I am thinking about buying a Kindle for the free worldwide 3G, just for keeping in touch while out of the country. Can you Kindle owners share your thoughts on this idea? Also, do you prefer the little Kindle Keyboard or the Kindle DX? Is the DX too large to be convenient for travel? Is the Kindle Keyboard too small to display web pages clearly or properly? Anything I might not have considered that I should be aware of?

I've got the Kindle keyboard I don't use any of the internet stuff on it though. As far as the book reading though I love it. The screen size is fine for reading books. It's quite light and small enough to be easy to carry around but large enough to be able to read it comfortably (not sure how websites look on it).

Thanks guys (or possibly guy and girl.) Navigating the browser does look pretty unpleasant but it is one of those last resort type things I can see myself using every now and again. Also, I did some measuring and it looks like the smaller Kindle is pocket sized if I wear my clown pants and I find that convenience more appealing than the advantages of the larger screen.

Next question: there are a lot of Kindles listed on eBay as 'unlocked' and I haven't been able to find out what—if anything—that means. What does that mean?

I checked out these unlocked Kindles and I am not really sure what it is either. There is this article on eHow on how to unlock your kindle and it seems to mean you can visit other websites I think :S http://www.ehow.com/how_8512615_unlock-kindle.html. A lot of people are saying just to be sure when you are buying a Kindle from ebay you should get the serial number and call Amazon to check if the Kindle has been blacklisted. If it has been blacklisted it means you can't register your own account to the Kindle and it's pretty much been bricked.

It sounds like you want a netbook or tablet, so maybe the Kindle Fire? The e-Ink Kindles really aren't ideal for this kind of thing, they can be used as a stop gap, but you'll quickly come to hate it if you're trying to rely on it a bunch. That means it still works, you just can't have an Amazon account with it, still good to know if that's your primary use for it, but a lot of people simply root their Kindles and load non-DRMed stuff on there.

Okay... I was unaware any special action was required to enable the browser. And I already have a binational Amazon account. And I don't get what the gift card shenanigans is all about. Thanks anyway. If I buy from an eBay seller, I will be careful to make sure I'm not buying a brick. Actually I don't need another tablet and—correct me if I'm wrong—the Kindle Fire doesn't come with the same free worldwide 3G plan anyway. I would mostly use an e-reader as an e-reader. I'm just realizing I could also make use of it to keep in touch between hotspots while outside of my regular service area; as a stop gap. The battery life surely exceeds that of a tablet too (also a plus for travel.)

I'm not sure the battery life while using 3G is any better than a normal tablet. While using the eInk screen for it's normal use (i.e. reading) it is amazing, though. Some folks have talked about using worldwide 3G on these things, dunno how it worked out for them, but someone's surely blogged about their experience.

Don't waste your money. This use is definitely not allowed under the Amazon TOS. The 3G is only for use with Amazon's store, any other use can result in you being billed.

The browser itself is only there because it can be used with a WiFi connection. I haven't looked recently, but I doubt very much that it's changed.

3G would be disabled most of the time. Around home and even around Canada for that matter I have a great data plan (that allows tethering) so I wouldn't bother struggling with the awkward Kindle experimental browser. Roaming charges outside the country add up quickly however so I could see a 3G enabled Kindle paying for itself after the first trip or two. Though I am still open and hoping to hear more from people who have used the Kindle browser. So... BUMP

P.S. Also, having offline travel guides, phrase books, pdf maps and whatnot seems like a fairly good idea in itself. http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdPage=9&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx390HFZ5SRXHJ6

According to your own linked article: So what is your point? Did you bother to read it or did you just think I wouldn't bother to read it?


You are welcome to participate if your intention is to actually contribute to the discussion. But if you are only here to insult and deliberately misinform (as usual,) there's the door.

I Have a kindle and love it for book reading although do wish the screen had a back light. Sorry to say havent used the wifi part much so cant comment on it but as for book reading its great

I was lucky enough to get the keyboard edition without 3G before they stopped the sale of them (now its keyboard and 3G or the nokeyboard and no 3G only - though second hand you can still pick up keyboard and no 3G if you want).


Personally the Kindle, in my view, is aimed at doing one thing, letting you read books start to finish. And for this its fantastic, e-ink is seriously good and lacks any of that harsh glare that LCD screens have (heck I spent 10 mins trying to peel off the seethrough text sticky label on the screen front before I worked out that it wasn't a stickon but was the screen!) Personally I think the 3G feature on its own isn't worth the cost since most of us are going to be in countries where you can easily get access to your home computer or to a cafe or even free wifi hotspots - so its a neat feature but not essential (esp in what is essentially a book).
The keyboard though does make a lot of difference for making notes or adding sections or any form of typing required, not sure if its a deal breaker or not. Also note that the no-keyboard edition has half the memory capacity of the other, so reduced storage is another consideration (though even at half you'll still get a heckload of books on there).

The other great thing is getting to access books from the free (legal) websites - there are loads of copyright free publications worth reading that you can get for 0 costs (eg all the works of HP Lovecraft as one example). Just load up the texts into the unit and read away. Personally I use Calibre which is a free ebook software manager on the computer - small to install and lets you manage ebooks and text documents on the computer and on your unit (it even detects and integrates with it when the kindle is cable connected to the PC to let you transfer). You can also use Calibre to convert text documents to the mobi format for the kindle as well as alter book meta data (note this is for copyright free works - books bought through Amazon are managed at the Amazon end and come with suitable copy protections and the like).

On the subject of Amazon remember all books bought there are tied to your account, not the unit - so you can remove and add them as you choose (should you find you need to free up storage). Further, barring exceptional situations, books bought remain active even if they are later withdrawn from sale on Amazon.

Downsides:
1) Its not that good with pictures - though part of this is that many books are shipped with no or pretty poor scans of pictures/cover art at present (which is somewhat dissapointing). However in general it can be a bit of a pain when viewing maps (fantasy books) and for trying to read regular maps I'd far far prefer paper or at least a larger display (works in a pinch but not ideal in my view).

2) It's not that good with PDFs - which it treats like a picture and is a nightmare since unless you have the size set very small you'll have to scroll left to right to read each line. Personally I convert PDFs into text format so that I can read them (it then only gets a little confused with charts/diagrams present). The USA has an overside kindle that is better for PDF reading (Because of the larger screen).

3) You can't custom set your own backgrounds when in idle mode - this is a darned annoyance as the regular ones are dead boring and all have the "slide to turn on" notification on them - one is even an old printer with "please email us your thoughts" on it! You can hack the kindle unit open to change these custom settings if you so choose - though of course this voids warranties on the unit.

4) Amazon is bound and limited regionally and as such some books might not be available in your country even if they are sold by Amazon in others. Far as I'm aware this is a publisher more than Amazon alone.


Links:
Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/

Amazon classics free ebooks: [url]http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=amb_link_157483207_1?ie=UTF8&node=434020031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=09PHN2ANE31NMK4PR6B9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=220353107&pf_rd_i=434020031[/url]

Internet Archive: [url]http://www.archive.org/details/texts[/url]

Open Library [url]http://openlibrary.org/[/url]

Project Gutenberg [url]http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page[/url]

ManyBooks.net [url]http://manybooks.net/[/url]

arthursbookshelf [url]http://arthursbookshelf.com/[/url]
contains a range of books in various formats (ePUB, PDF and mobi) these also often contain plates and cover art!

Why don't you get a standard tablet (like Archos for example) rather than a Kindle?