Amazon to sell ads on Kindle Fire front screen?

[SeaKing]

Thinking some more about it, if I were buying an Amazon machine today, and there was only the choice of a $189 Keyboard Kindle 3G or a $199 Fire or any of the other lesser priced Kindles without 3G, there is no question I would get another $189 Keyboard Kindle 3G. A $30 or $40 discount for ads would only make it that much sweeter, but would never make me waiver on choosing the 3G machine.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Thinking some more about it, if I were buying an Amazon machine today, and there was only the choice of a $189 Keyboard Kindle 3G or a $199 Fire or any of the other lesser priced Kindles without 3G, there is no question I would get another $189 Keyboard Kindle 3G. A $30 or $40 discount for ads would only make it that much sweeter, but would never make me waiver on choosing the 3G machine.

I'm curious to know why you find the 3G so useful? I actually do have both a 3G Kindle 3 and a 3G Kindle Touch, but the occasions on which I use the 3G are minimal.

[Kumabjorn]

My first Kindle (2 3G) had 3G and I loved the fact that I could buy a new book while riding the bus to work. If I finished a book in the middle of the trip I just went into the Kindle Store and purchased a new book. Part of the excitement, I admit, was that 10 times out of 10, the person in the seat next to me would ask what I was doing. As nonchalantly as I possibly could, I answered; "Ohh, I just bought a new book". Loved their puzzled faces.

When upgrading to the 3 I decided to save a few bucks by getting the WiFi version. My smartphone does tethering so I can still buy books while riding the bus, it just doesn't look as cool anymore, fiddling with the phone and whatnot.

[xg4bx]

if it knocks some bucks off i'd consider getting one.

i have a k3 with ads. i seriously don't even notice them anymore. i couldn't tell you what the current ads are for if my life depended on it.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm curious to know why you find the 3G so useful? I actually do have both a 3G Kindle 3 and a 3G Kindle Touch, but the occasions on which I use the 3G are minimal.

Agreed. I have only used the 3G on either of my Kindles a few times. And it was primarily to download books. Browsing the web on an eink device is painful at best.

[ProfCrash]

I have used my 3G a few times but have been happy to have it when I needed it. I have had people tell me that they were able to use the 3G to send emails when their cell phones had no reception and that type of thing, so the 3G came through in a pinch. Obvioulsy, that is no longer an option for the Touch models. If I were to get a touch, I would probably go with a WiFi only version.

[soondai]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

If I finished a book in the middle of the trip I just went into the Kindle Store and purchased a new book.

I might run into this issue once I knock out my 100 book backlog.

[ProfCrash]

The 3G was great when I had started the Wheel of Time series and wanted the next book in the series. We were flying home from Australia and waiting for our connecting plane in San Fransisco. At the time, there was no WiFi available, so the 3G was wonderful. And after sitting on an airplane for 18 hours, preparing to sit on another airplane for 6 hours, I really wanted that particular book since I had just gotten into the series.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by soondai

I might run into this issue once I knock out my 100 book backlog.

Women read faster.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm curious to know why you find the 3G so useful? I actually do have both a 3G Kindle 3 and a 3G Kindle Touch, but the occasions on which I use the 3G are minimal.

If you are in your house or in a town or even on the road where you can always find WiFi you will never need 3G and I will agree that the touch is much easier to use. I have used WiFi in restaurants, hotels, motels all over including out of the USA, even in gas stations.
If however you are outside on the water, on a runway, in the desert, up on a peak, or a mile up and the 3G can reach a cell tower somewhere, it is all the difference in the world.

The best way to say it is this, and you may understand or not.
3G can be like having a bottle or canteen of water when you don't have a spigot anywhere near by and aren't going to for a while. The difference between being thirsty or not.

And for complete disclosure like I just said in another thread.
I have used Gmail with my Kindle and browsed the headlines. I will attest that looking at a gray-scale weather map isn't very instructive. The navigation key is awful, but it will work with a little practice and a lot of patience.

[tubemonkey]

As of now, my Kindle currently has 16 ads on it:

• 12 ads for AmazonLocal (Seattle)
• 1 ad for Kindle Daily Deal - "It Happened on the Way to War" (book)
• 1 ad for "The Long Way Home" (book)
• 1 ad for Browse Editors' Picks for May
• 1 ad for "Born and Raised" (music)

Something to look forward to on the Fire???

[Kumabjorn]

Please tell me that the AmazonLocal is for a bunch of bananas.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm curious to know why you find the 3G so useful? I actually do have both a 3G Kindle 3 and a 3G Kindle Touch, but the occasions on which I use the 3G are minimal.

Carrying on a little bit more HarryT.

My main point was that with all the improvements Amazon has made, they also took away a major buying point, for me.

I don't want a regular cellular service package for my Kindle and I don't mind the bandwidth they give me being severely limited which the Navigation button on the keyboard Kindle does naturally, but it is really great to have that little bit of 3G for free.
I don't use it that much, but when I want it, it is there and I don't pay month after months of service subscription fees just for the day that I need it.

It is like that stuff I carry in my emergency kits in my aircraft, in my truck and on my boats. "For that day."

[ProfCrash]

I agree on the 3G but I understand why they took it away. There was a hack that turned the 3G Kindles into a WiFi hot point. So there were people, granted a small number, who bought the 3G Kindle and badly abused the free 3G. Reading some of the posts, we are talking massive amounts of downloading by gamers and the like. The cost had to be enormous.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

It is like that stuff I carry in my emergency kits in my aircraft, in my truck and on my boats. "For that day."

Be honest, you have an extra Kindle in the aircraft. Just in case you'd be LOST you'd want something to read. Not a bad destiny, on an island with a 500 book library of unread books.