International Kindle won't let you use terrible web browser overseas
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 14th 2009 2:22AM
posted Oct 14th 2009 2:22AM
posted Oct 14th 2009 2:22AM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
The whole 'International Kindle' thing is a total bodge job. I would have accepted it from a smaller company, but Amazon, who already has a very comprehensive warehouse and distribution system in place, should have been able to get a 'proper' one for each country. At the very least, they should be selling this in a currency other than US Dollars. $1.99 premium for international users too? No thanks.
I was so looking forward to the Kindle and they've ruined it.
While I would also like an international Kindle with local language content, the right plugs and no import duties, I know that setting up something like this is very difficult to do properly. I am happy that they are at least making it legally available now, even if it is not perfect.
Oh, and the $1.99 "roaming fee" is only for US customers. International customers do not pay it... We do have to pay local VAT or sales taxes, depending on the which location we declared on the user profile.
Oh no, we still have to pay it, it's just integrated into the price of the books.
WTF? US power plug? It's like they aren't even trying.
I'd just like to point out that the US Kindle AC adaptor is 110-240V, 50 or 60 Hz, so all they really need to do is throw in the right plug adaptor.
Canada can use US power plugs, and we have universal health care, I guess we're just the best aren't we. :D
Just aboot the best. I have a Zune HD, suckas.
You also have bagged milk.
except Canada still sucks...a lot.
Ayee?
Amazon will not ship the kindle to canada.
Why bother? not even an adapter?
This might be a much cooler alternative for many of us:
http://en.book-fair.com/fbf/programme/calendar_of_events/detail.aspx?a1850834-d682-44a4-9b98-1ff33a3bcb5c=a26fb5c1-d278-4ae2-9d8e-0d57e741f8f4
and
http://reader.txtr.com/
//Yellow
Wow, really?? They can keep their shitty-ass health care... JUST GIVE ME THE HD2!!!
Or you could just attach it into your computer (or any powered USB port) and charge it through that.
*waits for flame war regarding health care comment, and/or someone declaring that they will stop reading Engadget because it's "too political"*
*grabs popcorn* Don't let me down guys! :-P
Hehe, me too. Though I still can't quite understand how someone could NOT want universal healthcare and would rather pay huge amounts for medical insurance that doesn't really cover you. I've heard plenty of horror stories from our US relatives - our Canuck relatives on the other hand have no problem whatsoever :P
Tort reform would fix our healthcare system, and imposing jail sentences to people attempting to sue Dr.s for fraudulent reasons would be better then giving up the top 50% of our Dr.s who refuse to work for a government wage while paying off their 250,000 school bills.
I'm sorry, but taxing the hell out of retiree's and people who have healthcare who have worked their whole lives for it, is not a valid plan. Just because someone who's 55 has a million dollars in the bank, doesn't make them rich (unless you live in denial). Divide that out for 20 years for 2 people to live on, and it's not much of anything.... But they need to give up even more money to pay for someone else to have healthcare? Right....
The fundamental difference between the US and Canada/Europe is, Canadian/ European governments feel like they have the right to take from some, to give to someone else, our country was founded on just the opposite, those who can be successful are free to enjoy the rewards of it, every person gets what they put into it... The idea that the government has the right to tax me because I have healthcare to pay for someone who doesn't even contribute to the system to have it, is fundamentally flawed, at least with the structure of our Government. Since Europe/Canada have more socialist societies, it may well function just fine for them.
No big deal any PDA or phone with a touch screen can do a better job at doing everything the kindle dose once you've added and ebook reader, and browser safari, opera mobile, opera mini etc
Oh did I mention MOST PDA AND TOUCH SCREEN PHONES COME WITH COLOUR SCREENS, makin the kindle useless for everything.
For crying out loud, why won't this go away? It's E-INK. That means that NO PDA or phone with a touchscreen can do anywhere near as good a job. Go and USE one of these things before you propagate this bollox.
ocean seems to miss the point of the e-book concept, go easy on him
Looking forward to having one of these over here in Taiwan, since there really are no ebook alternatives here (even though many of these things are made over here...). Plus, we have universal health care... HA!
Kindle? Who are you??
Thanks but no thanks!
At best this is a niche product and at worst is a overpriced piece of plastic with a horrible gray scale display. An now they want to overcharge EU customers for it... lol keep it please!!
I'll stick to my iPhone ebook apps instead or I'll wait until the Apple tablet comes out and wipes the floor with the Kindle :)
And the Apple tablet will be able to play Duke Nukem Forever at the Year of Linux party, while running on fuel cells with a holographic display built by elves..
How many years has the Apple tablet been about to be released?
@Ocean Clak 34th:
Say "iTouch" to me not online and see what happens.
Another reason I don't like reading on these so call e-papers is that they are hard solid plastic. I like the feel of a magazine or a book which can be bent and twisted.
It feel far more natural and organic being able to flick quickly through pages. Yea sure an e-reader can carry many books and so on but how many books can you read at one time?
Unless you are going away for a while and don't want to carry loads of books with you in which case again my iPhone would do just fine...
Adding all the fees the international Kindle is nearly $ 360 for German customers.
Didn't engadget mention all of those things in it's original report? Slow newsday? Bad memory?
and $404 for the Dutchies, considering that still amounts to next to nothing compared to most E-readers over here..
(€249,- where the first half-decent reader goes for €299,-) I'm not one to complain.
Ok.. you'll probably still get what you pay for but it Does beat coughing up €600,- (~$840) for a decent Illiad ;)
I'll be reading the bible-sized list of exceptions that apply to our "universal" healthcare on it.
I'm an Aussie. When you're ordering a Kindle and say your country is AU, it has a link telling you that you must order a specific version. This version doesn't come with a US plug pack, it only comes with a USB charger cable. I'm surprised they didn't do this elsewhere.
That is completely ridiculous. How many of you have gotten electronic toys in the past few years that have universal, auto-switching adapters with pins that snap on/off with the relevant pin-out for your local AC outlet? It's obviously an easy and cheap solution for branding an electronic toy world-wide. Apple does it. Most UK-produced (well, "branded" ;-) ) electronics provide this for the "rest of the world's" benefit. Must add an extra $2 to the cost, if that!
Like someone else said, SHAME ON AMAZON for being so clueless.
O.T.: Canadians bash Americans, and Americans bash Canadians. If pressed as to why, few can actually answer. Yawn!!! Oh, and "bagged milk" has certain advantages: You only need to open 1 of 3 bags, as needed, keeping the rest fresh and it fits better in your fridge, and takes up less room in your trash than a carton, and doesn't puncture your plastic bags when carrying it home from the store. On the downside, you need a "snipper" handy to open one. I'm surprised they're only found in Canada, to be honest.
@David
Israel's got bagged milk, too.
@DT
My girlfriend's got bagged milk, too.
Not only don't you get a plug, you can't order half the books on the store as they are USA sales restricted. What a wast of time.
Waiting for the international Kindle I ordered last week from Switzerland.
I paid $120 import duties deposit, but given that our VAT here is 7.6%, I am seriously expecting most of the deposit to be reimbursed, otherwise I'd call it a scam.
Waiting for the EnergySistem effort. http://www.energysistem.com/es-es/web/e-book
Totally agree w/ Oxyrt23409. Leave the sh*tty health care, bring the HTC HD2!
And for anyone complaining about Engadget being "too political", it's a blog, not a news outlet. While I may not (and in this case, do not) agree with the writers' political views, I'm reading for the tech info. Unless you're on the fence, or incredibly weak-willed, you're not going to change your political views based on comments from a 20-something geek on a tech blog. And if you are that type, you can't afford internet access anyway, having already sent your life savings to a Nigerian "lawyer" who needs you to pay government fees so his client can get millions of dollars in inheritance and share it with you.
Id rather just buy a book.
As a Mac user the ebook reader options that are compatible with a mac are limited so I have been waiting for ages for the Kindle to get to the UK. In an ideal world a UK plug, content etc would be nice but I am prepared to take these small sacrifices. Order already placed and can't wait to get my hands on the Kindle next week and start reading.
EU'ians don't 'get' universal health-care, they pay dearly for it with huge taxes, or perhaps I should put it thusly: they pay so much taxes that universal healthcare is the very least they should get in return.
At least we don't have to worry about losing our healthcare when we want to change jobs.
On topic: 'International Kindle' is currently a joke, but Amazon more or less admitted that in their original press release. The only thing that really surprised me was that its jokiness wasn't more widely reported at the time. They say they're going to do it properly at some point in the future, so... buy a Sony eReader instead?
Here in Brazil the international Kindle will be shipped for double the price. The deposit fees are actually 282 (or so) dollars, so it's more expensive than the unit itself.
I just came across this unbelievably nonsensical, albeit funny, comment by a journalist on Kindle. The article was published in today's Hindustan Times (New Delhi Edition, page 12, 21.10.09). This is the very first time that I came across an article in the Indian press mentioning Kindle's international launch. I am particularly hurt ;) since my Kindle International is on its way and I was hoping that some constructive criticism or praise would start appearing in the local media. Read it to believe it!
"How one instrument could kindle desires
by Nandini R. Iyer
My first reaction when I heard that the Kindle reader is now available in India was that for many women here, the electronic reading device would open up the doors to erotica. For many desi ladies, buying a Nancy Friday or the copy of Hustler letters is too risky an affair. Some say the Internet provides a window. Really? Most people aren't tech-savvy enough to figure out their privacy settings. Computers are shared by the entire family and rarely do women of the house opt for separate user IDs on their home computers.
So imagine the poor girl, furtively typing in a few erotica search slugs in Google and wondering whether she should be just happy seeing the search results. And most of the time that she should have spent
in furtive enjoyment goes into worrying about whether it's okay to put the phone on silent, on whether husband (or in-laws and children) will suddenly walk in.
On the rare occasion she actually gets into a pornographic site or an adult chat room, she squints at those tiny photos that are supposed to serve as bait and wonders whether it could be an ISI spybot
that will actually download a virus into the system. Imagine having to explain to hubby, friends and relatives that your desperation for porn (horror of horrors!) was what made your computer crash.
The furtive erotic experience ends with a ritual cleansing: cookies cleared, caches cleared, history cleared - `Oops! Was that a password I just deleted?' Since an overwhelmingly large number of Indian men don't read and probably prefer a PlayStation 3 to a Kindle, women might well find that their erotica is safe in the happy confines of a Kindle. A close friend suggests loading three or four books including, but not restricted to, Hitler's Mein Kampf just to throw nosey parkers off their trail about my real Kindle reading preferences.
Kindle, I hope, will help women go where no woman has comfortably gone before.
nandiniriyer@hindustantimes.com"
dear VKN
Hi,
This is Nandini R Iyer of the Hindustan Times. I'm quite surprised that you would dismiss as "nonsense" (u've used nonsensical in this particular post), an issue that genuinely affects thousands of Indian women. You may not need your kindle to access pornography, but I'm sure you'd be democratic enough to recognise the needs of those who do need it for that purpose. To set the record straight, you're clearly not reading enough. My piece appeared 15 days after "constructive criticism", several negative news reports, several how-to-use kindle pieces appeared in most national newspapers and magazines.
I wish you all the best.