Kindle from the US

Barrak

Hi there, quick question...I am flying through the US soon and was thinking of picking up a Kindle 4 or else Kindle touch, is there any issues about buying one there and using it back in Ireland?

vibe666

nope, none at all. it charges over microUSB (you may want to get a UK type plug to USB adapter) so you can charge it from any USB port.

kindle purchases go by your amazon account and where your billing address is, so if it's in Ireland it will go via the US international amazon store anyway if you buy ebooks, but there is no region locking on the device itself at all.

Barrak

Great thanks for that, would you have any ideas regarding the basic kindle 4 or the kindle touch? Which is the better of the two? From what I see on the amazon site there arent the same number available books for irish customers as for UK customers ya?

vibe666

i have a kindle 3 and i've bought a kindle touch for my dad for xmas, as well as a kindle fire for my wife (both over the net from ireland directly from amazon in the US with a shipping forwarding company).

my advice would be to get into best buy or similar and try them both whilst you are there as it will be very much down to personal preference. some people don't like the touch screen ones, but others prefer them so you're going to have to find out which one you are for yourself.

personally, if it was for me then i'd go for the touchscreen one. i've been using a touchscreen phone for years now and any time i'm using anything without a touchscreen i miss it and i quite often find myself touching the kindle 3 screen trying to get it to do something.

Barrak

Cheers, ill pop into a shop there and have a look at the both of them so! Thanks for the help

kildaremum

Vibe666 how do you purchase through US shipping forwarding company. Is it easy to set up. I would like to get the Kindle Fire.

Squeeonline

We got the kindle with keyboard for my dad this xmas. It worked out cheaper to get it in PC world than ordering it from Amazon uk or .com due to the heavy import taxes. Came to 180 in the end. I had a quick play around with it and I'm impressed. I know what I'll be buying next, though since I already have an mp3 player I'll probably get the smaller cheaper one.

vibe666

kildaremum wrote: »

Vibe666 how do you purchase through US shipping forwarding company. Is it easy to set up. I would like to get the Kindle Fire.

register with viaddress.com and they give you a US based shipping address.

order from amazon.com (irish credit card works fine) and give them your viaddress as the shipping address.

when it has shipped, input the tracking code they give you into your viaddress control panel to let them know you are expecting it and when it arrives with them they will email you.

now just pay them via paypal and tell them where to send it on to.

their shipping costs are around $40 to ireland and nobody i have seen who has ordered stuff like this (there are a couple of other kindle threads knocking about where i have given the same advice) has been caught by customs so far (it comes via fedex), although if you do get caught it would be import duties and VAT to pay.

kildaremum

Great - thank you

MiniNukinfuts

I bought a kindle touch 3G off a seller on ebay, he basically bought the kindles from amazon directly and shipped it to you. It was a very fast service and cheaper than a post forwarding service. He sold kindle fires too. And the prices were very good. I got everything for €150.

mckenic

Just thought I'd chime in...


I bought my Mum a Touch for Chrstmas and spent the day fighting with it! Its the first Kindle in our house. I have an Amazon.co.uk account.



I could buy books on the UK store (in this case Alice in Wonderland as its free – as a test) but could NOT either send it to my Kindle or save it to my Mac. You have to have a UK billing & IP address!


I had to set-up an Amazon.com account and register the Kindle Touch there. Books came down fine BUT I bought the Advert Free version and it still has ads at the bottom of the Home Screen! Aargh!


I typed in “~ds” (without the quotes) at the home screen to at least disable the screensaver. When I check the Kindle Touch in my Amazon account – there is no option to Unsubscribe from adverts, so it is recognized as the Ad free version!


If I browse to http://www.amazon.ie – Im immediately re-directed to .co.uk and have ordered lots from Amazon UK before – I wish this were simpler!



At least Mum loves it & that is the most important thing!


Merry Christmas!

kildaremum

I set up an address with us forwarding company this week and ordered a Kindle Touch from Amazon.com. It was the cheapest one, with the adds, so I'll see how it goes. I would like a Kindle Fire, but I'm going to see how this goes first. Hopefully if all goes well and I receive this one the add's won't bother me too much.

I'm glad your mum likes hers.

Merry Christmas.

mckenic

Cheers mate!

Enjoy! Dont forget to look-up the '~ds' trick - it disables the screensaver, which is an advert!

Squeeonline

Decided to not get a kindle in the end. Don't want to be locked into Amazon. Kobo is the way to go I think. Whatever you get, it needs to have ePub support. The Kobo touch also has a touchscreen (making the device smaller without a physical keyboard).

vibe666

Squeeonline wrote: »

Decided to not get a kindle in the end. Don't want to be locked into Amazon. Kobo is the way to go I think. Whatever you get, it needs to have ePub support. The Kobo touch also has a touchscreen (making the device smaller without a physical keyboard).

you aren't locked into amazon with kindle, you can buy or download ebooks from anywhere and upload them to your kindle via the supplied microUSB cable using Calibre ebook manager although the website seems to be down at the moment.

kildaremum

Expecting my Kindle Touch to be delivered by FedEx next week. Anyone have any idea how much VAT and Import Duty will be. The value is $99.

mckenic

That is the killer!

I 'thought' anything under $120 (including postage cost) is ok and you dont get charged but a few weeks ago I had to pay €35 on an item marked $90 + $10 shipping! Everything else I get that is marked under $120 gets thu!

vibe666

i haven't actually seen anyone ordering via viaddress get caught yet, so fingers crossed.

super_furry

Just in case anyone is looking for them, Arnotts in Dublin are selling the Kobo touch for €130. Got one at the weekend after having two Kindle's die on me (one my fault and one not) and it's a great piece of kit.

kildaremum

So can you transfer your Kindle books to your new Kobo and where will you buy new books for it

vibe666

vibe666 wrote: »

i haven't actually seen anyone ordering via viaddress get caught yet, so fingers crossed.

it turns out that quite a few people have since gotten bills from fedex for customs charges a week or two aftr delivery.

kildaremum

Vibe666 - did u get a bill from FedEx or was the childrens toy exempt

vibe666

nothing so far (touch wood), and the order was shipped at the end of november so i guess the children's toy was exempt.