Amazon Kindle now available in Ireland (2 Viewers)

[Mormon Nailer]

bleh, reading and in a moving car. Wish I could do that.

I still can't decide if I want one of these or not. That project gutenberg thing sounds good although I probably wouldn't read any of it, like those dickheads in the early days of ipods who just downloaded the entire beatles catalogue or whoeever just to look at.

I went through a fit the first few days of downloading "The Collected Works of xxx" type things - I can't see myself getting through all of Thomas Hardy - but I have been re-reading PG Woodhouse and things like that. And anyway disk space is cheap!

It's great to get the Irish Times on it - someone asked me why do you pay for what you can get for free online - I guess the answer is it's instant, I can read it anywhere and it's in a nice clean add free format.

 

[ratmonkey]

That project gutenberg thing sounds good although I probably wouldn't read any of it

I'm not sure anyone would want to read Police Academy scripts.

(been done before and it wasn't funny then either)

 

[dregin]

How much is the times for it? What network is the 3G connection for?

Cheers

 

[nooleen]

the irish times is bloody expensive, we got one for my dad in the end and i thought we might put the IT on it but it's feckin twenty-something quid a month

 

[Lili Marlene]

How much is the times for it?

the times is $22.99 a month
the irish times is also $22.99 a month

What network is the 3G connection for?

Cheers

some kind of magic one that it just works on for free.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I don't buy the monthly subscription - it's about 1.50 per individual issue which is what I do.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The 3G on mine works anywhere. Presumably they have deals done with majority of telcos around the world and the price of downloading is included in the cost of the book.

 

[Lili Marlene]

yes, that's what I said Mormon. It works by magic.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

yes, that's what I said Mormon. It works by magic.

Intelligent Design?

 

[Lili Marlene]

So which US newspaper and/or magazine is worth reading the most (in B&W), Mormon?

New York Times got 1/5 from a "Captain Latte" because the Kindle version has no crosswords.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The only one I ever read is the NYT and then really only on Saturday.
As to magazines - I've got the TLS on it once or twice but I have enough trouble reading all the paper ones that I subscribe to.

The newspapers don't have pictures (unless you are downloading in the US), but the NYT still has a single picture on the front page. The Irish Times is all text - very easy to read you can go page by page as normal or there is a section listing with the headline and a couple of lines (about 8 of these fit on a page) and then you can scroll through that hyperlinking to the articles that catch your eye.

No crossword or soduku

Although now that they are allowing people develop rudimentary apps for the device you can already get soduku and other simple puzzles and I expect an NYT crossword app can't be far away.

I haven't read any of the other US papers. Reading the WSJ makes me want to blow stuff up. Perhaps I'll try the Washington Post, or prehaps the Baltimore Sun and I can pretend I'm in the Wire.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

2 Kind of cool things.

I tried that instapaper site a good while back and I never really saw the point at the time. They add a "Read Later" bookmarklet so you can save an article and read it later at your leisure at and in a cleaned up format.

Like I say - I didn't see the value at the time.

No though they have a service whey they will email the saved articles to your kindle once a week. It works beautifully.

And on their site they aggregate a few of the best articles from various sources from the past weeks for you to browse through.

I also added Calibre - an eBook reader with all sorts of nifty tricks. Stuff on you Pc in calibre is synced to the kindle and it can also strip whole sites - like wired or the Irish Independant and email all of the articles to your device too.

It also converts pretty much anything eBook wise to anything else. And allows you edit metadata - which is something that always bugged me about the kindle.

 

[Lili Marlene]

i've been using Calibre to convert all my illegal, law-breaking downloads, haven't used it to "strip websites" yet, sounds intrusive.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

so theres no problem with reading pirated ebooks on the kindle?

we got one at work and it was dropped and broken within five minutes. the vendor said it was happening a lot and they are sending out lots of replacement kindles.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

so theres no problem with reading pirated ebooks on the kindle?

Nope, no problem.

 

[Lili Marlene]

we got one at work and it was dropped and broken within five minutes. the vendor said it was happening a lot

Clumsy idiots.

 

[rettucs]

I decided I want one of these. I went to the kindle international site (the UK site told me to) and it was listed in US dollars ($139 to be exact). Nice, thought I, works out at about 100 euro at today's exchange rate.

But, when I went to checkout, they were charging 139 euro. I added in a protective case at another $40, and again they added this as 40 euro.

Is this expected? I'd imagine theres VAT to be paid on top of that at around 20%, so all in I'm looking at 200 euro? A long shot from the 109 sterling that was listed on the amazon.co.uk site?

Or am I doing something horribly wrong here?

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

We have one at work now and I have realised that I really dont need one at the moment. They're cool and all but i already have a backlog of books and getting a kindle will only make the situation worse.

 

[rettucs]

We have one at work now and I have realised that I really dont need one at the moment. They're cool and all but i already have a backlog of books and getting a kindle will only make the situation worse.

I've thought a bit about whether I'd use one if I got it, and I decided that I reckon I would. From scanning through titles on amazon, particuarly old stuff, it seems theres lots on there for free or for very little (2 I looked at today were Dr.Zhivago (approx 50 cent) and some Karl Marx publications (free)). I'd stick with real books for the most part and have the kindle for stuff like that that'd I'd be inclined to dip in and out of (like while travelling, in a coffee shop, etc).

but I'm not sure I can justify that cost given the limited enough use I'd have in mind for it. I've contacted a guy I know who works in amazon to see what staff discounts they're privvy to.

 

[rettucs]

I ordered one of these yesterday. Kind of nervous about it actually! I went for the non-3G version with a case. Its gonna work out at about 180 euro all-in (including shipping+handling, as well as customs costs). More than I would have liked to spend, but I'm hoping its that good I won't mind so much.