Anyone got EReader shipped to India?

[rhari79]

Hi,

I am still stuck deciding if it is worth buying a device. Esp since they are all mostly fragile. Sneeze and they take offence.

I will be returning back to india soon. Hence may not buy one here.

Please do share your experiences if any of you have shipped an Ebook Reader device to India.

Esp., any shipping issues, custom related stuffs etc.,

Thanks in advance..hari

[pilotbob]

I have sneezed while reading on my Kindle, and it didn't mind at all.

BOb

[RWood]

I have dropped my Sony and all sort of other things and it still works fine. There were reports of bad screens when they first came out but it seems that the number of bad screens has decreased (quality control increases? changes to the manufacturing process?) Any way it seems that the e-ink readers of today are far stronger than the ones produced 2 years ago. (Although mine is 2-1/2 years old.)

[rhari79]

Originally Posted by rhari79

Sneeze and they take offence.

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I have sneezed while reading on my Kindle, and it didn't mind at all.

Originally Posted by RWood

I have dropped my Sony and all sort of other things and it still works fine.

I am a fresh entree and I am looking for a decent device first up. However the kind of problems quoted in the troubleshooting section's makes things look so bad.

I have my eyes set on a Bebook or an iliad.
But still not able to decide mainly because I do not have the luxury of getting up and close and hands-on with the device before I decide to purchase it.

Both these devices "seem" to show problems that doesnt make deciding easy.

I guess i am quite just in saying that these devices are still fairly sensitive.

--hari

[HarryT]

They are no more delicate than, say, a laptop computer. Treat it in the same way you would a laptop and you'll be fine.

[Sydney's Mom]

I dropped my kindle on the train platform, and it bounced. I have read it outside while waiting for the train when it was -20F. Never had any problems.

[rhari79]

I do not intend to test newton's laws with the device.
I intend to read with it. Say like for 1 year at least.

Sony/Kindle are not available worldwide. Nothing actually stops them but their own short-sightedness.
Nothing stops Amazon from releasing a non-3G-non-EVDO-plain-vanilla ultra-stable super-strong Kindle to the rest of the world. Iliad sells a no-wifi reader as iliad BE.
But even if they do, I will not be Amazon's slave and read what Amazon says I can read.

Forget Kindle, but Sony Reader is ridiculous.
There are so many Sony shops across India and world wide and people buy Sony devices from them.
Sony is the biggest name in Japan too. But no reader to most parts of the world.

I have my eyes set on a single Iliad available via Amazon Japan. I can get it in 2 days.
But I am not sure if it will be worth the money because of the stability and hardware concerns.

I am cynical..at 50000+ yen, I reserve the right to be.
Will this device ship alive and stay alive and be so for 1st few days and then few months and then a full year?
I do not know what Amazon(or even IRex) will reply if I ask this question to them.

Why Amazon and not from irex? I have an indian credit card.
I dont want to help the banks by letting then rob me through my CC with this much forex.
Amazon allows me to buy Cash on delivery(COD).
So i pay cash for free and quick shipping+260yen COD charge+customs 5%. No forex robbery.

The same at 30000+ yen is the issue with the BeBook.
Why an iliad or bebook and not cybook?
Cybook has a stingy 16 MB RAM as against 32 for Bebook and 64 for Iliad
That means I cant use huge pdfs; also its dev resource is small.

I am currently only interested in these 2 devices as they are the most open I can find.

I would like less crippling issues than what I see in the troubleshooting section. Even the Kindle or sony is not cripple free.
May be you guys are quite lucky.

Talking about these devices when I was specifically asking for devices shipped into India seems inappropriate.

If the hanlins or iliad are similarly herculean , I will toss a coin for a Bebook or iliad BE.

[dragonbone]

Hi rhari79, I am also new here and was searching Japan when I found your post. I'm interested that you were able to find the Iliad on Amazon.jp. Luckily for my credit card, I didn't see it first, as I have just (two days ago) received my Sony PRS-700 from (a Sony dealer) on eBay.com. I thought the Iliad was GREAT, but a bit too expensive for me. I couldn't find enough information or reviews and was afraid of problems.
I, too was also not able to buy the Kindle or shop at Amazon's ebook store, because I don't have an American credit card ! Same applies to Sony. However, like I say, I was able to buy from a Sony dealer on eBay and even have a one year warranty and the Sony reader supports many types of files.
Yes, it is very strange (and irritating) that the Sony is only available in the USA and UK, and soon I hear to Australia and Germany, but not to the rest of the world, not even in Japan!
I tracked my parcel via UPS online tracking and noticed that it was held up at Japan customs for 4 days. When it arrived, I had 2 pay $8 import tax, and I noticed that the UPS box had been opened by customs, but not the inner contents. They must have been scratching their heads themselves, trying to understand why I have imported a Sony product, not available here in Japan, the land of Sony .
Anyway, my Sony reader was very well packed in the Sony box and outer UPS box, completely safe for transport, and everything is perfect and working. I only need a reader for reading novels, so I'm not sure what you need your reader for? Also NO need at all to use the Sony store for software, library or books. Calibre free software has everything and more than you need IMHO,and MANY other online ebook stores sell internationally, so who needs Amazon or Sony connect anyway!!
You can find all info that you need in the MobileRead forums regarding Calibre.
Japan post is the most safe and reliable postal service in the world, so if your Iliad is posted from here, it will be VERY well packed. It's all up to the postal service in India if it arrives safely.
Good luck on your decision!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rhari79

Cybook has a stingy 16 MB RAM as against 32 for Bebook and 64 for Iliad
That means I cant use huge pdfs; also its dev resource is small.

That's the amount of space used by the operating system - not the space available for user documents. The CyBook has 512MB user storage, and up to 2GB available via an SD card.

[rhari79]

Hi HarryT, If the device's storage space can be extended then the internal storage memory is not a issue. However since the Cybook has a comparatively small RAM, the amount of data the OS can handle at a time is quite limited. I doubt it Cybook loads file-data pages on demand. Means the max file size will not be very high or page loading will be slow.
But I may be wrong too.

The iliad is supposed to have good CF and bad SD card support. I was planning to get a SD to CF adapter to solve this as I have lots of SD and microsd cards around.

Hi dragonbone-san, strangely if you search for an iliad in amazon this device doesnt seem to show up. I think i got it through jp.msn.com.
I was just reading a huge bunch of conversation at irex forum about the iliad and people's gripes about it. Now this makes me more reluctant to get it.

It was interesting that a few days back there was a post about the Flepia demo'd in Kinshicho's Fujiya restaurant, along with the Iliads. I may drop in sometime cos Kinshicho is right along my travel route.

By the way the Iliad is officially available in japan, supported by www.est.co.jp and www.brule.co.jp.
But as is usual in such special cases, the price comes out very high.

In case i stay here for a little longer, I plan to attend the Tokyo International Book Fair. I read that the iliad and several others were demoed last year.

[rhari79]

One more piece of info:
expansys.jp also ship the Bebook and Cybook to Japan. However their pricing seems to change periodically and I have heard from them that this is due to fluctuating exchange rates.
However I have never seen the price reduce.
Though based in HK, their shipping time seems huge.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rhari79

Hi HarryT, If the device's storage space can be extended then the internal storage memory is not a issue. However since the Cybook has a comparatively small RAM, the amount of data the OS can handle at a time is quite limited. I doubt it Cybook loads file-data pages on demand. Means the max file size will not be very high or page loading will be slow.
But I may be wrong too.

I routinely use an 65MB PDF file on my CyBook (a Latin grammar book). Does that count as "large"? File size is pretty irrelevent given that only one page at a time is displayed.

[rhari79]

dragonbone-san, it is good to know that the device went through customs and is intact.
As per expansys customer service, the amount you have paid is most probably consumption tax.
http://www.expansys.jp/customerservice.aspx#engcustcare

Amazon JP charges the same on delivery but since it ships from Ichikawa, the shipping is faster.
I will also look up ebay.com. Thanks for the info. I may just ignore my gripe about Sony in exchange for a stable device.

[dragonbone]

Hey rhari79-san! What's your gripe about Sony? BTW when is the book fair?
Thanks for your info regarding Japanese support and links etc., although I already have my Sony PRS-700.... If I had known just a little earlier.... but who knows about the future and what it may bring, so it's definitely useful to know. Actually I saw the iLiad and some other readers on a clip on uTube at the Tokyo book fair, (I think) while I was still trying to decide. But because all the readers were there, Kindle too, I didn't think more of it.

[rhari79]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I routinely use an 65MB PDF file on my CyBook (a Latin grammar book). Does that count as "large"?

..yes..that is large...
so cybook handles quite large pdfs. Thanks for the info.
I do remember reading that the size could be a constraint. But dont know for which device. But 65 MB is way beyond. I was looking at around 20-30 MB.