Instapaper and @free.kindle.com

[enn]

Hello,

Does anyone know why Instapaper will only send mail to @kindle.com addresses (where you are charged for 3G delivery) and not @free.kindle.com addresses (where they would be delivered over WiFi for free)? I don't understand what they gain from this.

[ski_power]

Probably they gain a %age of the fee that amazon charges. Yep, I'm pretty sure. Since they encourage you to buy a Kindle through their link where they say they get a commission, similarly I'm willing to bet they get a small fee everytime they deliver using 3G.

The only workaround I've gotten so far is to set my Kindle account balance to 0. But this defeats the purpose when I _really_ need to send something to my kindle and I'm willing to pay for it.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by enn

Hello,

Does anyone know why Instapaper will only send mail to @kindle.com addresses (where you are charged for 3G delivery) and not @free.kindle.com addresses (where they would be delivered over WiFi for free)? I don't understand what they gain from this.

If you turn on your WiFi, anything sent to @kindle.com will arrive for free. You'll only be charged if you are on 3G when it's delivered. This is how I receive my Calibre subscriptions.

[a_str8]

On the Manage My Kindle page, you can set a limit to how much you'll be charged for receiving a document over 3g. Anything that would cost more than the limit is sent by wifi instead. If you set the limit to 0, every document should be delivered through wifi

[fordan]

Originally Posted by ski_power

Probably they gain a %age of the fee that amazon charges. Yep, I'm pretty sure. Since they encourage you to buy a Kindle through their link where they say they get a commission, similarly I'm willing to bet they get a small fee everytime they deliver using 3G.

I seriously doubt this. Pretty much anyone can set up an Amazon Associate account and get credit for purchases made that were referred from their website with a special URL, but as far as I know there's no way to get a piece of a transfer fee.

More plausible answer: Wifi is a new development in the Kindle line, and sending to the free address prior to Wifi wouldn't have been real convenient so there wasn't a reason to support it.