I've just procured myself an Amazon Kindle 2, and seeing how I'm still tuned to the American time after the last trip, might as well write a review on how the Amazon Kindle 2, and possibly clear the air of the myth and possible misinformation on the the unit itself.





1. The device is priced at USD359 and ships free within USA if can wait the shipping period of 3 days. For my stay, I had to rush it to overnight, for an additional USD20, raking up the price to USD379. The unit comes with a Quick-guide manual, a USA two-prong charger head that allows the provided USB cable to charge the device. Charge port is at the bottom of the unit.

2. I've also added this to my purchase:-



which reflects the item it holds inside nicely with that Amazon Kindle logo outside the cover.

3. The process of which to register and start using your Kindle 2, particularly for usage OUTSIDE the coverage of Sprint's EVDO/3G Whispernet feature is pretty tricky. At first boot up of the device, while within coverage of Whispernet, you are offered to register your Kindle 2 wirelessly via Whispernet. This allows coupling of your Kindle 2 to a particular email address which holds an Amazon account. For American users, this account should hold no problems whatsoever since purchase of electronic books via Amazon requires a valid American-based credit card with validated US address to that particular credit card. There are several options to bypass this, one such option is to get a prepaid or virtual credit card with address based in the US, and topping up credit into that card using Malaysian credit card. This is tedious and heavily dependant on the third-party service provider doing the credit top-up to that account, which may incur additional charges.

4. A simpler way to alleviate problem mentioned in #3 is registering your Kindle 2 as if it is outside wireless coverage. But first you need to prepare a couple of things.

i) Register an email account that is devoid of any geographical markings/indications. This is usually marked by ***@yahoo.co.jp or similar, which marks geographical region. Tying your Kindle to an Amazon account linked to an email such as this will automatically disable your ability to purchase or download free books onto your Kindle 2. In my case, I used a freshly-made Gmail.com account, which is registered under US as the region when asked..

ii) You will also need two Amazon accounts. One is used to purchase Amazon gift cards, while the other is the receiving end of that gift card. For the Amazon account used to purchase the Gift cards, you can go ahead and register with Amazon, your Malaysian credit card. Let's name this Amazon Account A. Go through the registering process, which will tie up an email address to this Amazon account, Account A. Once that is done, register a second account, let's name this Amazon Account B. For Account B, use that freshly-made account from step i), and during registration, on ANY OCCASION when the registering process prompts for a geographical location, make sure you use a VALID US address. Google if you need to.

iii)Use Account A to purchase an Amazon Gift Card and when asked, emailed it either to yourself, or to the email attached to Amazon Account B. The only thing you need to make sure is that you need to make sure you can properly access the mailbox of that email address(es) so that you can retrieve the Gift Card code so that you can redeem them.

iv)Once you have retrieve the code, apply and redeem it on Account B, by logging into Account B, click "Your Account", and under "Payment" section, click "Apple Gift Certificate/Card to Your Account". Make sure the credit is redeem in by clicking "Your Account" and under the "Payment" section, click "View Gift Certificate/Card Balance".

v)Register your Kindle ONLINE by going to the "Digital Content" section in the "Your Account", and click "Manage your Kindle". Check at the back of your Kindle, and enter your Kindle's serial number to register.Make sure your Kindle is registered to Account B, not A. If you do make that mistake, you can click "Deregister" and rectify the situation. Under this section, will also appear the iPhone[s] and iPod Touch[es] registered to Account B. You can use your iPhone or iPod Touch to download and read your Kindle electronic material by downloading the "Kindle for iPhone" app from Apple's Appstore and registering your iPhone/iPod Touch to Account B. Your iPhone/iPod Touch will then sync with Account B and all its purchased content, and you will be able to download your Kindle-purchased content to these devices as well! This is useful when you dont have your Kindle with you and want to continue on reading your favourite books on these secondary devices. Bear in mind though, reading on iPhones or iPod Touches will result on eye-strain after prolonged period of time. The Kindle is designed to mimic book pages with its electronic ink and eliminate this problem of eye-strain.

vi) Log into your Account B. Set up the 1-Click Payment Method, by entering your credit card details(credit card number, expiry date, CVV/CVV2 number), BUT use the same US address you have used to create Amazon Account B. What happens here is , because you have applied and credit the Gift card purchased from Account A into Account B, Amazon will not attempt to authorize the card until your Gift Card credit has depleted. So always keep your account credit above ZERO and you will be fine. The minimum amount of Gift card credit available for purchase from Amazon is USD5.

vii)Go ahead and purchase your first Kindle book. Since you are outside of the wireless Whispernet coverage, once you click the "Buy Now with 1-Click" button, your purchase will go into your digital locker. Under "Your Account"/ "Manage Your Kindle", scroll down to the "Your Order" list, and your Kindle Book will be listed there. Click on the "+" sign next to the title to expand it, and under the "No Wireless Coverage?" will the "Download to Computer" button. Click that, and once the download is complete, plug in your Kindle using the USB cable that comes with it, to the computer and drag-and-drop the downloaded file (in .azw format) into the "Document" folder on your Kindle. You can also download Mobipocket and/or .prc ebooks wherever you can find them (I got mine from www.feedbooks.com/mobile) and drag-and-drop them into the same "Document" folder as well. Once you have unplugged your Kindle from your computer, your Kindle will auto-refresh and your books will come listed as "New!" in the "Home" screen.

Voila! The key here is to make sure that Account B is devoid of any indication or address that points towards location outside of the USA, be it the email address registered to it (hence step i)), or the address used for the payment of the Kindle books (hence step ii)).

Besides its primary function as an excellent e-reader, Kindle 2 now also comes with Text-to-Speech, on supported Kindle books. Don't be mistaken, the Text-to-Speech is not dull or robotic, it mimics human speech and is very pleasant. Simply plug into a regular headphone/earbuds into your Kindle 2 and enjoy.

The Kindle 2 also able to play MP3s (non-DRM only) and surf the web, but web-surfing is strictly on the Whispernet network, hence therefore not available in Malaysia. But before you go ahead and start transferring your MP3s into your Kindle 2, bear in mind that Kindle 2 only holds 2GB of storage space, 1.4GB made available for the end user.

Also, since this process I have described also allots credit into your account, you can now buy other digital content on the Amazon, such as DRM-free high-bitrate MP3s or whole albums off Amazon! This nice side-effect allows you to purchase music off Amazon, which is priced at much cheaper pricetag compared to similarly tagged music off Apple's iTunes. Only please remember to keep your credit above ZERO, otherwise Amazon will start authorizing your credit card details on Account B and complicates things later.

Other than that, enjoy! I have been having tons of fun with my Kindle 2, and I bring it everywhere with me now. It is an excellent companion, and a great way (for me at least) to recapture my long lost love for reading. Kindle books are also priced WAAAAAAYYYYYY cheaper than the actual physical copy, and you are also doing your bit in helping the environment and greening your routine. IF you are hesitant, or am not sure what selections are available on the Amazon Kindle Store, check out what's available for your perusal here. PDF-reading is also available, there are two methods, free and 10-cents-per-transfer method. If anyone wants me to elaborate on that, I shall post that later, otherwise I believe Kindle book reading alone will eat a lot of your time, for the reading junkies among us.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Jun 5 2009, 06:07 AM

Something like that. Only that when you convert and place them inside the Kindle, the page alignment and words don't get jumbled up (two words joined as one, weird punctuation marks, etc), plusyou feel warmer inside for supporting your favourite author.

A lot of the classics are tagged as Free on the Amazon Kindle store, numbering over 7,000 titles. ZERO dollars to get them downloaded into your Kindle. There are other LEGAL WAYS to get your books FREE as well, without resorting to pirated PDFs.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Jun 8 2009, 01:51 AM

Kindle can read Epub and Mobipocket files as well. Kindle 2 does read PDF, but not natively. you can either:-

1. Mail it back to Amazon, and they will email you back the document formatted back in .azw format.

OR

2. Use conversion apps to convert it to ePub or .Mobi files. On the Mac, I use Calibre.

Sorry late reply. I was busy in another section of the forum.

Unfortunately yes, you need an American shipping address to get the Kindle shipped to. Or you could use a mail-forwarding system to forward the Kindle package to an American address and mail-forward it to your address here. Or you could use services like VPost and the like to get it shipped here. Google these items up.

No problems so far. I dont read Chinese.

What Amazon taketh, Australia giveth back again.

Trivial issue to me. Just a matter of flip-flopping by the publisher, most definitely for opportunities of milking the book's licensing further.

And oh, from the definition of "kill switch":-



This scenario is FAR from that definition. I don't see my Kindle shutting down just because a publisher decides to pull their book off the Kindle circulation. And the advantage of operating the Kindle OUTSIDE the States, Amazon could not reach into my Kindle and erase my purchased "1984". Simply turn off "Wireless" and do it via Digital Locker. If you're paranoid much, then copy it off for safe-keeping elsewhere and sync it back in. Even better, use Amazon's own loophole, email it back to your Kindle email box, and get Amazon to re-email "1984" back to you, with everything intact, but now it is classified as your own personal document, that would not even be touched by Amazon.

The key here is to UNDERSTAND how the system works. Fear escalates only among the uninformed.

Amazon is now opening up predorder for the International Wireless version of the Kindle. Kindle for US is further price-slashed to USD259, which is without "international wireless". The new International Wireless version is priced at USD279.

What does all this means? This means that you can use the International Wireless version in "more than 100 countries worldwide" since it employs the usage of GSM network, tied to AT&T's roaming partners to these countries. The charges are still "free" inside continental US, but every book downloaded internationally via the international wireless provided by roaming partners of AT&T is charged USD1.99 per book/periodicals.

What does this means to those on the fence here in Malaysia? I've checked to see whether Amazon ships to Malaysia, and they still dont. The closest country is Australia. The allure of using the Whispernet download service internationally is not there for me, since they added the additional USD1.99 charge per book download everytime a book is downloaded wirelessly outside US. I think I'll stick to purchasing the books and download them from Amazon's Digital Locker.

For newcomers, it is an option though. It is just not enough an incentive to upgrade for roaming travellers like me.

Native, no. Only the DX does that. Emailing yourself back the PDF or transferring the PDF via USB subjects it to the arrangement made by the Kindle to make it fit.

they are not complicated. If you want it in a simpler term, make two accounts, one to fed the credit, the other to purchase the books. Purchased books are loaded into a virtual location where you can download them into your Kindle. Simple.

The new development of international roaming, does not come without its price. Even if it does come to Malaysia, every book downloaded now comes with additional USD1.99 per download. That inflates the price, to some, enough to warrant discounting the attractiveness of buying e-book edition and go straight for paperbacks.

Amazon took its own sweet time opening up international roaming for Kindle. Three years. IIANM. That is also part of because the added pressure from other players in the market (Sony, Barnes & Nobles' Plastic Logic e-reader, etc). Tying up a deal with a local telco for Whispernet is as expeditious as how the iPhone makes its way to Malaysia: snail-pacingly slow. If you are just dealing with Whispernet, the alternative service, called Whispersync, available on the iPhone is available for free, which turns the iPhone into an e-book reader as well. It syncs all your Amazon e-book purchase to your iPhone. Problem is, to me at least, is the iPhone screen is not favourable for extended reading period.

Read my post above. Amazon dont operate on a predicatable timetable when it comes to international releases.

If it is registered to your account, log into your Amazon account. Click on "Your Account" link on the top right, and click "Manage Your Kindle" once you are on that page.

If your Kindle is registered to this account, there will the name of the Kindle on the first table you see on that page, and a "Deregister" link. Click on that link to deregister the Kindle off this account.

LOG OFF this account, and log into the account you want to register your Kindle with. The same procedure again, click "Your Account" and "Manage Your Kindle", and you will come to the page where there is a window to enter a 16-digit serial number for your Kindle. Follow your instruction manual on where to find this serial number. Once this is done, the Kindle will be registered to this account. All you need to do now is to test it out to see if the account for downloading your Kindle books.

At the top, the "Search" window should already have "Kindle Books" as the preselected search parameter. Do a search or browse through the Kindle catalogue for a free Kindle book to download. Click to purchase. There had been conflicting stories of some users being able to use the "1-Click" feature to immediately purchase free Kindle books, while others are saying that you need to top up credit into the account and make your first purchase first before you can use the "1-Click" purchase to even buy free Kindle books. Test it out to see if your "1-Click" purchase works, otherwise, you may have to top up your credit to make your first purchase. USD10 should be enough, and I recommend Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" for USD9.90 if you're thinking of a particular book.

Do this, and click "Manage Your Kindle" again. Scroll down to the bottom to see the list of purchase you have made under "Your Order". Under each title, there is a dropdown menu that allows you to deliver to any of the registered devices that is tied to this account, or transfer them to your computer. I have 4 devices registered to my account, my Kindle 2 and my iPhone and 2 iPod Touches. For iPhone and iPod Touch, they are delivered via Whispersync wireless through the native app on the iPhone/iPod Touch. You need to register these devices first to the account you want to sync to. But in your case, choose "Transfer to Computer". A download will begin, and you can then drag-and-drop the .AZW file into your Kindle 2, connected via USB. Your Kindle will appear as a storage device on your computer.

The credit will be delivered in the form of redeem code into your Account B's email address. It should only take less than 2 hours to arrive, sometimes instantaneous.

The credit will not appear as credit in Account B until it is redeemed into it. Think of it as your prepaid code for your cellphone.

For me my choice is largely swayed by the content provider. At the time of this post, only Amazon has a coherent distribution system. The rest rely on the user end to find ways to provide content for their readers.

Don't get me wrong. I am orgasmic for Plastic Logic reader. I just hope that Barnes & Nobles distribution system is as awesome as their reader.

Thanks to Shaft for helping out Dzul. Enjoy your Kindle, Dzul, I know I am enjoying every minute of mine. 354 books and counting. Reading "Altered Carbon" by Richard Morgan now. Very cyberpunkish.

Annown, the Amazon Kindle you are referring to, is currently only shipping in the States. The only difference now is that instead of the old Sprint Whispernet network, it uses AT&T now, with international roaming. Not a good deal because every book downloads incur a USD1.99 additional charge. You will need someone to pick up the Kindle over on an American address, and ship it out to you to Malaysia.

It works on any Kindle, as long as the procedure ties the Kindle to an Amazon account.

Lately, Amazon have been implementing geographic IP check for purchasing ebooks off their Kindle Store. This is again, easily bypassed by using US-based proxies or VPN. I used Anchorfree Hotspot Shield to spoof an American US IP while doing the purchase, and it went through.