Be Excellent To Each Other

Last time I looked, 'lots and lots'.

Seems strange that they'd do that for their own item but for the app on itunes you can just create accounts for the other countries easily (getting credit on them is harder but to get a US account for example just switch store and download a 'free' app - follow the prompts to create a new account and you have a US account - you can then 'buy' itunes US cards to put money on it)

I know there are different laws in different regions but region locking things and some of the pricing structures for this stuff really has to go at some point - why should an electronic copy of an item cost more or less because i say i'm in a different country !

Taxes?
Connection charges?
Conversion rates?

Probably a poorly phrased question but I guess I'm asking why can i then create an account for the US store and buy the stuff (while i'm still in the UK) for a different amount.

In most cases i'm going to download the exact same string of zeros and ones from the exact same server - just pay a different amount.

If i pick a tune and download it for 99c instead of 99p am i really just screwing the taxman ?

I was considering getting Jen a Kindle for her birthday but she wasn't interested and now I'm finding it harder and herder to resist one myself

Same here. However, my feeling is that in a two person household, you will need two Kindles.

Its a good job they don't sell these in shops, otherwise one would probably fall in my bag at Heathrow on saturday.

Colleague has just received a Kindle 3. It's quite a lot nicer than my Kindle 2.

You're a rubbish girlfriend if you're still buying presents for her that you would like. Rubbish

Nuts

As it is for Lady T, I'd like to keep things as straightforward as possible, so I think for now we'll stick to the local region e-store (or whatever you'd call it).

My Kindle arrived yesterday, and naturally went back to the depot. How, in 2010, have we not yet worked out a better way of doing this?

Wait, the depot is about a mile from your house.

It's fucking Royal Mail. Depot's open until 6, wankers.

That's quite good for them. The depot here is open until 1PM.

If only work addresses could receive parcels.

It's astonishing isn't it.

He's got a good point, though. This is the fucking future - my phone can start my car. Why the fuck can't we come up with something better than
a) It's going to be delivered at some point during the day, but we don't know when and we couldn't possibly tell you
b) Someone has to be there in person to scrawl on an ancient PDA.

And "Even if you do instruct us to leave it in a safe place, we won't". "And then we'll slightly damage your van on the way out".

Those are tough problems to solve, I think. If you disagree, feel free to propose solutions. Here's one to get you started.

a) isn't. GPS on the vans and a planned delivery route would inform you of a rough time within seconds.
and b) would just involve some sort of revolving door with a barcode scanner, or something. If the supermarket checkout can tell if I've placed my item in the bagging area, than so can my garage.

Have we all turned into JC today.... Craster, do a drawing on Google maps to show how far the van was to your house

I've heard of pubs accepting packages before now. Got a local you can pop into for a pint on the way home?

I do wonder how much it would increase operating costs by to have some night staff at parcel depots. Or perhaps to have agreements with 24hr supermarkets to have some parcel depots there.

Oh yeah, Parcel Points.
http://www.parcelpointsuk.com/customers/locator/
[late edit]There are seven in the UK, and, shockingly, one is right near where my parents live in the middle of nowhere.

Vacuum delivery tubes.

No, wait, I've got it. If only they had some sort of "office" where your parcel could be deposited until you are available to collect it!

But no, wait, this "office" would then have to be open outside of normal business hours. Hah, only a raving lunatic would suggest such a thing!

"No Parcel Points found near your entered location."

This bit was relevent when I started writing it-> Personally, I think allowing couriers to deliver to your nearest post office and then paying the post offices to stay open until 8pm is probably the neatest solution, but if people were willing to pay for it it'd probably already be happening.

It'd inform you of a rough time for the first few deliveries, but when you factor in cross-town traffic routes it'd be like the weather -- predictions more than an hour out would be so vague as to be useless. Traffic prediction is insanely difficult.

There are schemes and devices like this, but no centralised way to tell all couriers what to do with it and (more importantly) no way for the courier's legal liability to end on delivery to the device.

And there are *15* in the whole country ?

http://www.hippo-box.co.uk/ This is relevant to your interests. The question of how many minimum-wage courier drivers would use it, however, is more debatable (and no use for more than one delivery in a day...)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parcel-Safe-PS1 ... B000NUWCC6 and another

Just scoll down the list and see how many counties and regions have [0] next to them.

Surely the saving in fuel and time would make up for it many times over? It's just not joined up thinking.
Anyway, screw post offices, they're never going to budge an inch to provide a service that's in any way useful.


Computers! Lawyers! Sort it out.

"More than an hour" would be a perfectly useful piece of information.

Hell, "More than fifteen minutes" would at least let you have a dump.

Hmmm, we'd need a super-secure box at your house, that multiple items can be placed into, with a clever computer-ma-bob on it that produced a checkable "item has been delivered" code only when the item was fully deposited. Some complicated mix of RFID tags, public key encryption and a big steel boxes bolted to the floor should do it.

Or get it delivered to work.

http://www.mbe.co.uk/

My nearest one is much further away than almost every courier depot. And it's £200 per year, plus 50p per item per day held.

My employer refuses anything that's a personal delivery. Considering Amazon helpfully slather "AMAZON!!!! KINDLE!!!!" all over the box (seriously, are they trying to get them nicked by posties?), that isn't going to fly.

Boooor-ing!

My steel-box-o-tricks could also be seamlessy, if unpleasantly, integrated with those speedy sewer bots. Plus, if you added a network connection to the steel box, you could check your parcel via twitter or something.

Think how good I must be at other things if I try things like that and still have her adore me
Nah she saw right through my dastardly plan so a new one was needed.

Underwear?

I still can't believe that someone like Wetherspoons hasn't tried a similar scheme. I can't see how they could fail to make money.

I has my Kindle. Goodness it's tiny and light. The screen is gorgeous.

You work for a bunch of cunts, seriously.

Ours will even take delivery of washing machines for you, if you let them know in advance.

Well duh.

I've brought my Kindle and camera to work today so I can do a side-by-side Kindle 2 and 3 comparison.

We should tax them more.

A guy at work has a kindle - they're really very small indeed. I was expecting something halfway between an iPhone and an iPad in size, I think.

I WANT MY KINDLE NOW, NOT AT XMAS!

I am fed up of buying stupid paper books!

The tiny size is putting me off. I was on the tube last night thinking that either the model had massive hands, or the screen footprint isn't much bigger than an iPhone.