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Kindle 3G RIP
ironjade
06-09-2013
My Kindle 3G fell off its perch a few days ago after continuous crashes and circular reboots. Amazon pronounced it dead at the scene but sold me a refurbished one, which arrived today at a decent discount so its not all bad news.
Sadly, the replacement is wi-fi only so no more free internet until the next gen 3G arrives in November.
I confess I felt lost without my favourite gadget. I gave up my mobile with no problem but being without the Kindle was like losing a limb.
dosanjh1
07-09-2013
Please accept my sincere condolances for your loss.
Orbitalzone
07-09-2013
Details on where to send flowers are on the front page
cunningham1471
07-09-2013
I didn't know they were releasing a new 3G Kindle in a few months. It did worry me that should my Kindle with 3G bite the dust I would have to get an wi-fi only one.

My main concern is the life of the betteries in the new Kindles. I have heard lots of bad things about the Kindle Fire having poor batterylife owing to it being HD and being able to do more than just being an e-book reader which is all I want it to be. I can do the internet, emails etc on my phone and tablet.

Should future Kindles turn out to have rubbish battery life because of all the unnecessary stuff that has been aded then that will be me walking away from Kindle to another e-book reader and if they all go that way I'll go back to hardcopy books again.
ironjade
07-09-2013
I think for just reading the Kindle Fire is overkill and I wouldn't bother with it.
3G is very handy and far better than crappy, unreliable and insecure wi-fi. With 3G I've bought books in the street, on stations and in bed, no logging in, no cost etc. Brilliant!
I may be wrong but I think the keyboard 3G Kindle is no longer in production.
cunningham1471
07-09-2013
Originally Posted by ironjade:
“I think for just reading the Kindle Fire is overkill and I wouldn't bother with it.
3G is very handy and far better than crappy, unreliable and insecure wi-fi. With 3G I've bought books in the street, on stations and in bed, no logging in, no cost etc. Brilliant!
I may be wrong but I think the keyboard 3G Kindle is no longer in production.”

Iink it is which is a shame. I hate touch screen, the scurge of the typos. Not everyone has fingertips the size of pinheads so can hit the buttons they want.
If in the future I have to put up with that, which I suspect I will, then OK, but I want decent battery life not a load of pointless apps and things I "can" do on the machine, but have no interest in doing.
kyllerbuzcut
07-09-2013
The Kindle Touch 3G is still available, and has free 3g everywhere.
My wife got one for her birthday, and I'm trying to decide if I want one. The one in the link is £70 at the moment. Do they ever get lower than that?
ironjade
07-09-2013
Originally Posted by kyllerbuzcut:
“The Kindle Touch 3G is still available, and has free 3g everywhere.
My wife got one for her birthday, and I'm trying to decide if I want one. The one in the link is £70 at the moment. Do they ever get lower than that?”

I can't imagine any gadget giving you free (albeit glacially slow) internet access for much less than that. Seems like a good deal.
My replacement was, like those in your link, also refurbished but doesn't appear to have anything wrong with it.
kyllerbuzcut
07-09-2013
Originally Posted by ironjade:
“I can't imagine any gadget giving you free (albeit glacially slow) internet access for much less than that. Seems like a good deal.
My replacement was, like those in your link, also refurbished but doesn't appear to have anything wrong with it.”

Thanks for the info

Yeah- the free 3g is a very interesting feature. Just ogtta know what I can do with it lol.
ironjade
07-09-2013
Originally Posted by kyllerbuzcut:
“Thanks for the info

Yeah- the free 3g is a very interesting feature. Just ogtta know what I can do with it lol.”

You can surf the net with it but it's very slow (except, oddly enough, when accessing the Kindle store) and obviously only gives black and white images. You can stop some page elements, e.g. pictures, from loading by using Article Mode to speed it up a bit.
It's handy and a lot less temperamental than wi-fi.
mred2000
08-09-2013
I got the paperwhite wifi about 6 weeks ago and love it. Absolutely no problems with the wifi connection on it at all, I can only assume wifi was worse on older units. No 3g but it's not a problem, I've never been that desperate to buy a book that I can't wait a while. I can add them to my wishlist via my mobile phone, anyway.
dosanjh1
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by mred2000:
“I got the paperwhite wifi about 6 weeks ago and love it. Absolutely no problems with the wifi connection on it at all, I can only assume wifi was worse on older units. No 3g but it's not a problem, I've never been that desperate to buy a book that I can't wait a while. I can add them to my wishlist via my mobile phone, anyway.”

Where did you get yours from? A new improved model was released last week, with faster page turns and more even light distribution across the screen

Check the firmware version of the model you have against what Amazon say is the latest firmware for the latest model and then return yours and get the new version.

edit: the new version was announced last week and will be available from 9 October, it can be pre ordered now.
LostFool
08-09-2013
The advantage of the original 3G Kindle wasn't that you could download a book on the beach but that the internet access was totally free worldwide (or at least in most countries where you are likely to go). OK, the browser was lousy but it was good enough for a quick check of the news headlines or football scores while on holiday. I've even used it to checkin online for a flight.
ironjade
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by LostFool:
“The advantage of the original 3G Kindle wasn't that you could download a book on the beach but that the internet access was totally free worldwide (or at least in most countries where you are likely to go). OK, the browser was lousy but it was good enough for a quick check of the news headlines or football scores while on holiday. I've even used it to checkin online for a flight.”

It also had a useful mp3 player but that too seems to have gone.
mred2000
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by dosanjh1:
“Where did you get yours from? A new improved model was released last week, with faster page turns and more even light distribution across the screen

Check the firmware version of the model you have against what Amazon say is the latest firmware for the latest model and then return yours and get the new version.

edit: the new version was announced last week and will be available from 9 October, it can be pre ordered now.”

I'm not fussed, the paperwhite I have is excellent and the page turns are certainly fast enough as it is. Light distribution is as I thought it would be, too. Technology is always being superceded.
Anika Hanson
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by ironjade:
“You can surf the net with it but it's very slow (except, oddly enough, when accessing the Kindle store) and obviously only gives black and white images. You can stop some page elements, e.g. pictures, from loading by using Article Mode to speed it up a bit.
It's handy and a lot less temperamental than wi-fi.”

I've never had any problems connecting any of my kindles to my home wifi. When I'm out on the rare occasion I want to buy a book a just tether it to my mobile phone and that works perfectly. I understand that a 3G kindle is important for a lot of people but I've never seen the need for it myself.
Anika Hanson
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by mred2000:
“I got the paperwhite wifi about 6 weeks ago and love it. Absolutely no problems with the wifi connection on it at all, I can only assume wifi was worse on older units. No 3g but it's not a problem, I've never been that desperate to buy a book that I can't wait a while. I can add them to my wishlist via my mobile phone, anyway.”

No it wasn't. At least for me it wasn't. I've never had any problems connecting my kindle keyboard or kindle to touch to various wifi connections.
mred2000
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by Anika Hanson:
“No it wasn't. At least for me it wasn't. I've never had any problems connecting my kindle keyboard or kindle to touch to various wifi connections.”

Gotcha. With comments like " crappy, unreliable and insecure wi-fi" I thought there might've been a general issue with older Kindles and wi-fi. Must've just been the OPs unit!
ironjade
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by mred2000:
“Gotcha. With comments like " crappy, unreliable and insecure wi-fi" I thought there might've been a general issue with older Kindles and wi-fi. Must've just been the OPs unit!”

I don't have wireless at home (or a mobile phone that still works) and had endless freezes and failures with wi-fi elsewhere. 3G was much better.
McDonald's wi-fi forced me to do a full reset because it locked up my Kindle so badly.
I'll have a go with the wi-fi Kindle next week when I'm out and then see how I fare when Virgin's Super Hub router finally arrives. I don't feel terribly confident but we shall see . . .
mred2000
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by ironjade:
“I don't have wireless at home (or a mobile phone that still works) and had endless freezes and failures with wi-fi elsewhere. 3G was much better.
McDonald's wi-fi forced me to do a full reset because it locked up my Kindle so badly.
I'll have a go with the wi-fi Kindle next week when I'm out and then see how I fare when Virgin's Super Hub router finally arrives. I don't feel terribly confident but we shall see . . . ”

Admittedly, public wifi access, IMHO, is generally crappy. I thought you were talking about issues with your Kindle's connection - you'd probably have issues connecting anything to a McDonalds wifi - I certainly do! (think how many people are rinsing a free wifi connection at any one time... all adds to a naff connection.)

There shouldn't be any problems whatsoever with your home Virgin wifi, when that's up and running. Why should there be?
ironjade
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by mred2000:
“Admittedly, public wifi access, IMHO, is generally crappy. I thought you were talking about issues with your Kindle's connection - you'd probably have issues connecting anything to a McDonalds wifi - I certainly do! (think how many people are rinsing a free wifi connection at any one time... all adds to a naff connection.)

There shouldn't be any problems whatsoever with your home Virgin wifi, when that's up and running. Why should there be?”

It's Virgin . . .
mred2000
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by ironjade:
“It's Virgin . . . ”

I have a few family and friends on Virgin. Certainly no problems with wifi whenever I've been around and connected to their routers. Internet connection and wifi connection are two different things that essentially help to provide the same service.
ironjade
08-09-2013
Originally Posted by mred2000:
“I have a few family and friends on Virgin. Certainly no problems with wifi whenever I've been around and connected to their routers. Internet connection and wifi connection are two different things that essentially help to provide the same service.”

I turned on my laptop the other day and got a message from Virgin saying something about upgrading the service and restarting my router (which I don't have) and nothing I did could get past it.
Their help desk seemed surprised that so many angry people were calling them; I was surpised they weren't all outside with torches and pitchforks.
ironjade
15-09-2013
The replacement, refurbished Kindle arrived and, apart from the lack of 3G, it's fine and seems to be a bit more robust than the keyboard version.
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