Mails to @kindle.com with the Kindle 3 wifi only?

[guiyoforward]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering what happens to emails sent to @kindle.com with the new kindle - @free.kindle.com gets delivered via wifi, but what about content sent to the "paid" kindle.com? Is it free if delivered by wifi instead of 3g?

Thanks!

g.

[carld]

Yes, it's free. You can guarantee that you'll never have any 3G delivery charges by going to the Manage Your Kindle page, and setting your "Maximum individual charge limit:" to $0.00.

[guiyoforward]

thanks!

[curstpriest]

I'm confused here..
why do they charge you for 3g email delivery and not WiFi?

I have a DXG, it doesn't have WiFi... Why should I have to pay for wireless delivery?

Right now I can still transfer files free wirelessly if I really wanted, just by running a server on my desktop, and then manually downloading the files on my kindle with the browser, but that is a hassle.

The only application for this that I can think of is for news updates, I could run a daemon program to auto download/email my kindle updates daily so that I don't have to bother remembering to hook it up to USB.

[Oldpilot]

I have a DXG, it doesn't have WiFi... Why should I have to pay for wireless delivery?

You can mail it to xxxx@free.kindle.com and download (upload?) it from your PC to your Kindle, as you say. That's a fair equivalent, it seems to me. (I have a K2.)

There is after all a cost for the wireless. Amz doesn't want you running up charges wholesale, for example by blasting books to a hundred Kindle-owning students in a literature class.

[curstpriest]

You completely misunderstand.

Example - I want to send myself news to my kindle every day..

I set up a program such as calibre to automatically download news, convert, and mail NYTIMES-MM-DD-YY.mobi to myname@kindle.com

NYTIMES-MM-DD-YY.mobi arrives wirelessly to my kindle (unconverted)

Am I to understand that this would be free over WiFi? So if i had a conenction at home/work/school/some random place it would be free? But if i want to do this on 3G it would get bounced back?

I honestly haven't tried @kindle.com with 3G yet. But I thought you can use .mobi/azw/tpz files to just xfer them wirelessly. Am I incorrect?

And BTW I would have happily bought a 3G+WIFI version of the DXG (how much could WiFi chipset cost, 20$ tops?) if it was available, but it was not, so I had to shell out 400$ for a non-WiFi version, because they were too lazy/cheap to reapply for patents/FCC ids. I mean, I can understand that the DX models probably do not move the amount of volume to warrant it. And the only difference is the button layout, so who cares other than a needless WiFi feature. Instead they just slapped a new screen in (which doesn't really justify a 200$ price tag difference from a k3 does it? Well maybe it does, but still.

Their inability to add features that could be there by a change in service, such as granting a little more bandwidth to DXG customers since we don't have a wifi chipset would be reasonable IMHO.

If I'm wrong about free wireless delivery // ability to send unconverted documents let me know. But I think it would be a really useful feature.

[TallMomof2]

Yes, it would be free over wifi. I have the 3G + wifi and have Calibre set up to deliver news and feeds everyday to my MyName@kindle.com and as long as the wifi is up I am charged nothing.

I don't automatically send to my DXG because it would cost since the delivery would be via 3G. For the DXG I sideload via USB.

BTW, I've yet to connect my K3 to my PC but I will be doing so soon to load the screensaver hack.

You are subject to 3G charges because that is via a cellular phone and we all know cellular accounts cost money, and the 3G account is Amazon's. However, WiFi is using YOUR WiFi account (or a free hotspot account) so no charges are incurred from Amazon since they don't send data over a cellular system to your Kindle. Basically, if you use 3G and Amazon incurs a charge on their account they pass that charge along to you.

The DXG was released prior to the K3s and was probably designed well before them too. I'm not sure why Amazon chose to leave out the WiFi card, but I suspect it is so they could use an earlier DX approved FCC ID. Had they added WiFi they would have had to submit the DXG through the FCC approval process which is expensive and takes quite a lot of time. Instead they opted to keep the same radio as is in the 1st Gen. DX and bypass the added costs and time delays. But that is just a guess.

[guerilla7]

You are subject to 3G charges because that is via a cellular phone and we all know cellular accounts cost money, and the 3G account is Amazon's. However, WiFi is using YOUR WiFi account (or a free hotspot account) so no charges are incurred from Amazon since they don't send data over a cellular system to your Kindle. Basically, if you use 3G and Amazon incurs a charge on their account they pass that charge along to you.

There you go, I work in a Telco environment, where every minute of usage means $$$. Just transfer everything using Wi-Fi.

[curstpriest]

But again, it's kind of stupid because they allow browsing, so for instance I install DD-WRT on my router with USB HDD attached, and set up some scripts to do the necessary processing of news feeds to pack everything into a .mobi, and then throw it in my wwwroot. I can then just fire up the browser and download the document over 3g for free. Just takes a minute of my time and a little know how on my part (and some simple networking hardware, which most people have but might not know how to set up).

So I suppose this will keep working until Amazon disables the web-browser or downloading of content to the kindle?

So again I ask, why not just allow emailing of documents to the kindle (or at least allow a free limit of 1-2mb/day, which 90% of users probably would never even think to use anyhow)

Originally Posted by guerilla7

There you go, I work in a Telco environment, where every minute of usage means $$$. Just transfer everything using Wi-Fi.

I don't have wifi?

[guerilla7]

@curstpriest

Based on your posts, you seem to be a networking l337, so I guess your real question is not about the technology itself, why sending e-mails over 3G on a Kindle will incur a charge and not on Wi-Fi, blah, blah, I can do this, etc.

Your real question is how Amazon implemented the process of sending/converting files, you should ask them why, unless someone from Amazon Kindle Management trolls around this forum, I doubt it if someone can answer a technical guy like you straight up.

But still the bottom line is 3G is provided by Telcos, and every time Amazon needs to send over something over 3G they will bill the user because AT&T will bill them, as previously explained by jswinden.

Sending files is not a common transaction compared to just browsing the web. Files to be sent over the air varies in size, bigger size means more bandwidth use. Compared to casual web browsing on web sites which usually produces a constant stream and amount of traffic, or even better, a fixed amount. This means a fixed amount of data over the air.

Amazon's Kindle platform is a "walled-garden", similar to Apple's iTunes and App Market that caters all things i-Device (iPhone, iPod, etc.) They have complete control of the platform and the environment.

Hope this helps, thanks.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

So again I ask, why not just allow emailing of documents to the kindle (or at least allow a free limit of 1-2mb/day, which 90% of users probably would never even think to use anyhow)

There isn't a technical reason as to why. Amazon get charged by Sprint/AT&T/Vodafone for the data transferred by a Kindle.

You're thinking at the level of individual users whilst Amazon have to think of everybody as a whole. If you did free document delivery then people will start emailing massive documents on a regular basis even if they don't want/need that document on the Kindle. This applies to your suggestion of a free allowance every day/week/whatever.

It would be possible to prevent people from downloading items via 3G using the browser but the number of people who are currently doing that are small compared to the total number of Kindle owners. The vast majority of users won't have the knowledge and skills necessary to setup their own web server, host their documents and protect them sufficiently.

Not all Kindle owners have the ability to browser the web either. If you're in certain countries which Amazon doesn't have an agreement with the local cell provider then you're limited to the Kindle store and Wikipedia. All other sites are blocked by the proxies on the Whispernet network.

If you don't like the charges then you'd get around it like how you're suggesting.

[curstpriest]

How about, http://m.gutenberg.org/
perfect example of free web-based book delivery o:'

but I get your point. If amazon offered it, everyone would use it.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

How about, http://m.gutenberg.org/
perfect example of free web-based book delivery o:'

but I get your point. If amazon offered it, everyone would use it.

Aren't most of the Gutenberg books on the Kindle store already anyway for free?

Besides, it'd eat into their business providing blog and periodical subscriptions. Somebody could setup something to scrape your various blogs into a single Mobi document and then send it. You can do it via WiFi now though so thats a bonus but for 3G users they're stuck with the Amazon service.