Transfer question

[laurai]

Hi all with the death of my bebook mini (tragic drowning) I am seriously looking at getting a kindle 3. I have a couple of questions, if I buy a book on the kindle, can I then transfer it directly to my computer (via usb or whatever) without going through Amazon again?

Geo restrictions have caused me to have 2 accounts with Amazon and my Kindle-for-PC is linked to the American account, whereas I don't think I could conceal the fact that my kindle would be in Australia. Will this be an issue? Can a kindle be linked to more than one Amazon account? Can you only side-load the kindle via kindle for PC or can you do a direct file transfer? (The pdf support makes me hope for the latter)

The k3 is very tempting, and I like the price, but I would prefer to minimise the number of hoops I need to jump through for my content.

Cheers,

Laura

Originally Posted by laurai

if I buy a book on the kindle, can I then transfer it directly to my computer (via usb or whatever) without going through Amazon again?

Yes. Works both ways with a USB connection: copy to or from KINDLE\documents\ and your PC. Where KINDLE is the drive assigned by the PC.

Each device will have a unique Kindle ID, so a DRMed book file you can read on the K3 cannot be read via the PC or any other device. However you can download the same book to 5 or more devices, depending on the publisher.

Originally Posted by laurai

Can a kindle be linked to more than one Amazon account?

Not similtaneously, but you can alternate between multiple acounts.

Originally Posted by laurai

Can you only side-load the kindle via kindle for PC or can you do a direct file transfer? (The pdf support makes me hope for the latter)

See above about copying directly to the Kindle's documents folder. You can use this easy method to sideload any file the K3 can read.

[laurai]

Thanks for that, it makes my purchase more likely. 8->

Laura

[fordan]

Originally Posted by laurai;

Geo restrictions have caused me to have 2 accounts with Amazon and my Kindle-for-PC is linked to the American account, whereas I don't think I could conceal the fact that my kindle would be in Australia. Will this be an issue?

If you have things setup so that you can purchase content from the US store I think you've already done the heavy lifting to use a Kindle for US content. I would think you would just need to associate it with the American account. You may have to pay the wireless delivery surcharge like an American on vacation in Australia would, but you should have access to all US content if you have an account with a US address already set up.

[laurai]

I have ordered my kindle, my plan is to only use wireless to load content purchased through my Australian account. For the content I already have, and future purchases from the US store I will load via USB as I previously did with my bebook. (via unswindle and calibre)

Anyone see any problems with this plan I need to be wary of?

Laura

[Josieb1]

I received my Kindle today, so far tonight I have loaded just over 500 books via Calibre, and sorted them into collections, using a USB lead, just be aware its not normal mini USB lead, the Kindle does come with one but the first thing I did when I got it was order a spare lead!

I have had no problems at all, all my existing books were converted to MOBI format by Calibre first. And the 14 books I bought from Amazon were downloaded via wifi

[Alisa]

The USB on the Kindle is a micro USB which is becoming much more common. Several major mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to use it as the standard for charging. The mini USB is getting less common these days.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by laurai

I have ordered my kindle, my plan is to only use wireless to load content purchased through my Australian account. For the content I already have, and future purchases from the US store I will load via USB as I previously did with my bebook. (via unswindle and calibre)

Anyone see any problems with this plan I need to be wary of?

Laura

Nope. You seem to be covered.

You *might* want to also use a separate K4PC setup (maybe on a different PC or via a virtual PC) to re-download the ebooks purchased via the Australian account to get DRM-free backups of those book for future-proofing. But that's a belt-n-suspenders kinda thing.

[Kumabjorn]

Can you have the Kindle registered to one US account and one UK account?

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Can you have the Kindle registered to one US account and one UK account?

I believe you can only be registered to one account at a time. I don't know if switching it back and forth between two accounts in different countries would raise a red flag as far as geographic restrictions go, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[fordan]

Originally Posted by laurai

I have ordered my kindle, my plan is to only use wireless to load content purchased through my Australian account. For the content I already have, and future purchases from the US store I will load via USB as I previously did with my bebook. (via unswindle and calibre)

Anyone see any problems with this plan I need to be wary of?

Laura

Downside to this approach is that you don't get the position synchronization of your US content between your kindle instances (Kindle ereader/K4PC/iPhone app/etc), even if you use Wifi. Don't know how important that is to you.