New Kindle with WiFi announced

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Also, sync is with ALL devices... which annoys me no end and makes me unable to use it.

BOb

Yeah, but the sync is by account, and only then by book. If you are sharing an account, and reading the same book, then you (Reader A) and your partner (Reader B) will find out that the "both" books are being sync'd to the same last spot.

But there are two workarounds I think I see.

One is to use bookmarks. This is based on the assumption that both Readers are using the same account to buy & read ebooks. The two Readers would have to work out a system for recognizing whose bookmarks are whose. The simplest would be to have each Reader bookmark the last page he read, and to remove the bookmark when he returns to read some more. The Kindles would always be sync'd to the furtherest bookmark. If that spot is not the returning Reader's spot, then he will know that the other bookmark is where he left off reading.

The other is to set up separate accounts for each Reader. I believe that devices - and the books on those devices - would be sync'd only to those devices registered to a particular account. Thus, Reader A could download a book from Reader B's account (Account B) then unlink and relink to his own account (Account A.) Reader A could register his Kindle and his iPhone to Account A, and they would sync regardless of what Reader B was doing with his copy of the book. If you already have a common account (which sounds like your situation) just set up two more accounts (A and B) for the sole purpose of syncing, and continue to make purchases & download from the common account, but unlink and return to your own account before doing any reading. (I haven't tested this but I think this will work.)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not really. Because there may be books you want to share with the kids. Then you'd have to buy them twice.

You don't have to buy any book twice. You can download from either account. You just have to register your device to the account that "owns" the book in order to download it.

My sons & I do this all the time. We each have our own separate accounts with Amazon. But we have shared our account names & passwords, so that any of us can register our devices to each others' accounts to share ebooks.

I don't know if you can register the same Kindle to two different accounts at the same time (I will test it out when I get my K3) but I *do know* that you can register the same Kindle to two different accounts sequentially.

The kids' kindles stay registered to the kids' account, but the adults' kindles can move back & forth between them if they want a book purchased on the kids' account. If by chance there's a book on the adults' account which you want to put on a kid's kindle, you just have the adult link up (i.e., register) the kid's kindle to the adults' account, download the book, then unregister the kid's kindle.

So you can, in effect, segregate the kids' ebook library from the adults' ebook library, but download books from either. It's just that the kid will have to get parental permission to download from the adult library, because the adult has the password.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Yeah, but the sync is by account, and only then by book. If you are sharing an account, and reading the same book, then you (Reader A) and your partner (Reader B) will find out that the "both" books are being sync'd to the same last spot.

But there are two workarounds I think I see.

yes I know. but since I primarily read on one device and we do share books... all the Kindles registered to a single account is much less pain than moving the kindle from account to account.

Thanks for the ideas though.

BOb

[ProfCrash]

I'll have to check when I can get to my Kindle but I thought that you could go to the preferences area and turn off the sync feature.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I'll have to check when I can get to my Kindle but I thought that you could go to the preferences area and turn off the sync feature.

Yes, but it's On/Off at an account level... not a device or book level. Unless they have changed things since I last played with it.

UPDATE: Yes, I just checked on my "manage" kindle page... this can only be turned on/off for the account not the device.

BOb

[Teyrnon]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Yes, but it's On/Off at an account level... not a device or book level. Unless they have changed things since I last played with it.

A thought that I had about this question is that if one of the readers is only reading on a single device they could simply turn the wireless off, preventing syncing, until they've finished the book in question.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Teyrnon

A thought that I had about this question is that if one of the readers is only reading on a single device they could simply turn the wireless off, preventing syncing, until they've finished the book in question.

Yes, I guess that's possible. But, what if I want to sync between my two devices but not a third or fourth device that someone else uses.

BOb

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

yes I know. but since I primarily read on one device and we do share books... all the Kindles registered to a single account is much less pain than moving the kindle from account to account.

Thanks for the ideas though.

BOb

I don't have experience I'm moving the Kindle from one account to another. But on the iPhone it's a piece of cake. You do it from inside the app.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ok, that is a different question.

Sorry - I should have phrased my question more clearly.

I took your original question to mean:

If I have books in my library on Amazon can my kids see all the books and be able to read them?

To this I answer yes, every book in your amazon library is available to every registered device. I thought you were asking because you had some books you didn't want your children to have access to.

That's part of it - there may well be some books in my library which dealt with themes that wouldn't be ideal for my (young) children to see. Just being able to choose which books are on which device is the main thing, though.

But, from the above it seems like your question is:

Can I decide which books from my Amazon library are on which device?

That answer to that is YES. Your Amazon library contains 100% of your purchased books. You can "send" them to any device you choose. You can also on any device list your "archive" and d/l just those books you want locally on the device.

That's a very clear summary - thanks for the help!

So, perhaps I misunderstood you original question.

Syncing is not how you get books to your Kindle. At least when I talk about "sync" or "Whishpersync" I am talking about the sharing of last read position, bookmarks, highlights and notes. It is this syncing that you can't define. For example, if you enable syncing and you and your spouse are reading the same book on separate devices then you are going to have problems.

OK - understood.

As I said, there is no way to pair devices. I can't for example specify that my Kindle syncs with My Mac but not my sons iPod or my wifes PC. Whispersync is all or nothing.

I hope that clears up my answer to you.

BOb

Indeed it does - thanks!

/JB

[mikaelalind]

... I love my Sony, and hopefully it work for a long time but I am really, really tempted by the kindle. On the other hand, I like epub. Oh well. Time will tell

[esecallum]

Originally Posted by charleski

£109 for a device with the new screen does seem very tempting, even though .mobi sucks as a format compared to epub. The 3G radio is probably nice for those scared of computers, but I never saw the point of it for my own use.

could you please explain what 3G radio is? is it a radio tuner with radio stations?

can the 4gb space be expanded?

is it a micro sd card?

could we replace it by opening it?

[carld]

Originally Posted by esecallum

could you please explain what 3G radio is? is it a radio tuner with radio stations?

It's basically a built in data only cellphone that auto-connects to Amazon's servers or to the Internet through AT&T if you're using the browser.

Originally Posted by esecallum

can the 4gb space be expanded?

is it a micro sd card?

No, it's internal RAM, or a combination of RAM and Flash memory.

Originally Posted by esecallum

could we replace it by opening it?

Nope

[esecallum]

Originally Posted by carld

It's basically a built in data only cellphone that auto-connects to Amazon's servers or to the Internet through AT&T if you're using the browser.



No, it's internal RAM, or a combination of RAM and Flash memory.




Nope

thanks for that...

does the 3G let you browse the web for free?

can you make phone calls with it? FOR EXAMPLE USING SKYPE?


can you install widows software on the kindle?

for example i have this windows book software which simulates a real book in how the page turns on a real book.

does the text to speech reader work WITH OUT phones or only with earphones inserted...

does KINDLE have a speaker?

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by esecallum

does the 3G let you browse the web for free?

Yes. The Kindle has a web browser and you are currently not charged for web browsing. I don't know if they're promising that permanently.

can you make phone calls with it? FOR EXAMPLE USING SKYPE?

Someone would have to put a Skype application on it. I doubt Amazon would allow it since that's a lot of data to give away. There is no phone service on it natively either.

can you install widows software on the kindle? for example i have this windows book software which simulates a real book in how the page turns on a real book.

No. It doesn't run Windows. It runs on a Linux kernel. There is also a software development kit for making applications. There have been some hacks for older versions in the past, too.

does the text to speech reader work WITH OUT phones or only with earphones inserted...does KINDLE have a speaker?

It has two speakers on the back.

[MsAstoria]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Yes. The Kindle has a web browser and you are currently not charged for web browsing. I don't know if they're promising that permanently.

The web browser (at least on K2) is very primitive and doesn't support flash, movies, etc but is fine for basic gmail usage, and other mobile sites. It was very slow and clunky. Don't know what the web will be like on K3.

No to Skype as described below, also there is no microphone for speaking. It does have a two small speakers for listening to audio books and MP3 files and a port for a earphone jack which is nice to listening to such as on a plane.

Someone would have to put a Skype application on it.

No. It doesn't run Windows. It runs on a Linux kernel. There is also a software development kit for making applications. There have been some hacks for older versions in the past, too.

It's no meant for adding software too, but for reading and listening to audio. I think you are wanting to make it into a netbook, and that's just not it's intention.

It has two speakers on the back.