Kevin's Watch

Hi guys - this may be covered by the Low Ram thread on this forum but has anyone tried, or does anyone regularly use their Kindle to post/read on the Watch. I am being slowly convinced that I ought to get a Kindle with 3g capabilities (as opposed to the one that just downloads from the wireless in your home) and the main reason for this is that I have been told you get free internet access (obviously needed for your book downloads) which is quite good enough for using on text based sites like Kevins Watch and wikipedia (the two main ones I would like to be able to access from where ever I happen to be (on holiday etc) when it is not always possible to have my laptop with me.

Can anyone confirm that this is indeed the case or am I really stuck with having to get a tablet(?) like an i-pad or something (that would demand an additional monthly outlay of money) in order to achieve the kind of mobile acess I am after.

Maybe it's better now, but I have a second generation kindle. The browser sucks.

Isn't that what iPads are for?

Vain wrote:Isn't that what iPads are for?

Yeah - but with an i-pad you have to shell out a shed load of dough on a monthly basis for your connection don't you? I don't want full laptop/ multi-media capabilities - all I'm after is pretty much the Watch, Wikipedia and maybe a few other script based sites to be accessable a few weeks a year when I'm on holiday (and for free would be good )

The access to books is a big thing as well. Got stuck in Havanna for two weeks once with no reading matereal and the only thing I could find in english were books on Che Guevara and farming. I eventually picked up a copy of Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days" abridged for children and read it about ten times consequtively out of desparation.

I thought iPads have mobile 3G broadband capabilities in much the same way as anything else? Well that's how it works here in NZ and you can get a few gigs for not too much per month - not sure how things work in the USA though

I was reading a tech article the other day that speculated that if anyone could take on the iPad it could be an Amazon backed product. A kindle with a better browser could be a real competitor for the iPad.

In the U.S. you can get iPads with or without the 3G. It adds $120 to the cost if you get it, plus whatever AT&T or Verizon want to charge. If without, you get by on wifi. There may be a way to tether it to your smartphone. I'm not sure.

I'm thinking about an iPad as a replacement for my macbook, which is about at the end of it's usefulness. I need a new battery for it and they didn't have it in stock at the local Apple store. Plus it's a couple of big cats behind in the O.S. X.

Somebody sent me this link. I think this is what you're asking about, peter:

www.npr.org/2011/03/27/134897271/cheape ... er?sc=emaf

Apparently the Nook Color would be a better choice for what you have in mind, altho I dunno whether it's available where you are.

*Yes*, Av, this thread should probably be in the Loresraat too.

My own suspicion is that in the long run, tablets will replace laptops. Apple has the field rather to itself now, but I think they will soon have a hard time defending the iPad's current price point.

aliantha wrote:*Yes*, Av, this thread should probably be in the Loresraat too.

Hahaha, busted.

--A

Avatar wrote:

aliantha wrote:*Yes*, Av, this thread should probably be in the Loresraat too.

Hahaha, busted.

--A

I dunno about tablets replacing laptops. I do think laptops will eventually replace desktops for everybody except serious gamers -- they pretty much have already, I think -- but there are some tasks that are just easier to do on a laptop. Stuff like extensive word processing and the like. But for just browsing the web and so on, yeah, I can see the appeal of a tablet.

I suspect tablets will overtake e-readers. But I think laptops still make a lot of sense for some applications.

aliantha wrote:Somebody sent me this link. I think this is what you're asking about, peter:

www.npr.org/2011/03/27/134897271/cheape ... er?sc=emaf

Apparently the Nook Color would be a better choice for what you have in mind, altho I dunno whether it's available where you are.

*Yes*, Av, this thread should probably be in the Loresraat too.

Thanks Aliantha - yes that was very informative. Don't think I'm going to get rid of my laptop any time soon but ther are very definite alternatives on the way and sooner or later change may be forced on even the most entrenched stick in the muds like me!
Sorry it took so long to reply - I always get this problem where if I am not logged in to the watch when I read a reply on a thread I am participating in, then I get no warning e-mail of activity on the thread and tend to loose track of it (it couldn't be any other way really - the fault is mine. I should take the trouble to Log in first thing on every visit!)

Haha, if I got an email for every thread I was posting in, my inbox would explode.

I just go through the forums looking to see where people have posted.

--A

Avatar wrote:Haha, if I got an email for every thread I was posting in, my inbox would explode.

I just go through the forums looking to see where people have posted.

--A

I had a special email account for getting notifications from the Watch. Just checked it for the first time in months. 1030 unread messages .

Hence the reason I don't bother subscribing to any threads.

--A

Vain wrote:I thought iPads have mobile 3G broadband capabilities in much the same way as anything else? Well that's how it works here in NZ and you can get a few gigs for not too much per month - not sure how things work in the USA though

They sure do. That's how I was able to post on the Watch while I was in bed recovering from my knee surgery. Sure was easier than trying to balance a laptop on a sore knee.

I love my iPad.

peter wrote:Got stuck in Havanna for two weeks once with no reading matereal and the only thing I could find in english were books on Che Guevara and farming. I eventually picked up a copy of Jules Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days" abridged for children and read it about ten times consequtively out of desparation.

Hmm... Maybe it is not so bad that we Yanks have been denied access to Cuba for the last 50 years. Aside from the cigars and baseball, of course.

Skipping the multiple (sic) notations my OCD wanted to place in the quoted post. Let he who is without sin...