where has all the kindles gone

[dogsballs]

just cant seem to get one for christmas either they are all sold out, or online deliveries are after christmas.

Im now looking at a samsung e65 or a Sony PRS-300R the samsung apparantly has a bad battery life and the sony is pink.

its snowing like hell here in Northern ireland so maybe the wife would rather have a snow shovel

[Alanis]

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get a Kindle this side of Christmas - still, if it's what she'd really like then a fantastic New Year present is better than a "very good" gift under the tree.

Personally, I'd recommend waiting for the Kindle, especially since the difference is a matter of days - in the meantime you could give her an Amazon voucher so she can go online and start choosing herself some ebooks. The range of Kindle books available is very impressive and they are far cheaper than other ebook stores in many cases, since Amazon has a price-matching policy. Also, the long battery life, improved screen and excellent customer service make the Kindle a very attractive prospect.

I can't comment on the Sony other than to say that the ebook store it's linked to is quite expensive and limited compared to Amazon (which is what put me off buying one). However, I do have a Samsung E60 and the battery life is much better than advertised if you turn Wifi off when not in use and avoid making annotations with the pen unless necessary - I tend to get a good two weeks of solid reading out of it in that case, and I'm doing a Literature degree so read a lot. It suits my degree as I like being able to underline and annotate with a pen, and it reads epubs, txt and pdf files well so all of the free classics can be read on it as well as newer, purchase-only ebooks.

I'm now getting a Kindle as well because my dissertation will be focusing on science fiction and Amazon's Kindle Store is a goldmine for any sci-fi fan, I worked out that it will be cheaper for me overall to buy things from there than to pay p+p on lots of paperbacks and pulp magazines. Although the Samsung is ideal for my studies and will still be my main reader for university work, it is too expensive for just "leisure reading" in my opinion and the fact that Samsung is no longer making them means that customer support probably won't be available if you have problems with it or want to buy replacement batteries, leads etc in the future.

Hope that helps you to weigh up the pros and cons!

[Tinks]

Hmmm, what about getting her an Amazon gift card with a little note that says "For the soon to be Kindle owner"?

[JeremyR]

I don't think I've ever read a good thing about the Sony PRS-300 here, get the 350 instead.

[Blog Kindle]

dogsballs,

What country are you trying to order from?

[ProfCrash]

It sounds like Northern Ireland.

Do you know anyone in the US who could get one at a Target or Best Buy or Staples and mail it to you?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

It sounds like Northern Ireland.

Do you know anyone in the US who could get one at a Target or Best Buy or Staples and mail it to you?

That probably wouldn't help. Unless you used an extremely expensive courier service it still wouldn't arrive in time for Christmas. The last posting date for overseas mail for Christmas delivery was a while ago.

My advise would simply be to order a Kindle, and regard it as a New Year present.

[dogsballs]

its the snow its halting all courier services into the country

@ tinks your not married are you

@ alanis thanks for the reply its the samsung e65 looks a bit like the kindle and for sale for £99 around £10 cheeper than the kindle. what put me off this was some reviews saying battery life was 20 hours but if as you say its possible to get longer then i would be happy to buy one as it has just been massively reduced in price

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by dogsballs

its the snow its halting all courier services into the country

@ tinks your not married are you

@ alanis thanks for the reply its the samsung e65 looks a bit like the kindle and for sale for £99 around £10 cheeper than the kindle. what put me off this was some reviews saying battery life was 20 hours but if as you say its possible to get longer then i would be happy to buy one as it has just been massively reduced in price

I see that you own a Sony. Why wouldn't you get your Wife a Sony? It would be easier to share books.

If she asked for a Kindle I am sure that she will understand that the Kindles are delayed. I know for a while they sold out for international customers. There is nothing you can do about that. I am sure she would understand.

I say this as a Wife who would be thrilled that my Hubby bought me what I wanted. I know when my Hubby, at the time fiancee, ordered my K1 there were some problems getting it because he was in the middle of moving and Amazon was not willing to send it to an address that did not matchhis credit card because he did not list it as a gift. Don't ask, I don't get it. I waited patiently for three weeks and was thrilled when it arrived.

[Alanis]

Originally Posted by dogsballs

@ alanis thanks for the reply its the samsung e65 looks a bit like the kindle and for sale for £99 around £10 cheeper than the kindle. what put me off this was some reviews saying battery life was 20 hours but if as you say its possible to get longer then i would be happy to buy one as it has just been massively reduced in price

Wow, that's much cheaper than mine! Hmm, that does change things a bit...

A couple of warnings though. It is definitely possible to get more than 20 hours of use out of it if you don't use the pen, but I'd imagine the battery life is noticably shorter than a Kindle. I haven't been able to find a wall-charger to work with it either, so it does need to be plugged into a computer to charge (no big deal if you use one for a few hours per day, as most people do). Also, the reason these are going cheap is because they were discontinued very shortly after going on sale because Samsung's price point was too high to compete - as a result, replacement batteries, USB leads (it needs a special two-headed one) and readers (if something goes wrong during the guarantee period) probably won't be available.

On the plus side, it works with Adobe Digital Editions (important for buying ebooks from shops), you can download thousands of free books for it (but not from Amazon, sadly), it's very enjoyable to use and you can increase the memory by 16 GB because it has a slot for an microSD/microSDHC card. Oh, and the battery is a replacable mobile phone battery so you should be able to get hold of another one quite easily through ebay or a mobile phone repairs shop once the original starts to wear out.

Clearly I thought it was worth buying as I paid much more for mine and have used it constantly since I got it (and fully intend to keep doing so), but I am getting a Kindle too purely to use the Amazon ebook store so there are limitations .

I'm sure your wife will be very happy with the Samsung in any case, just wanted to warn you of the potential issues I wish I'd been able to take into account when buying mine in case you think any of them would really bother her. If I'd known it was likely to be discontinued then I'd definitely have waited to buy mine until it came down in price (it was already £100 off when I bought it).

Edit: Also, I remember the E65 having the little keyboard on the front like the Kindle's, but I didn't think they released that in the end... I've found the E60 from PC World for the price you mentioned (that's the one I have), but they should be mostly the same anyway

[OtterBooks]

Get her a snow shovel with a photo of a Kindle attached to it.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Alanis

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get a Kindle this side of Christmas - still, if it's what she'd really like then a fantastic New Year present is better than a "very good" gift under the tree.

Personally, I'd recommend waiting for the Kindle, especially since the difference is a matter of days - in the meantime you could give her an Amazon voucher so she can go online and start choosing herself some ebooks. The range of Kindle books available is very impressive and they are far cheaper than other ebook stores in many cases, since Amazon has a price-matching policy. Also, the long battery life, improved screen and excellent customer service make the Kindle a very attractive prospect.

I can't comment on the Sony other than to say that the ebook store it's linked to is quite expensive and limited compared to Amazon (which is what put me off buying one). However, I do have a Samsung E60 and the battery life is much better than advertised if you turn Wifi off when not in use and avoid making annotations with the pen unless necessary - I tend to get a good two weeks of solid reading out of it in that case, and I'm doing a Literature degree so read a lot. It suits my degree as I like being able to underline and annotate with a pen, and it reads epubs, txt and pdf files well so all of the free classics can be read on it as well as newer, purchase-only ebooks.

I'm now getting a Kindle as well because my dissertation will be focusing on science fiction and Amazon's Kindle Store is a goldmine for any sci-fi fan, I worked out that it will be cheaper for me overall to buy things from there than to pay p+p on lots of paperbacks and pulp magazines. Although the Samsung is ideal for my studies and will still be my main reader for university work, it is too expensive for just "leisure reading" in my opinion and the fact that Samsung is no longer making them means that customer support probably won't be available if you have problems with it or want to buy replacement batteries, leads etc in the future.

Hope that helps you to weigh up the pros and cons!

if sci fi is your deal make sure you check out Baen!

Originally Posted by dogsballs

its the snow its halting all courier services into the country

@ tinks your not married are you

@ alanis thanks for the reply its the samsung e65 looks a bit like the kindle and for sale for £99 around £10 cheeper than the kindle. what put me off this was some reviews saying battery life was 20 hours but if as you say its possible to get longer then i would be happy to buy one as it has just been massively reduced in price

I've received more than one wrapped box of a picture of an incoming present. that's from parents, boyfriends, lovers, children and husbands. it truly is the though that counts. and she could read on the computer until the Kindle arrives!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I see that you own a Sony. Why wouldn't you get your Wife a Sony? It would be easier to share books.

If she asked for a Kindle I am sure that she will understand that the Kindles are delayed. I know for a while they sold out for international customers. There is nothing you can do about that. I am sure she would understand.

I agree with ProfCrash. The PRS-300 is a fantastic basic reader and has a lot of fans. It is very similar to your 505, although it does not have an audio player or memory card slots. It also has the smaller 5" screen. You could register it to the same accounts as your 505 and share all of your books that you already have for your 505. The new PRS-350 with touchscreen is also a great choice but more expensive. I've heard that the 6" PRS-650 are hard to find over there just like the Kindle. It's the older 6" PRS-600 that I would avoid since it had an older technology for the touchscreen, and the screen contrast is not as good as the 505, 300 or newer 350/650 models.

It all depends on what features your wife wants in the ereader. And, if it's the Kindle that she really wants, then I like the idea to give her an Amazon gift certificate for books with a Kindle coming soon note.

[Tinks]

Originally Posted by dogsballs

@ tinks your not married are you

LOL, actually I'm married, and I'm a woman. I guess I'm not the typical woman, though. I make things really easy for my husband. I give him an Amazon Christmas/Birthday wish list(so all he has to do is click & buy), and I don't expect anything for our anniversary(half the time I don't even remember it). As long as I knew I was getting a Kindle, I wouldn't care if I had to wait a little bit.

[dogsballs]

thank you everyone for your helpfull suggestions. thats whats so great about this forum (apart from the mass of information) peoples replies are always helpfull and makes one feel part of the community. cheers again.

@ tinks. your husband is a lucky man a picture of a 10ck diamond ring on christmas day would result in a cold dinner for me LOL!!

lifes to short im going for the samsung