Kindle 3 in Canada, right decision?

Toonces · 11-26-2010, 07:55 AM

I ordered a K3 for my wife for Christmas, having it shipped to a package broker just across the border.

I guess I didn't really read enough before ordering it, it was recommended as the way to go because if its speed. Now I find that they've improved the speed of the Nook to acceptable levels.

Which eReader is going to be best in Canada? I know Amazon has support for Canadian customers, for the Nook I am unsure but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

What I am wondering about now is the book availability and long term prices for each.

As I've read, the Nook has a wider selection of sources for book, whereas the Kindle is tied to Amazon. I'm not sure I fully grasp the concept of epub and the free books that are available through Google. Can these be put a on Kindle via this "calibre"?, either the free ones or buying them from another source? How difficult is that to do, if it can be done. Does the Nook make it easier to get the content?

I'm left wondering if I made the right decision seeing as how the Nook seems to have a wider selection and more access to free books. Do I return my Amazon order and get a Nook?

Gadget_girl · 11-26-2010, 10:25 AM

I think this partly depends on where in Canada are you. It's a big country. The Nook deals with mainly Barnes and Noble. You can use it to check out library books, but from what I've read, purchasing books from anywhere outside of the US tends to be a hassle. Now if you have a U.S. address, or are a snowbird, or live close to the border, this may tend to matter less.

The kindle is only tied to Amazon in the sense that it has average support for pdf's (Sony's is better) and does not support epub natively. However you can convert non-DRM epub's from other stores to the Kindle's mobi format using the calibre software. DRM protection will prevent you from performing this conversion, so this only works on unprotected ebooks. Theoretically, you could convert almost any document or format into mobi using calibre. I can't vouch for how good the conversion turns out, but I understand the possiblity.

Personally, in Saskatchewan, I am trying to decide between the Sony and the Kindle. I briefly considered the Nook, but considering the hassle just to purchase it, (they didn't seem to ship here), I dropped from contention. If you are in an area with reliable wifi access, the kindle is a good choice. That's probably the only reason that I have rated it lower than the Sony in my area, is because other than my home network, I have no wireless access. So I'd end up sideloading everything anyway.

treadlightly · 11-26-2010, 10:39 AM

I'm in Canada and am very happy with my decision to buy a Kindle. I looked at the availability of around 30 ebooks on my TBR list due to geo restrictions and there wasn't much difference between Amazon and Kobo/Sony. Amazon prices are in US$ but they are slightly cheaper than Kobo/Sony. If I can only buy a book in ePub format I am comfortable converting it to mobi, but the free books are generally available in both formats.

I wouldn't consider the Nook only because I haven't seen one IRL but I did look at the Kobo, Sony 650 and the Kindle before my purchase and felt the Kindle was the best device for me. I'm sure your wife will like her Kindle.

foghat · 11-26-2010, 11:46 AM

You will be fine with the Kindle. I have one and love it. Selection in the Amazon Canada store is pretty good. And it is easy to shop in the US store even if you live in Canada.

With a bit of knowledge and the right tools you can buy a book from anywhere, remove the drm, and convert it to the format (.mobi) needed to view on a kindle. Though even if you do not have the skills or the time to do this, like I said the canadian store has good selection.

check it out yourself. Just go to amazon.com (do not sign into your account) and select kindle ebooks. You should default to the Canadian store. you can then search for books - if what you are looking for does not come back, you can easily switch to the US store and see if it shows there.

Care · 11-26-2010, 11:57 AM

I live in Canada and I have a Nook. I also have two friends with one. We all buy books with no hassles on our nooks, but we use a US shipping and billing address. You can pretty much use any address.

For actual shipping there are lots of threads (there is a sticky in the Nook forum here) on how to do it. Most people use one of those forwarding companies, or they order form another site that ships to Canada. The simplest way would be if you knew somebody in the US. Then you ship it to them and get them to ship it with insurance to you (it costs a lot less that way).

The reason I didn't go for the Kindle3 was because in Canada we pay an average $2 more for each ebook, and I can only use books from Amazon (you can, but for DRMed ebooks it is a pain and I just wanted simple). I can also get library books on my Nook, where my library's catalog doesn't support mobi files.

If you (or your wife) don't mind those things, then go for a Kindle. They have a better battery and are lighter/thinner. I am not sure if the battery is better now on Nook with the 1.5 firmware update, but I charged my Nook on Tuesday night before I left to go to NY and 2.5 days later my battery is down to 80%. I haven't read more than a couple hrs a day, but my nieces have been playing around with it. Page turning is definitely an improvement, and the finger swiping on the lcd is much easier to do. The font contrast is also improved. People love the shelves feature which I assume is similar to the Kindles collections. I rooted my nook so I don't use the shelves, I use tags or categories (which is basically the same).

I don't know if any of this will help, but at least you might have a bit more info than when you started.

taming · 11-28-2010, 07:15 AM

If you want to be able to borrow books from your library--then Kindle might not be the reader for you. Canadian libraries (like those in the US) use the Overdrive system so you will want a reader than can handle ePUB format, like Sony or Kobo. Not all libraries have ebooks yet, but many do and more will do so in the future. You will also be able to choose from more on-line bookstores.

Russell Brooks · 11-28-2010, 07:54 AM

I'm still new to the e-reader thing. I've been playing it safe and just stick with PDF on my laptop. I downloaded the Kindle and ePUB software, except the reading experience is not the same.

Baldrake · 11-29-2010, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Care

The reason I didn't go for the Kindle3 was because in Canada we pay an average $2 more for each ebook

This may have been true at one point, but does not appear to be true now. We get the US price, exchange-adjusted.

erictoma · 11-29-2010, 03:14 PM

I don't think that Kindle 3 is good for someone who lives in Canada.
Kindle is the only gadget that obliges you to buy only from their own store. I'm in the same situation as you; I live in Canada.
I was astonished that all books that I am interested in are not available in Kindle for Canadian customers.
"caffeine blues" eBook for example is not available for Canadians in kindle store but available for all the world !
I think there is a huge conflict between amazon and Canada.

"caffeine blues" is available in every store on the net, but you cannot read it on your kindle ! hence the frustration lol

With Kobo you could buy your eBooks wherever you want !

Kindle store is huge bookstore but a vast number of those titles are not available for Canadian customers . I didn't find the book Apollo 13 (Jim lovel) didn't find "big bang never happened"

KrowNB · 11-29-2010, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erictoma

I don't think that Kindle 3 is good for someone who lives in Canada.....

With Kobo you could buy your eBooks wherever you want !

...

That's why opted for a Kobo as a Christmas gift for my wife. We're Canadian as well and in our area we only have the choice of Indigo/Coles for browsing. I wanted to keep supporting a business that has seen fit to establish in our community.

Hope I made the correct decision.

Keith

donaldcarter55 · 11-29-2010, 04:43 PM

You made a good choice..The E-Ink screen is amazing. It is just like reading paper. I can adjust the font size up or down as needed!

================================================== ======
television antennas

ProfCrash · 11-30-2010, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erictoma

I don't think that Kindle 3 is good for someone who lives in Canada.
Kindle is the only gadget that obliges you to buy only from their own store. I'm in the same situation as you; I live in Canada.
I was astonished that all books that I am interested in are not available in Kindle for Canadian customers.
"caffeine blues" eBook for example is not available for Canadians in kindle store but available for all the world !
I think there is a huge conflict between amazon and Canada.

"caffeine blues" is available in every store on the net, but you cannot read it on your kindle ! hence the frustration lol

With Kobo you could buy your eBooks wherever you want !

Kindle store is huge bookstore but a vast number of those titles are not available for Canadian customers . I didn't find the book Apollo 13 (Jim lovel) didn't find "big bang never happened"

The same geo restriction work arounds that work for the Nook and Sony work for the Kindle. There are plenty of books available for Canadian users through Amazon and other sources.

You are not tied to Amazon for your purchases. There are other stores that sell e-books in Mobi format for the Kindle.

Amazon does not have it out for Canadians. I am sure that Amazon would prefer to sell every book that it has in its store to anyone who wants to buy them. Geo Restrictions prevent that from happening. There have been the occassional tussel with a publishing house, like Penguin, that has made it impossible to buy some e-books from Amazon but those have been sorted out.

Amazon is not the only distributor to have problems with Publishers. I believe Random House is not available on the IBook store because it will not agree to the Agency Pricing scheme so Apple will not sell their books.

Care · 12-01-2010, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldrake

This may have been true at one point, but does not appear to be true now. We get the US price, exchange-adjusted.

Are you sure? I thought that was true 6 months ago, but then I found out that when you go back and forth between amazon.ca and amazon.com it shows you the same price because of either your ip address or your address. Is this something they have changed since?

Baldrake · 12-01-2010, 09:43 PM

Hmm. So first of all, you can only buy Kindle books from amazon.com - amazon.ca doesn't stock them. I just did a test going to amazon.com and setting my region first to Canada and then the US. The first book on the front page of the Kindle Store was "Decision Points" by George W. Bush. The US Region price was $9.99. The Canadian Region price was $9.78.

I can say for a fact that no surcharge is levied on top of this price, having bought books from Canada.

So I'm pretty confident that we're not getting dinged the international surcharge here in Canada, although book prices apparently may differ - apparently sometimes in our favour!

Care · 12-02-2010, 08:48 PM

That is good news. I didn't notice any price differences, but people in the Kindle forum said it depends on your ip or something. It must be a new thing though, because I used to notice a bigger difference in prices between Kobo (Kobo was always much cheaper) and Amazon. Now they seem to be more similar.

11-26-2010, 07:55 AM	#1
Toonces Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: none	Kindle 3 in Canada, right decision? I ordered a K3 for my wife for Christmas, having it shipped to a package broker just across the border. I guess I didn't really read enough before ordering it, it was recommended as the way to go because if its speed. Now I find that they've improved the speed of the Nook to acceptable levels. Which eReader is going to be best in Canada? I know Amazon has support for Canadian customers, for the Nook I am unsure but I don't see why it wouldn't work. What I am wondering about now is the book availability and long term prices for each. As I've read, the Nook has a wider selection of sources for book, whereas the Kindle is tied to Amazon. I'm not sure I fully grasp the concept of epub and the free books that are available through Google. Can these be put a on Kindle via this "calibre"?, either the free ones or buying them from another source? How difficult is that to do, if it can be done. Does the Nook make it easier to get the content? I'm left wondering if I made the right decision seeing as how the Nook seems to have a wider selection and more access to free books. Do I return my Amazon order and get a Nook?

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11-26-2010, 10:25 AM	#2
Gadget_girl Connoisseur Posts: 56 Karma: 126024 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Saskatchewan, Canada Device: Aura HD Espresso, Sony PRS-650	I think this partly depends on where in Canada are you. It's a big country. The Nook deals with mainly Barnes and Noble. You can use it to check out library books, but from what I've read, purchasing books from anywhere outside of the US tends to be a hassle. Now if you have a U.S. address, or are a snowbird, or live close to the border, this may tend to matter less. The kindle is only tied to Amazon in the sense that it has average support for pdf's (Sony's is better) and does not support epub natively. However you can convert non-DRM epub's from other stores to the Kindle's mobi format using the calibre software. DRM protection will prevent you from performing this conversion, so this only works on unprotected ebooks. Theoretically, you could convert almost any document or format into mobi using calibre. I can't vouch for how good the conversion turns out, but I understand the possiblity. Personally, in Saskatchewan, I am trying to decide between the Sony and the Kindle. I briefly considered the Nook, but considering the hassle just to purchase it, (they didn't seem to ship here), I dropped from contention. If you are in an area with reliable wifi access, the kindle is a good choice. That's probably the only reason that I have rated it lower than the Sony in my area, is because other than my home network, I have no wireless access. So I'd end up sideloading everything anyway.

11-26-2010, 10:39 AM	#3
treadlightly Wizard Posts: 1,370 Karma: 6957792 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Ottawa, ON Device: Kobo H2O	I'm in Canada and am very happy with my decision to buy a Kindle. I looked at the availability of around 30 ebooks on my TBR list due to geo restrictions and there wasn't much difference between Amazon and Kobo/Sony. Amazon prices are in US$ but they are slightly cheaper than Kobo/Sony. If I can only buy a book in ePub format I am comfortable converting it to mobi, but the free books are generally available in both formats. I wouldn't consider the Nook only because I haven't seen one IRL but I did look at the Kobo, Sony 650 and the Kindle before my purchase and felt the Kindle was the best device for me. I'm sure your wife will like her Kindle.

11-26-2010, 11:46 AM	#4
foghat Evangelist Posts: 464 Karma: 1006520 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Alberta, Canada Device: Kindle PW3	You will be fine with the Kindle. I have one and love it. Selection in the Amazon Canada store is pretty good. And it is easy to shop in the US store even if you live in Canada. With a bit of knowledge and the right tools you can buy a book from anywhere, remove the drm, and convert it to the format (.mobi) needed to view on a kindle. Though even if you do not have the skills or the time to do this, like I said the canadian store has good selection. check it out yourself. Just go to amazon.com (do not sign into your account) and select kindle ebooks. You should default to the Canadian store. you can then search for books - if what you are looking for does not come back, you can easily switch to the US store and see if it shows there.

11-26-2010, 11:57 AM	#5
Care Aes Sedai Posts: 659 Karma: 46166 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Aura and Kobo Mini, had a Nook, NOOKcolor, Nook STR.	I live in Canada and I have a Nook. I also have two friends with one. We all buy books with no hassles on our nooks, but we use a US shipping and billing address. You can pretty much use any address. For actual shipping there are lots of threads (there is a sticky in the Nook forum here) on how to do it. Most people use one of those forwarding companies, or they order form another site that ships to Canada. The simplest way would be if you knew somebody in the US. Then you ship it to them and get them to ship it with insurance to you (it costs a lot less that way). The reason I didn't go for the Kindle3 was because in Canada we pay an average $2 more for each ebook, and I can only use books from Amazon (you can, but for DRMed ebooks it is a pain and I just wanted simple). I can also get library books on my Nook, where my library's catalog doesn't support mobi files. If you (or your wife) don't mind those things, then go for a Kindle. They have a better battery and are lighter/thinner. I am not sure if the battery is better now on Nook with the 1.5 firmware update, but I charged my Nook on Tuesday night before I left to go to NY and 2.5 days later my battery is down to 80%. I haven't read more than a couple hrs a day, but my nieces have been playing around with it. Page turning is definitely an improvement, and the finger swiping on the lcd is much easier to do. The font contrast is also improved. People love the shelves feature which I assume is similar to the Kindles collections. I rooted my nook so I don't use the shelves, I use tags or categories (which is basically the same). I don't know if any of this will help, but at least you might have a bit more info than when you started.

11-28-2010, 07:15 AM	#6
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	If you want to be able to borrow books from your library--then Kindle might not be the reader for you. Canadian libraries (like those in the US) use the Overdrive system so you will want a reader than can handle ePUB format, like Sony or Kobo. Not all libraries have ebooks yet, but many do and more will do so in the future. You will also be able to choose from more on-line bookstores.

11-28-2010, 07:54 AM	#7
Russell Brooks Fanatic Posts: 538 Karma: 569642 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Montreal, Quebec Device: none	I'm still new to the e-reader thing. I've been playing it safe and just stick with PDF on my laptop. I downloaded the Kindle and ePUB software, except the reading experience is not the same.

11-29-2010, 03:14 PM	#9
erictoma Banned Posts: 223 Karma: 126 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Montreal Quebec Canada Device: None	I don't think that Kindle 3 is good for someone who lives in Canada. Kindle is the only gadget that obliges you to buy only from their own store. I'm in the same situation as you; I live in Canada. I was astonished that all books that I am interested in are not available in Kindle for Canadian customers. "caffeine blues" eBook for example is not available for Canadians in kindle store but available for all the world ! I think there is a huge conflict between amazon and Canada. "caffeine blues" is available in every store on the net, but you cannot read it on your kindle ! hence the frustration lol With Kobo you could buy your eBooks wherever you want ! Kindle store is huge bookstore but a vast number of those titles are not available for Canadian customers . I didn't find the book Apollo 13 (Jim lovel) didn't find "big bang never happened"

11-29-2010, 04:43 PM	#11
donaldcarter55 Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: none	You made a good choice..The E-Ink screen is amazing. It is just like reading paper. I can adjust the font size up or down as needed! ================================================== ====== television antennas

12-01-2010, 09:43 PM	#14
Baldrake Connoisseur Posts: 90 Karma: 1792 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 3, HTC Mozart	Hmm. So first of all, you can only buy Kindle books from amazon.com - amazon.ca doesn't stock them. I just did a test going to amazon.com and setting my region first to Canada and then the US. The first book on the front page of the Kindle Store was "Decision Points" by George W. Bush. The US Region price was $9.99. The Canadian Region price was $9.78. I can say for a fact that no surcharge is levied on top of this price, having bought books from Canada. So I'm pretty confident that we're not getting dinged the international surcharge here in Canada, although book prices apparently may differ - apparently sometimes in our favour!

12-02-2010, 08:48 PM	#15
Care Aes Sedai Posts: 659 Karma: 46166 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Aura and Kobo Mini, had a Nook, NOOKcolor, Nook STR.	That is good news. I didn't notice any price differences, but people in the Kindle forum said it depends on your ip or something. It must be a new thing though, because I used to notice a bigger difference in prices between Kobo (Kobo was always much cheaper) and Amazon. Now they seem to be more similar.

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