ebook reader

[Strong Eagle]

You can thank the pirates and thieves for this. China notoriously ignores IP rights. Most other countries have a policy that is hardly enforced... first run DVD's from KL, anyone? A pox on thieves and pirates.

[Rocky140]

Great bit of kit - I've ordered mine. Yes it reads pretty much any text file and also ships with conversion software which allows you to turn any files which won't read into one's it will, or you could just create a .pdf and it will read those.

In answer to the issue about only being able to by books from Waterstones. Couldn't offer Amazon as they sell their own kindle, and Waterstones have arguably the best online digital depositary of anyone in the UK. In any event, the reader is compatible with the new open .epub standard of digital books which any bookstore could theoretically retail, so if and when other retails start selling books there is nothing to stop you buying them from another store.

[merichan]

oh and amazon starts to sell their kindle outside US... finally!!

could it mean that soon we will have access to amazon ebooks here... I hope so...

[Swiss Wife]

I saw a clip on the news about Kindle going on sale in Hong Kong. Maybe we will see it here sooner than I thought... thought I do think the sony one is the one i want........

[nakatago]

I saw a clip on the news about Kindle going on sale in Hong Kong. Maybe we will see it here sooner than I thought... thought I do think the sony one is the one i want........

Barnes and Noble has one too now (the Nook).
US only, though.

[Swiss Wife]

[jpatokal]

You can thank the pirates and thieves for this.

Actually they have little if anything to do with this, pirated bits can flit across borders easily enough. The real reason is that publishing rights are almost always sold on a per-country basis, and a publisher with rights to sell in US/Canada more often than not does not have worldwide rights.

The really braindead thing is that while Amazon can take a US-authorized copy of somebody else's physical book and ship it to you in Singapore, some lawyer somewhere has apparently decreed that they cannot do the same for an e-book, because the act of making an electronic copy is apparently considered publishing it overseas.

Just another case of laws designed for Gutenberg colliding with modern technology... and don't even get me started on ISBNs or print-on-demand book distribution

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks for the clarification, JP.

[nakatago]

Still a rumor, though.

Analyst: Apple tablet launching in spring to crush Kindle

Analyst Yair Reiner believes that Apple will release a tablet device this coming spring. According to his sources, the still mythical tablet could put a serious damper on Amazon's e-book plans by offering a better deal for publishers.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/12/analyst-apple-tablet-launching-in-spring-to-crush-kindle.ars

[durain]

here's another info about the apple tablet...

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/09/ana ... l-release/

me been using the thinkpad X41 tablet and now the lenovo X61 tablet. heavy with a 8-cell battery but do go the distance.

[nakatago]

I got me self an Archos Internet Media Tablet. Sure, it was buggy but subsequent firmware updates fixes them and the SW keeps improving. Waiting for them to push Android 2.0, though. The form factor, usability, utility and battery are quite nice.

I installed an ebook reader on the thing; though I haven't gotten around to reading a whole book, I think it's quite acceptable for reading, given that the thing is quite a multitasker. Will have it road/air tested once I go on my two-week holiday.

[mondaymorningquarterback]

I read you can download kindle contect via internet. Anyone using kindle in singapore? I have a US credit card but I would hate to have amazon deny me access to my kindle content because im in singapore.

[bobgosling]

There is a well know workaround for the inability to purchase e-book content from Amazon due to Geographical location. Simply buy an Amazon Gift Voucher and use that to purchase your book for download. Gift vouchers have no Geographical meta-data ( unlike Credit Cards which contain this information in the card number ).

There are also several reasonably priced online "PO Box" agents which will forward mail and parcels from the US to Singapore for only slightly more than the cost of postage. Remember to factor in GST and Duty as you will need to pay this on receipt of the goods !

[mondaymorningquarterback]

So its better to use Kindle as a US user travelling overseas than to be an overseas user?

[wls07]

For Kindle users (even non-int'l versions), you can simply download the book to your desktop, then port it over. This gets around the geographic issues. Just go into your digital library under your account and all the downloaded files will be stored there!