The Kindle US and International Wireless Reading Device has just been released by Amazon.com. The cost is $279. Books, and US and International magazine and newspaper purchases will be made through Amazon.com in US dollars.
The Kindle has free wireless service, with good 3G coverage, so no need to locate Wi-Fi hotspots, wireless coverage in Germany and the rest of Europe is pretty excellent. Blogs and the experimental web browser are currently only available in the US.
Remember, if you have it shipped outside the US, you’ll be responsible for customs and import duties. Amazon.com includes a deposit for those fees in its price at checkout. This is only an estimate though and you may be responsible for addition fees upon delivery.
Still sounds like a great deal to me if you read a lot of English books and are running low on shelf space in your home like we are.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I think I heard / saw in an interview that “you forget that you’re actually reading online.”
Does that mean that you can’t read offline? I.e., am I dependent upon mobile phone network coverage in order to turn the page? If so, I know of plenty of spots in Germany where the my phone calls / mobile modem connections drop — they’re all along the ICE routes to Nürnberg and Hannover.
If the possibility exists to download a book for offline reading, or least more than a page at a time, that might get around the spotty network coverage.
No, you download the books, so you just need to be on wireless to browse and download. They say the battery life on one recharge is “4 days with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to two weeks.”
I think what was in the interview you heard was that you forget that you’re reading from a screen and not paper after a few days. I’ve heard that in a lot of reviews.
Forgot to mention, you get access to Wikipedia and you can put your own documents on there using a USB cable (or you can pay something like $0.99/doc to have them emailed to your Kindle)
Thanks for the info, my Husband and I want one for Xmas. Have you figured out a way to get US TV programs online? I really miss my TV shows.
If you’ve got family or a friend who can host a cable box for you, you can use a Slingbox (http://www.slingmedia.com/). They’re great. Otherwise, it’s iTunes with a credit card with US address, if you want to go by legal routes.
It is a great idea but important to remember Amazon can decide whether or not you keep what you buy. I heard recently some consumers bought a book there was a copyright problem with, and Amazon deleted it from their device and refunded their money. Not so big a problem, okay, but they obviously wanted to read it, bought it legally, and it was taken back from them. I would consider this a drawback.
My husband looked around and found a couple similar devices online that aren’t controlled by a third party, bought one and is loving it. I’m looking forward to getting something similar soon.
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..freeky dreems =-.
I’m waiting for Sony’s PRS-300 to come out in Germany. It’s comparable in size and price, plus it can read pdfs, which the Kindle can’t.
.-= Ben´s last blog ..Lordy, Lordy Look Who’s Forty =-.
It sounds great but I wonder how much they will charge in customs duties. I think I might wait until the negotiations with providers in Europe have been completed and it can be sold here – bound to go down in price then. I bought a first generation I-Pod and was kicking myself a year later…
.-= Carla´s last blog ..Bad bloggers =-.
Re: US TV shows. Many are on the internet. I watch Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, The Bachelor / Bachelorette (I know, junk!), and The Amazing Race on the ABC / CBS / Fox websites. We don’t have Ti-vo or record shows, and this allows me to watch late at night after the kids are in bed. It’s not an exhaustive number of shows (you cannot get Oprah!) but its pretty good.
@lisa: There are pluses and minuses to the no third party control thing. You also have your purchases backed up on Amazon. If you’re good about backing things up though, that shouldn’t be a big factor.
@ben: That’s a good point.
@carla: I did a test purchase (went all the way to the last page but didn’t click the final purchase button) to check the price and I think they wanted a $60 deposit. In my experience, customs and import fees have generally been about 1/3 of the price, but I can’t guarantee anything. It’ll get over here eventually.
@rachael: You can’t watch most shows on the internet outside the US. They block international viewers. The only shows I’ve found that can be viewed online from abroad are The Daily Show, Colbert Report and 30 Days.
I’ve had a Kindle for 8 months now and am addicted and hooked. While I still find myself at the bookstore to check out new titles, I don’t miss the “feel” of the book and actually found myself quite frustrated with “real” books – holding and turning the page, reading pages that have text too close to the binding. Yeah, I’ve converted! Let me know if you have any specific questions about it, I’d be happy to help.
@scott: My husband (and I, after he brought it up) were wondering if you can download Google books to the Kindle. We looked online and it seems the answer is that many of the Google books are available in Kindle’s EPUB format, including all the classics that are downloadable for free. Is that true in your experience?
@Christina: You can convert almost any electronic book, as well as PDF’s, to Kindle’s format using an open source program called Calibre. The Kindle comes with a USB cable, which allows you to transfer books from your computer to the Kindle.