11-21-2012, 07:10 AM | #16 |
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Found the Kindle and Kobo Glo in Bic Camera today. Not next to each other unfortunately so it was impossible to make a direct comparison. I don't know why anyone would buy it online and wait until January 2013 when they can pick it up right away.
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11-21-2012, 07:17 AM | #17 |
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Given the high price difference between the 3G and WiFi versions of the PW (the difference is £60 - about $100 - in the UK), you'd have to use 3G a heck of a lot to justify it, I think.
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11-22-2012, 08:51 AM | #18 | |
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Sure enough, that's really lame. The US model covers Japan, but the Japan model doesn't even make the hop to Korea...
But wait, can the US PW handle Japanese now? Amazon's page says: Quote:
Of course access to the Japanese store is admittedly kinda useful... The 5.3.0 update (that's what my PW-J is running out of the box) says it includes for example the Simplified Chinese support that I'm seeing here, so is the hardware otherwise the same, except for the sucky 3G in Japan? I'm beginning to think that it might be more advantageous to buy it cheaper from the US and see about registering it with the Japanese store. Not sure you can do that though. |
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11-22-2012, 09:00 AM | #19 |
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11-22-2012, 09:58 AM | #20 |
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Thanks thanks so much for the confirmation and pictures!! I hope there will still be stock when I arrive in the following week..
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11-22-2012, 10:01 AM | #21 | |
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differentiation is the only way that they can get the PW3G-J to only get 3G access in Japan and not worldwide. I also note that the amazon jp page mentions that PW-J comes with 2 Jap fonts. Maybe the PW-I only has 1 Jap font? |
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11-22-2012, 10:44 PM | #22 | ||
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Quote:
Quote:
The attachment is the public domain Japanese translation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Red Shoes in AZW3 format (Source text from Aozora Bunko, converted to ePub with rubi-formatting by an online tool, then converted to AZW3 by calibre.) Last edited by Snorkledorf; 11-22-2012 at 10:49 PM. |
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11-22-2012, 11:27 PM | #23 |
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The North American Kindle Paperwhite has 2 fonts for Japanese as well. I connected it to the Japanese Amazon store just fine and bought two books, reconnected it to the US store again. For the books I bought I got two fonts, errr I hope I'm reading them right but I see myouchou and goshiku - gothic?.
Once connected, I also had access to the Japanese-Japanese dictionary and a bunch of other Asian dictionaries. Kind of disappointed there's no Japanese-English dictionary though, my Japanese is too crummy to make use of a J-J dictionary. |
11-23-2012, 12:12 AM | #24 |
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Minchou and Gothic, yeah. Those are the same two font styles on my Japanese PW. Good to know!
I'm still totally amazed that you can connect your device back and forth between one country's store and another's! I mean technically it makes sense but I always just assumed that Amazon would be like, "Ah HAH, you're trying to do some unknown sneaky thing!" and not let it happen. So again, cool! And that's even more reason not to buy a Japanese Paperwhite if you're going for the 3G model, it seems to me. If all the same languages work, and you get access to the same dictionaries, and the only apparent hardware difference is the 3G (works in many countries, vs. only 1 country)...and on top of that you can connect your device to whatever store you like...then why buy the version that does less? With all that I'm literally not seeing any advantage the the Japanese 3G model at all. There's no J-E dictionary on my device either, just E-J (which was set as the default English dictionary) and J-J (and 2 E-Es). The image shows the 4 dictionaries I have with the Japanese PW, not counting Portuguese and such that I don't use. Last edited by Snorkledorf; 11-23-2012 at 12:18 AM. |
11-23-2012, 12:14 AM | #25 |
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Thanks for that. I had a tough time connecting to the Japanese store at first, since I tried using the same email and it defaulted back to my US account. However, using a different email for my US and Japanese accounts, I can switch back and forth pretty easily. Can't take advantage of whispersync when you log out though.
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11-23-2012, 12:44 AM | #26 |
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I was worried about not being able to use Whispersync when attached to the "wrong" store. My plan is to eventually take the books I buy on Store A and (once liberated) send them as personal docs to Store B, otherwise keeping my device linked to Store B the rest of the time so I have Whispersync access to everything. We'll see how that works, though.
Oh, and I found one advantage to buying the Japanese 3G PW: price! US: $199 converts to ¥16,370 (Japan doesn't sell them with special offers, so that's the more-expensive US price)Japan: ¥12,980 converts to $157.80 So the worldwide 3G support effectively costs you an extra $41.20. I think Amazon is pricing their new Japanese Kindles unusually cheap in a bid to jump-start the Japanese ebook market; even the WiFi PW is $22 cheaper than the same model in the US. And this in the market where the Sony PRS-T1 was literally twice the US price. Amazon is using its favorite tactic of undercutting the competition, methinks... |
11-23-2012, 04:32 AM | #27 | |
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my default account on my KT is my US account. whenever I wanna buy a book from UK, I will switch acount on my KT, buy the book from the UK store, get it on my KT, extract it with calibre, and email it to my US account (US-me@kindle.com), so that it gets loaded onto my US account. Hope I am making sense here.. =) |
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11-23-2012, 04:35 AM | #28 | |
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I'm crossing my fingers that in the 1st week of December when I arrive in osaka, they will still have stock for the PW and the kobo glo in BIC camera!! |
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11-24-2012, 07:57 PM | #29 | |
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11-25-2012, 10:52 PM | #30 | |
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It's sad to see Sony where it is now.. it used to be such a driving force in the music electronics industry and in the electronics industry as a whole.. maybe it's really time for Japanese companies to re-think how they are grooming their creative talent, and to re-think how they need to restructure their system to accomodate greater creativity. |
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