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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyI updated my previous blogpost on Which Kindle to buy
Posted on May 25, 2012I updated my previous blogpost on which Kindle to buy as a South African.
- New pricing
- New devices (Touch)
Find it here : http://j-j.co.za/2011/06/which-kindle-to-buy-as-a-south-african/
Kindle, eReaders and eBooks in South Africa – Frequently Asked Questions
Posted on July 21, 2011Many visitors to this site arrive through search queries. People looking for information about which Kindle to buy, where to get the Kindle in SA, features that work (or don’t) and similar. There are also many people looking for answers about eBooks.
Previous posts cover some of these answers. To make it easier to access this information from one place I have started a FAQ to deal with common questions and answers (and links to previous posts). This will grow over time. Enjoy, and feel free to post any further questions, I will answer as best I can.
The direct link to the FAQ is : http://j-j.co.za/ebooks-faq/ otherwise find it on the menu at the top of the page.
Killing Kebble now available on Amazon as Kindle Download
Posted on July 13, 2011I have been getting a number of hits on my article on converting ebooks for Kindle from people looking to get Mandy’s book on their Kindle’s.
Good news, as the title says, you can now get it directly from Amazon here.
It is only $12 (Around R80), and will download to your Kindle in seconds. Much easier than going through the whole “buy from Kalahari and convert” process. And cheaper too.
Support South African authors and pick up a copy. It really is a great read, fascinating insight into what went down that fateful night and what is/was happening in the SA underworld. So many names you will recognise from the press, news reports and even Noseweek.
Which Kindle to buy as a South African (updated May 2012)
Posted on June 30, 2011I have posted a few times in the last little while around my challenges in buying ebooks from Kalahari, then on converting ebooks for use on the Kindle, and more generally on buying ebooks in South Africa.
In response to one of these posts I received a question from Henriet van Rhyn, covering the most obvious question which I hadn’t covered : “Please advise which Kindle to buy, seeing that there are so many versions available on Amazon these days. ”
I answered in the the comments to the post where Henriet posted the question, and after some thought decided it makes more sense to convert this into a full blown post. So below I repeat what I had put into the comments, with a few minor adjustments and ammendments.
Looking at Amazon on 29 June 2011 (Updated 25 May 2012) (as a South African), there are 5 (were 3) different Kindles to choose from. I don’t bother listed local re-sellers as I haven’t found any of them to be competitive and Amazon just make it so easy to order from them.
- Kindle (WiFi) = $109 (6″ screen) (was $139)
- Kindle Touch (WiFi) = $139 (6″ screen) (newly available)
- Kindle Touch 3G = $189 (6″ screen) (newly available)
- Kindle Keyboard (3G+WiFi) = $189 (6″ screen) (unchanged price)
- Kindle DX (3G+WiFi) = $379 (9.7″ screen)
- Kindle Fire is still not available in South Africa
As a USA resident you would also have the option of buying an advert subsidised Kindle for $114. This model is pretty much the same as the WiFi version ($139) but with adverts displayed at various points. Since this is not an international version and can’t be purchased here in SA I don’t cover this any further.
Converting your ebooks to read on your kindle
Posted on June 18, 2011Those who read my post from yesterday will know I was frustrated with the process for buying books on Kalahari.net and with the frustration of having to use their proprietary “Beta” software reader which would only work on my laptop but not on my Kindle. I wanted to read “Killing Kebble” on the kindle and couldn’t (Update 13 July, it’s now on Amazon). Here is how to do it.
I am a long time fan of Calibre as an “iTunes for Kindle” application that will manage your library of books and covert them into the required format for most devices you can think of. It also handles downloading of web sites and making them into “mini magazines” for you to read any place any time. Really great software.
How does this help?
Well when buying books from non-Amazon stores they could be delivered in a number of different formats. epub is a common format for online publishers. Just be careful though. Not all epubs (or ebooks) are created equal and many that you buy will have embedded DRM that stops you using them when where and as you please.
A case in point, ebooks from Kalahari.net and Exclusive books online make use of an Adobe DRM solution.
There is however a solution. Read the rest of this entry »
When the simple isn’t – Buying ebooks on Kalahari
Posted on June 17, 2011For a while now I have been wanting to read Mandy Wiener’s “Killing Kebble”. Having just finished Lauren Beukes’ two books, Moxyland and Zoo City on my Kindle it was time.
Lauren’s books weren’t available on Amazon for Kindle, but she provided a useful hint in that the eBooks can be purchased from AngryRobotStore.com for £4.49 each, so around R100 for the pair. They come down in epub format and are quickly converted to work on the Kindle using the excellent Calibre (best friend of every Kindle owner). Simple, quick and you can be reading in just a few minutes.
So.
Killing Kebble is available from Kalahari.net as an e-book in epub format. Yay. Or so I thought. I paid the R105, got the sms on my phone confirming they had the money, and waited. Scavenged, looked. Mmmm. No download link, found a link to my “Library Box” where I found my purchased. Happily flagged with a status of “new”. Yes, I just bought it so I guess it is new. Still no download link, I click the “show only products to download”, nothing shows up. Odd I thought. Clicked the “More information” action button to be instructed to download Kalahari’s (Beta) e-reader, create an account on adobe.com and a whole lot of stuff.
Bugger. I just bought a DRM’ed book. What the heck. Ok, so I want to read the book, let’s see how this works. I downloaded the 20 Meg reader, installed it, had a failed Adobe Air install. Loaded the reader, Air installed again and worked. Created the account on Adobe.com (do I really need to give them ALL my personal details, so many people have been hacked recently I am more nervous to hand these out). Finally all installed and ready and …
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