angiud Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 (edited) How you can see here, Amazon start to sell the new Ebook reader fro the 24th of February. I tried to order it, together with some accessories, by Amazon, but they they cannot delivery in Thailand (maybe for sale in the Usa only). Is there somebody more informed than me about this? If there is some grey-market dealer in Bkk. Or, if there is some Ebook specialized shop in Bkk where I can find Kindle, or Sony, or whatever, so I can read the hundreds of Ebooks I have and I don't like to read on my laptop. Thanks in advance for the inputs! Edited March 4, 2009 by angiud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angiud Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Somebody says to me about one shop on Panthip Plaza selling imported/grey market stuff like palm, gps and ebook readers. Do anybody know where is??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmInBgk Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 (edited) Jinke, manufacturer of ebooks, allows orders from Thailand: see www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/howtobuy.asp Current model is Hanlin v3: www.jinke.com.cn/Compagesql/English/embedpro/index.asp While most e-book formats are supported by the Hanlin (including recently mobipocket), it won't be able to read Kindle ebooks (unless they have no DRM, in that case it is a mobipocket format). There is no way to know before buying if an ebook has DRM or not. As far as I know, there is no easy way to remove the DRM. Plus as of now, you have to be owner of a real Kindle 1/2 to be able to buy Kindle books on amazon.com (this might change with the release of the iPhone Kindle application). And the limitation of sales to owners of a US Credit card with a billing address in the US will still be enforced. There is a dedicated Forum about the Hanlin: www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=101 (the same forum has a Kindle section too) and a technical description, with some photos, wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/HanLin_eBook Edited March 10, 2009 by jmInBgk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angiud Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 Thank for the input, very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmine6 Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 The Kindle is said to use the Sprint US network to download the books. That's a CDMA network, not GSM, so it might not work in Thailand. And even if it were compatible, it seems unlikely they'd allow roaming. So your best bet is some of the readers you can buy locally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 Last time I checked, amazon does not support downloading the books internationally. So why anyone would want to buy a kindle here is a mystery to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endure Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 When are they going to make a waterproof version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angiud Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share Posted March 11, 2009 Last time I checked, amazon does not support downloading the books internationally. So why anyone would want to buy a kindle here is a mystery to me. I download my books in a different way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaigreg Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 How you can see here, Amazon start to sell the new Ebook reader fro the 24th of February.I tried to order it, together with some accessories, by Amazon, but they they cannot delivery in Thailand (maybe for sale in the Usa only). Is there somebody more informed than me about this? If there is some grey-market dealer in Bkk. Or, if there is some Ebook specialized shop in Bkk where I can find Kindle, or Sony, or whatever, so I can read the hundreds of Ebooks I have and I don't like to read on my laptop. Thanks in advance for the inputs! Hi angiud, Take a look at a BeBook (http://mybebook.com/) took only a week from the day of order to the day of delivery. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 bhpphotovideo.com have the Sony 505 and 700 in stock. priced at $279.99 and $399.99 respectively. The sony 700 is a delight to use and bhp are a very reliable company to order from. Stuff I order from them arrives within 3-4 days of ordering to my door in BKK. Delivery is around US$60.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary A Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 (edited) When I bought my Garmin Nuvi 750, I received a coupon from Audible Books. They gave me two free books to try it out. I signed up for the club after trying it out. The cost is $22.95 a month for two books per month. I play a book when I am driving to kill the boredom. The Nuvi has an FM transmitter as well as an audio jack. The book downloads are slick and fast. They are much more compressed than MP3 and the sound is great. I have since learned that Audible supports many different devices. I now have a number of books on my Creative Zen and my Nokia phone as well as the Nuvi. Having these books will make a long flight easier to take. It takes about 15 hours to play a typical book and there are thousands of choices. http://www.audible.com Edited March 12, 2009 by Gary A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperwerks Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Neither the Kindle or Sony are available anywhere in Thailand nor will they be for many years if ever. I talked with the manager of the Sony store and he said it takes forever and is hugely expensive to get importation permission for a product like this. And since ebooks are mainly available in English why would they bother for Asain markets? Sony has zero plans to sell these in Asia (including Japan!) Forget about Pantip. I have been there and tried. These devices must be imported from the USA if you want one. Even availability in Europe in spotty. For example, the Sony 505 (the old model) was just introduced in Germany this week! No Kindles are sold anywhere in Europe! The best solution is to have a friend who is coming to thailand for a visit buy one in the USA and bring it to you. Throw out the box and packing materials and just bring it for you. Buying from a USA online dealer (but not Amazon because Amazon will not ship the Kindle outside USA and refuses to stock the Sony) is a solution but I am worried about the importation tax. This product is subject to import duties of up to 50-100% of cost (depending on the postman's need for cash etc) maybe the postman just delivers to you with no tax and you are lucky. But I am not feeling lucky when unlucky means $400 in import duty. The unknown tax is what has prevented me from purchasing and shipping. These things are expensive enough without piling on outrageous import duty. Very frustrating trying to aquire one of these............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 (edited) last week imported a HP Medismart Server with value of us$660 via ups from NY Store. Import vat duty paid 2200THB. (UPS not normal postal service) Also ordered $300 worth of items from macsales.com delivered via fedex 1300thb was the charge. would not worry about the import duty on the sony or kindle would expect about 1500thb-1700thb. my experience is you never get robbed with duty etc. if you use Fedex, UPS and DHL - simply because the courier has already paid the amount to customs and just claim it back from you. They will not pay the scam amounts. Edited March 12, 2009 by namoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 I have ordered a prs-700 today for delivery to BKK via UPS from BHphotovideo.com will let you know the charges on arrival in 3-5 days from now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momosan Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 (edited) I got my e-book reader a month ago. Mine is a rebranded version of the Hanlin V3 purchased from BeBook. If you buy the device direct from the manufacturer (Jinke) there is only one payment option which is direct money transfer through bank accounts. With Bebook they've got a lot more options including Paypal which is what I used. During purchase it auto-detected my currency as AUD and at the time the THB was pretty strong against it so I got the thing cheaper than it would have been if it had auto-detected and set it to EURO. They also sent it out using Fedex International Priority which got the the thing into my hands 3 days after I ordered it online. Fedex delivered right to my door and that's also when I had to pay the import tax which was 600ish baht. So all up the device put a hole in my wallet to the tune of about 11,000 baht. Also at the moment they have a referer program that knocks $25 off the price. On a technical note though. All e-readers use the same screen. The E-Ink display is a patented tech so all the screens are produced by one single company from one single factory. So it doesn't matter if it's a Kindle, Sony Reader, Hanlin V3, Cybook, Iiliad.... The screen is the same. What is different though between the devices can be the screen controller module which is basically the graphics card in these devices. Some will allow more levels of grayscale. The other differences will also be in the other hardware components such as cpu, internal memory... And here are now the reasons why I went with the BeBook: Good price/perfomance ratio. Open source firmware available (openinkpot). Takes standard SD cards. User replaceable battery (It's actually the same battery used in a lot of Nokia phones). Very good construction (Dropped it a few times already myself). Very good support of different file formats. I love the dam_n thing, worth every baht I've spent on it. Edited March 12, 2009 by rendler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmInBgk Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Today in the news: Amazon invoked the DMCA to force removal of a python script and instructions from the mobileread web site. The script is used to identify the Kindle's internal ID number, which can be used to enable non-Amazon purchased books to work on the Kindle. source: yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/12/1846224 (this has a lot of interesting links in the comments) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 (edited) Today in the news:Amazon invoked the DMCA to force removal of a python script and instructions from the mobileread web site. The script is used to identify the Kindle's internal ID number, which can be used to enable non-Amazon purchased books to work on the Kindle. source: yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/12/1846224 (this has a lot of interesting links in the comments) B*stards, Thats one advantage of going with the non amazon device. The sony book store has 67,000 books available which should be enough and of course the sony can view books from the many other ebook sellers. Also looks cooler if u you ask me and less geeky when you are reading it in your local coffee shop! Edited March 13, 2009 by namoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 My Sony PRS-700 arrived yesterday via ups. customs charge was 1452 baht dor duty vat, ups clearance fee. Excellent device very happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daxbr Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 In response to the posters above: 1. You can purchase Kindle from overseas using US issued credit/debit card and have it shipped to US address to be forwarded overseas. If you have only non US issued credit card, you need to purchase electronic Amazon gift card (no additional fee) and use it to purchase Kindle. 2. All Kindle books can be purchased with US issed credit cards and Amazon giftcards for download from anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 In addition to the above. I highly recommend this seller on ebay - who sells brand new unopened Kindle 2's. I bought one from him and got him to deliver it via fedex to Thailand ($50) and mark the customs value as $100. It arrived in 3 days and I paid customs 300THB. Ebay Kindle 2 Seller Also for ordering anything in the USA that requires US Postal address and US Credit card from online stores a combination of these 2 is unbeatable: www.entropay.com www.shipito.com ($8.50 charge per package and you choose the shipping method) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eff1n2ret Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 I got my e-book reader a month ago. Mine is a rebranded version of the Hanlin V3 purchased from BeBook. If you buy the device direct from the manufacturer (Jinke) there is only one payment option which is direct money transfer through bank accounts. With Bebook they've got a lot more options including Paypal which is what I used. During purchase it auto-detected my currency as AUD and at the time the THB was pretty strong against it so I got the thing cheaper than it would have been if it had auto-detected and set it to EURO. They also sent it out using Fedex International Priority which got the the thing into my hands 3 days after I ordered it online. Fedex delivered right to my door and that's also when I had to pay the import tax which was 600ish baht. So all up the device put a hole in my wallet to the tune of about 11,000 baht. Also at the moment they have a referer program that knocks $25 off the price. On a technical note though. All e-readers use the same screen. The E-Ink display is a patented tech so all the screens are produced by one single company from one single factory. So it doesn't matter if it's a Kindle, Sony Reader, Hanlin V3, Cybook, Iiliad.... The screen is the same. What is different though between the devices can be the screen controller module which is basically the graphics card in these devices. Some will allow more levels of grayscale. The other differences will also be in the other hardware components such as cpu, internal memory... And here are now the reasons why I went with the BeBook: Good price/perfomance ratio. Open source firmware available (openinkpot). Takes standard SD cards. User replaceable battery (It's actually the same battery used in a lot of Nokia phones). Very good construction (Dropped it a few times already myself). Very good support of different file formats. I love the dam_n thing, worth every baht I've spent on it. As a UK resident anticipating retirement to Thailand around the end of the year, I'm pretty much persuaded that the BeBook is the best buy. As far as I can see the Kindle is no use unless you have a US-based credit card, and while the Sony Reader is an excellent bit of kit, it only allows downloads in the UK from Waterstones, whose website is crap for finding the ebooks you want, and their prices are too high. Is anybody based in LOS buying downloads for the Sony Reader from anywhere else with a UK-based credit card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 You dont need a us credit card for kindle. Just use Amazon gift vouchers on the site or your UK credit card with Entropay above. The selection of books for the kindle is truly unbeatable I hear that they are already adding 200-300 books per day! I have the Sony PRS700 and find that I am now using my GF's Kindle 2 more than the Sony simply because of the book selection and ease of use on amazon.com. I prefer the Sony PRS700 as a reader as a whole but the Amazon selection just makes the Kindle the best at the moment I feel. And also the Newly announced this week Large Screen Kindle for Magazines, Newspapers looks great however not so sure about portability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungian Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 I heard that the Kindle is proprietary and can only read certain formats of ebooks, I don't know if that is true of the Kindle 2 or not but you may want to look into it. I have considered buying an ebook reader as I have over 500 ebooks however the cost is much to high for what they are and I have been content with my Palm that can read any format. I would suggest if you are dead set on getting a Kindle look on ebay, a lot of people are very unhappy with them and selling them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Kindle 2 supports the Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (through conversion) formats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungian Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 Kindle 2 supports the Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (through conversion) formats. Looks like that about covers it. When I ship from Amazon I generally send it to my fathers house in the USA and have him resend it to me, I bought a book for $6.00 which they charged me $6.50 to send from Philadelphia PA to Allentown PA (a whole 60 miles tops) which in turn my father shipped to me in Thailand for $8.00. Amazon was going to charge me $36.00 to send it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namoo Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 (edited) Kindle 2 supports the Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (through conversion) formats. Looks like that about covers it. When I ship from Amazon I generally send it to my fathers house in the USA and have him resend it to me, I bought a book for $6.00 which they charged me $6.50 to send from Philadelphia PA to Allentown PA (a whole 60 miles tops) which in turn my father shipped to me in Thailand for $8.00. Amazon was going to charge me $36.00 to send it! Reference shipping highly recommend a www.shipito.com account. You declare the customs value choose the shipping method and they only charge $8.50 per package. Also have a look at Amazon Prime. They offer a free Trial which will give you free shipping for 2 or 3 orders to a US address then you can simply cancel the Amazon Prime if you do not wish to continue. Edited May 8, 2009 by namoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angiud Posted May 8, 2009 Author Share Posted May 8, 2009 (edited) I got my Sony Prs 505 Ebook reader few days ago, from USA thru this site. It arrive in 6 days by ups (60 $) and I paid 800 baht custom fees. I download my italian books by a "special" site due the lack of real ebooks in italian language... Very happy with my new gadget! Edited May 8, 2009 by angiud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kindlethai Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Opening PDFs on the Kindle needs conversion, either from AMZ file conversion service or using third-party software utility. MobiPocket Creator (Windows) Lexcycle Stanza (Win & Mac) Just open the PDF file(s) that you want and save it in .azw or .mobi format. The conversion almost always causes text to reflow so don't expect the converted file to retain its original format. The new Kindle DX, however, natively supports PDF without needing a conversion. Size is pretty big though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDNinKS Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 It is very easy to convert PDF (or .doc and others) files to the Kindle (.azw) format. Simply email the file to "yourname"@ free.kindle.com and Amazon will convert the file to .azw and email it back to you.......all in about 2 minutes. It will come back to the email you have registered with Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scn Posted September 12, 2009 Share Posted September 12, 2009 Thank you all for the enlightenment about ebook readers... Thank you Mr. Namoo for the Store and Ordering information. Ordered a Sony Reader Touch Edition and awaiting its arrival. By the way please help me here any PDF which can be opened on my Computer without DRM Complaints would work the same way on these devices correct? Thank you SCN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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