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Free Kindle This November

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Re: Free Kindle This November

#21

Post by catshirt »

qcassidy wrote: post #17
jerf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of ways to get Prime for essentially-free or even straight-up free. Students can get it free for a year [1], and Amazon Mom [2] provides it essentially free for parents of young children. You have to buy $25/month of qualifying goods, but we have not found this to be a challenge if you're still on diapers. (And Amazon is quite competitive on diapers.) YMMV. It seems to me that Amazon is desperate f…

Note that Amazon's new free movie/TV-streaming service for Prime members isn't available to Amazon Student or Amazon Mom customers unless they pony up the annual $79 fee: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_... So students and moms probably won't get Kindles for "essentially-free or even straight-up free."

unsure the circumstances, but i just got one free year as it was offered during checkout, and days after the announcement i was sent an email saying i can watch streaming videos.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#22

Post by msbarnett »

Pyrodogg wrote: post #16

The thing I hate about kindle (hardware) being a loss leader is that it requires Amazon to keep it locked down so that you can ONLY buy content through them. I'd rather pay for it up-front and actually have an open e-book market on the back end. As opposed to having to root/jailbreak it and/or go through painful file conversion processes to read other e-books.

It isn't locked down at all. You can read ebooks from o'reilly, baen, pragprog, and many other non-Amazon stores on it right out of the box.

It simply doesn't implement competing DRM schemes.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#23

Post by reedlaw »

Nogwater wrote: post #6

By this logic, Amazon will pay you to take a Kindle by the start of next year. Amazon makes future money on Kindle owners because they're avid book readers and they buy a lot of eBooks. If Amazon were to give away Kindles for free a lot of non-avid readers would pick them up just to have one, which would kill the model. I think a $99 price point (maybe $49 with Prime) makes a lot more sense.

I own a Kindle but rarely buy Kindle books from Amazon. There is plenty of high-quality free content as well as eBooks from other publishers like Pragmatic Press.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#24

Post by miles »

Pyrodogg wrote: post #16

The thing I hate about kindle (hardware) being a loss leader is that it requires Amazon to keep it locked down so that you can ONLY buy content through them. I'd rather pay for it up-front and actually have an open e-book market on the back end. As opposed to having to root/jailbreak it and/or go through painful file conversion processes to read other e-books.

Speaking of rooting/jailbreaking, I put together a simple guide for those who want to jailbreak their Kindle and use Luigi's standalone terminal:

http://tinyapps.org/docs/kindle_standalone_terminal.html

Re: Free Kindle This November

#25

Post by burgerbrain »

reedlaw wrote: post #20
burgerbrain wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 40USD off. That's what, 2 pizzas and sixpack? Pretty damn close if you ask me.

It was $139 at the time of the predictions IIRC.

Correct, the price on the latest generation has remained constant so far.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#26

Post by reedlaw »

Pyrodogg wrote: post #16

The thing I hate about kindle (hardware) being a loss leader is that it requires Amazon to keep it locked down so that you can ONLY buy content through them. I'd rather pay for it up-front and actually have an open e-book market on the back end. As opposed to having to root/jailbreak it and/or go through painful file conversion processes to read other e-books.

There is alternative firmware: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105847

Re: Free Kindle This November

#27

Post by moultano »

msbarnett wrote: post #22
Pyrodogg wrote: post #16

The thing I hate about kindle (hardware) being a loss leader is that it requires Amazon to keep it locked down so that you can ONLY buy content through them. I'd rather pay for it up-front and actually have an open e-book market on the back end. As opposed to having to root/jailbreak it and/or go through painful file conversion processes to read other e-books.

It isn't locked down at all. You can read ebooks from o'reilly, baen, pragprog, and many other non-Amazon stores on it right out of the box. It simply doesn't implement competing DRM schemes.

EPUB is not a competing DRM scheme. It's the standard for virtually every other reader and store, and the kindle doesn't support it.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#28

Post by msbarnett »

moultano wrote: post #27
msbarnett wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't locked down at all. You can read ebooks from o'reilly, baen, pragprog, and many other non-Amazon stores on it right out of the box. It simply doesn't implement competing DRM schemes.

EPUB is not a competing DRM scheme. It's the standard for virtually every other reader and store, and the kindle doesn't support it.

Which is a completely separate issue from the claim that the kindle is a locked down device that can only view content bought from Amazon.

In my experience, every DRM-free ebook store I've dealt with has been happy to sell me a .mobi.

Re: Free Kindle This November

#30

Post by u48998 »

Even though Amazon is not a wholesaler like Sam's or Costco, but I won't mind getting movies at $35 per year. $79 is too much an yearly renewal for what appears to be just a guaranteed free delivery.
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