Good afternoon,

Anyone using a Kindle and wireless delivery? According to the map on Amazon's site it should work in the USVI but I thought I'd ask about real world usage.
Also Netflix streaming on Tivo/Xbox/Roku/PC etc does -not- work, correct? (not counting slow internet issues.) They claim no Caribbean but maybe someone found a work around or complained enough to get IPs in the allow list.
Has the new Netflix 'free disk if its far away' policy made a noticeable impact? I've gotten 3 already on the mainland and thought perhaps it'd be even higher for items shipping to the VIs.

All islands applicable for these questions.

Thanks all,
artifact

When I click on the streaming deal, it says that because my computer is outside of the continental US, I am not eligible. I haven't heard about the "free disk" deal. We are far away from New Jersey, which is where I send my Netflix movies. And p.s. the Netflix selection is much better than the videostores here which are heavy on action movies.

And what is a Kindle?

Kindle is the new eBook from amazon - you can DL books right to it. It was on Oprah's favorite items Not sure if it works here, but we don't even have XM radio, so not sure about anything similar.

I get regular 3 at a time Netflix and, for STX, it's pretty quick, for having to go through NJ. I do wish it was faster! I heard there's a plant opened or opening in PR. That would be awesome!

What is this free if far away deal? Can you explain this further? I have not found a way around the no streaming video clause - that would be great to know too!

Hi EE.

Kindle is an ebook that downloads content over Amazon Whispernet. Whispernet only works in the U.S. and I don't know if in this instance the USVI is considered part of the U.S., but a call to Amazon should resolve that issue.

Where do you put your book mark??

I have a kindle down here and absolutely love it, I use it everyday. Whispernet definitely works. The only inconvenience in setting up your kindle down here is that you need to give them a stateside billing/shipping address. I put down my family's stateside address but any Kindle purchases I make are billed straight to my credit card which has STX as the billing address.

Re the 'free disk' comment I made
[blog.netflix.com]

Now, if your first choice is not available in your local shipping center, we immediately send the next locally available movie in your Queue. And whenever possible, we also send your first choice from another of our 55 shipping centers throughout the U.S. When this happens, you end up with a complimentary extra DVD rental.

--
I'm on a 3 out at a time plan. I currently have 4 'at home' because they had to ship a disk from a center that was an extra day away.

And yes, Kindel is an ebook reader. I'm thinking books vs mold, bugs, lack of storage, and (I assume) limited library collections makes ebooks the way to go for an avid reader. Thanks NormanPaperman for the confirmation it works in the real world.

artifact

Except you can't pass the same book around to all your friends with a Kindle.

~Trade~

True you can't share books from your kindle with other kindles. However, the books tend to be about 50% cheaper than the physical copies. Moreover, reading on the kindle is environmentally friendly, it saves a ton of paper.

I had never heard of Kindle, so I googled it. Wow, what a neat thing. We have a daughter who is NEVER without a book in her face. I'm hoping the price goes down before next Christmas! She'll probably have one by then, though. Do you keep your books stored on there once you have read them, or do you have to delete them? Not as neat if you have to delete.

You can store up to 200 books at a time on your kindle. You can also purchase memory cards to store all of your purchased materials. Plus, even if you don't store your materials on the kindle or an external memory card you can always access them via Amazon and have them re-transferred to your kindle if you decide you want to access the book/magazine/newspaper.

I'm a bookworm and have a ton of books, I keep them because I do reread the ones I like. Haven't had any trouble with damp, dust yes, but you get that stateside too. The things I don't like about the Kindle, it only holds 200 books and cost about $400, I believe. And the books are $9.99 each! Even amazon isn't that high yet, unless you're getting hardbacks of coarse. Plus I love going to bookstores. Neat technology but its not there yet to me.

What I like so much for our daughter is that since she reads soooooo much, and she travels on business a lot, she can take as many "books" as she wants, all in one neat package. She lives in NYC, so she can even take her local newspaper with her wherever she goes.

HI. When I was in St. Croix I used my kindle and I had no problem. I was up on Herman Hill area and don't know if that helped or not.

It seemed to me you just have to be where there is Sprint service, right? By the way, you don't have to pay for Sprint. It's included.

Juanita, everyone who owns a kindle loves it. The only potential issue is the cost of the device (the books are cheap). If cost isn't an issue, it's a no-brainer.

Okay, steep learning curve on the Kindle. I understand there is a new edition, costs $350 and holds 1500 books. Also, it will read to you, you can get newspapers and magazines, that any books you buy can be re-downloaded if you need the space to buy more books, etc. So does anyone have a new Kindle? Reviews? It works on the Sprint 3G system, but I gather you don't have to be a Sprint customer, correct? It really looks incredible...

I just broke down and ordered one. I should have it Monday so hopefully I can input then. With the cost of shipping and the issue of storage for "real books" I thought it was time. Also it seems like the kindle "book" prices have come down. While new ones may cost $9.99 others are more around $6. Also there are many free kindle books.

The system you back up your books to is amazon (you are also can store 1500 on the kindle itself), so as long as amazon doesn't go out of business you are golden.

You do not need to be a Sprint customer at all. And they have high speed downloads in the usvi, coverage area at amazon.

I've heard the reading feature is a little goofy sounding but might be nice if you were using a cookbook or something.

The magazine selection is very limited and from what I can tell the kindle is only black and white so it doesn't seem like the best idea for them.

There's a lot of comments and blogs, good and bad at the kindle store on amazon.

Betty: They won't send it to you here, will they? I await your review!!

No they will not, but I have a wonderful sister! I try not to bug her and use vi cargo as much as possible, but this made me a little nervous so I sent it to her. I order it and she had it the next day. She said it seem'd to be rattling around, that it wasn't packaged well, so she took it to the ups store and repacked it there. So fingers crossed that it clears customs Monday or I've told my husband he has to pull strings! I feel like a kid on xmas....so many books that will be so easy to get, I'm a geek and I'm excited. My cover is back ordered for a month though.

You can actually stream through netflix if you use a proxy located in the continental US. Basically this means routing your internet traffic through another location so netflix thinks that you are in the US. The downside is that your connection speed will probably go down.

This article should be helpful

[www.ghacks.net]

~Matt

ditto matt... I proxy into my office in the states from STX and order up a bunch of movies (i think you can find a proxy service for a few bucks a month) and can stream away on my xbox without having to play any games.

Kindle worked on and off for me, hard to get good connections at least on some parts of the island.

Got the Kindle and having fun playing with it. Although its been so rainy and overcast today, service has been spotty. Its much easier to pick your books out online from Amazon IMO. Easier to search and see reviews. But it does indeed download very quickly. Seem'd heavier then it look, but very light all the same. I was most worried about the page turn feature, but its very secure and doesn't turn unless you click it. Also the read aloud feature is pretty cool, only a little robot sounding.

The only problem I've had with it so far is to buy anything your credit card must have a stateside mailing address. The address where you SEND your credit card statements must be stateside in other words. So I had to do a little rearranging. Kindle support was very helpful and suggested a visa gift card as a solution if I could not change any of my credit cards.

i heard about the kindles, but i just like the feeling of turning pages... old fashioned, i guess!

i order netflix and my dvds have been coming pretty regularly (except for post-katrina, when my service center went down and was changed). i love the service.

it's not only netflix that locks us in the u.s.v.i. out of video downloads. some news video feeds don't work for these ip addresses either. plucks my nerves. not willing to go through too much trey-ley-ley - i just move on to something else to do.

best to you,
anita.

"do the best that you can in the place where you are, and be kind."
--- scott nearing

I am on my third Kindle. Amazon just shipped me another. The first tow stopped working. Hopefully they have corrected the hardware problem with the new Kindle 2. I love the thing when it works. Wispernet is Sprit so it works where you can get Sprint coverage.