Kindle for PC is there

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Well, I'm a newbie here, but I think it IS true...
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Travel the Globe with Kindle

Travel the globe and still get books in under 60 seconds. Download books wirelessly in over 100 countries around the world, such as Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK), and many others. Stay in touch with news from home by having your newspaper and magazine subscriptions delivered wirelessly while you travel. See wireless coverage map for availability.

For U.S. customers traveling abroad, a $1.99 fee currently applies when downloading books or single issues of periodicals wirelessly from your Archived Items or the Kindle store while traveling internationally. For details on periodicals and personal documents, click here. To avoid any fees, you can always download books, periodicals, and personal documents via your computer and transfer to your Kindle using USB.
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Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding all the Kindle bashing I've seen since I joined this forum a few weeks ago.

mrv

Yea, that page is for US users but Amazon has international web sites as well that are devoted to International users and that US web site stuff will be missing from them.

Dale

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Well, I'm a newbie here, but I think it IS true...

Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding all the Kindle bashing I've seen since I joined this forum a few weeks ago.

mrv

It is true that the International Kindle purchased by US customers allows them to use the Kindle overseas.

But, it is NOT true that it is only meant to be sold to US people. It is also 100% targeted at people out side the US...

Where did you see that the latter is not the case on Amazon's web site?

BOb

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

This is not true at all.

Seems pretty obvious to me -- though again it's obscured by the marketspeak. I mean, what's the point of a German or Taiwanese Kindle that exclusively sells English-language titles, only accepts US dollars as currency, uses AT&T for wireless, only comes with US power plugs, etc? Plus, there is no Kindle section on amazon.co.uk; if you want to buy a Kindle, the UK site redirects you to the US Amazon site.

If it was really targeted at international customers, at a minimum they'd crank up offerings in foreign languages.

Mind you I do think it'll take a long time for them to really roll out country-specific stores, but I don't think selling English-only titles is really a viable international business in the long term.

[scveteran]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Since I'm not in the UK, I can't tell which books are getting the charge -- PD books, books with a $0.00 promo pricing, or both. If it's a PD book, I'm not entirely sure what the fuss is about, as those books should be available via Manybooks, Gutenberg or numerous other sites.

Otherwise, it is clear that some people do not understand (quite likely due to Amazon marketing and the vagaries of international ebook distribution) that the "Kindle International" is, at this time, primarily aimed at US users who happen to be traveling or residing abroad. This is why the international books are in English, why the Kindles are shipped from the US, why you have to pay in USD, why they're using AT&T wireless instead of O2, etc etc.

Eventually, the UK will get its own "Amazon.uk Kindle," France will get its own Kindle, and so forth, and the "wireless fees" won't apply to UK residents buying UK ebooks while they are in the UK, unless the UK wireless carriers are truly mercenary.

A UK resident who buys an "international Kindle" is essentially buying a bleeding edge product; getting socked with extra fees is unfortunate but not wholly surprising.

Exactly right. So there really is no need IMO for the accusations that are being made. Of course, no matter what Amazon does, some people will be complaining about it..

[scveteran]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

I agree, we want the PID, how about opening a separate thread for the Amazon bashers so that we do not have to read through pages of rants to get to the important stuff?

Thanks for that.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by scveteran

Thanks for that.

No problems with having separate threads - makes sense.

But "Amazon Bashers?" Sounds a little dismissive of forum users expressing a genuine grievance, whether you agree with the point or not.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by scveteran

Thanks for that.

Right inside the Kindle Developer's Corner forum. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63413

[llreader]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

No problems with having separate threads - makes sense.

But "Amazon Bashers?" Sounds a little dismissive of forum users expressing a genuine grievance, whether you agree with the point or not.

Well, I think it has to do with the tone and the vehemence. I didn't and won't buy a Kindle, because I think locking in one format is absurd (plus it is ugly, among other things). But I wouldn't consider myself a "basher". If I got one as a gift, I would work around the limitations, like my friends that own Kindles, and like I do around the limitations of the Sony reader that I own.

Sony could make some improvements to their software, and their store is crappy, but I would probably stray into bashing if I, for example, called Sony a criminal conspiracy.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

No problems with having separate threads - makes sense.

But "Amazon Bashers?" Sounds a little dismissive of forum users expressing a genuine grievance, whether you agree with the point or not.

Well, to call Amazon dishonest and worse for doing that seems like "bashing" to me. I don't agree with their policy, and actually am one of those affected by it. The comments went way beyond expressing simple dissatisfaction. And all I did was suggest that this should be taken to separate thread, where it would probably receive more attention from like minded people who can make their voices heard. And then someone at Amazon might actually read it and rethink their policies.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by llreader

Sony could make some improvements to their software, and their store is crappy, but I would probably stray into bashing if I, for example, called Sony a criminal conspiracy.

If they were doing something which was a criminal conspiracy, I'd call it a criminal conspiracy. I'm...blunt like that, and previous bad experiences (up to and including hackers and DDoS's) have left me with no tolerance on the topic.

Indeed, there are potentially things rotten in the state of denmark about certain ebook pricing, but that's entirely down to publisher and not retailer policy.

(Suffice to say I find the publisher outcry about $10 books highly, highly reminiscent of the Net Book Agreement's principles)

[llreader]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

If they were doing something which was a criminal conspiracy, I'd call it a criminal conspiracy. I'm...blunt like that, and previous bad experiences (up to and including hackers and DDoS's) have left me with no tolerance on the topic.

Are you suggesting that Amazon is engaged in a criminal conspiracy, or are you referring to the shenanigans Sony got up to with some of their software?

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by llreader

Well, I think it has to do with the tone and the vehemence. I didn't and won't buy a Kindle, because I think locking in one format is absurd (plus it is ugly, among other things). But I wouldn't consider myself a "basher". If I got one as a gift, I would work around the limitations, like my friends that own Kindles, and like I do around the limitations of the Sony reader that I own.

Sony could make some improvements to their software, and their store is crappy, but I would probably stray into bashing if I, for example, called Sony a criminal conspiracy.

Yeah, now that I'm used to a reader that supports a lot of formats (Hanlin V3 clone) and am considering the PocketBook 360 for similar reasons, I have a hard time considering a move to a more "limited" reader. There is the argument that multi-format readers are too much like a "jack of all trades, master of none" approach. But as my format of choice is FB2 (I convert most books to that), I'm kind of forced to consider the alternatives to Kindle and Sony out there.

To be honest, even if the Kindle was offered to my region from day 1, I'd also have a hard time accepting it's design - to me, the keyboard just seems to force a bigger device (20% more front surface areas than other 6" devices, and 40% more than many of the new wave of 5" devices). I'm sure Kindle users will find the keyboard invaluable, but from a reading piont of view I really question the need. I use the SMS-type keypad for search on the V3 and it's great, as I don't use it so often anyway.

The there's the Sony/Kindle limitations on format support. Sure, they handle their own format, and I guess now they're including ePub support, but I really need more. Of course, others will not.

BTW, cool avatar!

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by llreader

Are you suggesting that Amazon is engaged in a criminal conspiracy, or are you referring to the shenanigans Sony got up to with some of their software?

The hacking and DDoS's? Involved an Asian company.

[llreader]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

The hacking and DDoS's? Involved an Asian company.

Yeah, that was totally uncool. But Sony is a big company and that was a while ago. IBM punch card technology was used by the Nazis (GODWIN!) but their laptops were not inherently evil.

I don't know of anything going on with the Sony reader or their book store. If you do, let me know.

Amazon has an offer that I find limited and, frankly, stupid. I have not seen any convincing argument that it is illegal or immoral. We should take this to the other thread, anyway.

[llreader]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

The there's the Sony/Kindle limitations on format support. Sure, they handle their own format, and I guess now they're including ePub support, but I really need more. Of course, others will not.

BTW, cool avatar!

The biggest turn-off to me was having to convert every book to Kindle format before reading. Bleah. However, now that I have used calibre, I think it would be less of an issue for me now than I thought it would be before I bought anything. The big problem is the DRM, and all the hoops you have to jump through to get a file ready for conversion. My days of tweaking and hacking are over, I don't want to have to micro-manage all my gadgets.

I am Ok with the formats that the Sony reads - BBeB (LRF/LRX), PDF, EPUB, TXT, RTF, plus some image and music files. I only really use EPUB and PDF (if forced). I have tried a few things as LRF, but I have found that I like EPUB better (there may be features to LRF that I don't use/know about). The thing that sold me on the Sony was the ability to work with public libraries. Still haven't had a chance to do it yet, but since I live overseas, getting books from back home over the internet was a big draw.

Oh, and thanks! Gumby is The Man.