Charger for Australian and other Kindles

Chargers for Australian and other International Kindles

I'm still running around in Egypt for another week but was able to get online tonight and read that Australian customers are having trouble getting a charger that works for their Kindles.

A customer from Australia in the Amazon forums recommends the one shown here as it works well for her.  This is costly but includes a charger for the car.  See the message thread I referred people to last week for more discussion of the possibilities under the 'charging' blog entry.  But this is one that will work if you can stand to spend that amount.  It works for other countries too, but Australians did not get a basic charger for their Kindles.

  I am just using a plug adapter for Egypt (REI or Radio Shack) that attaches to my Amazon Kindle power cord and plug as the plug works everywhere but needs a physical plug that fits the socket in whatever country.  These little plug adapters are usually $3 at REI sports or a luggage shop or Radio Shack.

The one plug that works well for the customer from the Australian customer on the forum thread has the following features:

' Technical Details
. Kit includes DC Car Charger Adapter cable and a AC Wall Charger Adapter cable
. Wall charger kit includes 4 world plug adapters; use the same charger anywhere in the world
. High current output current ( 1000mA ) for faster charging; full lifetime warranty
. TipExchange Technology protects investment providing means to upgrade charger tips at lower cost (Tips Included)
. Charging adapter works with both foreign and domestic outlets (100-240 Volts AC)

Sorry to be quiet here for so long. Thanks to those who kept their Kindle blog subscriptions going even though I could not update each day. It's appreciated.

UPDATE - AUSTRALIA - another charger that works
Since then others have found an adapter for Australia that is dependable.
It's the Digitor model M9912 findable at the Dick Smith website: dse.com.au.

Customer workaround for user-definable folders

This is a popular blog-article which is being highlighted for newcomers and Kindle-blog edition subscribers.  During my vacation I'm including the more popular tips and guides. Kindle-blog edition subscribers will not have had these on their Kindles before and the subscription (99c per month) allows offline-review of the last 25 blog articles.

Original blog posting was May 24, 2009
In general, E-Readers that double as portable libraries really require a customizable folder feature.  Amazon recently extended the folder concept on the Kindle 2 for 1) "Archives" (which are for Amazon-purchased books already read and deleted from the Kindle but re-downloadable, free, from the customer's Amazon library area at any time via a click on the title in the Archives) and for 2) non-current periodicals.  They've always had folders for subscription newspapers and magazines (though not usually for blogs).

 The Kindle 2 (and Kindle DX) also has options for displaying 1) only books, 2) only subscriptions, 3) only "personal docs" or 4) all items.  These are also then sortable by Most Recent, Title, and Author (and searchable with the last two).

  However, as with bookstores and libraries, Kindle users have wanted user-definable dividers for categories such as Unread, Finished, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Romance, Biography, Self-improvement, etc.

  While this could make the process slower for displaying all books or less direct than finding a title or author by typing the first alpha-character and pressing the 5-way button, there's no question that categorizing books is a primary organizational tool when you have a lot of books and magazines.

Until the day that customer-defined folders are offered, customers have been recommending workarounds by using the "add-note" feature available for Kindle books.  

CUSTOMER WORKAROUND
An official Amazon Customer Service Forum post on March 5, 2009 stated:

' Kudos to Kindle Community member Bufo Calvin for this tip!
  With the ability to add notes to your Kindle 2 content and search for specific words or phrases on your Kindle 2's Home screen, you can categorize content by genre or other personalized terms.

' Open up one of your books, select Add a Note or Highlight, and enter in a word (or words) you'd like to categorize by - genres such as history, fantasy, biography, etc.  Try putting your initials or a common letter such as "x" before the word, "cshistory" or "xfantasy" for example.  Save the note you chose to enter.

' Now go back to your Home screen and type in the word you just used for your note.

' Once you've typed it, move your 5-way controller to the right and click on "Search My Items."  You'll see the book you just added the note to appear.

'  If you've added that note in multiple books, each one will appear in your search results. '

Note that this method is called "tagging" your book or "labelling" it.  This simulates folders except that it's more flexible.

  If you want a book for which two tag-words should exist together, then you can search for both words.  Only those books tagged with both words would show up in the results.

 Mainly, you won't find a word like "xwhatever" in any of your books, so this brings up only the books specifically tagged by you.

This does work for the Kindle 1 also, but the older model may take a day to index the 'tag' additions so that they're findable.  The Kindle 2 takes only a couple of minutes to do this.

 Amazon customers discuss various aspects of this in a current forum thread.  Robin McLaughlin located customer service's recommendation of Calvin's suggestion; "Laura" points out she posted this workaround at the same time and that many customers have thought about this.  "Tillamook Bay / lg" cautions that this system does not work with books done in the special Topaz format, which uses specially embedded fonts and is not searchable (nor can we change the line spacing in these).  The file extension can be .tpz or .azw1 but is essentially the Kindle format with slightly different description fields.
  UPDATE 8/17/09: I just learned that Tillamook Bay (Larry Goss) was using this workaround in September '08 based on another forum note he read earlier.

Mild shortcut for general searching:
Normally, when reading a book, you can bring up the Search box by pressing the spacebar.  If you're at the "Home" listing page, press the Enter key instead.

When typing in a keyword for a search while the 'action' on the right side says "find my items" (the default) or if it is already on the action you want ('google' or 'Wikipedia' etc), you need only press the Enter-key under the DEL key.

Otherwise, you need to 5-way over to the right and then press down on the 5-way.
  If the action for the keyword is not what you want (google, store, wiki, dictionary) then 5-way right, through some more options until you find the one you want to search.

Summary of new Kindle capabilities

For International Kindle owners in the countries that have wireless enabled (including Europe), new features enabled or announced this week and mentioned here earlier include:
. Free access to Wikipedia on the Net even when web-browsing in general is not enabled
. The ability to read our Kindle books on Windows PCs (next month) and on Macs soon (info was linked in earlier posts).  Also, "Batman Jr." added information in the Comments section here that this will also be true for Kindle books on the Blackberry.
  Advantages listing:

' * Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
* Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
* Choose from over 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
* Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
* View notes and highlights marked on Kindle and Kindle DX
* Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
* Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users) '

The Kindle for PC will also be compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

So far, no other e-reader coming this next year is slated to offer direct free access to Wikipedia for added info

The new app for PCs (and, later, Macs and Blackberrys) will allow Kindle book buyers to have the ability to read their Kindle purchases on their computers even when w/o their Kindles.  This last is rather huge, since there had been worry that owners would lose the ability to access their purchased books without this capability.
  As many of us have said previously, competition is a very good thing, even when announced without working samples yet.

Amazon Customer Svc: Charging Kindle Internationally - Update

Amazon Kindle Customer Service posted (and updated) to their Forums the following advisory Sunday:

' Charging your Kindle Internationally
Kindle ships to most countries with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable. The U.S. power adapter supports voltages between 100V-240V.

Charging from your computer via USB:
When using the USB cable to charge your Kindle via your computer, charging times can vary greatly from 4 to 12 hours.  We recommend keeping your computer plugged in while charging. Some computers limit the power supply to USB ports when not plugged in which will result in a slower charge.  Additionally, some computers have both "low powered" and "high powered" USB ports.  If your Kindle is charging slowly, please try other USB ports which may provide more power.

Charging using the U.S. power plug with a 3rd party physical plug adapter:
If you are outside the U.S. and choose to use the Kindle power adapter with a physical plug adapter (adapts the two prong U.S. power adapter to the local power outlet), make sure the local plug adapter is compatible with Kindle and read and follow all safety instructions for the plug adapter.

I don't actually know what this one means since I am currently visiting another country that requires a physical plug adapter to have my normal electronic items work and these are just about always 3rd party and I haven't seen any local plug adapter info about compatibility with Kindle but they should be.  I get my physical plug adapters from REI or Radio Shack or Target, and the one I'm using in Egypt does help to power the Kindle DX fine (light turns green and there is plenty of reserve).

Charging using the USB cable and a 3rd party USB power adapter:
3rd party USB power adapters vary greatly in their specifications.  Many of these USB power adapters will not properly charge Kindle.  If you attempt to charge Kindle with a 3rd party USB adapter, and the battery icon on the Kindle screen has a lightning bolt through it, the USB charger is working and the device is charging.  If the battery icon does not have a lightning bolt through it, the USB charger is unsupported and the device is not charging.

In general, charging your Kindle should follow this sequence:

* Connect your Kindle to a power source.
* Light on the bottom of the Kindle will display yellow.
* Battery indicator on the top of the home screen should have a lightning bolt through it.
* If your Kindle battery was run down completely so that the screen turned off prior to charging, it may take up to 60 minutes of charging for the screen to come on.
* If the screen does not come on or the lightning bolt is not displayed, the charging source is not working and Kindle is not charging.
* Light displays green when the battery is fully charged.

We do not recommend using a 3rd party USB power adapter. 3rd party USB power adapters vary greatly in their specifications.  Many of these adapters will not properly charge your Kindle and may also cause your Kindle to become slow or unresponsive.  If this occurs plug your Kindle into a computer USB port or restart your Kindle. '

The forum Amazon forum thread includes questions and useful comments from Amazon Kindle users.  Australian Kindle owners especially should read these.  But others should read these as well and join in with any tips they may have.

Whispernet upgrade reported by customer

While away and able to sign on once in a while I just read a customer report that while her Sprint coverage in her area had not been good and she had to download Kindle books via her computer, she found that after the recent flurry of activity around the Kindle and thinking she might have better luck now, she tried accessing Whispernet and this time was able to get a 3G connection.

After asking Amazon customer service about this, this was what she reported:

' It seems that I have received a recent update that allows my Kindle to access "other towers in the area... My Kindle version is still 2.0.3 (327610024). C.S had me punch in 611 from the settings page (with wireless turned on) and under MODEM, my PRL Version is now 50413. He said my previous number there had started with a 4. So now I have an explanation as to why I have whispernet coverage now..." '

This is just one report, but it's worth a try, for those in the U.S. who have not had good luck with Whispernet.

Wikipedia for int'l customers w wireless?

JBernard mentioned (comments of release blog-article I think) that she is in Portugal and can access the Wikipedia.

Others report at Twitter that Amazon have enabled the web-browser where it was disabled (Europe etc) for Wikipedia. I don't know that this is true but it's being reported. Engadget mentioned it also.
  The $20 credit or refund being given Kindle International users may be a response to B&N's 'Nook.'

Stay tuned.

Kindle books for your PC's ! and probably Macs

UPDATE 10/24/09
Amazon did post a blog entry in their Kindle blog about the new feature coming that will mean you do not need a Kindle to read your purchased Kindle books but can read them on your Windows PC.

' Kindle for PC Coming Soon
1:34 PM PDT, October 22, 2009
The Kindle team is excited to announce that soon, you'll be able to read Kindle books on your computer. Our free application for your Windows PC is coming--no Kindle required. Even when you don't have your Kindle with you, you can access your Kindle books, and Whispersync automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices....'

They link you to the information page for this and encourage you to sign up for notification that the feature is ready.

Ari Blackthorne points us (in the Comments for this blog entry) to MacRumors, for whom Eric Slivka writes on October 23:

' Amazon yesterday announced the launch of "Kindle for PC", a free Windows application that will allow users to read e-Books purchased from the company's Kindle Store on their computers. While the news release made no mention of a Mac version of the application, Fast Company reports (via 9 to 5 Mac) that a Mac version is in fact under development.

An Amazon spokesperson told me late Thursday: "Yes, we are working on a Kindle app for Mac" '

Original posting follows:
KindleZen points us to ZDnet's story that Kindlebooks will now be readable on not only iPods and iPhones but also PC's running Windows 7, Vista, and XP. This on top of the new Kindle International shows a very aggressive strategy suddenly.

This will be downloadable next month. Amazing.

The feature set, in Amazon’s own words:

* Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
* Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
* Choose from over 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
* Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
* View notes and highlights marked on Kindle and Kindle DX
* Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
* Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users)

Am on vacation so posting of questions & feedback are a bit delayed but always welcome.

Searching a book for a name without typing the name

This is another popular blog-article which is being highlighted for newcomers and Kindle-blog edition subscribers.  During my vacation I'm including the more popular tips and guides. Kindle-blog edition subscribers will not have had these on their Kindles before and the subscription (99c per month) allows offline-review of the last 25 blog articles.

(Another related capability -- "Highlight-copy-paste to a note on Kindle 2" was featured on May 29, 2009.)

Originally posted June 14, 2009
I commented on a question posed in a column today and thought I'd use that question here for those who don't already know the answer.  The Kindle forums indicate that a lot of the Kindle features go unused because most people want only to read their books, which makes sense.

Q. "Ability to search (like Control F  to find a word in a document).  I would like to search for the one character I like and see the pages devoted to him."

A. Yes, I do this constantly.  Search results are shown for any find, surrounded by the context in which the name appears, one after another, in the order they appear in the book.
  TIP: If I see a name in a book or news article but can't remember who the character is or what part s/he plays in it, normally I'd just type out the name.  But there's another way and I now use it more often than not.  (This tip works with Kindle 2 and Kindle DX.)


  I start a highlighting process on it (w/the 5-way cursor) but instead of ending the highlighting at a certain point, I end it with a Spacebar and that copies the name into the search box that comes up when pressing the Spacebar at that point.

  (When doing this, instead of opting to 'find' the result my book, I can choose from the other options in that bar, which include Google, Wikipedia, searching the entire Kindle, etc.  Very spiffy.)

Or -- similar to the way I documented pasting highlighted sections into a Kindle-book Note, here are the steps for this.

  1.   Begin to highlight the name(first, last, or full) that you want to search, by pressing down the 5-way button where you want to begin the copy of the name.

  2.   5-way to the right, and at the last character to be highlighted,   be sure to NOT press the 5-way button down to end the highlighting of the name.

  3.   Instead, press the space bar.  That'll bring up a search field at the bottom.

  4.   Your now-highlighted name is pasted into the search bar.

  5.   "find"  should be the Action (at the right) to be done by the Kindle
        [ If so, you can just press the Enter key to start the search. ]

      If not, then 5-way to the right until you see the Action wanted and then click on the 5-way.

Tip 2: Anything you highlight, copy and paste this way, you also have options to, instead, Google or search in Wikipedia or your Kindle's dictionary.  But we've chosen the "find" Action here because we want to search only this book or article.  It's especially useful for complicated names.

  Caution: The Kindle doesn't search substrings.  If looking for a word you think might be in a certain section you want to get back to, you need to search a full word that is actually there.  Searching just part of a word won't work.  But I can usually find a word that works.

TIP 3: After browsing search results and reading the one(s) you want, then press 'BACK' button to return to the list of results and then press 'BACK' button once more to get back to the page you were on before the search.


Q. "If I find a particularly interesting paragraph, can I send a quoted copy to friends?"

A. If it's an Amazon article, you can opt to "Clip This Article" (Kindle-2 Menu option) but if it's not, just highlight what you want.  That goes into the "My Clipping" file, which can be copied to your computer with the USB cable that is part of your power cord. Your connected Kindle will be seen as just another drive letter.

Then you can edit that file on your computer and put the copied or extracted portion into an email for your friend.  Doing email on the Kindle via gmail or any other web-mail is arduous. and you can't attach files to it anyway.
  (Except for 'Clip This Article,' this works with all Kindles, including Kindle 1.)

---

( If this was helpful, please check the "Interesting" (or "Cool") box so I can get an idea of the level of interest for entries like this one.  So far, it seems these are usually of interest though sometimes the level might be considered too basic. )
  7/5/09 - I've eliminated the 'Interesting/Cool' Google widget because it caused the page to take too long to calculate and load, but on the Tips/Guides, it did give me good (easy to rate) indication of interest in those.  There were 45 responses using the 'interesting' box so I will be doing more of these.
 Thanks to those who took the time to let me know.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

To sleep or not to sleep, to turn off or not... Update-2

AMAZON CUSTOMER SERVICE'S OFFICIAL ADVISORIES ON KINDLE BATTERY MAINTENANCE

This is a popular blog-article which is being highlighted for newcomers and Kindle-blog edition subscribers.  During my vacation I'll be including the more popular tips and guides. Kindle-blog edition subscribers will not have had these on their Kindles before and the subscription (99c per month) allows offline-review of the last 25 blog articles.

10/21/09 - This collection of battery maintenance advisories by Amazon Customer Service applies to the new International Kindle as well.  It was updated when the Kindle DX was released.  How to make best use of the battery, whether to turn the Kindle off or let it just "go to sleep"
-- these are two of the most commonly asked questions on the Amazon forums.

UPDATE 7/13/09 - Originally published 3/19/09 when I began the blog, and updated in June with an additional quote from Amazon customer service representatives.

  I'm updating and moving this article to a current spot because now that the 9.7" Kindle DX is apparently selling too well and interest in the 6" Kindle 2 is higher than before because of the price drop, many on Kindle forums are asking again:
    (1)  whether it's better to let the Kindles "sleep" or shut them off, and
    (2)  whether to charge them regularly or let the batteries drain as with older-type batteries.

The lithium ion/polymer battery for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX isn't user-replaceable and would have to be sent back to Amazon for any needed replacement.  That replacement, if needed in the first year, would be covered by the 1-yr basic warranty.  This type of battery is expected to last over 2 years, used or not though.  Word was that if a replacement were needed in the 2nd year, the cost would be $59 to send it to Amazon and back.  {The DX battery is essentially the same as the one in the Kindle 2:   a 3.7V Lithium Polymer 1530mAh rating.}

UPDATED PARAGRAPH - 6/14/09:  (Original posting was  3/19/2009 11:01 PM)
Amazon Customer Service representatives posted an "Official Amazon.com Customer Service post" on February 26, 2009

" We learned from the first generation Kindle that changing the battery was rarely needed, so Kindle 2's battery is not user replaceable. The battery is covered under the initial one year warranty as well as the extended warranty offered on Amazon.com.  Once outside the one or two year warranty period you can get it replaced for a $59 fee (plus $8 shipping & handling).  If you encounter any kind of power or charging issues during the life of your Kindle 2, you can contact Kindle Support for assistance. "

 
Kindle owners of any model (basically same type of battery) have worried a bit: 'Should we turn it off when we're not using it?  Is it draining the battery when it's left 'On' in 'sleep' mode?  Should we drain our batteries the way we used to with the old nickel-cadmium ones?"  (No)  but ... will most owners have seen the Amazon Customer Service's ongoing advisories on the Amazon Kindle forums?

The advisories have been very enlightening.  Here are a few written statements of customer service policy and guidance at the Amazon boards that I collected:

1. CHARGING YOUR KINDLE BATTERY
  "With Kindle 2's battery you don't need to fully drain the battery before recharging, or wait until the battery is fully charged to start using it again. The Lithium-ion battery is optimized in such a way that incomplete charging won't affect the battery life.  For example, if you drain the battery halfway two days in a row while fully charging both times at night, this would only count as one charge cycle.  
Leaving Kindle in extreme temperatures, like in your car, will have the most negative impact on the overall life of your battery.

  Leaving wireless turned on or sustained use of the wireless functions will cause the battery to drain faster.  If you would like to turn the wireless off, select menu from the home screen.  Use the five-way controller to select "Wireless Off".  Also, downloading a large number of books at once will cause the device to index new content.  If you have recently transferred or downloaded a large number of books it is recommended that you leave the device turned on and connected to the charger overnight."

2. RECHARGING KINDLE 2's BATTERY
  "With Kindle 2's 25% longer battery life, you can read on a single charge for up to 4 days with wireless on.  Turn wireless off and read for up to 2 weeks.  If you use the wireless feature frequently, we do recommend keeping the battery at 25% at least.  There is no specific need to let the battery drain out before recharging it;  many owners do keep their devices plugged in each night, and this does not have any adverse effect on overall battery life."

3. LAST PAGE READ
  "You do not need to power down Kindle 2 between reading sessions, it is best to leave the device in sleep mode.
  Holding the switch at the top to power the device off is similar to pulling the power cord on your computer without shutting down the Operating System.  If you turn the device off while in the middle of the book, the device cannot save that location.  We save the location when the device goes into sleep mode or when you leave the book, so if you do need to power the device off then be sure to go to the Home screen first - this will save your last place in the book.

4. WIRELESS SIGNAL IN SLEEP MODE
  "Kindle's wireless signal uses low power while in sleep mode so that your subscriptions can download overnight.  If you are in a low coverage area, this could cause the device to use more battery power as it continually tries to maintain a signal.  Unless you are subscribed to periodicals that you want to receive overnight, we recommend turning wireless off  (Press the Menu button and select "Turn Wireless Off" of the menu options) before leaving the device in sleep mode. This will further conserve battery power."

=== END of some of the Customer Service thread topics at the forum ===

The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are delivered with WIRELESS *On* as a default.  Without reading the manual first, many new owners never guess that wireless should be turned off nor how that would be done in the software menus.  Also, the battery takes a few charges before it reaches maximum power.

The older, nickel-cadmium batteries no longer in vogue used to require full draining, but the lithium ion/polymer based batteries are the opposite.  Forced drainings below 25% can actually weaken it and cause problems if battery power is needed while the Kindle is downloading material or when the unit is busily indexing additional Kindle contents after downloads or when we're using the wireless to browse the Kindle store or the Web.  And now with the Kindle DX's ability to read PDF's, those files will tend to be image-intensive and loading (opening) them will use the battery a bit more.  Amazon's statement was strong about trying to keep the battery power above 25% remaining, for best long-term results.


Current Kindle Models for reference, plus free-ebook search links.
NOTES on newer Kindles.

US: Updated Kindle Fire Basic  7" tablet - $159 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB - $199/$249 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 16/32GB - $299/$369 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G 32/64GB - $499/$599 Kindle NoTouch ("Kindle") - $69/$89 Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - $119/$139 Kindle Paperwhite, 3G - $179/$199 Kindle Keybd 3G - $139/$159, Free but slow web Kindle DX - $379 $299, Free, slow web

UK: Kindle Basic, NoTouch - £69 Kindle Touch WiFi, UK - £109 Kindle Keyboard 3G, UK - £149   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB Kindle Paperwhite, WiFi - £109 Kindle Paperwhite 3G, UK - £169 Kindle Fire 2, UK -  £129 Kindle Fire HD 7" 16/32GB, UK - £159/199

OTHER International Kindle NoTouch Basic - $89 Kindle Touch WiFi - $139 Kindle Keybd 3G - $189   Keybd: w/ Free, slow 3G WEB France Boutique Kindle Deutschland - Kindle Store Italia - Kindle Store Spain - Tienda Kindle

* Kindle Fire HD to be released October 25, 2012 in listed European areas above;
    Paperwhite to be released November 22, 2012 there.


  For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics USA: by:    Publication Date      Bestselling   High-ratings UK: PubDate   Popular The Kindle Daily Deal What is 3G? and "WiFi"?       Battery Care Highly-rated under $1,  Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):    Top 100 free UK-Only:    Top 100 free Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard (U.S. only, currently):   99c Notepad 1.1,   99c Calculator,   99c Calendar,   99c Converter

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Official Kindle International release today

Here are a couple of people in the Paris Tube who didn't want to wait for an international Kindle (released today) and apparently used a work-around to get the U.S.-only Kindle.  There are quite a lot of them on the Amazon forums.  This is often called a sighting of Kindles in the wild.

This article from Australia was just too fun to read, reminding me of how so many of us feel when we get our Kindles, a feeling that tends to stay with many.

  As I read around the Net, I see that some value the pure look of other configurations and are ready to buy based on that without considering features and even say that wireless access isn't a big deal or that the slow but free 24/7 Kindle web browser for times it can be useful is better replaced by paying for smartphone access at $360 per year minimum.

We all value different things, but the Kindle definitely has opened up a world of interest in reading *books* again - not just surfing the web (as I like to do) - and it's been so successful at this that we now have a plethora of interesting competing brands and models coming at us, which is only good for the consumer.

The writer of this magazine article opens with this:

' HUGE PHOTO GALLERY | We've got it in our hot little hands -- the first 'international' Kindle.
...
It would be an understatement to say that we were excited to be given a first look at the new Amazon Kindle for international markets.  In the face of impending competition from major competitors like Barnes and Noble and Apple, Amazon has busted the Kindle out of its United States-only shackles and released it to Australia (and other countries around the world). '

The (large) photos are much better than seen in the average display in Net articles.  This report consists of 6 pages, with titles Intro, First look at the Kindle, Reading a book on the Kindle, Buying books over Whispernet, Getting your morning newspaper on Kindle, and Something your printed paper can't do.

Re their image that I used (above, left), the writer says:

' One of the first things you notice about a Kindle is how amazing its screen is under bright light. This pic, shot in bright sunlight, shows how good the screen is. In fact, the brighter the light shining on the screen, the more contrast you get -- just like real paper. '

That's true, and it's also true that it's quite grayish in dimmer light.  But I use a clip-on light if it's too dark, as I do for a physical book.  The one I link to has a pad under the upper clamp portion which helps protect the Kindle.

K. Chant, a commenter from the UK, found that the subscription prices there are quite a bit higher than for the U.S. though -- $23 per month vs $10 per month here.  I suppose this is because of daily wireless access at the higher price in Europe, but that's just speculation on my part.  It's something Europeans should know about in advance though.

Plastic Logic is announcing today a bit more of what their Spring debut model will be like, but as too usual they don't demo a working model and still won't have a price until January. They named it "Que" and have two new pictures.  They've already said they aren't looking at the low-end for pricing but are gearing it toward business people, and it looks very good for business, so far.  

Per one article " Richard Archuleta, the company’s chief, says that the Que is a proReader that is not competing against Amazon’s Kindle as it can be used to sketch / edit documents, meaning that the device will be used by mobile professionals in document management areas. "

Amazon and Walmart/Google bookwars

Walmart, taking a digital leaf from Amazon's Kindle books, is pricing ten of the top-selling hardcover books for $10 each, a new development which is sending even more shivers through publishing circles already upset at the $10 pricing for the Kindle books.  Walmart's $10 titles include Stephen King's latest book Under the Dome and Palin's Going Rogue, as well as books from James Patterson and Dean Koontz.

  Walletpop reports that Amazon fired back with $10 pricing on those books as well, which apparently caused Walmart to drop and shoot $9. Amazon did the same! And lowered the Kindle pricing as well for those books.  Customers won, Publishers zero, practically.  Most agree, both companies are apparently willing to lose money.  And publishers are right to worry that customers are being trained to expect a $10 price for books -- bad enough (for them) with e-books but on hardcover books also?

  Wall St. Journal had the best quote:

' "If there is going to be a 'Wal-Mart of the Web,' it is going to be Walmart.com," said Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez in an interview. "Our goal is to be the biggest and most visited retail Web site."

Wal-Mart's $10 promotion applies to the top 10 books coming out in November but the company is also selling 200 best-sellers for 50% of their list price. '

That's huge.
And Walmart's $10 pricing will include free shipping.

The WSJ also points out that

' Amazon has managed to encroach on Wal-Mart's general-store status online by steadily increasing the range of products it sells.  While it is best known for selling books and music, Amazon's second-quarter North American sales of "general merchandise" -- including everything from diapers to vacuums -- were for the first time larger than its sales of media.

It recently acquired shoe and apparel seller Zappos.com. And taking another cue from Wal-Mart, Amazon has steadily increased its range of private-label goods. '

So, this is actually more generalized war :-)  And again borrowing from Amazon, Walmart will start selling products from less well-known retailers, for a share of the receipts.


GOOGLE ENTERS BOOKSTORE SCENE WITH GOOGLE EDITIONS
Google announced it will be offering 500,000 e-books for any device with a web browser.

 I love my 10" screen netbook, which has a great screen, but I have no interest in reading books on it, via a web browser or any other program.  There's a big difference between surfing for hours (feasting on large bites here and there with the distraction and relief of multimedia) and linear reading of tremendous blocks of words, with that light shining into your eyes.

  Gartner analyst Allen Weiner is skeptical, citing Google's lack of experience selling media, and questions the effectiveness of offering e-books through Web browsers.  The only e-reader with a web browser at all is the Kindle which won't have a web browser enabled for some time in Europe or most of the rest of the world (though Kindles in Japan, Hong Kong, and Mexico will have that capability enabled).

EWeek adds some interesting info:

' As for the details of Editions itself, Google said it will offer in-print books from publisher partners, giving them 63 percent of revenues and keeping 37 percent for itself where it sold e-books directly to consumers.

Customers will be able to buy the books from Google directly or from other online stores such as Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com.  Where e-books were bought through other online retailers, publishers would get 45 percent and most of the remaining 55 percent would go to the retailer, with a small share going to Google. '

Competition is a great thing.

Amazon 's new same-day delivery / BN e-reader pics

Called "Local Express Delivery," the new Amazon same-day feature will be available only in select markets, since the shipment destinations have to be within a reasonable distance of a distribution hub.

Amazon is implementing same-day delivery in New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC, and Seattle.  PC World's Tony Bradley reports that there are plans to add Chicago, Indianapolis, and Phoenix in the near future.  He writes:

' The cut-off time to be able to receive same-day delivery varies from city to city.  For most markets the cut-off will be around 10 or 11 AM.  Shoppers in Seattle can place orders as late as 1 PM and still get their delivery that same day.

Amazon already has a premium shipping option called Amazon Prime.  Amazon Prime members pay $79 per year to subscribe to the service.  Members receive unlimited free 2-day shipping on a variety of items, and can upgrade to one-day shipping for an additional cost of $3.99

[Now] Amazon Prime customers in Local Express Delivery markets can upgrade to the same-day delivery service for $5.99.  Rates for non-Amazon Prime members are not yet available.  Suffice it to say that it is safe to assume that premium shipping will come at a premium cost. '

  He mentions that Barnes & Noble already offers this service, free for orders over $25, but only in Manhattan.
  B&N, by the way, will unveil their own eReader Tuesday, which also uses a 6" e-Ink screen in shades of gray.

  At the bottom of their e-reader, though, will be a little LCD window that will show the book covers in color although the book-reads will be in black & white, or grays, as with the Amazon and Sony models.

  Use of that LCD feature will drain battery power but I imagine it can be turned off.  A main feature of other e-readers is the long session life (a week or two) of the e-Ink screen with its light demand on battery life.  It'll use a virtual keyboard that displays when typing is needed (which would likely be even slower than the Kindle 2's physical keyboard).

  Here are some 'leaked' images of it with no information on whether it has equivalents of the Kindle's inline dictionary with status-line summary definition of the word your cursor is on, highlighting capability, notes, or word/phrase searches within books, or of the entire device, that the Amazon models have.  In fact there just is no information.  Only pictures.  Nicely clean design.  Rumors abound but on Tuesday there'll be actual info.

  For now, some have asked if it will also have text-to-speech, background mp3's, and audiobooks as the Kindle does.  B&N's software eReader is not readable on a Kindle or Sony, nor can a Kindle or Sony read B&N's eReader format.  Digital-rights-management complexity and multiple file-formats will continue.

  An important question will be whether or not it has wireless access to the B&N store.  It'll have to of course.  It's a sure bet, though, that it won't have even a slow but free 24/7 web browser as the Kindle does

  Monday, Amazon starts selling the International models of the Kindle.  Tonight or tomorrow, I'll write what I've found about the different Kindle features and Kindle-book offerings for the various countries and look at whether there is any reason for U.S. Kindle owners to move from the U.S. model they have to an International one.  Short answer - No, unless they travel a lot and don't mind paying extra fees for downloads to the Kindle while in other countries, or they don't get Sprint Whispernet where they live.  But there are other things to think about.

  Downloads while abroad can be continued to be done by U.S. Kindle owners to a computer and then transferred to the Kindle, at no cost.

  (International customers won't be charged fees for downloads made when in other countries, as the book prices include both VAT and some of the cost of international wireless access to the store.)

Amazon Customer Service Q & A: Oct 7-12

These are from the Customer Service area of the Amazon forums, with links to the actual postings (which don't have hyperlinks or bolding for titles).
  I'll be keeping these reformatted copies, with hyperlinks added, as a set, in the reference section on the right-hand column.

10/7  Q&A
  Downloading Outside the U.S.,
  Non English Content and
  Documentation

Initial post: Oct 7, 2009 4:51 PM PDT
Last edited by the author on Oct 9, 2009 3:22 PM PDT
Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:

Traveling Outside the U.S. with Kindle (U.S. and International Wireless)

When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items. U.S. customers will be charged a fee of $1.99 for international book downloads (this fee only applies when the U.S. customer is outside the U.S.).

U.S. customers can continue to receive all of their newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions via Whispernet while traveling abroad, for a weekly fee of $4.99, or $1.99 per issue.

To avoid any fees, customers can always download books, periodicals, and personal documents via their computer and transfer to their Kindle using USB. To download Kindle content to your computer visit www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle.

For non-U.S. customers, there are no additional charges for receiving books or periodicals wirelessly outside their home country.

English Only Text-to-Speech

The Text-to-Speech feature on our latest generation Kindles and Kindle DX can read English-language newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made this feature unavailable. The Text-to-Speech feature does not support reading in other languages.

Foreign Language Kindle Books

The Kindle Store includes primarily English-language books and U.S. and international newspaper and magazine titles with prices listed in U.S. Dollars.

To see if an item that interests you is available, please search for the title in the Kindle Store (http://www.amazon.com/kindlestore).

Foreign Language Kindle User's Guide

You can find non-English versions of some Kindle documentation available in PDF format on our Kindle Support pages:
  http://www/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200317150.

---

Oct 9  Q&A:
  Help Pages,
  Personal Docs,
  Your Country Setting, and
  Kindle U.S. Wireless Owners

Initial post: Oct 9, 2009 9:49 AM PDT
Last edited by the author on Oct 12, 2009 4:05 PM PDT
Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:

Updated Help Pages

The answers posted by Kindle Customer Service in this forum are often taken from the Kindle Support Pages. We've recently updated these pages to make it easier to find the information you're looking for, you can visit them at: http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport.

Customer service focuses on the most common questions and keeps these announcements at the top of the forum, making them easy to find. You'll also find that many knowledgeable Kindle owners participate in these forums and will answer questions for new Kindle owners.

Foreign Language Personal Documents

Kindle can display non-English content that uses the ISO 8859-1 character set (which is based on the Latin languages). The only characters from this set not currently supported are: spades, clubs, hearts, up-arrow, down-arrow, alpha, beta, and gamma. Kindle also supports Greek characters and monospace fonts.

Your Country Setting

When shopping the Kindle Store you will see the book selection available to you based on your home country. Your home country or region should be set to the country where you live. You can update your home country or region on the Manage Your Kindle Page (http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle). Scroll down to the "Your country" section and select the "Edit" option to change.

Kindle U.S. Wireless Owners

The new Kindle with U.S. and International Wireless uses different built-in 3G GSM technology that allows it to access Whispernet internationally. A Kindle with U.S. Wireless only cannot be modified or updated to allow it to access Whispernet from outside U.S.

Edit: added "Browsing the Kindle Store by Country" section (10/9)

---

Oct 12  Q&A:
  Ordering Kindle in Australia,
  Shipping Kindle to APO Addresses,
  and Kindle U.S. Wireless Price Drop

Initial post: Oct 12, 2009 4:03 PM PDT ...
Last edited by the author on Oct 13, 2009 ~11:45 AM PDT
Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:

Australian Customers Ordering Kindle (U.S. and International Wireless)

To order Kindle (U.S. and International Wireless) in Australia, please click the link presented to you after selecting that country on the Kindle product page. This will take you to a separate page for Kindles shipped to Australia:
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-International-Generation-charging-Australia/dp/B000GF7ZRA

This Kindle purchase will include a USB cable for charging via your computer, but does not include a US power adapter.

Shipping Kindle to APO Addresses

U.S. Customers living or traveling abroad can have Kindle (U.S. and International Wireless) shipped to eligible countries. Shipping may not be available to all APO/FPO addresses. To check, please enter the shipping address at checkout. We do not allow you to place orders to APO/FPO addresses where we will not be able to ship.

Kindle U.S. Wireless Price Drop

If your order for Kindle (U.S. Wireless) was shipped between Sept 6 and October 6, 2009, please contact Customer Service and we will refund the $40 price difference.

B&N 'color' Plastic Logic e-reader report was wrong

Jenn  iPhoned a much-distributed and tweeted video-interview with an alleged Barnes and Noble spokesguy who went on and on about how B&N's e-reader (in partnership with Plastic Logic) would be out in the Spring and "Ours will be in color" -- so, a posting to this effect went up on Mashable "on the big news" and was carried by Engadget, FastCompany, WIRED, et al, as reported by Jenn.   (Click on image to see the video.)

  I didn't run (or walk) with it because nothing in the guy's report matched what Plastic Logic has been saying the past half year and why would a Barnes and Noble salesman sitting at an exhibit be suddenly informally announcing a Plastic Logic color E-reader for the spring?
  (There'd be no way for Jenn to know this though.)

MobilitySite, which had also reported the interview and the color news, reports today that Plastic Logic has denied the report.

' "The video report is inaccurate and the individual (who was apparently filmed while attending a trade show was not an authorized Barnes & Noble spokesperson) was misinformed.

  We are excited to have Barnes & Noble powering the Plastic Logic e-commerce store.  While colour is on Plastic Logic’s roadmap, it is not on the map for the Spring of 2010. &n bsp;Plastic Logic has said for quite some time it is working on colour, but not for a product in the coming year." '

  Well, I doubt that he just attended the tradeshow and put on a B&N shirt and lanyard and readied himself for interviews (while around actual B&N staff) for the sport of it.  More likely, he was a temp staffer helping with B&N's exhibit, misinterpreted what he was hearing from employee conversations, and then eagerly passed that on when interviewed.
 People get overexcited by the word "color" when it comes to e-readers.

 He didn't, as speculated, probably make it up as a video-worthy answer to her question of what made the B&N reader better than its competitor(s), as they kiddingly refer to the Kindle);  he actually mentioned earlier in the video, w/o being asked, that it would be in color.

  As for why B&N didn't instead choose to quietly retract it or just say instead that "it may be not be ready by Spring 'exactly' -- what?  It's not going to be ready in the coming year.  They've been very clear about that.

Any color we see will be of the LCD variety, unless Pixel QI is involved.  E-ink color just is not ready.

  I recently got a 10" Netbook that I will be writing about.  I love it, and one thing it's shown me is why any Tablet device may not do that well after all, if as high-priced as reported and marketed in a big way for reading of entire e-books along with web browsing, though the latter would be a fun use of it using home or office WiFi.

  But trying to read an actual book on a 10" LCD color screen is not going to be one of the world's big pleasures.  Surfing the net?  That's another matter entirely and doesn't demand linear concentration of the eyes on only words for a good length of time.

  One thing about e-reader news today - wishful thinking drives a lot of it.  But there's an energy in gadget excitement that I definitely understand too well.

Read foreign-language web pages in your language

I've found that the Translate a Web page" Google tool is not used as much as it could be because many don't know about it.
  I received an alert about a webpage that had linked to an article in A Kindle World and found that it was in Greek or, as they say, it was all Greek to me :-)

It was of interest because it was a forum in Greece that was discussing the new International Kindle available in that country.

So I went to Google's general translation tool (always shown next to the Google search bar in small font) and scrolled down until I saw "Translate a web page."

  Then I pasted, into the long bar, the URL/link I was given, and chose - from the pull-down menus - the language I wanted translated and then the language that would allow me to read and understand what was said on the page.
  Clicking on the gray "Translate" button took me to the English version of the forum page.

  While this type of automated webpage-translation is notoriously primitive, it usually gives you at least the gist of the conversation.

  It did pretty well, for the most part, in a message by website administrator "Hal9000" -- I can understand what he's saying.  They are discussing a color e-reader that Fujitsu will release as well as the administrator's Kindle 2, which he's had for awhile.

Kindle 2 International and actual UK vs U.S. book pricing - Update

UPDATE - Oct 12 - Australia's The Age just copied The Guardian story without checking Amazon's Australia country-info on product page for the International Kindle.
  The Age and other repeating-newspapers claim it's $13.99 for books in Australia and a 40% increase while the product page says $11.99 unless marked otherwise.  Whatever happened to first-level fact checking?
  Meanwhile MediaBistro understandably picked it up and reports that "Jeremy Fisher, executive director of the 3,000-member Society, thinks Australian writers should avoid the Kindle for these pricey reasons."

---

Main blog entry from Oct. 10
Well, a column by writer Bobbie Johnson that I briefly referenced yesterday for citing an unreasonably-high pricing calculation for the cost of providing a book for UK residents via 'roaming' mechanisms (at the same time that a sibling Guardian-column quoted an Amazon spokesperson saying there would be "no" roaming fees for UK residents in the UK) was updated by Johnson to report that, per a conversation he had with an Amazon rep, Amazon "confirmed" they will be charging a "premium" for UK residents and then he linked us to another column of his that said "International Buyers to be charged 40% more per book" than U.S. customers are - an alarmist column that did anger readers who believed it.

  I bring this up because today Twitter is alive with 'tweets' about other newspapers picking it up, one after the other, and just repeating it as fact.  That's nothing new but it's unnecessary and definitely misleading.

  Ironically, that was an update to a column in which Johnson originally opined that American customers were subsidizing the UK customers' higher costs for Amazon.

  Johnson cited the one UK price of $13.99 despite the Amazon product page for the UK Kindle specifically saying, from the announcement day:

' Free Wireless: ... No monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots.  For non-U.S. customers, there are also no additional charges for wireless delivery in or outside your home country...

  Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99 to $13.99 (prices include VAT), unless marked otherwise. You'll also find many books for less - over 70,000 titles are priced under $5.99. '

First, Value Added Tax charged by Great Britain is *included* in the book price.  That's not an Amazon premium charge.
  As of January the VAT will be nearly 17% over the cost of the book.
And the base price of the range is $11.99, not $13.99. In the U.S. bestsellers are $9.99 and up.

So, no, it's not generally 40% over the cost in the U.S.  Even at the $13.99 range, U.S. Kindle owners are aware some bestsellers are not selling for only $9.99, too often going for as much as $15  And, again, the int'l pricing includes the government's value-added tax and is not a charge for the book. (Edited per correction by Jim.)

However, the UK will not have the experimental web browser, which some of us value having.  And I guess they won't have it unless or until the wireless-provider pricing is low enough in affected countries to cover the cost of that as Sprint does here in the U.S.   Countries which WILL have the web-browser enabled are Mexico, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

For added irony, Johnson linked us to another Guardian article, this one by Charles Arthur, who spoke with Amazon's SVP in charge of the Kindle, Stephen Kessel, who reiterated Amazon's policy (I quoted this yesterday) that UK residents won't be paying roaming charges at home nor in the U.S.  This was why Johnson's first focus was that it seemed to him that U.S. residents would be subsidizing UK Kindle users.

  The problem for those in the UK is that they can buy books for now only from the U.S. Amazon store.  This means a possible import/customs fee -- these don't apply to hard-cover books but somehow appear to be in the mix for e-books (which the government can change).  However, those also are not Amazon book charges.  But prospective buyers will need to factor that in.

So, as this 40% added Amazon-charge for UK customers rumor percolates around the globe, maybe some will know it's not true, even if repeated by 50 newpapers and online sites.

  The basic price difference in the bestseller price-range for both U.S. and U.K. is 17% - near the cost of the Value Added Tax charged over there.   And here are additions from knowledgeable people commenting to the article.

===
"Pricing sounds quite logical, VAT will be 15% or 17.5% from 1 January which does explain part of the price differential vs. a print book. Why is this?
Surely the EU should be promoting E-books from a green perspective and allow no VAT like the paper format?

It would also make sense that from a scale perspective that costs in the other countries will be more than the US where there is a bigger market."
  [ by jimbob70 ]

_______
"On the pricing thing. A lot of it has to do with UK publishers charging higher list price for their ebooks than US publishers.

For example Audrey Niffenegger's new book Her Fearful Symmetry...

US list price $26.99 (approx 17.02)
UK list price 21.84 (approx $34.63) "
  [ by BrianEb ]

_______

Photo credit: L.A. Times

Kindle 2 International - Follow-up news 10-09-09 - Update

Follow-up news on the Kindle 2  International after the big splash on Tuesday.

Mildly updated the "kindlecountries" file of country-specific Kindle information formatted from the Amazon page to include the news/rumors in New Zealand and Canada.

NEW ZEALAND
Kindle may yet come to New Zealand per New Zealand PC World's James Heffield.

Vodaphone's Paul Brislen says that Vodaphone is in "deep discussions" with Amazon to bring the K2i to New Zealand. However, he wouldn't speculate on how likely a deal with Amazon is or when it might happen and wasn't sure whether other telecommuications providers were also in negotiation with Amazon.

Telecom spokesperson Rebecca Earl was non-commital about ANYthing, confirming nothing but saying the company could "see the appeal of the Kindle" and was exploring options for "a device of this type."


AMAZON IN NEGOTATIONS WITH 3 CANADIAN COMPANIES?
The Globe & Mail reports that Amazon has 3 possible partners in Canada now while Amazon is shopping around for the best deal on the cost of providing Kindle owners wireless capability there.

If the problem lay with the inability to find a wireless carrier at a doable price, Amazon could have offered Canada the same non-wireless option it offered other countries, but someone in the know says it's a matter of time and deciding which company will handle it.
Rogers, an AT&T partner, had seemed the only source (maybe causing it to keep its pricing higher?) but Bell and Telus are going live with their next generation network earlier than expected, in November, which has implications for the holiday season.
The article ends with yet another report that a Canadian Kindle user reported to the newspaper that he has been able, in the last month, to download wirelessly in Canada.


UK/EUROPEAN MOBILE PROVIDERS DESCRIBED AS SURPRISED BY KINDLE INT'L
According to Mobil Phone News's Luke McKinney, Vodafone and O2 are "in charge of wireless signals" in the UK but they seem to have been caught off guard, judging from their press releases, by Amazon's latest news. McKinney feels it's "especially odd considering Amazon’s previous statement that they couldn’t unleash their equipment in the UK until extensive negotiations with telecoms companies were complete."

He writes that UK mobile service is "notoriously provincial" with "various networks having hotspots and not-spots."


THE GUARDIAN (UK) ON ROAMING CHARGES PAID BY VISITING AMERICANS
The writer asks why Amazon UK didn't launch it -- I think it's because they don't have the serving technology, Kindle billing and Kindle customer service support setup there yet. But the article references another Guardian article in which Amazon SVP Stephen Kessel spoke with the Guardian writer and mentioned the Kindle Int'l is not shipping until after the Frankfurt Book Fair, where publishers work their deals). I'm not sure how that relates to the question.

But the import tax situation then for UK residents is not attractive. The UK Value-Added Taxes are included in the cost of the books there.

Kessel did say, ""In the future we plan to introduce a UK-centric experience to allow people in Britain to purchase Kindle and Kindle books," Kessel said."

In connection with the puzzlement of UK wireless providers, The Guardian adds:

' Another mystifying question: which mobile network is Amazon going to use? AT&T, its partner in the US, doesn't have a presence in the UK. So who is Amazon's UK mobile network? Its earlier statements this morning were models of non-clarity:

"Kindle with international wireless uses advanced 3G GSM technology to power Amazon's wireless delivery system 'Whispernet' over the AT&T Global Network."

Could Kessel elucidate? Is Amazon going to be a mobile virtual network operator in the UK, like Virgin, renting airtime from the main four networks (O2, Orange, Vodafone and 3)?

"AT&T is through their network of partnerships providing 3G network coverage to Kindle and Whispernet across 100 countries." Er, OK, so which network in the UK? "You'd have to ask AT&T." We intend to. But he said that there will be no "roaming" charges; if you're a UK Kindle buyer you won't get any charges using it in the UK from a mobile network. What about a UK Kindle owner in the US - would they see roaming charges? "You pay no roaming charges."

[ What ? ]

Then there's the final question, relating to books and publication rights, which has exercised publishers and authors and agents. You'll know that some books are published in some countries, but not in others. These are often the subject of big rights bids.
. . .
Even so, we've heard that if you subscribe to UK papers on a Kindle in the UK that you may not be able to get images downloaded (there might be copyright issues). We're seeking confirmation on that. '

The commenters to that article are not overenthused about e-readers in general.

Returning to the article about "Roaming Charges paid by Americans" - that takes official customer-rates for 'roaming' rates to a situation in which the wireless will be provided by partners who are right there in the UK and comes up with an unreasonably high figure for costs there as a result, and even U.S's Sprint is said to charge relatively little to Amazon for unused bandwidth relative to what they'd charge individual customers.

Every article referenced from the Guardian has wholly different points of view on this.


FUN MUSINGS by JIM CRAMER on AMAZON
This is Cramer's intro to a story for which have to sign up to read it in full, which I didn't.  Since it's used as a lead and lure for a 14-day trial, I'll expand the possible audience here.  Cramer writes:

' Do you know that Amazon is closing in on its all-time high? Do you know that what was once considered the most overvalued stock in the world is now starting to be viewed as cheap, even as it goes higher, because of the tremendous scale it is reaching and the company's effort to drive down product pricing?

When I heard about still one more price cut for the Kindle, it dawned on me. Amazon is Ford, and Jeff Bezos is Henry Ford, without the cranky anti-Semitism and braggadocio demeanor, although I never heard Ford laugh, so I don't know if they have that in common. Ford decided to make cars for the masses, and with it, he broke down the price barriers and grabbed market share and mind share and scale, making it so that his company was so rich that he could afford to pay... '

OFF-TOPIC, BUT INTERESTING BEZOS/GOOGLE STORY
'...Kara Swisher at All Things D has details from Ken Auletta’s upcoming book, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, says TechFlash.
  Among the juicy tidbits: Bezos invested $250,000 in then-startup Google in 1998 at 4 cents a share. The Amazon CEO told Auletta that he “just fell in love with” Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at their first meeting in a Silicon Valley garage.  While it’s not clear what Bezos did with his piece of Google, Swisher notes that his stock would be worth $1.6 billion today. '

 Ouch!  The article also mentions Amazon's Google-search-challenger A9 which did not do well.  The A9 unit still provides the searches for its ecommerce sites.  The Amazon forums had no searches for the last 2 years but added a very fast, effective one last month.
  Jeff Bezos was an early investor in Twitter too.

KINDLE DX
Several articles quote Amazon as saying they'll make an international Kindle DX also, but how could they not ?  They say only that it'll be sometime next year.

US/INT'L Kindle for release Oct 19 '09 Update9

UPDATE 6 - Added "kindlecountries" file of country-specific Kindle information formatted from the Amazon page for easier browsing of where Kindles or Kindle content can be shipped and where wireless access is available for Kindle owners, as of October 6, 2009.

UPDATE 7 & 9 - The experimental web browser and blogs are NOT available in almost all the countries I explored, including the UK, France, and Italy.

  This is said explicitly for most countries, but Japan, Hong Kong, and Mexico do not have the negative wording, so they may well have the web browswer capability.  I didn't check the entire list for that though.

Check the detailed pull-down menu at the Kindle Int'l page for your country.  Book prices are different and there are such things as the VAT or value-added-tax being included in the UK pricing but also purchases in some countries being subject to customs duties, import taxes and other fees levied by the destination country. Those fees will show upon upon checkout.

UPDATE 8 - Clarification of the $2 charge
  "When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items. U.S. customers will be charged a fee of $1.99 for international downloads."
  This can be avoided by having the book be downloadable to your computer instead, for transfer to your Kindle via the USB cable.

NOTE that for the UK and other countries:
  "You can transfer personal documents to your Kindle via USB for free at anytime. Service fees for transferring personal documents via Whispernet are currently $.99 per megabyte." (vs the $.15 per megabyte for U.S. customers nearer the servers).

UPDATE 9 - Wireless coverage maps for all Kindles
These are now under "Whispernet Coverage" in the reference section (right-hand column).

---

Main blog entry Oct. 6
I will be updating this blog article as it goes! Our conjecture about the reasons for the weekend glitches was on the money.  It had to do with international sales and the horrors of publisher prohibitions in some areas while making agreements in others.

  Hardcover sales don't know international boundaries that e-books are subjected to by the publishers.  That makes a nightmare for the programmers since people are temporarily in some places where rules are different.

BUT the INTERNATIONAL KINDLE is a reality now.  Pardon the caps.
  And this means "no monthly charges" in those areas too, per the product page ad.

These will be ready October 19 for wireless use in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Japan, Taiwan, Cayman Islands, and other countries that I've not checked yet.  Countries not involved yet include Canada, China and Singapore, alas. Australia gets a special page of its own.  Beyond that, I've not checked for now.  Check the pull-down menu on the product page though.

Here are the following Kindles and pricing as of now, for ordering and, in the case of the new Kindle with International capabilities (3G), pre-ordering.

Kindle 2 - $259,   Kindle US/Int'l - $279, Kindle DX - $489

Also, Australia needs to sell one without a power adapter and relies on the USB cable for power.   Go to AUSTRALIAN Kindle page.

WIRED MAGAZINE info
WIRED magazine's Steven Levy has more salient details and quotes from Jeff Bezos

' As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explains it in a phone interview with Wired, “The two Kindles are identical, except for the radio.” The new device does not sync with Sprint, which was previously the exclusive supplier for Amazon’s Whispernet technology.  Instead, it works with AT&T’s wireless network, which has the global reach that Amazon needs for its international plans.

...Won’t everybody want to spend 20 bucks more on the AT&T version that that works all around the world, even if a cross-border trip isn’t on the immediate horizon? “I would!” says Bezos. Indeed, having a Kindle that downloads from overseas means you can get your favorite newspapers and magazines delivered instantly, at the same cost you pay at home. '

The Lonely Planet series will be sold on Kindle along with currently available Frommer, Rick Steves and Michelin.

In Europe, the current Kindles that people have will not work with the European AT&T wireless.   This is kind of funny:

' ... Those who bought a Kindle in the last 30 days can exchange them for the international version.  Maybe the biggest gripes will come from those who bought the most expensive Kindle, the supersized DX.  Imagine sitting in a Paris bistro with your US-download-only $490 DX and watching some tourist with a puny $280 Kindle filling up with newspapers, Michelin guides and the latest Michael Connelly thriller.

  The story explains the complexities of copyright and royalties dependent on where an e-book book is sold and mentions that of the 350,000 books in the Kindlestore, only 200,000 will be available in some countries.

  Also, publishers who will not release a Kindle edition along with the release of a hardcover edition are being somewhat shortsighted.  Bezos says, ""When you’re on NPR and someone goes on their Kindle to look for the book, it’s your chance to make that sale... They won’t remember in a month or two.”

KINDLE SALES - STATS - PER WIRED MAG INTERVIEW
While Bezos startled the publishing world by announcing that Kindle sales were 35% of Amazon book sales in cases where Kindle editions were also made available, Wired reports: "Now, he says, the number is up to 48 percent."

  Here's a point Jeff Bezos made, which is important re pricing:

' The international Kindle is not just for Americans traveling abroad.  Bezos says that Amazon’s sales patterns show a sizable demand for English language books in countries that speak other languages.  Until now, readers in those countries have found such books to be expensive and hard to find, not to mention slow to arrive after being ordered.  The global Kindle will make the process cheap and instant.

  In connection with digital tablet rumors, Wired reports:

' He says that Amazon is hard at work making software apps (like the one already available for the iPhone) that will extend the Kindle system to other devices. He’s also still open “in principle” to rival e-reader manufacturers who wish to use the Kindle store to provide content.  But he feels that while people may read on phones and web-surfing tablets, the dedicated e-reading device will keep improving.
  “We want Kindle to be the best way to read,” Bezos says. And now, people can read books that they download outside the US.

See more details at WIRED magazine.

I will be doing more updates with the detail I find for countries that I can summarize.

You can try the pulldown screen for countries of interest to you at the Kindle Int'l page though.

A geographic-restriction glitch for non-USA Kindle book purchases - Update3

See UPDATES at bottom of this blog article.  Glitch is now fixed for most reporting in.

Customers on the MobileRead forums and Amazon Kindle forums reported that although they have, for a long time, been able to buy Kindle books while out of the country for Kindles Amazon had shipped to their given U.S. addresses, they received geographic-restriction rejections of the Kindle book orders, starting this weekend.

This occurred even with People using U.S. credit cards (rather than gift certificates which can be used internationally).  Kindle owner and author Bufo Calvin started an Amazon forum poll to try to find out the circumstances of those affected before making assumptions and gathered already some good information.

A reassuring response came from customer Eliza Bennet, from Canada, who responded to Bufo with this information:

' I just (an hour ago) spoke with a kindle CS rep and he informed me that "something went wrong" with the amazon server and many techies had been called in over the weekend to fix the problem vis à vis the "geographic restriction" message.  I live in (Ottawa) Canada and gave him the name/billing address of the credit card attached to my account (which belongs to a friend living near Boston), and he made no comment about it not being my own card.  He also had no adverse reaction to my saying I paid for books with a gift card.  Certainly hope that he knew whereof he spoke! '

BlogKindle had an earlier article today in which he suggested a workaround if needed, using US proxy servers.

This weekend's problems are likely due to changes made in connection with an anticipated launch of the Kindle in the UK, which has had digital book restrictions also, and programming changes, too often, have untoward effects on other areas of similar code.

When you have questions that other customers can help with, a visit to the Amazon Kindle Community forums can be helpful.  There are also some amusing threads there too that I've pointed to before.  The forums are for sharing of information between customers and can also be playful (sometimes a tad rough) and is a good community with lots of new people everyday needing help.  Now they finally have a forum-search mechanism so that helps quite a bit.

UPDATE2 10/5/09   - Original Posting was 10/4 at 3:52 PM
  (Update1 was incorporated above.)
Julia of the forum-poll thread above added a written response from Customer Service tonight, which was another example of customers with U.S. credit cards and address being affected by the problem as well:

' I'm sorry for the trouble you had when trying to purchase Kindle books outside U.S using a payment method issued by a U.S. Bank with a U.S.billing address. I've reported this to our technical team, and they're working on taking care of it.

Please try again over the next few days. Errors like this are usually
corrected shortly after they're reported... '

They've been corrected for some customers, so far, as reported in the forum thread.

UPDATE3 10/6/09, 3:15 PM -  Original Posting was 10/4 at 3:52 PM
Caroline Wong has made a second, updated poll at the Amazon Kindle forums, to monitor how the fixes by Amazon are going.  Many are reporting they can once again order as they did before.  And in the original poll by Bufo Calvin, some who had problems have been reporting they are once again able to order/buy from Amazon as before and have received non-boilerplate email from Amazon Customer Service representatives who have been following up on the problem.

 At MobileRead forums, 'mgmueller' describes how he has been buying books from Germany as an Amazon-US customer and that it is working for him.  Earlier than his post is one from 'Dharmabum' who was unable to buy e-books this weekend unless using an IP# workaround but can buy again today using his regular method, which is like mgmueller's and those of others reporting on the Amazon forum threads.

  The glitch is obviously being fixed for many, including some who were/are skeptical about it being a technical glitch.  Various workarounds over the weekend had been Hotspot Shield, VPN to US, and UltraSurf 9.5 - the latter has been reported to be not entirely safe due to processes noticed in it, reports which I can link to later; it could also be due to processes meant to confuse authorities in China who are banning Net access to many to various sites, but I opted not to test it due to some reports.

UPDATE4 10/12/09
On October 7, one day after the International Kindle 2 announcement, Customer Service wrote to Bufo Calvin's poll thread at Amazon forums to say that they felt they had resolved the problem and that all affected were able to receive books again, with the gift certificates they had been using.

DX and PDF Author-Title Corrections. K1 & K2 also.

Mark Alexander recommended, in the Sheet Music comments section, the free pdftk command-line utility to modify the metadata (title, author) in PDF files before transferring them to the Kindle.  He mentions that the Kindle appears to recognize only Author and Title fields.  See Mark's instructions for modifying that data.

He wrote an extra file for use with this - "pdfmeta" - which allows one simple command to be given (shown in his guide) instead of having to make the small file with author and title info.

HOWEVER, Windows users would run any of this in a DOS window and I realize most are not comfortable with that.  In that case, you can instead try Calibre to change that type of info in a PDF.  This must be a not-easy thing to do, as Calibre's method does not work with some PDF files.  At any rate, you can choose to get Windows, Mac, or Linux versions of Calibre and there are pages for features, with screenshots.

Calibre is what I used for converting any of Google's million free ePub files to Kindle-compatible files.  Calibre can do many things.

I'll add a blog entry later for good free utilities that convert PDFs to Word files to keep some complicated formatting and then sending these to Amazon for a free conversion to Kindle format which would be emailed back to your everyday email for free so that the attached converted file can be put, via USB cable, into to your Kindle DX or Kindle 1 or 2.  Of course, we can send instead to our [us]@kindle.com address to have converted files sent to our Kindles via Whispernet but that costs 15 cents per each megabyte of a file.

  At any rate, For DX's, this conversion provides an added non-PDF file copy that can be highlighted and for which notes can be made and the Kindle inline-directory used (and the text-to-speech would work for those also, while that function doesn't work with PDFs).
  For Kindles 1 and 2, it can provide a conversion with better layout, though simple-layout PDFs with one column and almost no illustrations can be sent to your Kindle address for the usual Amazon conversion.

I'll be going on vacation, during which time I will concentrate more on Kindle tips.  If you have questions about how anything might be done, contact me and I can add it to a list of topics. Thanks!