kindle touch worth waiting for

carlowplayer

am interested in buying an ereader.not interesed in a kindle fire as its a tablet i just want to read books.the kindle touch isnt going to be here for a while and the concept of smudging the screen and flicking my finger across the screen constantly to be annoying im a speed reader and prone to RSU.I hear the kindle keyboard is good would it be ideal for magazines as well as books and can stuff be transferred using a usb to and from my laptop.So is the kindle keyboard worth getting instead of waiting too long for the kindle touch to come to ireland europe.

Brian017

It's now available to ship Internationally on Amazon.com or did you mean an actual shop here?

carlowplayer

i meant here.ive heard that theres problems with the kindle fire in that none of the apps work if you improt it and its a nightmare getting books even the copyright freee ones.Is there such problems with the kindle touch if you import it from the us?

Jimoslimos

Amazon have just started shipping Touch internationally. Might be a while till it makes makes its way into physical shops though. Still not available on the UK site.

But yes, I'd still go for the keyboard. I'm not sure how easy it would be to adjust your hand position to swipe the screen in order to page turn, as opposed to resting a finger over a button on the keyboard. However it WON'T be any better for magazines (still the same screen size) unless you go for the DX, which IMO is too big.

Books can be transferred easily enough, drag and drop, or upload directly from Amazon website. You should also look at installing Calibre, software that organises your library and can also convert various book formats, kinda like an iTunes for ebooks.

Brian017

I have had no problems with buying books, free or paid for, on my Kindle Touch so you'd be fine

And on the swiping thing. You don't have to swipe you can just tap either side of the screen to go forward or back

carlowplayer

ok so the touch does work perfectly over here even with charging and everything ie dragging books from your laptop to your kindle and vice versa

Brian017

Yes it charges fine over here it uses your computers USB port to charge. Or if you need to charge it at the mains, a plug with an USB port on it can be easily got. But yeah it works perfectly fine in Ireland

Jimoslimos

Brian017 wrote: »

I have had no problems with buying books, free or paid for, on my Kindle Touch so you'd be fine

And on the swiping thing. You don't have to swipe you can just tap either side of the screen to go forward or back

Yep, loading books onto to the Touch is no different to any of the other models.

With regards to to page turns, doesn't that mean you need to hold the Touch with your right hand only in order to go forward. I like the fact that the keyboard has both forward & back buttons on either side allowing you to read left & right-handed.

G20

From reading various posts I gather the Kindle Fire is not yet in the shops here.
When it arrives I'm thinking of getting one to take with me on holidays. I'll be away five weeks and want to access my email.
My questions:
1.Can I browse the web?
2.Can I access my emails?
3.Can I reply to my emails?
4.Can I call up a touch-pad type keyboard?
5. If it uses e-ink for reading books, is it also e-ink for the above functions?
The answers to these questions will help me decide to buy or not to buy.
Cheers.

Brian017

1. Yes but its slow and not a pleasureable experience especially heavy browsing
2. Yes you can access emails fine.
3. You can also reply to them
4. The on-screen keyboard automatically comes up when you tap on a typeable field
5. Yes its entirely an eINK display. All functions are in eINK. there's no colour or backlight at all

G20

Thanks, Brian for the full answer.
I'm a bit puzzled though by your saying there's no colour.
I've gone back and checked the Amazon Kindle page, and yes, it is full colour.
I still haven't made up my mind though.

Jimoslimos

G20 wrote: »

Thanks, Brian for the full answer.
I'm a bit puzzled though by your saying there's no colour.
I've gone back and checked the Amazon Kindle page, and yes, it is full colour.
I still haven't made up my mind though.

You are confusing the Kindle Touch (e-ink black&white reader) with the Kindle Fire (colour lcd tablet)

I see it was the Fire you were interested in, not sure when this will be available and tbh it's a bit disingenious by Amazon to label it as a "kindle", since it is NOT an e-reader. Think of it more as an iPad competitor or a media player. On device storage is very low, 8GB, though it does come with free cloud storage for purchases through Amazon - not sure how useful that is if you have slow or no internet access.

G20

You've certainly cleared up one point for me, Jimo.
The Fire is not an e-reader and one of main reasons I wanted it was for reading.

My option may now be to buy both the Fire and the basic Kindle.