Amazon Kindle in Taiwan

True enough. The comparison, however, wasn’t being made between Kindle books and Page 1/Eslite, but between Kindle books and Amazon books more generally. First, in terms of general availability - there still seem to be many books that I want to purchase that aren’t available on the Kindle. And, secondly, in terms of price - Just now I checked out a book that had been recommended to me. The Amazon hardcover cost is $23.10, paperback cost $15.30, and Kindle cost $24.84. Bit disappointing - an e-book costs the publisher less, it’d be nice if some of that saving was reflected in the retail price. I am saving on the cost of postage, I suppose. My cynical side says that in time - once a degree of Kindle saturation has been attained - all e-book prices on Amazon are going to rise to equal hard-copy books.

True enough. The comparison, however, wasn’t being made between Kindle books and Page 1/Eslite, but between Kindle books and Amazon books more generally. First, in terms of general availability - there still seem to be many books that I want to purchase that aren’t available on the Kindle. And, secondly, in terms of price - Just now I checked out a book that had been recommended to me. The Amazon hardcover cost is $23.10, paperback cost $15.30, and Kindle cost $24.84. Bit disappointing - an e-book costs the publisher less, it’d be nice if some of that saving was reflected in the retail price. I am saving on the cost of postage, I suppose. My cynical side says that in time - once a degree of Kindle saturation has been attained - all e-book prices on Amazon are going to rise to equal hard-copy books.[/quote]
In general, I agree with you that theoretically, with publishing and distribution costs of e-books much lower than paper books, e-books should be across the board cheaper. But for my current situation, living in Taiwan, buying a paper book from Amazon then have it shipped to Taiwan vs buying an e-book, makes no sense at all. And the reality for us living in Taiwan, the selection of e-books available from Amazon beats the selection of paper books available locally hands-down, and generally at a better price.

Anyway, when you are pricing the e-book, do you make sure you are either signed-in with a US account, or override the location to be in the US? I’ve found the cost of the e-books is usually cheaper that way.

I think you’ll see Kindle book availability increase now that Kindle books are exceeding paper books in sales. The international selection has increased significantly and Kindle book prices have dropped over the past couple of years (there used to be a surcharge on international versions that isn’t there anymore). Most of the books I get (non fiction - business, marketing) are available for $9.99 USD which is cheaper than the paper version.

Another huge benefit for me is the saving of space. I used to collect boxes and boxes of books that I didn’t want to sell in case I wanted to refer to them in the future, which made moving a real pain. Not anymore. I can travel anywhere now with my entire Kindle collection with me at all times. :slight_smile:

Book availability will increase for sure given what a huge success the Kindle is turning out to be. That doesn’t help me much right now, however, I’m afraid. And will prices remain low?

As for too many books, I hear you on that - I have to purge on a regular basis to keep things under control.

Regarding checking availability: signing in with a US account/over-riding location both depend on either a US account or nationality, surely?

For just checking, all you need to do is log out of any account you have, then browse to the Kindle Store and select location. To actually buy under a US account you need a credit card issued by a US bank with a US billing address.

The international / US book selection difference was much worse a year or two back, when there was a $2 surcharge on international books with a much more limited selection. Nowadays though, most books are available on both sides for the same price, so it’s not as big a deal. There’s still the odd book that’s only available in US but certainly not as bad as it used to be.

I would assume that to have a US account, you would need a US credit card with a US address.

Checking to see if a book is available in one region as opposed to another is easy: you need to use Firefox and Start Private Browsing (that deactivates cookies so Amazon doesn’t know who you are: logging out works as well, but seems more time-consuming to me). Go to Amazon, and go to Kindle store: “Your country or region” is in the top left corner, and you can immediately switch between regions. You can’t do this in “normal” browser mode, because Amazon knows who you are. And after you’ve changed to the United States region, search for whatever. (Note that I’ve run across a few books which are available in Asia, but not in the US - that seems to be for British publishers.)

Buying a book that’s available in a different region is more complicated. No, you don’t need a US credit card - [strike]I’ve[/strike] er no, not me, someone I know used [strike]my[/strike] their Taiwanese card. You need to go into your Kindle settings and create a new mailing address in the United States, and choose that as your active one for the Kindle. You can’t just type in any fictional address (for example Main Street, with the one zip code we all know, 90210 - not that my friend tried that or anything, :slight_smile: ), but Googling “fake American addresses” will get you something useful. Better yet just ask a friend who lives in the states if you can use theirs. Then you can toggle back and forth between different addresses, in much the same way as most of us have probably switched addresses if we’re getting things delivered here or as presents to people back home. Oh, and be careful to never actually mail anything to that address!

A VPN to pretend you’re in America when doing this is recommended but not required. (i.e. I was mildly surprised when once I forgot to turn the VPN on, yet it still worked.)

In short: US credit card, not necessary at all; US address that Amazon considers legit, necessary. US nationality absolutely unnecessary.

Issues: I’ve heard that some people get caught and the fake address is banned, especially if they buy too many books too fast (heaven forbid any of us should try to give Amazon money to buy books!); I’m also not sure what will happen to any Kindle magazine subscriptions if you switch back and forth. And this is less necessary now than it was even six months ago, partly because books seem to be becoming available faster, and partly because I’ve bought too many damn ebooks and should actually read the ones I’ve got before spending more money.

After the initial splruge, I think my Kindle has saved me money - at least now I know an Amazon ebook will always be there, whereas when buying books in Taiwan, I developed a bad habit of buying whatever I saw, because who knew if I’d ever see it again. (Still have the same habit for groceries.)

(EDIT: What kind of books aren’t you finding with Kindle editions? Most of my shopping comes from reviews in middle brow magazines or radio shows - NPR, BBC4, Economist, NYRB - and almost everything reviewed in any of those shows up on Kindle eventually.)

You’re keeping some bad company there Lostinasia :slight_smile: Seriously though, that’s a ton of useful information. I now realize that at least three of the five books I just ordered are available on the Kindle via the sort of work-around you detail. The price on two of them is another $10 US over the paperback price: Andy Clark’s Being There - a book that straddles cognitive science and philosophy, one of them, and Bourgeois Dignity… - history, another. Nonetheless, it looks like I was mistaken and I really can get most of the books I want on the Kindle - at a price.

I have another question. I think the answer is no, but just in case anyone knows better than I do: I know it’s possible to scroll over words to get their meaning via an English-English dictionary. How about from one language to another? My g/f would like a Kindle and would buy one in a flash if she could get English to Japanese/Chinese-Japanese dictionary functionality. That is, as-you-read-functionality, not where you have to manually enter the word into a dictionary.

Seems to me like a feature that many would like. Does this sort of feature exist on the Kindle?

It can if you have a compatible dictionary installed. Unfortunately only a few languages are available right now (French, Spanish, German, Italian…) no Chinese or Japanese.

amazon.com/gp/browse/ref=sr_ … &sr=1-2-tc

Thought as much. Can’t be too far off, however.

[quote=“Dial”]I have another question. I think the answer is no, but just in case anyone knows better than I do: I know it’s possible to scroll over words to get their meaning via an English-English dictionary. How about from one language to another? My g/f would like a Kindle and would buy one in a flash if she could get English to Japanese/Chinese-Japanese dictionary functionality. That is, as-you-read-functionality, not where you have to manually enter the word into a dictionary.

Seems to me like a feature that many would like. Does this sort of feature exist on the Kindle?[/quote]

I think it is possible to get this functionality from English into Chinese or Japanese with the right dictionary application. However, it is not possible the other way round since the Kindle does not have character recognition. Hope they add this feature soon!

[quote=“Mawvellous”]Joesox
There are Kindles selling for NT7,000 from a store on Bade Rd. in front of the market. I didn’t see any cases.
However, it is much cheaper to order directly from Amazon in the US. I got a Kindle with the lighted case for US$240 (about NT7000) including shipping and customs charges, which is the same price as the you pay in Taiwan for just the machine.
The lighted case is definitely worth the money …
amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZ … B5Y03082S7[/quote]
Anyone know which store on Bade this is? I went all over the Bade computer shop area and couldn’t find any place selling kindles.

I want to find a Kindle case, if they have them.

[quote=“Chris”][quote=“Mawvellous”]Joesox
There are Kindles selling for NT7,000 from a store on Bade Rd. in front of the market. I didn’t see any cases.
However, it is much cheaper to order directly from Amazon in the US. I got a Kindle with the lighted case for US$240 (about NT7000) including shipping and customs charges, which is the same price as the you pay in Taiwan for just the machine.
The lighted case is definitely worth the money …
amazon.com/gp/product/B003DZ … B5Y03082S7[/quote]
Anyone know which store on Bade this is? I went all over the Bade computer shop area and couldn’t find any place selling kindles.

I want to find a Kindle case, if they have them.[/quote]I think the Bookpa store is at 台北市八德路一段94號. I didn’t see any Kindle cases. Prices are a bit high in general there. Why not order an M-Edge case and light? They’re really good. Sturdier than the Amazon Kindle case and the light doesn’t drain the Kindle’s own battery.
medgestore.com/products/kindle/

I went to 94 Bade Rd., and sure enough they have Kindles! But no cases.

They directed me to a place around the corner on Xinsheng Road: 貓頭鷹 (“owl”), No. 6-4 Xinsheng Road. And they had cases!

Their cases might not be designed for the Kindle 3, but they fit it perfectly. They cost NT$299, and have “Android” written on the front. Nothing fancy, but they do the job, and they’re much cheaper than the ones available from Amazon.

[quote=“Chris”]I went to 94 Bade Rd., and sure enough they have Kindles!

But no cases. They directed me to a place around the corner on Xinsheng Road: 貓頭鷹 (“owl”), No. 6-4 Xinsheng Road.

Their cases might not be designed for the Kindle 3, but they fit it perfectly. They cost $299, and have “Android” written on the front. Nothing fancy, but they do the job.[/quote]
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the price of the lowest-priced new Kindle they sell? I’m assuming that’d be the Kindle 3 Wifi.
I’m glad that you found what you were looking for, and thanks for sharing the info with us.

Didn’t notice the Kindle prices, as I was looking for cases… sorry. I did notice the boxes said WiFi on them, though.

Lots of new kindle models out now, including the kindle fire tablet. With prices as low as US$79, there’s almost no reason not to get a kindle now.

I think I’m leaning toward the basic kindle model (the $79 one) since I just want to read books and occasionally look up words, and I don’t really think I’ll need to type much. I guess now I know what I’ll be getting for Christmas.

The keypad is bloody awful anyway. Most of the user interface design is excellent, considering they have to contend with the slow update rate of e-ink … but text entry is fiddly and numeric entry (page numbers etc) is downright impossible. If all you want to do is page up and page down, the basic one is probably a good bet. But I do like the 3G facility. It’s just so damn clever. I bought an e-book while sitting in a (non-WiFi) airport the other day … just because I could.

The revolution has kicked into second gear. Yeah, agree with Finley that the keyboard sucks, but then that is why this is such a good reading devise: you have no quick distractions.

I suspect the basic version will remain popular for simply reading. I’d like to get the color for mags and newspapers.

US$79. Wow! :astonished: