Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler
Kindle Has A Problem!
I have been on the road in Europe with my new Kindle. Readers know I have given Kindle a rave review to date. Unless I am missing something I have found a major flaw in Kindle for someone who travels outside of the USA.
One of the nice features of Kindle is the ability to subscribe to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. A user can buy these papers by the day, a week or a month. Of course that means that the papers would be automatically downloaded.
Unfortunately Kindle uses (I believe) the Sprint network. Sprint is fine if you remain in the United States but it does not work outside the USA. This means that I cannot get the above mentioned newspapers.
I find it hard to believe that the Amazon team did not think this problem through? Perhaps this is a case of a bunch of engineers based in Seattle who never travel outside of the USA and therefore missed this point? Amazon needs to rectify this problem or at least give refunds to those who subscribe to the Times and Wall Street Journal.
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You should be able to download newspapers from the Amazon Kindle site (under Your Media Library) using your computer's USB connection when you're outside of wireless coverage.
Thanks for the reply and help. I did not bring along the cable on this trip so I cannot give your idea a try. Regardless Amazon should have offered a wireless provider who can operate worldwide. Not having wireless service worldwide reduces the usefulness of Kindle. In this day and age there is no excuse not to have wireless access worldwide.
I feel your pain! I'm an expat currently living in London, UK. I got a Kindle despite knowing I wouldn't have wireless access. Crossing my fingers that it will become available in more countries within the year (but also not holding my breath...).
I've been a Kindle user since day 1 (Nov 16, 2007)and am an almost total convert. When not on the road, I do about 80% of my book reading and about 30% of my magazine and newspaper reading. When on the road those %s switch to 100% and 80% (it is perfect for reading in bed and on a plane). I bought knowing that intn'l would be a few years down the road. I get over it by carrying a USB cable and using Internet cafes (did it last week in Buenos Aires for 1 peso=33 cents) and though it is extra work, gets me my pubs faster than finding a newstand.
Important thing about the Kindle is that it is not just a device or a platform for existing content formats, but a super platform (will move to superduper when gets more uptake and features) for establishing new content brands tailored to the platform. I'm licensing VP at a content syndicate and worked with Amazon to launch a new Kindle only weekly political commentary magazine, "Opinionated", featuring our top syndicated columnists. It was in the top 10 bestsellers for nearly a week and has stayed in the mid to high top 100 since. I put together the magazine, wrote and posted my Editor's Note all from that same Internet cafe in BA (cost was 66 cents) -- in essence publishing the mag from a 4 computer rahter dingy Internet cafe halfway around the world in about 2 hours!
I also launched a Pop Culture magazine ("PopMatters") and in the next few weeks I'm launching a personal finance magazine ("CASH- Personal Finance for Real People") featuring a broad range of syndicated content and features from Kiplinger's. I see it as an alternative to the Forbes and Fortunes, which are more personal finance for titans of industry.
Not making money yet but it is early days and Amazon makes it nearly costless to produce, publish and distribute for those of us with the content and a decent content management system.
Please check out Opinionated, PopMatters and CASH (when its launched). I'd love to get your thoughts on the Kindle as a platform for new products.