Be Excellent To Each Other

New Kindle has "free 3g" no contract no fee. How does that work? Surely there is a network required? If so, who is it with?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002LVUWFE/

Don't care. It's free anywhere in the world, and it just works(tm).

[edit]Old Kindle had it too, you see. New Kindle is the first one not to come with 3G but with wireless instead as an option. At just over £100 it seems a bargain, too. I do wonder about buying eBooks in £ rather than $, though.

Can you have the same account on two Kindles? So my wife and I could both read the same books on our own devices?

Crikey, £109 for the new Kindle. I'm really REALLY tempted to get one of these now! Is there anything else good/better for that money?

That is an annoyingly tempting price.

Isn't it. Though I think they've bungled a little bit with the release date being the end of the summer as it's not available until the end of August

So wait, the 3G version gives you basic web browsing from anywhere in world there is a mobile internet signal for the one off price £149.

I'm finding it hard to believe that the "experimental" webkit web browser will last.

I'm not a massive reader, I don't get though many books in a year. I'll never have the need to carry more than one book around with me. But I want one. It really is at that "Oooo" price.

I was all set to buy an iPad dammit.

Yup.

Amazon are really generous with their sharing, to be honest - you can have the same account on PC, Mac, Kindle, iPhone, Android...

The (modest) downsides to account sharing are that you need to share the Amazon account (including payment card) and if you both read the same book at the same time you'll need to turn off the sync-to-last-read-page-across-devices future.

The experimental web browser isn't all that usable, and is over a year old so unlikely to be removed. It's very clunky because of how slow eInk screens are to update. They added Twitter in the last update too (when you highlight a block of text, you can one-click share the quote on Twitter). And yes, the 3G is world wide and almost fee free. You do pay extra to buy a book outside your home country - e.g. US users pay $2 if they buy a book on-device in the UK. You can, however, buy the book on PC and transfer over USB to avoid that, or (I imagine) this new Wifi addition.

It's a very, very nice thing. I've not travelled with mine to the US, preferring to only carry the more versatile iPad, but the Kindle is still the device I reach for at home when I want to read. Also, I haven't bought a single physical book since I got it in January.

I don't know - I was without a phone today and posted here with it to get someone to text my mate and tell him I was on my way

I do wonder how much of the current e-reader sales are driven purely by gadget lust. I mean I quite fancy one and I must only read about five or six books a year. I can honestly say that the physical nature of books has never presented me with the slightest hindrance in any way.

Are there many normal people using these things yet?

Well, there is me and Dr G...

So no.

I....no.

Well, I have... er, no.

Exactly.

I'd MUCH rather have £150+ quidsworth of real books myself.

I can see why TIFDRG would want one as he's always traveling to Yankland.

Seriously though I can see normals buying them now the price is sensible. They were what, 250 odd when this thread started, now 100? That's birthday prezzie range.

I buy about two second hand, 1p+ & £2.75 postage books a month from Amazon, which I then give away to friends/the library once I've finished with them. I'll keep non-fiction books for reference but rarely keep fiction as I'm unlikely to read them again, and if I do I can get them from the library. Buying a Kindle then yarring the books instead would cost about the same per year. Also, books take up TONS of space, which I don't really have.

The main reason I would like an ebook reader is for reading PDFs, i.e. manuals, journals, academic thesis/dissertations etc as I really struggle to read things like this on a computer screen.

FTFM

Woah, are you claiming to be a 'normal', Zardazzler?

EURGH, NORMO!

Of course. You're all freakish parodies of humanity.

The Kindle store has now launched in the UK, meaning that blog and magazine subscriptions are now available.

GOD DAMN IT, I really want a Kindle now!

Looking at the magazine/newspaper subscriptions, I can't see how long the subscription is for. For e.g. £13.99 to subscribe to the Independent. Is that a month, a year...?

There's some good books on there for free too!

Uhhh...



That looks pretty clear to me

Oh FFS, it's a Friday afternoon, I clearly need to go home and sleep...

http://www.rightnowintech.com/2012/08/t ... -have.html

Finally, a backlit Kindle! I'm interested! It's based on the Touch model though, which is a bit of a downer. I don't want finger prints on my screen. I like the side buttons.

Can't see the appeal of a backlit Kindle. Backlit screens are one of the main causes of eyestrain.

Now Demonoid has gone, does anyone know where I can download ebooks for free?

Pirate Bay probably.

They'll do it right, you idiot!

Well, you've convinced me with your well-thought out reasoning and deduction.

It does seem entirely pointless, what with it already being the best thing in the world for reading text off. Adding a backlight seems highly unlikely to improve it.

Glad to be of service!

Seriously though, Amazon know that backlit screens give you eyestrain. It's one of the selling points of the Kindle. I doubt they'd release a Kindle that didn't do illuminated e-Ink properly.

Why should backlit screens cause eyestrain? I'm not doubting that they do, (although I never experienced it myself) just wondering what the reason for it is.

When your eyes move from a bright light source to a dark one (and vice versa), there's a period of readjustment that tires your eye muscles.

Also, if you're reading a book it can be for hours on end with you looking pretty much in the same place all the time. This differs to looking at a website or document on a computer screen as you tend to take regular breaks or look around the screen in different places.

It doesn't affect everyone (me for example), but it does affect a significant proportion of readers.

But how would that differ from reading a normal Kindle in a dark room lit from the front with one of the current lighted cases for example? Presumably the backlight would only be there when needed, or is this a completely different thing where the backlight provides the contrast between the text and the background all the time?

They should make the e-ink luminous.

maliA: Practical solutions for problem people.

Nah, like you say it'll be a normal Kindle, but with some blingin' LEDs embedded in it if you need them. I think it'll work well. It won't be like reading on an iPad.

edit: It'll be more like those Timex Indiglo watches!

Sounds awful. It means you wouldn't be able to read in a dark room, as the page of your book would be the most luminous thing in the room.

The lighted Kindle cases work much as you would have to do if reading a proper book in the dark; the light source is not pointed directly into your eyes.

Yes, exactly. Reading something where the subject is illuminated is pretty normal. Reading something where the light is shining through it at your eyes? Not so much.

I have a lamp by my bed.

I know.

Say hi to Mrs Davpaz for me.

I'm really struggling to see what the difference is, reading off an e-ink screen wasn't "normal" before it was. Not being normal doesn't mean it's going to give you eye strain. Why does it matter whether the light is bounced off a screen first or not? I suspect what might give you eye strain is reading in the dark whether it's lit from the front or the back. It's just not something people generally do for such extended periods.

You're late with your child support, you deadbeat

No, it wasn't normal. That's why it was so revolutionary - it was an end to the pain of trying to read off a backlit screen.

Yes, but this screen won't be backlit in normal light either. If the explanation for eye strain is the contrast between the thing you are reading and the surroundings then why does it matter whether it is lit from the front or the back? If it's not that but something else then what?

When I say Timex Indiglo, it's obviously not going to be bright luminescent fucking green, now, is it? GOD!

I have faith that they'll somehow make it work. And if it does. Day motherfucking ONE. I love my Kindle.

It's a number of factors including glare, ambient light, parallax and contrast, to name a few.

Me too - I can't think of a possible reason to change it for something else. I can read books using it, that's all I need.