Raoul's China Saloon (V5.0) Beta
The Bar Room => The Bar (ON-TOPIC) => Tech Talk, or If Yer So Damn Smart, What The Hell You Doin' Teachin' English? => Topic started by: magnakaser on March 04, 2010, 02:31:11 AM
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So, I read a lot. English books in China, from my experience, are expensive and (at least what I want.) few and far between.
I've recently come into the option of getting my very own Kindle, a device a roommate of mine had back in the States and I was enamored with. The thing claims it has free internet anywhere in the world, but I'm skeptical about that... even if it's supposed to be satellite based.
I know you can download books onto your PC and transfer via USB, so that's not exactly a dealbreaker. I am curious if Amazon will have some sort of region block that would stop me from getting books without a vpn or something running to act like I'm in the US.
Anyone have any experience with e-books in China?
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I have no problem downloading e-books in several formats but not sure Kindle will accept the formats. I use fictionwise.com and Free-eBooks.net. Works on my Zune...
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Kindle accepts like 400 different formats, so that's not an issue.
It'll be free afafafafaf, so I don't really mind getting it just for the fancy e-ink screen... especially since I'll be back in the 'States at some point.
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While the Kindle does support international downloads using AT&T's GSM service, it is not available everywhere, and it is not free. In those countries where the international service is available, it will cost $1.99 (USD) per download. While the service is widespread in Europe, is not available in China. What I do, since I'm currently working in China, is download the book via the internet and then copy it to my Kindle. All of this is explained in the Amazon Kindle web site.
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If you try to buy books for the kindle in China, I've noticed they block Chinese IP addresses from purchasing.
If you go into the Kindle store you get this message:
Important Message
Kindle Titles are not available in China.
But as was said before, you can download in other formats and upload them to your Kindle.
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Unfortunately, with the exception of the .txt format, I have found that other formats and, in particular, PDF, do not go down well with the Kindle. It's really hit or miss, depending on how the original PDF was formatted. Not sure how formats besides PDF might look once uploaded but PDF does seem to be the most prevalent container. There is software that claims to convert from PDF to a Kindle-compatible file but those too are unreliable.
On the plus side, unless you are fond of using your Kindle to read magazines and newspapers that have to be automatically uploaded via subscription, I don't imagine you'd miss the internet functionality that much. You can find tons of stuff online and then transfer them. The format is the only hurdle.
I hardly use the Kindle I got for Christmas right now but I sense I'll be appreciatin' it a whole lot more once in China.
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Does anyone else like the kindle? I am pondering buying one before I come, just to save carrying loads of books over but not sure if it is worth the outlay-being a bit of a Luddite I am not 100% convinced about the thing yet, although lots of people seem to swear by them.
Comments?
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Yes it's worth it especially if you are not in a major city that may have English language book shops.
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I have a Kindle and I love it. As for formats, if you have an e-book, download calibre and format it into MOBI and put it on the kindle, easy as pie. I have purchased several books here on the kindle store and I have never encountered any IP address trouble.
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I received my Kindle yesterday. I bought it from the USA Amazon store, paid in UK Sterling, had it sent to Australia and then someone brought it back to China for me. So my little Kindle is quite a jetsetter; especially given that it was made in China.
I certainly have wispanet access, but I haven't tried downloading blogs and the like, so I don't know if everything / anything is blocked from Chinese IP addresses. Surely the wispanet doesn't use an IP address, but I'm not a techie. Not everywhere in China has wispanet, but Ningbo is on the east coast and reasonably near Taiwan. If this topic doesn't get blocked then I'll let you know more as I check out its capabilities.
Must admit I'm loving being able to read books that I've wanted to read for ages. The last few books that I had hard copies of were a bit nyaa.
The wispanet means that you can surf any internet site. However, when i went on to my Facebook homepage, the Kindle crashed. The paranoid side of me makes me think that the Chinese government are causing this. The realist side of me thinks that the Kindle simply doesn't have the processing power to keep up with my nieces' status updates.
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I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE my Kindle. I'm a crazy reading fantatic, and before the Kindle my only options were spend a ton of cash on so-so paperbacks at the foreign language bookshop, or read 10 year old copies of Jane Austen books. (Which i did re-read by the way.)
The Kindle has made me very, very happy, and the amt of books available on torrents is huge. Putting them on your kindle is no problem, any file type, as long as you use Calibre, a free program that is like an e-book library. Calibre automatically converts any book to be readable of the Kindle.
And just for the record I am a book lover. I like nothing better than holding a book in my hand, and if I was in America I wouldn't have bought it because I love using my local library. But English books are hard to come by in china, and outlandishly expensive if you are a fast reader, so I would say yes. Do it.
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I get the message that you quite like the Kindle, Borkya ;-)
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Is there any way at all you can buy e-books from Amazon using a Kindle in China? Say, if you use a proxy, downloaded them to your computer, then transfered them to your Kindle would that work? Or are you limited to free/torrented stuff?
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there is one available wi-fi thingy (yeah, me and your average platypus share an equal knowledge of computer-related dohickeys) and I have logged onto that using my Kindle and bought books. Also, it is possible to buy the Amazon Kindle on Taobao, and it is not some copy fake thing, all Kindles come with an Amazon pin-number you have to use to activate it...a pirated Kindle would not have a functioning code and the one I bought for the gf did agagagagag agagagagag No need for vpn, proxy or any such nonsense, just go to the local starbucks or whereever there is a good wi-fi, log on to Amazon and make your credit card scream with pain agagagagag agagagagag
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When you buy a book on amazon, you get a 'mailing' option. When you buy a kindle book the options are wifi immediate delivery, or download to your computer. I tend to download to my computer (cause wifi is few and far between where I live) and then just add to my calibre.
No VPN or anything needed. Seriously, everyone is making this out to be much harder than it is. Using a kindle in China is very, very easy.
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Borkya is right...Lordy, she'll never let me live that down agagagagag agagagagag
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Borkya is right...Lordy, she'll never let me live that down agagagagag agagagagag
I'm gonna print this out and have it made into one of those giant inspirational quote posters they have in all of our classrooms, just to make sure every one of our students knows it! ahahahahah
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Is there any way at all you can buy e-books from Amazon using a Kindle in China? Say, if you use a proxy, downloaded them to your computer, then transfered them to your Kindle would that work? Or are you limited to free/torrented stuff?
I have a Kindle.
I go online to amazon to buy books.
Turn on the Kindle wirless. And they download themselves.
I have not had any issues with it in China.
For .pdfs ..... you can convert them to a format the Kindle will read and then xfer them over via the USB port.
Here's how ... (I copied from some website)
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Download and install the FULL version of Mobipocket Creator. (If you opt for the simpler version, it won’t have the PDF conversion option.)
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When Mobipocket Creator is running, select Adobe PDF under Import From Existing File
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Choose the PDF file you want to convert
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Leave the rest alone unless you want to change your destination folder and click Import
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Select the html file that was just created and click Build from the toolbar at the top of Mobipocket Creator
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Click Build (you will most likely get a few errors but I just ignore them)
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Go to your destination folder, open the folder that was created with your publication
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Copy the .prc file into the Documents folder of your Kindle via the USB cable
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I'm curious to know why so many of you buy your digital books. Is it a moral issue of not pirating? I use an iPad and a Kindle and I torrent any book I want to read. With no download caps and no real digital copyright laws in China, I just download everything. It seems to me that most people here have no problem downloading a movie or paying 5-10 RMB for a movie/tv show disk when that's obviously pirated content too. So what's the difference with books?
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I haven't bought a book and yet I have read some of the latest NYT bestsellers. I just feel bad about blatantly encouraging and promoting downloading pirated books, especially as
I am an author with two books for sale, so ya know, I prefer not to mention it in every post.
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Most of the stuff I read is free on Gutenberg but I have downloaded a lot of books, only bought a few...No moral scruples here agagagagag agagagagag
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OK so you guys have now convinced me it's worth buying one.Now the question is does the new snazzy 3G one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FQJT3Q/ref=pe_70050_19080760_pe_lf2 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FQJT3Q/ref=pe_70050_19080760_pe_lf2)work in China or do I need the other one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M) and can anyone explain the difference for me the non geek idiot?
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I'm curious to know why so many of you buy your digital books. Is it a moral issue of not pirating? I use an iPad and a Kindle and I torrent any book I want to read. With no download caps and no real digital copyright laws in China, I just download everything. It seems to me that most people here have no problem downloading a movie or paying 5-10 RMB for a movie/tv show disk when that's obviously pirated content too. So what's the difference with books?
I have a hell of a time finding torrents of specific books I want. Those are the ones I buy. The rest I torrent.
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I love mine. We bought a Kindle 3 from Taobao and I have read 11 books since just before Christmas. I download all of mine for free from various torrent sites, friends, and Gutenburg. Here is some software to trasfer from many formats to many formats. I like it and it's easy to use...
http://calibre-ebook.com/
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OK so you guys have now convinced me it's worth buying one.Now the question is does the new snazzy 3G one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FQJT3Q/ref=pe_70050_19080760_pe_lf2 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FQJT3Q/ref=pe_70050_19080760_pe_lf2)work in China or do I need the other one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M) and can anyone explain the difference for me the non geek idiot?
I guess it depends on what you want the kindle to do. I want it just as an e-reader, no distractions, no internet, so I am very happy with the cheaper wifi one. I, like psd4fan, use calibre and therefore I download all my books to my computer first, and transfer that way so wifi and internet on the kindle plays no part in it. Both torrent books, and books bought on amazon I do that way and have had no problem.
The 3G one is suppose to get internet anywhere in the world, even if you are not near a wifi hot spot. They say it has "worldwide coverage" but it looks like, according to the map on Amazon, coverage in China is pretty spotty. Might not be worth the extra money if you will be somewhere outside a major city. But, it's your choice!
(You can see the china 3g coverage map here: http://client0.cellmaps.com/viewer.html?cov=1 (http://client0.cellmaps.com/viewer.html?cov=1)
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Just get the wifi. It's painful to surf the net on the thing so you really don't need 3G one. That's what the 3G iPad is for. agagagagag
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I agree that the 3G internet access is not worth the bother. I might as well have got the wifi version.
However, the 3G does have the advantage that if things get intense in China you'll still be able to email your family or tweet regardless of what outside forces do to the internet (at least where I am). To be fair I think that's a pretty unlikely situation at the moment.
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Ordered mine yesterday. It should arrive in a week or so axaxaxaxax
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I still can't decide between an ipad and a kindle... bibibibibi
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Played with the ipad in the store when we were in Madrid. It seemed more like a toy to me than a useful device.But then I already have my notebook (eeepc) so I don't need an Ipad.
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Hey Yokie Kuma did what you said with the pdf and when it came up on the kindle I could not read the doc cos the page was too wide... what do I do with that?
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Err...Piglet, all you have to do is download calibre, upload any pdfs on there, convert them to mobi format and...tada...all will be good.
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thanks Eric here I go! bfbfbfbfbf
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The above advice is bang on! It is easy.