PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Mobile Phones & Other Handheld Devices => Topic started by: Clive on March 15, 2011, 21:19
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Does anyone have one? I've been told that it's possible to access the internet from anywhere in the world without being charged. I cannot believe there is such a thing as a free lunch so I'm naturally highly sceptical about that claim. Does that make me a bad person? :dunno:
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I believe Rik does.
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Rik thinks I'm bad peson? :bawl: :bawl: :bawl:
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:laugh:
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I've heard it to be true that free internet access is offered and I've seen that here with people not sure about the UK though. I think it probably only works in the host country of the owner though - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
Oh and its not a free lunch - I expect its just a way to encourage you to get all your content, including newspapers directly to it for a subscription fee.
I've got friends who have them and they really love them for reading.
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I wanted it as a way of accessng the internet from far flung places of the world so if it only works in the host country it would not meet my requirements. It would certainly be very expensive if it logged into the ship's satellite system which it might well do. I think they charge £1 a minute!! :bawl:
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Ray's got one, Simon, not me. I just thought about it for a while. ;D
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Clive, you could just get a ipod touch and use the wireless if it was cheap enough? or get a phone with international data... probably cheaper than £1 per min - that's stupid!
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I'm exploring all avenues Sam. Yes, £1 a minute is extortionate!
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I'm sure you've paid that for a phone call on many occasions, Clive. ;)
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what the sheep hotline is only a pound a minute :o
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:smirks:
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Anyway, don't you mean the hot sheep line? :sheeplove:
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My son informs me that it uses a 3G signal ( :dunno:) which will be free wherever a mobile phone will work. He reckons it will work off the ship's satellite system for free. :dunno:
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Anyway, don't you mean the hot sheep line? :sheeplove:
:music: I feeling like roasting tonight :music: :devil:
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My son informs me that it uses a 3G signal ( :dunno:) which will be free wherever a mobile phone will work. He reckons it will work off the ship's satellite system for free. :dunno:
I'm not convinced of that, Clive, but you'll soon find out.
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Yes, when I get the bill! :bawl:
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Exactly.
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So what exactly is this 'ere 3G when it's about? :dunno:
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I thought you had to have a mobile phone contract of some sort to get 3G. Even on Pay and Go, you still have to pay. I'm sceptical that anything would be for free these days.
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So what exactly is this 'ere 3G when it's about? :dunno:
It's just a standard for mobile data transmission, Clive.
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I thought you had to have a mobile phone contract of some sort to get 3G. Even on Pay and Go, you still have to pay. I'm sceptical that anything would be for free these days.
So am I Simon! This is why I'm keen not to jump in feet first!
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I'll try to get Ray to drop in. :)
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I do own a Kindle but mine is a WiFi only version, so I'm afraid can't add to what has already been said about the 3G version.
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:aarrgh: Thanks anyway, Ray. :thumb:
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I thought you had to have a mobile phone contract of some sort to get 3G. Even on Pay and Go, you still have to pay. I'm sceptical that anything would be for free these days.
Not necessarily. TomTom use GSM and possibly 3G in their 'Live' series of satnavs.
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It does also seem to say that it's free at the moment on the Amazon Kindle site.
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It does, Ray, but I doubt that applies on board a cruise ship. :)
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It does, Ray, but I doubt that applies on board a cruise ship. :)
Very true, Rik. :)
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I'm sure I've seen it specifically state it only works in your country of origin....
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That's what I'd expect, Sam.
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I checked the UK Amazon site and it says global 3G coverage. :dunno:
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Which comes back to what my son says. Investigations continue. :laugh:
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worldwide coverage could be correct.. but you have to pay for it?
bit out-of-date but: http://freshtech2.com/2008/11/26/using-kindle-overseas/
bit more info on the amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200387080 - though I'm not sure this just didn't confuse me more.
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Amazon always confuse me. :)
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Gosh, it is all very confusing! I'll have to take time to read all that very carefully. Thanks Sam. :stars:
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Coverage in South America seems a bit sparse anyway! LINK (http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab)
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OK, so after months of research and prevarication I've finally ordered the WiFi with 3G version at £149 from Amazon. I've had a lot of good reports about it working globally although internet access is allegedly very slow and clunky. My only problem now is that a typical case for it comes in at around £44 compared to my laptop case at £6. Why are they charging so much? :dunno:
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Because they can, Clive. It's a relatively small market, which will increase costs.
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When it arrives I'll see if it will fit in my netbook case. :D
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I'll be interested to know how you get on with it.
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I'll be interested to know how you get on with it.
So will I :) .
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I managed to find a case for under £9 so I've gone with it. I read that someone had damaged his screen while he was carrying it in a suitcase. I have to say that so far I have only heard good things about Kindle. It's supposed to be as easy to read as a paper page and whole books download in 60 seconds. There is a lot of free stuff available if you enjoy classics and subscriptions to national newspapers are just £9 a month. The ordinary WiFi version is now £89 but the 3G is essential if I am to avoid extortionate marine WiFi charges. I will let you know more when I receive it later this week but the acid test will be when I take it on my travels. :laugh:
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will be interesting to see how it works on your travels too. I've seen the screen's and they are amazing. I'd jump on one if book publishers offered dual format. I mean I love owning books. I prefer to read them. I love having them on the shelf but would rather be able to carry lots around all the time. Like Blu-rays come with DVDs in some cases it would be great if you could own the book but for say 50p or a £1 more you go the digital rights too. Sounds like win win to me.
Cases - if i'd been paying attention I'd have shouted play or somewhere like that I found my found case well cheap there.
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The ordinary WiFi version is now £89 but the 3G is essential if I am to avoid extortionate marine WiFi charges. I will let you know more when I receive it later this week but the acid test will be when I take it on my travels. :laugh:
I wouldn't bet on 3G roaming charges being less than marine WiFi. You'd be wise to check that out before travelling, Clive.
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lol - indeed
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Don't worry, I'm not betting on anything. But I do know that if Kindle can't supply you with a free connection they warn you that you will be charged if you continue to download material. I will report back. ;D
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I ordered it at 5 pm last night and it turned up with the postman at 10 am this morning. How do they do that?? :dunno: It's slightly smaller than I anticipated but the print quality is exceptionally clear. It's also been pre-configured to my Amazon account and is named "Clive's Kindle". Amazon's "Whispernet" 3G connection works fine from home but I would have expected that to work anyway. Good news for Gill - it has left and right handed controls! At least for turning the pages. I'm leaving it to charge up now.
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Good news for Gill - it has left and right handed controls! At least for turning the pages.
;D :thumb:
Hey - the 'thumb' icon is left-handed too!
:)
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We can soon change that. :devil:
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Kindle calling on 3G. But it's not a paricularly pleasurable experience. But at least it works!
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Oops - damn Kindle. ;D
paricularly
Oops, damned Kindle. ;D
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Try this:
http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php/topic,34641.msg256936/topicseen/wap2
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What is it? :dunno:
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It's the WAP (plain text) version of the forum. Might be useful when on 3G, as it would take less time to load, and would also use less data than the full graphics version.
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yeah, its quite handy on the phone too. I never did get around to looking at improving it.
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It would be useful if you could give me the url to the forum home page as I can't seem to navigate from this board. I can definitely see the potential for Kindle. On another note, besides 3G, there are also free EDGE and GPRS connections but apparently they are slower. This is a very sharp learning curve for me and I haven't even purchased any content. I wonder where the sheep section is? :-)
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No smilies either - but I can improvise. ;D
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Index:
http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php?action=forum;wap2
Unread Posts:
http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php?action=unread;all;start=0;wap2
Basically, you just need to add ;wap2 to the end of the url.
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Oh now that is useful! Thanks Simon.
Downloading books is so easy to do. I've downloaded a dozen or so this evening, most of which were free. The most expensive was around £1.50. From the Amazon website you just click on Kindle/e-books and a well organised and searchable book list appears complete with reviews and excerpts. Click on "buy" and it automatically downloads to your Kindle in just a few seconds. Your card is charged and Bob's your uncle! It really is that easy!
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Sounds like Steam (that's for games). No need for piracy when its that easy. :devil:
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I'm hoping Rik might be able to educate me on EDGE and GPRS. :D
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How much do you want to know, Clive?
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my wife just bought one of the new ones,without the keyboard and she loves it.As Clive says its easy to download books as your kindle is auto added to your amazon account when you buy it so any items bought are just stuck on your account.
Myself I like a book but will try this and may get used to it.I found things like flicking through is awkward,say going to a certain page quickly, takes a bit longer.There is a % bar along the bottom no page numbers so having to remember that would cause bother for me, not an ideal bookmark.She now has about a dozen books on,some bought and some free, so skipping from one book to another means you lose where you are at,well I do :D
It has a nice appearance the font size is changable if needed,simple to navigate.I dont know if its supposed to do this but I was sat in the garden with it and noticed that the screen did brighten itself up then back to normal when I went back indoors.
nice feature.
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ooo as we speak :) just arrived in post a case for it.leather which doubles as a stand and comes with phone charger.She ordered them together but the case was an advance order as wasn't available until last week, £9.99....bargain :thumb:
All the others were from £25
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Do kindles have the facility to skim through a book? For example, I might be interested in some woodwork patterns in a kindle book but I wouldn't want to have to have to go through all the pages to get to the one I wanted. Also, could I print off such plans?
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How much do you want to know, Clive?
Everything Rik. ;D
The Kindle will always return to the page you finished on Baz, and you can also bookmark any page you want. You can also skip to the beginning of the next chapter ad infinitum. Skimming through a book seems a bit difficult but the page turning facility is quite fast. I think you can transfer material to your computer via USB and you could then print it out. It will store any Word or .pdf document too and has built-in dictionaries for reference. I will play around with it again this evening. 8-)
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I'm hoping Rik might be able to educate me on EDGE and GPRS. :D
EDGE is basically 2G or GSM (you could say that a similar comparison would be dial up (2G) to Broadband), and GPRS is what detects your location. :)
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Thanks Simon. Looking at the coverage map, I can see that EDGE seems to be quite widely available along the coastline of South America.
Gill, Kindle has a Menu button which allows you to search the entire book or go to a specific page. Because Kindle books are formatted differently to their paper counterparts, and you can read it in various text sizes, there are no page numbers as such. However, the book is split up into several thousand "locations" which you can go straight to or bookmark. Much easier than I thought! 8-)
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Thanks Simon. Looking at the coverage map, I can see that EDGE seems to be quite widely available along the coastline of South America.
Presumably, though, you still have to be connected to a network to receive it?
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You do, but Amazon don't seem to be very clear on who pays.
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I bet they don't!
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The network is called "Whispernet" which is free with Kindle. If Whispernet is unavailable then you have the option of using a private operator for which you have to pay. Presumably the money gets taken from your Amazon account. Downloading a book or newspaper takes under 60 seconds using 3G. One good thing is that it's not downloading data all the time in the same way as an iPhone. Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating! :laugh:
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I've heard Kindles are best shallow-fried, Clive. :o:
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That would be no problem. They are just a few millimetres thick. 8-)
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;D
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Gill, Kindle has a Menu button which allows you to search the entire book or go to a specific page. Because Kindle books are formatted differently to their paper counterparts, and you can read it in various text sizes, there are no page numbers as such. However, the book is split up into several thousand "locations" which you can go straight to or bookmark. Much easier than I thought! 8-)
Thanks, Clive - the Kindle is sounding more attractive all the time :) .
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:thumb-r:
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I have to say I'm very pleased with mine. Bear in mind that the 3G + WiFi version has a keyboard whereas the WiFi version (which is only half the price) does not. The keyboard allows you to search for words. 3G is essential for me if I am to avoid paying eye-watering WiFi charges abroad.
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:thumb-r:
OY! Stop messing with the icons :-X :) .
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:)x
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:devil:
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I've just been alerted to some software that Kindle users might find helpful :o: :
(https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv637%2FGillD%2FSmilies%2FSTN.gif&hash=26f3dca8f3782a924b139ab25d68535b4d58c013) (http://calibre-ebook.com/) and (https://www.pc-pals.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv637%2FGillD%2FSmilies%2FSTN.gif&hash=26f3dca8f3782a924b139ab25d68535b4d58c013) (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/how-to-strip-drm-from-kindle-e-books-and-others/)
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:thumb: :thumb-r: :laugh:
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Thanks very much Gill. This is a huge learning curve but one that is bound to be worthwhile. Those are two excellent pieces of software! My Kindle leather case tuned up this morning and it has the appearance of a book cover into which you can insert the device on the one side and other paraphernalia such as credit cards on the other. :dunno: The one Baz has bought may be better bet!