Kindle international in UK

[mike_bike_kite]

I'm in an endless loop comparing all the ereaders and had some questions about the Kindle International. I'm unlikely to buy books via amazon and I'll just be wanting to read the ebooks on my PC (mostly txt, pdf and a few epubs files) and other free books over net. Few questions:

• Can I side load my ebooks onto the kindle? (if I can then I presume I'm not locked into amazon or am I missing something).
• Does the 3G work for UK users?
• Can I access any web page or is it just amazon? (I'd read that some users can access anywhere while other sites say not - confused).
• Can I post to forums or send web email?
• Is there a charge for 3G access?
• Is the TTS acceptable?
• I assume the international is bought through amazon.com but does it come with an English (or European) power plug?
• Can I download books directly onto the kindle from the free sites or here?

It's a bit confusing with different versions of the Kindle, different versions of the firmware and different capabilities in different countries. Just to repeat that I'm in the UK so telling me it works find in NY won't help much

Cheers

Mike

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

1. Can I side load my ebooks onto the kindle? (if I can then I presume I'm not locked into amazon or am I missing something).
2. Does the 3G work for UK users?
3. Can I access any web page or is it just amazon? (I'd read that some users can access anywhere while other sites say not - confused).
4. Can I post to forums or send web email?
5. Is there a charge for 3G access?
6. Is the TTS acceptable?
7. I assume the international is bought through amazon.com but does it come with an English (or European) power plug?
8. Can I download books directly onto the kindle from the free sites or here?

1. Yes — and drm-free Mobipocket/Kindle ebook can be copied to the Kindle over USB.
2. Yes, in a limited way. But I don't bother with it.
3. Don't know
4. Don't know
5. No.
6. Some people use the TTS, so it's acceptable for them. I haven't had occasion to use it.
7. No, it's a US power adapter, but any USB power adapter will work.
8. Some sites can email ebooks to your Kindle. You can download a special file from Mobileread to your Kindle and then download anything on Mobileread using that. Although again, I haven't done this.

[mike_bike_kite]

Many thanks for your input.
Can anyone else fill in the grey areas?

[mike_bike_kite]

I realised I put this in the dev corner of the kindle forum - would a mod please move it to the correct part of the forum.
Apologies.
Mike

[suecsi]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

1. Can I side load my ebooks onto the kindle? (if I can then I presume I'm not locked into amazon or am I missing something).
2. Does the 3G work for UK users?
3. Can I access any web page or is it just amazon? (I'd read that some users can access anywhere while other sites say not - confused).
4. Can I post to forums or send web email?
5. Is there a charge for 3G access?
6. Is the TTS acceptable?
7. I assume the international is bought through amazon.com but does it come with an English (or European) power plug?
8. Can I download books directly onto the kindle from the free sites or here?

1 - yes - MOBI without DRM, Calibre works fine. You can convert the EPUBs without DRM via Calibre, text is fine. PDFs are a mixed bag - they display ok but you can't resize the text (something which works on a Sony) so it is best to convert the PDF as well. I have found the best way is to save it as HTML then import to Calibre and convert to MOBI. All assuming it is DRM free of course.
2. Works for Whispernet for downloading from Amazon. I'm not sure about otherwise.
3. Haven't tried this as I couldn't work out how! It sounds like the latest update (2.5.2) will make it easier.
4. Pass
5. No - though there used to be $2 extra on top of the bought book price, this seems to have gone now.
6. Pass
7. Comes from Amazon.com but with a US plug so you need an adapter. There is an official EU and UK plug but you have to buy separately. Some USB adapters work but not all - it seems very fussy. I'm using my mobile phone charger as it has the micro USB connector.
8. Feedbooks has some sort of way of downloading straight to the Kindle without a pc, I think it is stickied in the top of this forum.

[Herak]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

• Can I side load my ebooks onto the kindle? (if I can then I presume I'm not locked into amazon or am I missing something).
• Does the 3G work for UK users?
• Can I access any web page or is it just amazon? (I'd read that some users can access anywhere while other sites say not - confused).
• Can I post to forums or send web email?
• Is there a charge for 3G access?
• Is the TTS acceptable?
• I assume the international is bought through amazon.com but does it come with an English (or European) power plug?
• Can I download books directly onto the kindle from the free sites or here?

3g works pretty well for me in scotland.

It's full web for now with 2.5.2 in the uk, works like a good smartphone from a couple of years ago.

You will get charged if you send stuff to the device via whispernet that's not a book bought from amazon. other wise it's free, though i'd expect an email if you started using it extremely heavily.

the tts is ok but i hardly use it

It will charge you can use any mobile phone charger with the correct plug to charge the kindle or plug it in to a usb port with the supplyed cable

If the book is in the correct format you can plug the kindle in to your pc with the supplied micro usb cable to add content, it mounts as a mass stoage device so its pretty easy.

[mike_bike_kite]

Originally Posted by suecsi

3. Haven't tried this as I couldn't work out how!

Thank you both for your input.

This site shows how to access the internet.
This page shows how to highlight a word in a book and then just jump to wikipedia for that entry!
Hope they help.

I haven't tried any of the above as I don't own one. If I wasn't so indecisive then I'd probably have one already simply for the wikipedia access alone. I still can't work out whether everyone gets all web access or just certain sites in the UK though. Of course the K3 coming out in Aug makes me even more indecisive.

Mike

[Herak]

The now full web access is a side effect of the social networking features in the new firmware, previously you were limited to wikipedia. After comparing it to some of the other e-readers available in the uk it's head and shoulders above the rest. Any way if you order it now it should be with you just as quickly as if it was shipped from the uk. I ordered mine the friday before thanksgiving weekend and had it in my hands monday morning.