Amazon Kindle in South Africa 1 – How to get ALL Kindle titles in SA

Amazon Kindle in South Africa1 – How to get ALL Kindle titles in SA I, J. Hardspear de la Azotea first saw the Amazon Kindle on the Oprah Show. Oprah Winfrey was getting wax lyrical about this e-Book device from Amazon.com and proceeded to tell the world how much she loves this thin plastic tablet on which she can download and read books, the New York times and many more newspapers, periodicals & magazines. It does not often happen that I, J. Hardspear de la Azotea covet something, but from the moment I saw the Amazon Kindle, I knew that I have to have one. Sony’s e-book reader was the first of its kind to be available in South Africa, but whilst it already piqued my interest on a prior occasion, I was enchanted by this device from Amazon. Well done Oprah, you got me panting for this thing... On her show, Oprah continued to sing the Amazon Kindle’s praises, she interviewed Jeff Bezoz, the CEO of Amazon.com, she showed off the features of the Amazon Kindle and went on like only Oprah can. At the end of the show, Oprah gave everyone in the audience their own kindle and Jeff Bezoz lead the members of the audience in downloading a book each (for free). I was super jealous. The next day, I googled Amazon Kindle and much to my dismay had to learn that the Amazon Kindle at the time was only available in the USA. This was, as far as I could gather in part because Amazon’s Whispernet feature only being available in the States. The whispernet feature uses 3G technology to allow Kindle users to download books directly from Amazon.com to their Kindle devices. The connectivity part of this feature is free and the user only pays for the e-book itself and not for the download thereof. When in November 2009 I learned that the International version of the Kindle 2 has been launched and that the Whispernet feature is now available in South Africa, I knew that the time has come to acquire one. There was just one more hurdle. Due to licensing issues/agreements etc etc, not all the e-Books available for download on Amazon.com will be available in South Africa. (The list of Kindle books available in SA is still considerable) This aspect worried me though, for I was about to spend R3 000 (Three Thousand South African Rand) on something which full use I would not be able to enjoy. I, J. Hardspear de la Azotea found a way to overcome this hurdle however... I am not going to publish my strategy though, but should you wish to know how it is to be done, please mail me with your request at hardspear@hotmail.com Be warned though, that in order for me to know that you are South African, I will send you a question in Afrikaans, which you have to answer in Afrikaans as well. If you are not native Afrikaans speaking – the question should be easy enough to answer in whatever broken Afrikaans you can manage. So, I did buy a Kindle and my next post will deal with my experience with it thus far.