6 ms·

Amazon drops price on their Kindle 2 to $299

22 points by kirse 17y ago

pclark 17y ago
just launch in UK
- ntoshev 17y ago
  In the rest of the world too. Just allow me to put my own data SIM in it.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    And, while we are at it, please include some wi-fi in the bundle. It's a shame to market it to students and not letting them use on-campus wi-fi data links. 3G when there is a wifi link available seems such a waste of spectrum...
yan 17y ago
I so hope they lower the DX next.
jli 17y ago
i would buy it immediately if is supported chinese
- rbanffy 17y ago
  I would buy immediately if it supported GSM networks (or, at least, wi-fi)
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    Why? The EV-DO modem is plenty fast and requires no user intervention whatsoever. WiFi in this case would simply add more user configuration with negligible benefits (you're downloading BOOKS, not YouTube videos). And why would GSM/CDMA matter at all? It's not as if you're paying for the service...
    - rdl 17y ago
      GSM would allow it to be used in markets without EVDO, although Amazon would need to figure out some kind of roaming agreement, flatrate data pricing, etc. I use my Kindles (K1 and DX, I've seen other people with K2...I'll probably buy one myself for completeness) here in Afghanistan, and am probably going to set up a semi-pirate 1xRTT network, as USB gets old fast. The K1 only does EVDO (for which BTS gear is expensive), but the K2/DX do 1xRTT, so you can hack firmware on some of the consumer femtocells to remove GPS checks or spoof GPS.
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        Amazon doesn't need to figure out any roaming deals. i have my own country-wide (and Brazil is pretty wide) data plan and adding one more device would be trivial. As for the wi-fi, I have a big library sitting on my network and it would not fit in a Kindle.
      - rbanffy 17y ago
        Amazon doesn't need to figure out any roaming deals. i have my own country-wide (and Brazil is pretty wide) data plan and adding one more device would be trivial. As for the wi-fi, I have a big library sitting on my network and it would not fit in a Kindle.
leviathant 17y ago
Yarr, smooth use of an affiliate tag there, kirse.
- staunch 17y ago
  Not cool in my book. tag=f033-20 -- It seems like the affiliate ID is also intentionally made to look like it isn't one. LAME.
  - mediaman 17y ago
    Does that actually make any money though? I often wonder what the purpose of chasing a few bucks here and there is if it doesn't make much and isn't scalable. Maybe it does make some money.
    - leviathant 17y ago
      Back when people bought CDs, I'd make several grand in the course of a week each time Nine Inch Nails album preorders went live on Amazon & I posted links on my (well-known among fans) website. Heck, I made $500 off MP3 downloads of the Ghosts album when that came out. This allowed me to get better hosting, and to send money to other people who've helped me with the site, as well as fund contests for readers. The Amazon cookie persists for 24 hours, so if you click on that Kindle link today, but then tonight, go home and buy a defibrillator or 10 camcorders, the guy who slipped his affiliate link onto HN gets the commission on that. I use those as examples because they're things people have bought after clicking through NIN mp3/pre-order links. It's also worth noting that Amazon does a flat 10% rate on Kindle sales for affiliates... all other consumer electronics are a flat 4%. Amazon Associates is like free money if you run a blog, and so long as you're up front about that, I think that's fine. Lots of people are going to Amazon anyway. Posting your own affiliate link to a site like this and not disclosing affiliation is a little skeezy.
      - leviathant 17y ago
        In the interest of diffusing knowledge - NIN gives away studio recordings for free these days, and that saw the end of me getting $20-$50 a month from casual user visits to our music/merch page (theninhotline.net/features/merch) Since then, I've changed our merch page around to aggregate eBay searches, and now make about the same from casual viewers as I did when the merch page was Amazon-centric. I also make $20-$60 a month from tshirt commissions through Goodrock. I'm certainly not quitting my day job, but I like that this hobby of mine has become self-sustaining.

22 points by kirse 17y ago

pclark 17y ago

just launch in UK

ntoshev 17y ago
In the rest of the world too. Just allow me to put my own data SIM in it.
- rbanffy 17y ago
  And, while we are at it, please include some wi-fi in the bundle. It's a shame to market it to students and not letting them use on-campus wi-fi data links. 3G when there is a wifi link available seems such a waste of spectrum...

yan 17y ago

I so hope they lower the DX next.

jli 17y ago

i would buy it immediately if is supported chinese

rbanffy 17y ago
I would buy immediately if it supported GSM networks (or, at least, wi-fi)
- potatolicious 17y ago
  Why? The EV-DO modem is plenty fast and requires no user intervention whatsoever. WiFi in this case would simply add more user configuration with negligible benefits (you're downloading BOOKS, not YouTube videos). And why would GSM/CDMA matter at all? It's not as if you're paying for the service...
  - rdl 17y ago
    GSM would allow it to be used in markets without EVDO, although Amazon would need to figure out some kind of roaming agreement, flatrate data pricing, etc. I use my Kindles (K1 and DX, I've seen other people with K2...I'll probably buy one myself for completeness) here in Afghanistan, and am probably going to set up a semi-pirate 1xRTT network, as USB gets old fast. The K1 only does EVDO (for which BTS gear is expensive), but the K2/DX do 1xRTT, so you can hack firmware on some of the consumer femtocells to remove GPS checks or spoof GPS.
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      Amazon doesn't need to figure out any roaming deals. i have my own country-wide (and Brazil is pretty wide) data plan and adding one more device would be trivial. As for the wi-fi, I have a big library sitting on my network and it would not fit in a Kindle.
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      Amazon doesn't need to figure out any roaming deals. i have my own country-wide (and Brazil is pretty wide) data plan and adding one more device would be trivial. As for the wi-fi, I have a big library sitting on my network and it would not fit in a Kindle.

leviathant 17y ago

Yarr, smooth use of an affiliate tag there, kirse.

staunch 17y ago
Not cool in my book. tag=f033-20 -- It seems like the affiliate ID is also intentionally made to look like it isn't one. LAME.
- mediaman 17y ago
  Does that actually make any money though? I often wonder what the purpose of chasing a few bucks here and there is if it doesn't make much and isn't scalable. Maybe it does make some money.
  - leviathant 17y ago
    Back when people bought CDs, I'd make several grand in the course of a week each time Nine Inch Nails album preorders went live on Amazon & I posted links on my (well-known among fans) website. Heck, I made $500 off MP3 downloads of the Ghosts album when that came out. This allowed me to get better hosting, and to send money to other people who've helped me with the site, as well as fund contests for readers. The Amazon cookie persists for 24 hours, so if you click on that Kindle link today, but then tonight, go home and buy a defibrillator or 10 camcorders, the guy who slipped his affiliate link onto HN gets the commission on that. I use those as examples because they're things people have bought after clicking through NIN mp3/pre-order links. It's also worth noting that Amazon does a flat 10% rate on Kindle sales for affiliates... all other consumer electronics are a flat 4%. Amazon Associates is like free money if you run a blog, and so long as you're up front about that, I think that's fine. Lots of people are going to Amazon anyway. Posting your own affiliate link to a site like this and not disclosing affiliation is a little skeezy.
    - leviathant 17y ago
      In the interest of diffusing knowledge - NIN gives away studio recordings for free these days, and that saw the end of me getting $20-$50 a month from casual user visits to our music/merch page (theninhotline.net/features/merch) Since then, I've changed our merch page around to aggregate eBay searches, and now make about the same from casual viewers as I did when the merch page was Amazon-centric. I also make $20-$60 a month from tshirt commissions through Goodrock. I'm certainly not quitting my day job, but I like that this hobby of mine has become self-sustaining.