not. If it is, then you may choose to get complicated and, er, find yourself a US address - I toggle back and forth between US and Asia once in a while.
Re: page numbers - all the current Kindles have page numbers now; that’s a software update, not a hardware update, and it happened about six months ago. Note that not all books have page numbers - it depends on the coding, I suppose.
Academic publishers are a pain on the Kindle. Their paperbacks can cost $100; they’ll seldom have Kindle editions, and when they do you can get a huge bargain by spending $90. Twits that think making a profit by selling to libraries only is a good idea.
It does seem my reading tastes/interests are not yet really catered to by the Kindle. I hope the next frontier is to go beyond best sellers and classics. There’s a lot of books out there that don’t fit into either category. Some of them are ‘academic’ but many are not.
Regarding academic publishing. I love the ‘open access’ policy of re.press in Melbourne. Books are available for both free download and for purchase from a bricks and mortar bookstore; the belief is that this benefits both commerce and the flow of information. The future of publishing, I’d like to think…
[quote=“Dial”]Regarding academic publishing. I love the ‘open access’ policy of re.press in Melbourne. Books are available for both free download and for purchase from a bricks and mortar bookstore; the belief is that this benefits both commerce and the flow of information. The future of publishing, I’d like to think… re-press.org/about/open-access/[/quote]
Oh if only more academic publishers went that way. Great site - thanks. That side of publishing is due for a major shake-up. I’m working on my PhD right now, and I’ve seen so many Kindle books that I’d buy in a heartbeat if they were in the $10 to $20 range, but they’re up in the $70 range. Ridiculous.
It does look like Amazon is slowly going to work its way backwards in, um, kindling its catalog: things published 6-7 years ago are more likely to have Kindle editions now than they were a year ago, for example.
kno.com has recently released an iPad app. They claim to have 70,000+ titles at 30-50% off list price. There are also additional features like notes, highlighting and sharing, so it looks promising. I suppose if the concept is successful, you’ll see more textbooks being ported to e-reading platforms.
Nice. That’s the kind of thing that the iPad seems much better suited for than the Kindle. I love my Kindle for casual reading, but for studying/ research purposes it’s not too hot; I expect in another couple of years I’ll be using both a tablet and an e-reader regularly.
I seldom read best sellers or classics, but have had no problem finding books that fit my interests on Kindle. Actually, living in Taiwan, it’s more likely that I’d find books I’m interested in on Kindle than at Page One, Eslite or other local booksellers.
