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It does say in the article that it's not while you're reading a book. If they limited it to when you're browsing your library it would be a minor issue; if it was when you used the web browser (which I never do anyway due to the clunkiness of it) it would be pretty bad. In any event, it's not worth the $25 savings in my opinion. If it were $79 for the ad supported version then it'd be a tougher call.
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Apr 12, 2011 04:10
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IRQ posted:Ah, so that's why they changed it so you can't change the screen savers on the latest generation. This is the worst part. I hate the current screen savers so the ads would at least inject a bit of variety into things, and I wouldn't have to explain to non-Kindle savvy / illiterate people why I have a picture of "Some old woman" (Harriet Beecher Stowe) or "A moderately attractive sex offender" (John Steinbeck) on my kindle. If they made it so existing users could opt-in (and opt-out whenever) and get say $2.50 / month kindle store credit I'd be tempted. Of course the best option would be to allow us to change the loving screen savers.
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Apr 12, 2011 10:09
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RobattoJesus posted:This is the worst part. I hate the current screen savers so the ads would at least inject a bit of variety into things, and I wouldn't have to explain to non-Kindle savvy / illiterate people why I have a picture of "Some old woman" (Harriet Beecher Stowe) or "A moderately attractive sex offender" (John Steinbeck) on my kindle. I used the screen saver hack the day I got my Kindle and changed them, it really isn't hard.
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Apr 12, 2011 11:28
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I guess the good news about this ad kindle is that it gives people like me the green light to buy a normal one. They definitely won't be dropping the price too soon now.
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Apr 12, 2011 11:35
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Ara posted:I used the screen saver hack the day I got my Kindle and changed them, it really isn't hard. Yeah the screensaver hack is really easy to install and I haven't looked back once.
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Apr 12, 2011 11:42
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Arnold of Soissons posted:I guess the good news about this ad kindle is that it gives people like me the green light to buy a normal one. They definitely won't be dropping the price too soon now. Yeah, pretty much. The nagging fear that the thing I actually want will be released two weeks after I buy it (because that always happens...) just got alleviated with this.
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Apr 12, 2011 18:53
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Is there any perk to the 3G Kindle besides downloading books from Amazon when I'm not at home?
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Apr 12, 2011 19:37
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Arnold of Soissons posted:Is there any perk to the 3G Kindle besides downloading books from Amazon when I'm not at home? Most people (myself included) feel that the free internet browser with no data cap is a nice perk. I ride the train for an hour each way to work and its nice to check news websites, email, etc, for free. The big tradeoff is that the browser is clunky at times and flat out wont load media intensive pages. Turning off pictures helps a lot, but it mostly depends on where you want to browse. Plus I love being able to instantly buy a book when I finish reading one, especially if its a series with like 10-12 books. Most books have a nice feature that when you read the last page, it will list other books to buy from the author including the next one in the series.
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Apr 12, 2011 19:48
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Cartoon Man posted:Most people (myself included) feel that the free internet browser with no data cap is a nice perk. I ride the train for an hour each way to work and its nice to check news websites, email, etc, for free. The big tradeoff is that the browser is clunky at times and flat out wont load media intensive pages. Turning off pictures helps a lot, but it mostly depends on where you want to browse The only works inside the US, right? If I travel outside of the country all bets are off and Amazon will bill me?
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Apr 12, 2011 21:23
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Arnold of Soissons posted:The only works inside the US, right? If I travel outside of the country all bets are off and Amazon will bill me?
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Apr 12, 2011 23:46
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Arnold of Soissons posted:The only works inside the US, right? If I travel outside of the country all bets are off and Amazon will bill me? Can the Kindle 3G even roam off of Sprint's data network? I know my phone internet through Sprint can roam onto Verizon's with no charge. Out of the country I have no idea. I'm not sure Sprint phones even work outside north america unless you get some special one.
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Apr 13, 2011 00:36
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I own a US kindle and have used its 3g in many european countries, for free. No problem there.
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Apr 13, 2011 01:22
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I have a UK 3g Kindle and downloading from the Amazon store and using the web browser is free anywhere you can connect. Have a look at the coverage map. The only thing that they do charge for is personal document transfer over 3g which is £0.20 per MB.
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Apr 13, 2011 01:54
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IRQ posted:Can the Kindle 3G even roam off of Sprint's data network? I know my phone internet through Sprint can roam onto Verizon's with no charge. Out of the country I have no idea. I'm not sure Sprint phones even work outside north america unless you get some special one. I think Amazon answered that question when they put the AT&T data network into the newer versions. Older U.S. Kindles with the Sprint-compatible gear in them (pre-October 2009) apparently only do North America. Anyway, after looking things over, the only clearly-stated roaming charge I can find connected to going outside of your registered home country is a $1.99 surcharge if you use wireless to buy a book. And since somebody asked about the perks of 3G, here's something I think I posted a few months ago (from the Fluent in 3 Months language blog): Travel anecdote: How the Kindle saved me. He really makes a 3G Kindle sound like a good tag-along pal if you're
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Apr 13, 2011 01:54
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RobattoJesus posted:This is the worst part. I hate the current screen savers so the ads would at least inject a bit of variety into things, and I wouldn't have to explain to non-Kindle savvy / illiterate people why I have a picture of "Some old woman" (Harriet Beecher Stowe) or "A moderately attractive sex offender" (John Steinbeck) on my kindle. The problem with images of famous authors is that they're typically not very attractive so you end up with a slideshow of really talented, unattractive dead people.
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Apr 13, 2011 04:31
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Arnold of Soissons posted:The only works inside the US, right? If I travel outside of the country all bets are off and Amazon will bill me? Kindles access the internet through an Amazon proxy and in some countries it is very restrictive about what you can access through it. Amazon will never bill you for using your Kindle, only when you buy something / deliver a document wirelessly.
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Apr 13, 2011 05:05
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If I was offered the chance to convert my kindle to an ad supported version in exchange for £20 in amazon vouchers applied to my account, I'd be mighty tempted... The screensavers are an annoyance anyway. May as well be an annoyance that advertises the company to anyone else who looks at my kindle.
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Apr 13, 2011 07:08
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Would anybody pay $50 for an ad-supported kindle that displayed a full page ad every 100 pages or so that you read? Lets say that you could press the page flip button and immediately skip through it when it came up. What if it was a $30 kindle but had an ad every 50 pages? How about FREE but it displayed an ad every 20 pages? (But you have to immediately purchase a book or two in order to get it for free.) I got to thinking about this the other day and wondered how cheap they would have to make it in order for me to put up with an ad showing up in the middle of my reading. We see ads all the time as we browse the web and ignore them, would we be able to do the same in the middle of reading a book? Would a cheaper price on the kindle offset that anoyance for you? I'm really not sure, I would have to test it out for a week or so to see. It may not bother me at all to immediately skip through the ad page to continue the story. Because of the e-ink screen, its not like they could have crazy strobe-effect ads blinking in your face to claim your free IPAD now!!! As for the current ad-supported kindle, I would't pay more than a $100 for it regardless of where the ads show up. Cartoon Man fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Apr 13, 2011 |
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Apr 13, 2011 11:45
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Thanks for all the answers, free worldwide internet makes the 3G pretty cool.
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Apr 13, 2011 11:53
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Cartoon Man posted:We see ads all the time as we browse the web and ignore them, would we be able to do the same in the middle of reading a book? I've been using Adblock or similar for a good 10 years or so now, and when I have to use a public computer with Internet Explorer it's actually really jarring for me to see ads everywhere. I'm not able to ignore them at all, although apparently people manage somehow.
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Apr 13, 2011 12:58
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Cartoon Man posted:Would anybody pay $50 for an ad-supported kindle that displayed a full page ad every 100 pages or so that you read? Lets say that you could press the page flip button and immediately skip through it when it came up. They're cheap enough now that I would prefer to pay full price than get a free, ad-supported one. I can see why some would like a cheaper ad-supported version but really I'm not interested in saving what amounts to a handful of cents per hour by viewing ads.
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Apr 13, 2011 13:16
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Really you have to look at it like: if you had a kindle in your hands right now and Amazon offered to pay you cash money to let them put ads on it would you accept $25 total? $25/year you might take it, $25/month you might take Amazon credit, but $25 for the lifetime?
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Apr 13, 2011 13:44
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"We are not interested in doing anything that interrupts the reading experience," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content at Amazon. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383446,00.asp Well I guess that answers that. I suppose that they could change their minds later. As far as letting Amazon put ads in my kindle to earn store credit, I could be tempted to do that, but it would have to be more than $25 a year. I'd want at least $100 a year or $7-$8 every month, and I would only accept the ads if they were on the screensaver or home page.
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Apr 13, 2011 14:38
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The original Nook is today's http://www.woot.com/ item.
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Apr 13, 2011 16:34
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I got $60 worth of Amazon gift cards today, I'm gettin' a Kindle.  I honestly never thought I'd use a thing like that until I put an ereader program on my phone, and found myself gobbling stuff up with that. Really looking forward to having something proper to read on.
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Apr 13, 2011 16:44
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Ara posted:I used the screen saver hack the day I got my Kindle and changed them, it really isn't hard. maxnmona posted:Yeah the screensaver hack is really easy to install and I haven't looked back once. Apparently I am retarded with this, because I can't get my Kindle DX to display the pictures I put as screensavers correctly. I've resized them to the proper size (824 x 1200, per here) three different times, in hopes that I did it wrong the first two times, and they still show up all stretched out and weird with big blank spaces on the top and bottom. 
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Apr 13, 2011 18:09
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Fire In The Disco posted:Apparently I am retarded with this, because I can't get my Kindle DX to display the pictures I put as screensavers correctly. I've resized them to the proper size (824 x 1200, per here) three different times, in hopes that I did it wrong the first two times, and they still show up all stretched out and weird with big blank spaces on the top and bottom. dunno, the dimensions they give for the regular kindle (600x800) work perfectly.
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Apr 13, 2011 18:20
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I might try 600 x 800 ones just to see how they look. I don't care if there's a border all the way around them if they're not all stretched out. edit: Yaaaaaaaay it worked. Now, anyone know if you can continually add more pictures without uninstalling and reinstalling? Fire In The Disco fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Apr 13, 2011 |
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Apr 13, 2011 19:27
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Fire In The Disco posted:I might try 600 x 800 ones just to see how they look. I don't care if there's a border all the way around them if they're not all stretched out. Yeah, if I remember right you just have to reboot it (a real restart) for the new ones to show up. It's been a long time, though, so I could be remembering wrong.
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Apr 14, 2011 04:11
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Ara posted:Yeah, if I remember right you just have to reboot it (a real restart) for the new ones to show up. It's been a long time, though, so I could be remembering wrong. yeah, whenever you add new ones, you just hold the switch after unplugging for about 15 seconds until it does the real reboot and then they'll show up. also remember that you can put that "random" file in so they show up in random order, if you want.
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Apr 14, 2011 12:34
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Thanks, guys. And yeah, I did put the random file in. I get all excited now when I see my daughter on my Kindle screen. 
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Apr 14, 2011 17:59
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Does it greyscale color pictures well?
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Apr 14, 2011 21:49
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I'm pretty happy with it. I used high quality pictures to start with (like resized down from 2000ish x 3000ish)
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Apr 14, 2011 23:31
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IRQ posted:Does it greyscale color pictures well? Depends on the picture (some of them need some tweaking or they come out too dark), but actual black-and-white photos look better than I'd thought the Kindle could display. Certainly way nicer than any of the blurry images that get included in ebooks. Here's I think the best looking one on mine, if anybody wants it.
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Apr 15, 2011 04:54
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I bought my fiancée a Kindle 3G for Christmas and fiddled with it a bit, so I decided to pick one up for myself. Mostly I am hoping it will encourage me to read more; in the past five years I've only read like four books out of personal interest. So I feel like I ought to be reading more. Failing that, I can definitely put it to work in my bar, since just running a search for something like "Red Viking" will be easier than flipping through pages and pages of a regular book. And I could use it for the other features like newsreader and Wikipedia browser: random article link is awesome during slow days at work. Easy decision. I also sprang for the 3G model, since it was only a few bucks more, free global wireless internet sounds pretty cool (especially since international data roaming on my phone costs like $1B), and it was the only model available in white. Also decided to get the Burnt Orange case. Bluetooth would be a nice addition but oh well, it would also drive up the cost. Ara posted:I bought my Kindle from the Amazon US webpage, had it shipped to a Japanese mailing address (not even an APO, so I think you'll be fine), have used it almost exclusively in Japan, bought books only from Japan, and never had a single problem, not even a "confirm you're American" thing. I'm using an old Amazon account that had lots of packages mailed to US addresses in the past and using my US credit card with my old US address. If you have a pre-existing Amazon account, they probably won't even hassle you about where you're connecting from. Actually it probably has more to do with using a US credit card. In contrast, I just ordered mine a few days ago, and here's what happened: 1. I ordered a Kindle + some Blu-ray movies 2. I realized I could probably get the Kindle shipped to Japan, given that they even advertise it on amazon.co.jp 3. Tried to change shipping address, couldn't, I suspected because I had the movies on the same order (and they don't ship those outside the US) 4. Canceled the Blu-ray 5. Tried to change shipping address again, still couldn't. In retrospect I should have just done a standalone order of the Kindle, shipping to Japan to begin with. Oh well. So I'll just get it when I am back in the US in May.
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Apr 15, 2011 09:57
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zmcnulty posted:In contrast, I just ordered mine a few days ago, and here's what happened: Somewhere along the line they quietly switched the Kindle 3 so that there was an "international" and "US" version, at first there was only one version that shipped everywhere. You'd have had to find the other version on the Kindle US webpage to get it shipped over here. Canadians were complaining a while back because they could only get the international version but it was shipping in a month while the domestic one was shipping immediately. If you search for the Kindle on amazon.co.jp, it links you here, which is the one you would've needed. As far as I know the hardware is identical, but mine is from before they split them up so I don't know if the 3G radio is different or anything.
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Apr 15, 2011 10:23
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Whats the difference between the US and International versions?
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Apr 15, 2011 13:57
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I answered that earlier on the page.
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Apr 15, 2011 16:12
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I can understand Sprint vs. AT&T within the US, but how does that impact usage outside of the US? Obviously they wouldn't advertise "global 3G" for the US version if it could only be used within the US, right? You mentioned restrictive portals, so does the US version use less restrictive portals, or what? I am getting the impression that the "international version," although it ships internationally, is actually stunted in the content that it can access. Is this accurate? edit: Looks like the Intl edition is only available in black! Guess I will be one of the few people in Japan with a white one... zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 16:51
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You can always use Wifi. Amazon pays for the 3G and yes, they restrict what you can do with it in many places outside the US. As a rule of thumb the Kindle Store and Wikipedia will always work (providing you have GSM coverage, of course). The whole thing is kind of complicated. Do note that EVERYTHING you access on 3G goes through Amazon's proxy, including https traffic.
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Apr 15, 2011 22:06
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