Sony PRS-650 discontinued, new model soon?

[astra]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Check here for the McDonalds free access.

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/restauran...FUhO4QodpCr7iw

Nice.
Ta!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by astra

Nice.
Ta!

No problem, hope it's useful.

[Poppaea]

McD was news to me but I knew about Starbucks because it is one of the saddest sights for me. When ever I walk by I see these young people there with their coffee mugs sitting in front of their notebooks. When I was young one went to the coffeeshop with ones friends and was laughing not surfing. But people are also sending texts over their mobiles whilst sitting next to their wifes or husbands instead of talking to them.

I often wonder what comes next: dates via skype and having your own bag of liquid food? And then there is cybersex

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

I am not sure if wifi is attractive or not, the markets here are not unified as in the States. Each country has its own telephone company and add to that the new companies that were allowed after the states monopoles ended. It is a having the US divided into their states again, but this time with different languages and such. Now try to download your book via wifi. When being in France and being French I can use my SIMcard in my reader, but the moment I cross the border... hm, difficult.

Right now the following readers in Germany have wifi/3G:

Oyo which is tied to a shop called Thalia.
Acer Lumiread which is tied to a shop called Libri.
And Pocketbook which is tied to no shop but the 3G doesn't work in exchange.

Do you now see why I doubt the significance of wifi over here?

I can sorta see what you're saying. Personally, I've had no issues using wifi outside the USA in the Caribbean, Latin/Central America, and Canada.

Right now I'm on my iPad away from my home and using another wifi connection reading and replying to this forum. As long as the wifi connection is open or if I know the security login, I can connect anywhere I go. I would like to think it works that way in your part of the world too.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by speedlever

I can sorta see what you're saying. Personally, I've had no issues using wifi outside the USA in the Caribbean, Latin/Central America, and Canada.

Right now I'm on my iPad away from my home and using another wifi connection reading and replying to this forum. As long as the wifi connection is open or if I know the security login, I can connect anywhere I go. I would like to think it works that way in your part of the world too.

Wifi works, 3G does not. And being confined to one store does not help you either.

[speedlever]

And another thing regarding wifi and internet access... I've read more than once that the USA is behind the rest of the world in having widespread and cheap high speed internet providers. So it is easy to assume that the rest of the world is way ahead of the USA when it comes to being connected.

For instance I have a 6 or 7 MB/s cable ISP for which I pay $35/month. And that is a promo rate. I just got a notice they want to increase the price by $10/month which is still under their current $55/month rate. So I'm getting ready to shop ISPs. How does that compare to other places?

[astra]

Originally Posted by speedlever

How does that compare to other places?

If you live in town/city where you get an access to the only cable company in the country, Virgin Media (previously NTL), you are well off. I left them when I moved house more than a year ago, but I think they offer 50M down nowdays.
I used to be with them on 20M down/756kbps up for £30 IIRC.

However, if you live in an area not covered by VM more than often you are out of luck. I live in town and my ADSL speed is 3M/700kbps because I live behind railway line, thus far from exchange. My friends live in a posh village, she has got only 1.9M/350kbps. 1.9 starting from the day before yesterday, when she called them umpteenth time and said she gives up and is going to another ISP (empty threat because the problem is with phone lines, so any ISP would be the same). She had 0.79M down for half a year. She lives only 10 minutes on a car from the centre of the town. It is not USA where 10-15 miles is like 100m walking distance. They lowered noise level that upped her speed from 0.79 to 1.9. Still pretty shitty speed. Another friend who lives in another village has 2.4M down.
The United Kingdom's internet speed is on the same level or lower than third world countries.

The problem is the same as with railway lines and trains. Phone lines are ancient because the UK used to be one of the very first and advanced in the industry 100 years ago? Updating the infrastructure is a tantamount task and requires billions of pounds that the sole owner of all phone lines in the UK - BT, refuses to pay.
They have given a very promising vow. Provide all households with High speed Internet by 2012 or 2014? I don't remember.
Do you know what is their vision of High speed Internet? 2M.

I've read more than once that the USA is behind the rest of the world

So, you, Americans are much better than us
Europe is faster than the UK I think. The Empire if crumbling to dust though. The worst railway network, some of the worst road conditions...etc.
I have been to The Netherlands and Austria and they are far superior in those two issues. I guess Germany is better than all of them

[Blackadder]

Surely the Wifi/3G issue relates to the availability of an appropriate bookstore.

The Kindle in the UK connects to the UK Kindle store. The Sony 950 (only available in the USA) connects to the Sony US store.

If I used the 950 in the UK what book store would I connect to? I suspect it wouldn't work, in the same way as the Sony reader library software doesn't connect to a Sony book store, it only tells you to go to WH Smith or Waterstones.

So assuming this, having wifi on the 350/650 here in the UK would be pointless.

Yes/No??

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Blackadder

Surely the Wifi/3G issue relates to the availability of an appropriate bookstore.

The Kindle in the UK connects to the UK Kindle store. The Sony 950 (only available in the USA) connects to the Sony US store.

If I used the 950 in the UK what book store would I connect to? I suspect it wouldn't work, in the same way as the Sony reader library software doesn't connect to a Sony book store, it only tells you to go to WH Smith or Waterstones.

So assuming this, having wifi on the 350/650 here in the UK would be pointless.

Yes/No??

Yes, that's what I said only with more words I should admit

[speedlever]

I think it really depends on what you use it (wifi) for. For instance, I could use it to browse the store (Amazon.com) if I wish to, but I use wifi mostly for file transfer from calibre via email to my @kindle.com account.

Also, if I buy a book for my daughter from the Kindle store, I just direct the resulting d/l direct to my daughter's K3 and Amazon sends it by email via wifi. I never have to connect either of our devices to the computer, unless I just want to or have a file too large to transmit via email.

And if I get a book from another source (other than Amazon.com), I import the book to calibre and calibre will convert and email to the K3 all in one shot.

Thus I find wifi extremely valuable from a convenience standpoint. Is this not available to you?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by speedlever

I think it really depends on what you use it (wifi) for. For instance, I could use it to browse the store (Amazon.com) if I wish to, but I use wifi mostly for file transfer from calibre via email to my @kindle.com account.

Also, if I buy a book for my daughter from the Kindle store, I just direct the resulting d/l direct to my daughter's K3 and Amazon sends it by email via wifi. I never have to connect either of our devices to the computer, unless I just want to or have a file too large to transmit via email.

And if I get a book from another source (other than Amazon.com), I import the book to calibre and calibre will convert and email to the K3 all in one shot.

Thus I find wifi extremely valuable from a convenience standpoint.

God gracious!! So I have to have a daughter to enjoy wifi????? Much too expensive for me!!! I will stay connected with my little netbook for book transfer and go on enjoying my cats company.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Blackadder

having wifi on the 350/650 here in the UK would be pointless.

Yes/No??

For a few - Yes.
For many - No. They say they want to browse wikipedia besides buying ebooks on whim, although IMO it is a thinly veiled excuse for the actual access to the Internet.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by astra

For a few - Yes.
For many - No. They say they want to browse wikipedia besides buying ebooks on whim, although IMO it is a thinly veiled excuse for the actual access to the Internet.

But this is something I wanted to do, too! I am thinking about forking out for a 950, as I love the dictionary so much I thought I would love the wiki-lookup option, too. I am quite nosy, you know

[astra]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

I would love the wiki-lookup option, too.

It won't stop at wiki though

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

God gracious!! So I have to have a daughter to enjoy wifi????? Much too expensive for me!!! I will stay connected with my little netbook for book transfer and go on enjoying my cats company.