Amazon Kindle -- A Year Later?

wanderingtaoist wrote:
Luggage wrote:

So other than eventually upgrading to the paperwhite, I am thinking about getting my family the Fire HD 8.9'' for Christmas. Problem is, they are in Europe, where the 8.9'' isn't sold yet. This may be a long shot, but does anyone have experience with buying a Kindle in the US and then using it in another country long-term (say register it to a amazon.co.uk account)?

The amazon account is worldwide, so your co.uk account is your .com account. I successfully registered my Kindle Touch in Europe when it was still sold only in the US last year, no problem - you just get some warnings on data usage fees abroad, which you can safely ignore anyway.
I would recommend switching the shop location to the US anyway - amazon, for whatever reasons, adds some two extra dollars to every Kindle book sold in Europe compared to US prices. Plus there is a number of books region-locked to the US only. Not to mention that US books are cheaper through the virtue of weak dollar.

Well, my family would mostly consume non-english media, i.e. buying books from their local amazon site and paying in Euro. I think I'll just shoot an email off to Amazon.com support just to be sure.

ruhk wrote:

You guys are high on crack. E-ink touchscreens are the best ereader innovation since the creation of crack. Crack I say! Crack!

FTFY

Amazon Customer Support wrote:

Me: I would liek to purchase a Kindle Fire HD 8.9'' and a paperwhite in the US and give them to my family in Germany for Christmas. Can these devices be registered to their Amazon.de accounts and will they be able to buy/consume media from Amazon.de using those devices bought in the US?
Amazon.com: Thank you for contacting Kindle Technical Support. My name is Amazon.com. I understand you would like to use the Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite in Germany, I'll be glad to help you with this, but before we start, how are you doing today L?
Me: I am doing great. how about yourself?
Amazon.com: I am doing very well thanks for asking
L you can register the Kindle to their Amazon.de accounts and the kindles can be use for reading books however you will not be able to download applications or games because the device will require an IP address in the US as well as a billing address
Me: which is less of a problem for the paperwhite, no?
Amazon.com: Exactly because the Paperwhite is more of a reading device than a tablet.
Me: Do you happen to know if and when the HD 8.9'' will be available in europe/Germany?
Amazon.com: At this moment we don't know when we will have it available for Europe but this has to happen soon because a lot of customers are requesting the same. I can submit the feedback to our Kindle department for you if you wish
Me: Yes, that would be great. I appreciate it.

So there you have it.

Kindle Fire HD, $50 off, today only. Promo code: FIREHD89

Stele wrote:

Kindle Fire HD, $50 off, today only. Promo code: FIREHD89

Damn, missed it. I'm planning on getting this as a gift for someone, and that price would have made it much more reasonable. Does Amazon ever mark down the Kindles or is this a 1 time deal that we won't see again?

bnpederson wrote:

Coming this Thursday: Every single Sherlock Holmes novel, for free

Cool thanks. It lets you pre-order it too.

EvilDead wrote:
bnpederson wrote:

Coming this Thursday: Every single Sherlock Holmes novel, for free

Cool thanks. It lets you pre-order it too.

Thanks! But, aren't most of these books Public Domain (for free) these days? You basically pay for editing. There are versions already out for free though.

And added to this. For free also:
A tale of two cities
Les Miserables
A tale of two cities
and some more

Oh, that is an awesome deal. Fantastic stories. My wife will be over the moon.

bnpederson wrote:

Coming this Thursday: Every single Sherlock Holmes novel, for free

Nice, I got them on my Kindle when I first got it, they have all of them (free) converted from the Project Gutenberg versions, but it'd be nice to have them in one book.

Nice find. Many thanks!

Circumstances [size=0](Christmas bonus)[/size] have made it possible for me to once again consider a Paperwhite. Still worth it, or will an updated model be out soon?

I haven't owned an ereader before but I've bought a good number of books through the Kindle store and read them in the Android app. I'm tired of the screen being too bright at night, and the battery dying too fast. :p

General Crespin wrote:

Circumstances [size=0](Christmas bonus)[/size] have made it possible for me to once again consider a Paperwhite. Still worth it, or will an updated model be out soon?

I haven't owned an ereader before but I've bought a good number of books through the Kindle store and read them in the Android app. I'm tired of the screen being too bright at night, and the battery dying too fast. :p

I think Amazon brings the new models out in September or October, so you have some time before the new ones come out. I love my Paperwhite. I'd suggest taking the plunge now.

The core Kindle functionality hasn't really changed much since it was introduced. Namely, the first-gens let you read books pretty much as well as the newest versions. This isn't like Apple hardware, where they introduce a new version with way better processing speed every 6-12 months, and upgrade the OS such that your older one eventually runs like a pig. I'm still on a second-gen Kindle, and the only thing that's really making me want the Paperwhite is the lit screen.

So if you like what's available right now, go for it.

So my wife and I have two brand new Kindle Paperwhites sitting under the Christmas tree (squee!).

I'm upgrading from a 2nd-gen Kindle and was wondering what the process is for transferring all my content from the old Kindle to the new one. Is it painless?

Aaron D. wrote:

I'm upgrading from a 2nd-gen Kindle and was wondering what the process is for transferring all my content from the old Kindle to the new one. Is it painless?

It's painless. I upgraded from a regular Kindle to a Kindle Fire and gave my wife my regular Kindle. I don't remember the exact process but I believe all I did was de-register the regular Kindle from my account and register my Fire and all the content simply downloaded to it. My wife registered the regular Kindle to her account and all my previous stuff was either wiped or disabled (I can't remember if she had to manually delete anything). I think the fact that I can't even really remember it means it was pretty simple and painless.

Good deal.

I was looking on Amazon's website and going to amazon.com/manageyourkindle made it look like a snap.

I just went to charge the new paperwhite I got for my girlfriend's Christmas present and it says its registered to a random person. Not cool Amazon. Last week they sent me a used air purifier and this week I get someone else's Kindle return?

Edit: And now I noticed it has a dead pixel. Very not cool.

I haven't had time to go back through this thread, but we had a department holiday party yesterday and by some miracle I managed to win a Kindle Fire HD in a prize raffle. I've been playing with it some and like it, but I'm travelling on sunday and wondering if there are any worthy games out for this platform? The amazon app store mostly seems like it's full of minecraft clones and other things I'm not interested in.

Any "must haves" in the Kindle app store?

There are no good ones. In fact, I hear the app store is shutting down on the 26th. But don't cry, I'll take it off your hands.

(Seriously, dunno... PvZ is all I can think of. Maybe they have Dragon Pass, too, I don't know...)

I have the standard Kindle, before the paper white came out. Found that it scratches of the gray part quite easily.
Anybody else has that? Especially on the corners near the buttons.

The one before the PaperWhite, at least if you mean in terms of release year, was all grey. That said, I still have that one and haven't gotten any scratches on it.

IMAGE(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/tequila/dp/KT-slate-02-lg._V399156101_.jpg)

fleabagmatt wrote:

I haven't had time to go back through this thread, but we had a department holiday party yesterday and by some miracle I managed to win a Kindle Fire HD in a prize raffle. I've been playing with it some and like it, but I'm travelling on sunday and wondering if there are any worthy games out for this platform? The amazon app store mostly seems like it's full of minecraft clones and other things I'm not interested in.

Any "must haves" in the Kindle app store?

The major time-wasters that I had on my first-gen Kindle Fire:

Symphony of Eternity
Legends of Yore
Star Traders
Dragon, Fly!
Cut the Rope
Random Majong
PvZ

So yeah, got a Paperwhite, between that and my son, my free time is filled.

First one I got had a bright pixel when the frontlight was on, they replaced it with one that has none, the lighting is a little more uneven but it seems to be pretty hit-and-miss right now as to what the quality is, so I'm thinking of keeping this one for 29 days or whatever, then seeing how I do.

Either way, I spent my afternoon lost in Prelude to Foundation, so yay!

argh, double post!

DSGamer wrote:

Does anyone with a Kindle Fire know if there is a writing app similar to WriteRoom for iOS. I adore that app and now that my Apple bluetooth keyboard works with the Fire I'm curious about using it for writing. Basically it's a no frills editor that provides you with a full screen blank page.

IMAGE(http://maclawstudents.com/images/writeroom_screen.gif)

The benefit of this being that it puts you in a mindset of no distractions, just writing. Plus it has DropBox support. Is there something similar for the Fire / Android?

If you can sideload apps, I recommend either Ted or TextEdit. Both are free and open-source.

General Crespin wrote:

So yeah, got a Paperwhite, between that and my son, my free time is filled.

First one I got had a bright pixel when the frontlight was on, they replaced it with one that has none, the lighting is a little more uneven but it seems to be pretty hit-and-miss right now as to what the quality is, so I'm thinking of keeping this one for 29 days or whatever, then seeing how I do.

Either way, I spent my afternoon lost in Prelude to Foundation, so yay!

If possible I would try to read all his robot books along with the foundation books.

Yes. I read these all in succession my first time reading them. It was beautiful.

Anyone with a Paperwhite care to give impressions of it versus an older e-ink Kindle? I have an iPad Mini and a Kindle Keyboard 3rd gen. The Kindle Keyboard is my go to reader for when I don't want to be distracted. The iPad Mini is what I use in low light situations. I frequently find myself, however, wishing I had a Paperwhite for low light situations. Does it actually work well in those conditions? Think dark bar or restaurant? My wife and I chill and read at pubs frequently, especially when on vacation. So a light of some kind is essential at times. But I'm tempted by the pure writing device.

Is the screen appreciably better than earlier e-ink devices? If so I'd consider it based on that as well.