Buying A Kindle In Chiang Mai?

[PoodMaiDai]

You can download books here in Thailand (and magazines, and mp3) to Windows and Android, using Kindle apps. Also store to cloud and read via wifi or 3G if your device accepts 3G.

But then you're not reading on a reading device, though some suggest using computers and tabs for periodicals with color, or Fire.

I have a vpn, too, but am not interested in Fire. It's plain reading Kindle I like.

What kind of battery life do you get on your plain Kindle?

[highonthai]

I have over 1000 Ebooks/Kindle and pdf books. I'm willing to let someone read.

[CMX]

Battery life,

I've never carefully measured, but Amazon claims 15 hours of reading at the pace of 30 minutes per day for a month (with wi-fi turned off) in their cheapest model.

I've no reason to doubt it, although with a good book going, I've had to plug in after a few days. Can read while charging.

Nobody's mentioned it (as it's obvious, I suppose), but the device, when purchased in the States, with its own small wall charger, is OK here with the big volts.

Edited May 8, 2012 by CMX

[VerbalKint]

Battery life is amazing, I use it for about an hour every day, and charge it not more than once every month.

I have the wifi-only version and only turn on wifi when I buy books.

The reason for me to buy it was that I got frustrated with the fact that so many books are not available here in Thailand, the added bonus is that ebooks are simply cheaper, and after buying they are ready to read in a minute or so.

The only negative I found is that organising your books on it is annoying, I use Calibre (freeware) for that but some software with an iTunes like interface would be good, if anyone has better software...

[highonthai]

All the books I have, I just drag and drop to the Kindle.

Keep all of them in a folder on my hard drive.

I hate itunes and refuse to use it!

[WinnieTheKhwai]

All the books I have, I just drag and drop to the Kindle.

Careful with that advice; my mom killed her first Kindle that way.

Put the thing on the floor and dropped Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" right the *(#& on top of it.

[TravelTeach]

I'm only wanting this for reading. I figure a Kindle will be cheaper than continuing to have books shipped to me that I can't find in Thailand.

You are correct. It's like making the move from having CDs shipped over, to all of a sudden discovering MP3s.

[CMX]

All the books I have, I just drag and drop to the Kindle.

Careful with that advice; my mom killed her first Kindle that way.

Put the thing on the floor and dropped Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" right the *(#& on top of it.

Baudolino does the same thing, but it takes a lot longer.

Actually, my Kindle, which I foolishly buried in my checked baggage, was not somewhat safe behind a lock, because U.S.Aians in uniforms won't let us lock them and make a big fuss if we do. Somehow, that reader - filled with good friends - lost its way home via BKK, Narita, and home (where the bag appeared early). My advice - even though 'they' might hassle you, carry the Kindle with your person. Only had 1:10 at Narita, too, but those chaps are quick. Or, hmm.

[uptheos]

I use my kindle all the time when I am offshore. I have over 7500 books on my computer which I transfer a selection of to my kindle before I go away.

If you buy one though, get a decent case for it as well.

Well, that should keep you going until you're about 300 years old......agree that a case would be essential for that amount of time.

Edited May 9, 2012 by uptheos

[PoodMaiDai]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

[TommoPhysicist]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

You don't need a charger, assuming you have a USB socket somewhere in your household.

(I can't believe anyone in this day and age doesn't have one)

Edited May 9, 2012 by TommoPhysicist

[CMX]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

If you get the Kindle (Amazon) power adapter now, it's 10 dollars with the purchase of the Touch. It charges up your Kindle in 4 hours. If you're going to be away from a computer and a USB connection for some while (fifteen hours of reading, let's say), you might want the adapter.

As mentioned above in #33, the small device is good for our voltages here (up to 240) and its U.S. style prongs fit here in Thailand.

There is a ton of info on the Amazon Kindle site, some videos too as I recall.

[jingjoke]

'... I'm looking at the Kindle Touch....'

Excellent choice; so now go for it and proudly report back when you receive and have tested it.

Good luck

[ThailandInvestmentGuide]

The OP sounds like he's well on the way to choosing an e-reader.

For others who are reading this thread though ... who may not want to buy an e-reader just yet, or who are slowly deciding, but want to download and read a Kindle e-book sooner rather than later ... well, you can download a free Kindle e-book reader that will let you read kindle books on your desktop or laptop. You can probably find a download link just by googling "Kindle for PC", or I have a link near the bottom of this page: www.burning-bison.com/ebook.htm

[mallmagician]

It should be noted that there is talk of Amazon releasing a kindle with an inbuilt light, to illuminate the page when reading at night. That would suit me great, as I usually read in bed, but it's worth considering waiting if it would also suit you.

Of course, you could also buy their lighted cover which is very nice.

[amexpat]

The OP sounds like he's well on the way to choosing an e-reader.

For others who are reading this thread though ... who may not want to buy an e-reader just yet, or who are slowly deciding, but want to download and read a Kindle e-book sooner rather than later ... well, you can download a free Kindle e-book reader that will let you read kindle books on your desktop or laptop. You can probably find a download link just by googling "Kindle for PC", or I have a link near the bottom of this page: www.burning-bison.com/ebook.htm

Thanks but it is not the same experience at all. I bought a Kindle because I hate to read on a computer for any length of time. The Kindle is NOT backlit and it has a soothing background with adjustable font sizes, orientation, spacing.

Just get one. Have you ever heard of anyone who regretted it?

[sharktooth]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

If you get the Kindle (Amazon) power adapter now, it's 10 dollars with the purchase of the Touch. It charges up your Kindle in 4 hours. If you're going to be away from a computer and a USB connection for some while (fifteen hours of reading, let's say), you might want the adapter.

As mentioned above in #33, the small device is good for our voltages here (up to 240) and its U.S. style prongs fit here in Thailand.

There is a ton of info on the Amazon Kindle site, some videos too as I recall.

I normally just plug mine into the usb slot on my iPhone charger

[hellodolly]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

Not 100% sure but I believe the cheaper Kindle comes with advertisements on it.

[harrry]

Guys, I'm looking at the Kindle Touch on Amazon ($99) and see it does not come with a charger, however, they offer a USA charger as an add on.

What charger did you get with yours? I know I can use my USA bought electronics here, but not sure if this charger is correct or not.

Thank you.

Not 100% sure but I believe the cheaper Kindle comes with advertisements on it.

They have a cheap version which is subsidised by ads and is not available to be sent here.

Edited May 11, 2012 by harrry

[mcgriffith]

Not 100% sure but I believe the cheaper Kindle comes with advertisements on it.

They have a cheap version which is subsidised by ads and is not available to be sent here.

Correct. The $79 version is US only, with advertising as the screensaver.

The least expensive model available new from Amazon for international sales is the model I bought, which is $109 ++.

It is slightly different in that aside from the screensaver issue, it supports 5 languages- English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

[masuk]

I bought a 'normal' Kindle in Australia, and it came with cables, charging plugs and a DVD with a couple of 1000 of the good old classics, novels, biographies, such as Kipling, Stevenson, CS Lewis, Mark Twain, A Clarke and on and on.. These are also obtainable from Gutenberg on the internet.

I pre-loaded mine with 1300 books, and have 1280 to go!

New books from Amazon are sometimes free, sometimes 99cents and my most recent book, a best seller, was $9.90.

[Rinrada]

Bought mines at Heathrow airport about 2 years ago for about 128 quid and going strong.

In Bangkok easy instant downloads with 3 g while up in Chiang Mai I can usually get them with edge.

Just finished another Vinnie Calvino but would probably be easier just to go to his bar in Washington sq...oops now its gone...

[StevieH]

anybody know of a tech specialist in chiang mai who can repair / troubleshoot kindles as yet please? mine's gone haywire today and it's immensely annoying.

[harrry]

anybody know of a tech specialist in chiang mai who can repair / troubleshoot kindles as yet please? mine's gone haywire today and it's immensely annoying.

I do not know anyone who can repair but have you tried turning it right off then on again.. To turn it right off move the off switch to off and hold it for about 5 seconds before releasing.

If your kindle is under warantee and you had it delivered here from amazon they will send you a new one and you just have to pay to send the old one back to them or destroy it if they ask you to do that.

If it is out of warantee they will replace it for about half price.

Edited October 2, 2012 by harrry

[sante]

Some comments on Amazon's excellent customer service:

I bought my Kindle, the least expensive model with advertisements, while still living in California and about 2 months before the warranty ended, the screen froze. I almost didn't call Amazon for a replacement, figuring they wouldn't ship to Thailand. But when I explained my relocation, customer service sent a new Kindle to Chiang Mai via DHL absolutely free--no import taxes--and I was able to download a shipping label for the damaged Kindle and drop off the package at Fedex. The entire process was cost free to me. And the new Kindle sent was the more expensive model without ads. So, it's probably a good idea to buy a Kindle directly from Amazon, just in case there are future problems.

[hellodolly]

Some comments on Amazon's excellent customer service:

I bought my Kindle, the least expensive model with advertisements, while still living in California and about 2 months before the warranty ended, the screen froze. I almost didn't call Amazon for a replacement, figuring they wouldn't ship to Thailand. But when I explained my relocation, customer service sent a new Kindle to Chiang Mai via DHL absolutely free--no import taxes--and I was able to download a shipping label for the damaged Kindle and drop off the package at Fedex. The entire process was cost free to me. And the new Kindle sent was the more expensive model without ads. So, it's probably a good idea to buy a Kindle directly from Amazon, just in case there are future problems.

Agreed A friend of mine bought his from Amazon and had it delivered here a year ago. I think he went through the English branch of Amazon. To the best of my knowledge Amazon stands behind their product. It is a good quality product and there is not enough of them having problems to have to make it difficult. Besides they want you to keep buying their books. Or subscribing to newspapers and Magazine's.

[LawrenceChee]

buy direct from amazon...I have had 3 kindles through their improvements and the initial investment for the functionality beats any IPAD.

They stand by their products, their after service great and they always replace anything damaged at their costs...I have used them for orders once every month to send stuff to me globally and they have never disappointed me over the last 6 years...

the ipad simply cannot do what the kindle can...read with no strain...and the kindle will never do what the ipad can...so I have ipod touch !

[LarryBird]

Anybody else itching to get the Amazon PaperWhite?

[beb]

Well I lost my Kindle touch a little while back so it's probably on the market.

[StevieH]

Some comments on Amazon's excellent customer service:

I bought my Kindle, the least expensive model with advertisements, while still living in California and about 2 months before the warranty ended, the screen froze. I almost didn't call Amazon for a replacement, figuring they wouldn't ship to Thailand. But when I explained my relocation, customer service sent a new Kindle to Chiang Mai via DHL absolutely free--no import taxes--and I was able to download a shipping label for the damaged Kindle and drop off the package at Fedex. The entire process was cost free to me. And the new Kindle sent was the more expensive model without ads. So, it's probably a good idea to buy a Kindle directly from Amazon, just in case there are future problems.

yeah seems like i'm going to have to go this route - did an interactive chat session with amazon's customer service last night but to no avail. my kindle is out of warranty so they're offering me discount off an upgrade model for sending the faulty one back to them. pretty good offer but still a pain in the arse being without a kindle for a few weeks. not the end of the world of course, but still.