Kindle Does EPUB

[spacemonkey]

I like the knockoffs that have almost the right labels.

I love my shamsung and my arple products.

[terencek]

This also sounds to me, having searched fruitlessly in China for a Kindle a couple of months ago out of interest, that this could well be a backdoor version which has escaped from the Chinese factory where they are all in fact made. I have several Chinese items like this, identical to the original and shamelessly from the same factory producing the originals for the Western market, where the same product is just slightly tweaked or rebranded and an extra production run is launched for local consumption.

[SamuraiXSendai]

Possibly KIRF

[Tom Swift]

Okay, now I am interested. I was planning to buy a kindle over here on taobao next week but now I am definitely heading down to Metro City to take a look.

[silasgreenback]

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

I like the knockoffs that have almost the right labels.

I love my shamsung and my arple products.

I'm pretty happy with my Coby Reader Pocket Edition.

[Tom Swift]

Actually, with no 3g or azw, I think will wait until am back in Canada. Rumor has it that the kindle browser can bypass the Chinese firewall.

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

Actually, with no 3g or azw, I think will wait until am back in Canada. Rumor has it that the kindle browser can bypass the Chinese firewall.

Too bad. I was going to suggest we meet up.

Yeah, I've heard that rumor, too. But circumventing the firewall is as simple as logging into an anonymous proxy. For free proxies, kproxy.com seems to have pretty fast load times, but there are plenty of others. For $4-6/month you can subscribe to a for-pay proxy or set up a VPN that's completely transparent with almost no noticeable lag time. I've been surfing from home through such a service for the past couple of years, and almost forgot I'm not supposed to be able to access Facebook.

I can tell you that at $1400-1600rmb, the K3s at Meiluochun are running about 40% higher than Amazon.com's $US139, so that's another argument in favor of picking it up back home. But even if you do, take a look at the Duokan FAQ here on MR. Duokan is an alternative firmware that adds significant functionality over the Amazon firmware (especially epub support and improvements in PDF handling). Best of all, it doesn't replace the original firmware, so you can bounce back and forth between them. The only obvious downside is that installing it violates Amazon's TOS. All the K3s at Metro City have Duokan preinstalled.

I've never considered a Kindle because of the lack of epub support. Duokan changes that equation.

OTOH, if you're not yet settled on a Kindle, you might want to poke around Metro City anyway; it's hard to imagine any place on earth where you can get hands-on with a wider variety of ereaders.

--Nathanael

--Nathanael

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

I like the knockoffs that have almost the right labels.

I love my shamsung and my arple products.

Don't forget when the started both Cony and Coby used "Genuine Cony"/"Genuine Coby" on their packaging. I wonder how many grannies bought the grand kids one thinking they were getting them a Walkman (for you kiddies the iPod of it's time --sigh-- must remind myself that AARP has benefits so it's good to be old).

And there in the seafood section there was always "Genuine Imitation Krab" made with pollack and other various synthetic plastic polymers. So without these "genuine imitations" look at the goodness we would all miss out on.

I wonder how many of the hacks end up being added to the brand name products? I sort of like the way the Chinese market works. They just do whatever they can to sell the stuff, if than means hacking something so be it. Somehow to me that is far more a free market than what we think we have, and think we invented, here in the US.

Now how is the street food in the area? I live for those sections of a city. Something we also really need here in Oooosah (twisted pronunciation of USA oooo-s-ah)

[jocampo]

Two things,

Or is fake (would not surprise me at all) or that thing it's running a not authorized or customized firmware.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Nathanael

That rang a bell. One of the K3s had "www.duokan.com" on its power-off screen. I detailed in my previous post why I believe the K3s are genuine. But a read through the duokan thread here convinces me I was seeing the alternative firmware, which would be quite consistent with the Shanghai market -- see my previous comments on Wii consoles.

For anyone interested, here are some interesting reads on the state of the grey market in China and what manufacturers like Apple and Amazon can do about it. In short, not much. Build in artificial market restrictions and the Chinese market will simply reroute around it. iPhone, iPad, and now Amazon. In six months China may be flooded with Kindles over which Amazon has no control.

'Gray market' for counterfeit gadgets is red hot in China (Washington Post)
The Gray Market from the Perspective of an Independent Distributor
Inside the iPhone Gray Market (Business Week)



Sorry, I didn't hear that Has a colon on the top?

--Nathanael

From your article or the link you provided

The iPhooe (fake iPhone) has special features including a removable battery and a place for two SIM cards, meaning the user can have two phone numbers ring for the same phone.

I want an iPhooe, hahahahahaha...

[Tom Swift]

Nathanael, I should have been more clear. Actually, I have been in China for almost 5 years now. I only go home to Canada for July and August since I am a school teacher at an international school about an hour from Shanghai. I am always open to meeting new people but I don't get into Shanghai too often.

I have tried VPN over here but have not had much luck. A few of us were on Witopia but it was terrible and almost never worked. After numerous emails to the company, we finally gave up. Not one teacher out here could get their service to work properly. I use "securitales", which is not a true VPN but a web-based one. Honestly, I don't really miss Facebook and uTube all that much but it is a pain with blocked podcasts. Which service do you use?

I have looked at the various book readers at Metro City and I agree, they are much too expensive. I asked a vender about the price difference between China and Canada and he agreed that Canada was much cheaper but the Chinese companies have not dropped their prices to match the rest of the world. We were talking about the Havlon (sp?) models but it is the same for the others.
You have me wondering about the Kindles on Taobao. The prices are better and they say 3g on the ads but I wonder how many are real and how many are just copying the information from Amazon to put on their ads? Maybe I will wait until Canada to make sure. I do plan to check out Metro City today though. I want to see these Kindles, since I have never seen one there before.

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by terencek

I have several Chinese items like this, identical to the original and shamelessly from the same factory producing the originals for the Western market

It's my understanding that in general a lot of gray market product comes from overproduction, misjudging demand. Whether that's true in this case, who knows? It seems strange to talk of lack of demand on the Kindle, but perhaps the supplier produced more than Amazon was willing to buy.

That's pure speculation from a guy (me) who probably doesn't know what he's talking about.

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

Honestly, I don't really miss Facebook and uTube all that much but it is a pain with blocked podcasts. Which service do you use?

I use Facebook only because I have lots of family there; I wouldn't miss it if it went away. However, China also blocks blogspot, and with my reading patterns and the fact that blogspot hosts by some estimates 40% of all blogs in the Internet I find myself at blogspot a half dozen times a day. And, inexplicably, a couple of years ago my own websites were being blocked. I have no idea why -- nobody reads my blog

The service I've been using for over a year, without complaint, is StrongVPN.

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

I have looked at the various book readers at Metro City and I agree, they are much too expensive.

I've bought two ereaders there and yes, they are expensive, until you factor in the cost and uncertainties of shipping (I've lost at least two shipments in as many years, one from Amazon). I haven't been back to the States in years, so I'm kind of limited to buying locally.

If you get a look at the Kindles, let us know what you think. I'm pretty confident they're gray market rather than knock-offs, but a second pair of eyes never hurts.

There was a report about a year ago of gray market Kindles in China, but that was based apparently on an isolated dealer in Beijing. It also mentioned Kindles on Taobao. But I've never felt comfortable enough to buy anything there.

One dealer at Metro City claimed 3G on her Kindles; I didn't specifically ask at the others. A genuine Kindle would have 3G, but you'd have to boot the original firmware to use it; duokan doesn't yet support it.

--Nathanael

[silasgreenback]

Originally Posted by Nathanael

The service I've been using for over a year, without complaint, is StrongVPN.

--Nathanael

Is it dangerous to do such things? It seems like the punishment might be harsh if you were found out.

In any case, I have a lot of respect for you and your countrymen that do what they can to avoid censorship.

[Tom Swift]

So I went to Metro City and bought a Kindle. I had to ask three different vendors until one said that they had them but they had to go get it. I did not see any in the glass counters. She brought me one by itself but it had Chinese language only. I asked them to change it to English but they said that it was a Kindle made for China only, which was strange since my understanding was that they are not available for legal purchase in China. Another guy came over and said that the newer models has English only and was that what I wanted? I said yes so they went and brought back a new one in a box. She opened the box with an exacto knife, as to make it easy to reseal in case I didn't buy it, showed it to me. I asked them where it came from and she said that it was bought in the US and brought over, a common situation for grey market over here. I asked for 3g but she said it was not available so I bought it anyway.
So, since mine was a US model and never opened, it does not have epub capabilities (that I can tell) and it seems to be a standard Kindle. I hooked it up to my Amazon Store and it recognized it with no problems.
So, in conclusion, the one I bought is grey market, not a knock-off. There might be knock-offs available but I didn't see one and they didn't offer. The price? 1400 RMB, which is not bad.

[Tom Swift]

To Silasgreenback, they don't seem to care that we use VPN and other methods to beat the censors. I should have stated however, that I am not Chinese but Canadian. I have been working here for almost five years teaching Math and Physics at an International School. All of my students regularly bypass the filters. It can be a strange place here when it comes to internet censoring. A lot of it is local ISP self-censoring so it depends where you are in China as to what is blocked or what is not. Most people use internet cafes and they don't have access to pay VPN (most people don't have credit cards either) but it seems that everyone has access to all of the banned sites. Not too sure why the government bothers sometimes.

When I get pissed off at the censorship, I go on to Google and do a search for "F*** you, you goddammed f******* censors. Why don't you go get a real job, you..." . I will add other epitaphs as the mood hits me. Don't know if it works but I have gotten the time-out on occasion so probably someone has noticed it. I plan on looking at the VPN that Nathanael suggested. Never seen that one before but will see what it is like.