Gee Harry, that would be fraud but who's counting
Seriously, I think I've discovered an interesting effect with the software outside of the US. I live in Canada, purchased the PRS-500 when in Las Vegas a few weeks back as a gift for my wife. Except for the problem of my VISA card not having a US billing address, I was able to logon, create an account and was looking forward to getting my free 100 books while I waited until I was back in the USSR errr, USA to get a gift certificate at Borders etc. Well, my ver 1.1 Connect software was asking to update to V 2.0 so.... I did and low and behold, I could no longer access my account. It complained that I didn't have an internet connect (although I clearly did). By this time, I had a friend install Connect on his computer in Boston and send a gift certificate my way. Fortunately, by uninstalling the v2.0 and reinstalling the v 1.1, I'm back in business and can assure all who are interested that you can insert the Gift Certificate codes into the system and purchase against that credit. Furthermore, since I've authorized my reader within the alloted timeframe, I get the 100 free classics too.
If anyone can confirm that the Version 2.x software checks domains to ensure that the computer is in the US, I'd appreciate it. I just don't have the desire to upgrade, now that I've fully authorized my system. With my luck, I'd screw it up and would prefer to be a US resident to try and sort that out on the telephone rather than try to socially engineer my way back to life with a screwed up authorization on the software and hardware!
Great piece of equipment though. Wish I'd known about the 505 though. I might have grabbed it instead of the 500 from Costco like I did. Too bad it's not available in Canada yet. Between this and my Zune, I have two neat pieces of hardware that few in Canada have!
Happy reading guys.
Doug