Amazon is really in motion these days, isn't it.
Now they've announced that the Kindle Touch 3G will be available in over 175 countries. All this time, the UK had only the Kindle Basic (NoTouch/NoKeyboard) available for purchase there.
The heading on their Press Release:
' Kindle Touch 3G – the most full-featured Kindle e-reader – easy-to-use touch screen and free 3G wireless, no annual contracts or monthly fees and never pay for or hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot
Now available in multiple languages – German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and American and British English '
It's available today for pre-order from Amazon.
The Kindle Touch 3G will ship to customers beginning April 27, a month from now. Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are also available today for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.it. (Until recently, Kindles in Italy were ordered from U.S. Amazon.)
Update- A personal review or report cited today
KindleZen tweeted the link to this article, "The Right Tool for the Job: The Kindle Touch," this morning, giving his reasons for the title. [End of update]
X-ray Feature
I personally love using the X-Ray feature (now being made available on Kindle Fire also) on non-fiction books especially, but it's also useful to keep track of characters in novels as well.
You can learn more about what X-Ray actually is or does, at What does X-Ray do? and with an example of my use of it in the book on Steve Jobs in the Tips post on Kindle Touch and its X-Ray Feature.
Kindle Touch features, beyond reading
The Kindle Touch (both in WiFi and in 3G/WiFi) comes with built-in speakers supporting text-to-speech when the publisher allows it, audiobooks, and mp3 files.
Now, I've been asked a lot about whether to get a Kindle or a Nook Touch. I had bought a Nook Color on sight at my B&N (and used it daily for a year) but am not keen on the Nook Simple Touch because its many font faces and size choices displayed much lighter than what I'm used to seeing with the Kindle 3 Keyboard and Touch models. B&N wouldn't allow me to photograph them side by side so I could have something more to go on than my personal reaction. But the relative lightness was described in some magazine reviews and they've recently improved the darkness level, I read. The darkness of fonts is important to me, and I was among those who posted about the lightness of Kindle 2 fonts (and was quoted in Wired on the problem for some Kindle users).
Nook and its "no ads" statement
It's said the Nook doesn't have ads, but almost half the Nook's Home screen is comprised of recommendations from B&N as to what you might like to read. I'm one that doesn't want books I haven't chosen to buy, appearing on my home screen like that and, to me, they are ads, and others have felt that way.
Nook Touch advantages over Kindle Touch
However, in response to those who ask, there are things many have preferred on the Nook (though The Nook Touch is NOT available globally nor can most people outside the U.S. buy Nook books -- which is not a small point
[ B&N was trying to change this.
Update
Commenter Geert responded that B&N changed this last year to allow US credit card holders to be able to buy from outside the U.S. He added a note about SD card storage, so read the comments also to get that added information.
. The Nook has a wider bezel. That may make it look squarer but it gives the hands more support in that you don't inadvertently touch the screen and turn a page that way.
. You can hold the Nook Touch and turn pages with one hand more easily, because it has page-turn buttons, while Amazon did away with the buttons.
. You can flip ahead more easily on the Nook, with a slider that lets you move ahead a certain amount.
. The Nook Touch, like the Kindle Touch, has "Real" page numbers matching a given print book version for thousands of books, but they also have page numbers that they create when there is nothing available with page numbers that would match a print book. Many are comforted by having page numbers at all, as they're a more traditional reference than a 4-digit 'location' number (even if the latter is accurate in absolute terms no matter what the font size may be).
Why would anyone buy a Kindle Touch over the Nook Touch?
A couple of months ago, an Amazon Kindle forum member asked about this point:
If the Kindle Touch 3G does not offer 3G access usable on any webpages beyond Free 24/7 Wikipedia access and the Amazon store, why should anyone not just buy a Nook then.
(Never mind that no other e-reader offers free 3G access 24/7 to Wikipedia.)
I didn't blog my response for months because I know that I'm biased on this. But that's based on some quite real aspects of the two e-readers.
So, here's a copy of what I posted at the time, in a format that replies to what the Kindle does have and can do that the Nook Touch can't. Again, there's no pretense to being neutral, as the reasons given are the basis for the bias in my case.
' Zad,
Re your note that the new KTouch is [basically] the nook Touch and your question
"What sets your reader apart now Amazon?"
I'm not Amazon but I've identified the following for a blog entry earlier:
1a. The Kindle has a web browser that works very well under WiFi.
1b. The Nook doesn't have a web-browser at all and B&N removed recently the vestiges of the hidden one that didn't really work, which is why B&N's comparison chart said the Nook didn't have a web browser.
2a. The Kindle has audio and music
2b. The Nook Touch doesn't.
3a. The Kindle has text to speech on most books and all personal docs
3b. The Nook doesn't.
4a. Kindle owners get 5 free gigs of storage space for personal documents (non-Amazon documents) [And these are now sync'd across various devices.]
4b. Nook owners don't. Nor do they have the free 5 gigs ALL Amazon customers get for storage of whatever legitimate [non-Amazon] documents and files they have.
5a. The Kindle can zoom any photo [or map] to full screen, within a book.
5b. The Nook Touch can't. (I can't do it on my NookColor books either.)
6a. Kindle owners who pay $6.58/mo. for unlimited free 2-day shipping of goods sold by Amazon itself get a bonus of access to instant video streaming of about 12,000 movies and tv shows -- older, but good ones, and some new ones from PBS and BBC -- for either their computers, their Kindle Fires if they have one, or even the TV, via a Roku or siimilar box.
6b. B&N offers no free streaming of media
7a. Kindle owners who pay that Prime membership also get now the bonus of being able to borrow one popular book per calendar month with no waiting period or due date.
7b. B&N doesn't have a program like that.
8a. Owners of the Kindle ereader can buy Kindle books when vacationing out of the country.
8b. Owners of the Nook ereader can't buy Nook books when out of the U.S.
[Update: This was changed to allow this for U.S. customers using US credit cards.]
9a. 3G Kindle owners get free 3G web access to all of Wikipedia at any time, to look up information.
9b. The Nook Touch B&W has no web browser.
10a. Kindle owners get a personal web server page that shows their annotations for each book, backed up and displayable and transferrable to their computers.
10b. B&N hasn't made anything like that for the Nook.
- Andrys
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com '
Note that I didn't mention the X-Ray feature, which many find quite useful.
Nevertheless, look at the Nook Touch advantages above before making up your mind if you're trying to decide between the two (as many still are).
Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX
Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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