Ok so I’m a little annoyed - more so because I figure my complaint is unlikely to be fixed. You see I own a kindle. So far I haven’t met any others - not entirely surprising - I was the only person I knew with a PSP for a while too.
I had both a Kindle and a Sony Reader. I read a lot and wanted to figure out which was the best one. I sold off the reader - the kindle is awesome. So far I’ve finished 6 novels, a mix of short stories, and a couple of reads through some serious tech pdfs I had laying around.
Enough with the gushing - the complaint - the whispernet doesn’t work outside of the US! I haven’t tested Canada, but I didn’t have connectivity in London or Mexico. I wasn’t entirely surprised about London. I thought it would be unlikely to work. Mexico, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise. I was even more annoyed because I was actually on vacation and reading like a fiend and I finished book 2 of a 4 book series and really needed book 3 - which I couldn’t have. I hadn’t bought it was because I wasn’t sure a) book 2 would be as good as book 1 and b) I didn’t think I’d finish book 2 on the trip. (Which is another cool thing about the kindle my reading speed on it is seriously faster than my normal paper speed.)
Of the X number of Kindle owners (Amazon has not mentioned sales numbers as far as I’m aware - just shortages) - I wonder what percentage travel outside the US? Even if it is a big number I’m willing to bet they aren’t going to fix it - guess I’m just stuck stocking up before I hop on my next international flight.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am (subscribed to comments)
I’m assuming the whispernet is the wirless network feature on the kindle that will allow you to download books. (I don’t own one so its just an assumption). But my guess as it why it doesn’t work is becuase it uses the CDMA/EVDO cellular network - which is pretty much US-only and a little in Asia. I also thought that it was a bit of a lame choice for Amazon, but I figure they’re probably running on Verizon’s network, which is also the same network that GM’s Onstar uses - and those Verizon is probably used to doing a deal similar to the Kindle’s becuase of the Onstar expereience. But the unfortunate side effect would be that it doesn’t work outside of the US - mainly becuase its not on GSM.