Kindle coming to the rest of the civilized world Oct. 19.

[Kageh]

According to this page, Kindle v2 is finally coming to the rest of the world. I own a Sony PRS-505 and am generally pleased with it, however the current availability of e-books in Europe is very meh so I've put mostly public domain and pdfs from the net on it. All this is suddenly going to change with the wide range of books you can buy for the Kindle on Amazon, and that's great news to me. They also seem to have nearly full 3G coverage of western europe, so you can use it pretty much anywhere.

[Xuri]

Full 3G coverage for western Europe now lets you use Kindle anywhere?

Anyhow, I want a Kindle. Or something like it, only better/different. I don't really like the screen-size of the Kindle - it's too small. And I don't like the screens-size of the DX version that's coming either - it's too big :P Meh

[Quinton]

I really like the kindle2 screen size -- about the size of a paperback book page.  I could live with a reduced or removed keyboard though.  What it really wants is a bit of a resolution bump (smoother fonts), a contrast bump (I have seen next-gen e-ink panels that are much more contrasty), and a page display time under 250ms (under 100ms would be awesome).

[Oban]

Kindle is currently not available in the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Charming, Canada is a semi-functional nation.

[rattran]

I hear it's a haven for t'r'r'sts.
I looked at both the kindle2 and the DX, the keyboard on the 2 seemed to take up way too much space.
I got the Kindle DX, but I prefer trade or hardback to paperback for reading, so it's closer to my preferred size. Also saved my butt yesterday being able to access my gmail account and get an order confirmation number for someone.

[Soln]

Kindle is currently not available in the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Charming, Canada is a semi-functional nation.

agreed-- you don't know how much this irony hurts me

[Big Gulp]

Kindle is currently not available in the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Charming, Canada is a semi-functional nation.

agreed-- you don't know how much this irony hurts me

Hey, New Zealand was in there too.  Stand strong with your third world brethren, Canucks and Kiwis!

[Jherad]

The international version might be missing some bits...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/07/kindle_uk/

In the USA the Kindle uses Sprint's CDMA network to host its Whispernet, but in the UK it's not clear which operator will be doing the heavy lifting for the GSM version. Whoever it is they haven't agreed to provide free carriage for web browsing or reading blogs, as Sprint does in the US, so those activities won't be available to those spending $279 on the UK-compatible version of the Kindle.

The Kindle International edition seems, based on the coverage maps provided by Amazon, to be using GSM technology only - so there are places in the USA where the Kindle will work, but the Kindle International won't. The UK coverage on offer closely maps to 3's network, though the operator tells us it hasn't signed a deal with Amazon.

[Oban]

Err... because that is not how GSM works.  There will be a single SIM card in the Kindle and that SIM will belong to a network.  Whoever that network has roaming agreements with, and whatever networks are not blocked, will be the transit method for data connectivity.   

I am pretty god damn sure it is an ATT SIM. 

[Trippy]

Connectivity: HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T's 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks outside of the U.S. See Wireless Terms and Conditions.

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Reading-Display-International-Generation/dp/B0015T963C

[Oban]

Yup, roaming with an ATT SIM.

[TripleDES]

I'd rather want a DX, unless they're introducing a Kindle 3 with slightly larger screen and higher resolution.

[Kageh]

Given how we're usually third rate citizens in Europe when it comes to gadgets from the US (not to mention Japan, but that is another story), I'm impressed we're getting it this fast. The connectivity issue was the major thing holding it back as far as I understood, and I imagine it not being an easy deal given how fragmented the EU carrier landscape is. I live in Austria, and for a couple million mobile users we have 5 major carriers with nation-wide 3G coverage and couple of virtual providers too.

Free wireless download of nearly all the Amazon.com books is also a huge thing for me. Until now I was confined to a couple thousand "current" bestseller books like the Twilight novels or Dan Brown. Heck, they didn't even have the Google/Sony PD books available in Europe for Sony customers, how dumb is that?

[Oban]

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/

Proxy + Nook = eBook happiness

[Trippy]

Does the Nook (what a stupid name) have a Web browser?

[Jherad]

That looks sexy. Runs Android, so you'd think it would...

[schild]

Looks about 900x better than the Kindle. That said, why would anyone think a web browser would be on it with AT&T giving free lifetime 3G to it? I'm pretty sure that's not how this works. They obviously get some kickback when a book is sold over 3G, why would they let people waste bandwidth?

[Jherad]

Yeah, I can see how that wouldn't make sense - just looks kinda similar to one of the other Android offerings lately though, which does come with a browser:

http://www.springdesign.com/resource/jsp/

(no mention of free 3g there though)

[Trippy]

Looks about 900x better than the Kindle. That said, why would anyone think a web browser would be on it with AT&T giving free lifetime 3G to it? I'm pretty sure that's not how this works. They obviously get some kickback when a book is sold over 3G, why would they let people waste bandwidth?

Cause it has Wi-Fi.

[Numtini]

That's a very very nice device.

[schild]

Looks about 900x better than the Kindle. That said, why would anyone think a web browser would be on it with AT&T giving free lifetime 3G to it? I'm pretty sure that's not how this works. They obviously get some kickback when a book is sold over 3G, why would they let people waste bandwidth?

Cause it has Wi-Fi.

My point still stands. They would then have to disable the browser when wifi wasn't on - that would piss people off even more. Not to mention there's no way it has memory/graphics capability at any speed necessary to render and store webpages or a processor capable of even dealing with half the internet.

[Trippy]

The Kindle has a Web browser.

[schild]

Does it work on the Sprint network? And is it even remotely decent?

[Trippy]

Does it work on the Sprint network?

Yes it does.

And is it even remotely decent?

Haven't tried it but probably only useful on text-centric Web pages (e.g. Google and Wikipedia).

[Numtini]

The kindle web browsing is pretty minimal. It will browse real web pages, it has a regular mode that is more like a phone browser and then an advanced or experimental mode that will show you full real web pages. It's painfully slow. It works great for something like the kindle store that's specifically optimized for it, but not much else. But I'd say the same about my blackberry--checking gmail or facebook on the blackberry apps is great, using the web browser to check them is pain incarnate.

The big feature on the nook is epub. B&N is going to switch to epub and it will eventually be the default format for their store and for the device. Epub is DRM'd, but it's an open format. You'll be able to shop elsewhere and put your books on the Nook and you'll be able to buy other devices and read B&N books on them. CORRECTION: The latest reviews seem to indicate that B&N is wrapping a proprietary DRM into epub, which pretty much negates this.

It also has an expansion slot that offers up to 16gig.

I thought the kindle was very safe in the marketplace, having become the generic term for ereaders. The ipod effect. This could very well be a kindle killer. If the 3g is open to Android apps and you can nab your gmail or check facebook, the kindle is toast.

[Viin]

No mention of a browser on the Nook fact sheet. But, it's Android, surely someone will hack a browser on no problem? However, with the slow refresh rate of the eInk screen I doubt it'd be that useful.

If they'd offer a 30 day money-back guarentee, I'd probably pick one of these up - getting people over the hump and *trying* an ebook reader is the biggest challenge right now.

When they come up with color eInk with twice as fast as current refresh, I'd be all over it - even for $500.

[Numtini]

The loan feature seems almost a bit of a bait and switch. You can loan a book. Yes. You can loan a book once and only once. And only if the publisher allows it. And only for 14 days. And from the kindle's text to speech feature, the general trend is that if something is optional publishers say no.

They originally planned for the wifi to only work in B&N stores, but now they're saying it might be open. It's a little unclear.

And the ebook store at B&N now is not their final ebook store. The final one won't even use the same format. So you can't really get a solid sense of what's really available at what price.

It really seems a bit of a premature announcement. I guess the pressure to get things out the door isn't limited to MMOs.

Oh, it's a 14 day return with 10% reshelf if opened.

[Samwise]

The main reason I buy a book rather than borrow it is usually so I can easily lend it or gift it to other people.  I can't see the point of buying an e-book if it's non-transferable.