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Kindle 3G - Have I got this straight ?
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johnny_t
25-09-2011
OK, I've just got myself a 3G Kindle and it's great, but working on the basis that if something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't, can someone give me an answer to this, please....

Say I'm sat in an airport in Germany and I want to look at, say, the BBC News website, it's going to cost me nothing ? No monthly charge, no data fee, no ammount per MB, nothing ?

If so, and it all appears to point that way, that's fantastic.....
stud u like
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by johnny_t:
“OK, I've just got myself a 3G Kindle and it's great, but working on the basis that if something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't, can someone give me an answer to this, please....

Say I'm sat in an airport in Germany and I want to look at, say, the BBC News website, it's going to cost me nothing ? No monthly charge, no data fee, no ammount per MB, nothing ?

If so, and it all appears to point that way, that's fantastic.....”

It uses whispernet.
!!11oneone
25-09-2011
Yup, you're right. Amazon do not (currently) charge for internet access over 3G no matter where you are.

Whispernet is just their name for it, it uses (I think) Vodaphone mostly.

If and when 3G use of a browser becomes widespread on a Kindle (it's pretty niche so far) I expect they'll start charging just as they can charge you for documents you send over 3G.
whodoo
25-09-2011
I can't really help, my sister has also just bought one and she has the same question. there seems to be a charge when the 3G is used to transfer data/documents (via email), but view only access, I'm really not sure.

It does seem too generous to be true, they are very vague about the charges involved.

My sister has stuck to the wifi access so far because she's not sure either.

Call me a cynic but if it is true, I can't see it being true next year, I'm sure they would start charging when they have sold a certain amount of devices.

Actually, I have a question, far sillier than yours, please forgive me, but.... when you turn the Kindle of, should the screen be blank or does it always show a random picture? Does it ever fully shutdown?

My sister slides the switch on the bottom, the green light is off but a picture remains, presumably using power, is it designed to stay in standby, or is she not turning it off properly?

Any way, sorry I wasn't more help, (we share your suspicion).

Best wishes

Others have already replied-sorry
Last edited by whodoo : 25-09-2011 at 18:08
johnny_t
25-09-2011
Thanks. That truly is amazing. It'll more than pay for itself if they keep it up for at least a few months......
johnny_t
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by whodoo:
“I can't really help, my sister has also just bought one and she has the same question. there seems to be a charge when the 3G is used to transfer data/documents (via email), but view only access, I'm really not sure.

It does seem too generous to be true, they are very vague about the charges involved.

My sister has stuck to the wifi access so far because she's not sure either.

Call me a cynic but if it is true, I can't see it being true next year, I'm sure they would start charging when they have sold a certain amount of devices.

Actually, I have a question, far sillier than yours, please forgive me, but.... when you turn the Kindle of, should the screen be blank or does it always show a random picture? Does it ever fully shutdown?

My sister slides the switch on the bottom, the green light is off but a picture remains, presumably using power, is it designed to stay in standby, or is she not turning it off properly?

Any way, sorry I wasn't more help, (we share your suspicion).

Best wishes”

I think I can answer yours....

It always shows a picture on the screen, even when off but that does not mean it's using power. From what I can gather, the screen is a bit like an electronic version of an etch-a-sketch and so once the picture is 'drawn' there, it stays there regardless of whether the unit is on or not.

(I'm really pleased with mine, especially now the 3G thing seems to be true, though I'll confirm it with my next bank statement)
whodoo
25-09-2011
Thanks for that.

I'm getting old and I remember when we needed screen savers to prevent permanently leaving an image on the screen of computers. I was wondering that was still a concern, as much as the power thing.

My sister's pleased with hers to. It's rare for things to be as good as they seem. Nice
grumpyoldbat
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by johnny_t:
“OK, I've just got myself a 3G Kindle and it's great, but working on the basis that if something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't, can someone give me an answer to this, please....

Say I'm sat in an airport in Germany and I want to look at, say, the BBC News website, it's going to cost me nothing ? No monthly charge, no data fee, no ammount per MB, nothing ?

If so, and it all appears to point that way, that's fantastic.....”

Too good to be true? Only in as far as browsing on the Kindle is slow and fiddly. It's not so bad for a text article or two, but I wouldn't do all my web browsing on it. The browser on the Kindle is rudimentary at best, and can crash. It's useful now and again, but I wouldn't rely on it.
johnny_t
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by grumpyoldbat:
“Too good to be true? Only in as far as browsing on the Kindle is slow and fiddly. It's not so bad for a text article or two, but I wouldn't do all my web browsing on it. The browser on the Kindle is rudimentary at best, and can crash. It's useful now and again, but I wouldn't rely on it.”

Understood, but I travel quite a lot through work. Being able to read this on planes was one of my primary wants, but if I can bowl up somewhere and check on, say, the headlines or facebook without having to either log the laptop onto a hotspot or pay through the nose on the blackberry, it's great.....
VanillaPod
25-09-2011
Quote:
“My sister slides the switch on the bottom, the green light is off but a picture remains, presumably using power, is it designed to stay in standby, or is she not turning it off properly?”

To turn it right off with no picture showing, slide the switch over and hold it for about seven seconds. The green light will flash a couple of times - let the switch go and the screen will be blank. Then just turn back on as normal when you want to.
TheBigM
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by VanillaPod:
“To turn it right off with no picture showing, slide the switch over and hold it for about seven seconds. The green light will flash a couple of times - let the switch go and the screen will be blank. Then just turn back on as normal when you want to.”

Although the Kindle as good as draws no power in sleep mode as no energy is required to maintain an image on a pearl e-ink screen. So in regular usage, sleep mode is sufficient.
Eater Sundae
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by johnny_t:
“I think I can answer yours....

It always shows a picture on the screen, even when off but that does not mean it's using power. From what I can gather, the screen is a bit like an electronic version of an etch-a-sketch and so once the picture is 'drawn' there, it stays there regardless of whether the unit is on or not.

(I'm really pleased with mine, especially now the 3G thing seems to be true, though I'll confirm it with my next bank statement)”

I've used the 3G on mine a few times, when away from home, to view news pages etc, ie very low demand web browsing. Although the "experimental" browser is a bit clunky to use, it has been adequate for my needs.

There's been no attempt to charge me, so far - although I'm not abusing the freebie. However, re the bold, they have no access to just charge me. I presume they could disable the facility and then ask me to pay to get it back. But they cannot just raid my bank account, so there's no risk.
grumpyoldbat
25-09-2011
Originally Posted by johnny_t:
“Understood, but I travel quite a lot through work. Being able to read this on planes was one of my primary wants, but if I can bowl up somewhere and check on, say, the headlines or facebook without having to either log the laptop onto a hotspot or pay through the nose on the blackberry, it's great.....”

Yeah, it was fine in the US to read the headlines on days when I couldn't find wifi, but I only used it as a last resort as I find navigating around the page with the 5-way keypad is just really awkward.
LostFool
25-09-2011
Yes, it really is free and yes, the browser is a bit flakey but it's usually fine for checking the news headlines, football scores and Facebook/Twitter updates. I've even managed to check in for a flight using the Kindle browser.

One tip is to try the mobile version of the websites as these usually work better on the Kindle. Most websites don't detect the Kindle browser and optimise the display for it.

Try http://kinstant.com/ as a useful startpage for your Kindle broswer.
Alkar
25-09-2011
You can't use the web browser via 3g for normal web browsing except in the countries listed here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/cust...wsingcountries
ironjade
25-09-2011
I've never been able to access DS via Kindle whereas IMDb is no problem at all (the mobile version of which is pitiful, incidentally).
johnny_t
26-09-2011
Originally Posted by Alkar:
“You can't use the web browser via 3g for normal web browsing except in the countries listed here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/cust...wsingcountries”

That list's not up to date. I'm in Germany right now and it works just fine.....
LostFool
26-09-2011
Originally Posted by johnny_t:
“That list's not up to date. I'm in Germany right now and it works just fine.....”

And it worked in Spain a few weeks ago. In fact, I haven't found a country in which it didn't work so that list really should include all EU countries.

That's pretty good coverage for free and includes most of the countries where people typically go on business or holiday.
TheBigM
26-09-2011
This map should be up-to-date:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect....d_i=B002LVUWFE
Akane Tendo
26-09-2011
The browser is only very basic. You aren't going to be able to do a lot on it. That is why it is free. I think it was last year when they opened it up to UK users. I think they were having problems with carriers in Europe.

i've used it abroad with no issues. I can't see them charging for it, though I'm sure they will charge on the amazon tablets as you'll be able to do a lot more on them and eat up bandwidth.
johnny_t
26-09-2011
One thing I've noticed is that it comes loaded with a bunch of bookmarks for the full version of various websites so, for example, the BBC News bookmark goes to www.bbc.co.uk/news, and it doesn't look that good and is a pain to navigate.

Instead of using that, set yourself a new bookmark for the mobile version of the site (www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile) and the experience will be a lot better. Similarly for facebook and various other others....
tealady
26-09-2011
You are already paying a premium for 3G over the wifi version, so too good to be true is not that applicable.
Given the size of the documents, the actual data downlaoded is not big, so you would have to download an awful lot of books to break even.
As a browser it is pants, so you wouldn't download much data, so I would think they have done a calculation based on expected life span of the product v the cost of the data downloaded.
LostFool
26-09-2011
Originally Posted by tealady:
“You are already paying a premium for 3G over the wifi version, so too good to be true is not that applicable.
Given the size of the documents, the actual data downlaoded is not big, so you would have to download an awful lot of books to break even.
As a browser it is pants, so you wouldn't download much data, so I would think they have done a calculation based on expected life span of the product v the cost of the data downloaded.”

The price difference between the two models is £41. You don't have to be abroad for very long to run up that amount of data charges. When I'm overseas I know I can turn the data off on my phone as the Kindle is free. OK, the browsing experience isn't brilliant but for most purposes it's good enough.
tealady
27-09-2011
Originally Posted by LostFool:
“You don't have to be abroad for very long to run up that amount of data charges.”

You are equating the data charges you get as an individual with the charges Amazon have agreed with the mobile providers. I don't see they would be the same.
Plus I don't think the actual data transferred is that great given the web page restrictions or if you are using the mobile versions of the site (which any sane person will use).
Sure, if you keep your Kindle for 10plus years you will be up, but I don't think many of us will be using the model we currently have in 10 years time.
LostFool
27-09-2011
Originally Posted by tealady:
“You are equating the data charges you get as an individual with the charges Amazon have agreed with the mobile providers. I don't see they would be the same.”

I'm sure the deals that Amazon have are much much cheaper than you or I would pay. That wasn't my point.

I was just saying that on recent trips to Spain and the US, I used my Kindle regularly to check the news and sports updates (I'm a big cricket fan) from back home for free. I could have done that on my mobile but I would have incurred data roaming charges.

If you don't think that the 3G model is worth it then fair enough but for me it's a bargain.
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