Using a Kindle in China...

Borkya is right...Lordy, she'll never let me live that down

Borkya is right...Lordy, she'll never let me live that down

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! 

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)

   1.
      Download and install the FULL version of Mobipocket Creator. (If you opt for the simpler version, it won’t have the PDF conversion option.)
   2.
      When Mobipocket Creator is running, select Adobe PDF under Import From Existing File
   3.
      Choose the PDF file you want to convert
   4.
      Leave the rest alone unless you want to change your destination folder and click Import
   5.
      Select the html file that was just created and click Build from the toolbar at the top of Mobipocket Creator
   6.
      Click Build (you will most likely get a few errors but I just ignore them)
   7.
      Go to your destination folder, open the folder that was created with your publication
   8.
      Copy the .prc file into the Documents folder of your Kindle via the USB cable

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 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.

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

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_lf2work in China or do I need the other one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002Y27P3M and can anyone explain the difference for me the non geek idiot?

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.

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/

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_lf2work in China or do I need the other one 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

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. 

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.

Ordered mine yesterday. It should arrive in a week or so 

I still can't decide between an ipad and a kindle...

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.