09-12-2007, 09:20 AM | #1 |
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The EV-DO Thread
I have yet to understand the point of EVDO in the Kindle. Yes, it will allow you to surf the internet on an e-ink screen (not really all that fun, honestly), yes you can download new books from anywhere. But how will it work?
Typically, to have EVDO access, you have to sign a contract with a cellular carrier. I have a mobile broadband card with Sprint, and my cell phone has an EVDO data plan. The sprint card is about $60 a month, and the data plan on my cell phone is about $45 in addition to my typical contract. I can't imagine anyone paying $45-$60 for internet access on an ebook reader. An unlikely scenario is that Amazon is working on a deal with an existing carrier to provide free (or very cheap) access. I think this is highly unlikely, but it's the only thing that makes sense. If that's the case, surely they would have to be concerned about hacks. If I could buy a Kindle and get free/cheap EVDO access, of course I'd want to tether it to my laptop in order to have high speed access on there. If the Kindle is running linux (highly likely), it shouldn't be too difficult to make the necessary modifications to allow this. |
09-12-2007, 09:44 AM | #2 |
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Until the reports of a web browser surfaced, I assumed the connection would be tied to specific sites (perhaps only one site - Amazon) and would be used only for buying and downloading content. The EB-1150 can download books over the Internet when tethered to a PC via USB, so the concept isn't entirely new. Amazon could have a deal with a carrier to provide this limited service, and either offer an inexpensive monthly subscription or bundle the cost in the e-book price. One advantage of this approach is that it isn't tied to Windows or any other desktop O/S.
Last edited by wallcraft; 09-12-2007 at 09:46 AM. |
09-12-2007, 02:07 PM | #3 |
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it seems to me that wifi makes a lot more sense than evdo. I already have sprint / evdo. I wont pay for it again
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09-13-2007, 12:39 AM | #4 | |
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Quote:
It should be a lot more friendly than wifi for the non-technical person, open up you account, privide a credit card, and you can buy books. It doesn't be much simpler. There are a lot of neat things they could do for the 'Techies' too. I'll be curious to see what they do with it, and what the after-market does. |
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09-13-2007, 04:42 AM | #5 |
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Is EV-DO also available in Europe? With the latest rumors that the Kindle would also be available there, it would make sense...
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09-13-2007, 10:02 AM | #6 | |
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Quote:
For world-wide use, WiFi would seem to be the most obvious choice. |
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09-13-2007, 11:08 AM | #7 | |
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Quote:
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09-13-2007, 12:27 PM | #8 | |
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Ralph |
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09-13-2007, 03:57 PM | #9 |
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how fast has it to be? A book would be like 1 mb perhaps 2 or 3 for a big one.
The complete Lord of the rings is around 5 mb in pdf, 3 in txt and 1.5 in LIT. And that is after all 3 books. I wouldn't like to wait for more than 10 minutes for a book, that would be 5 mb /10 minutes = 8 kbyte/s = 67 kbit/s. That is not very much EDGE got a speed on over 200 kbit/s so it would work very well. Then we got 3G, if Amazon really want to have a internet connection everywhere they would prob go over to 3G some time in the EU. regarding the pricing, it could just be a datarate or time cost, no fee for having the contract. And if you only could access the amazon store it could be in the price of the books allready. (the phone company would get thier money form amazon) |
09-14-2007, 07:00 AM | #10 |
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I can't really see the point of the mobile connection, to be honest.
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09-14-2007, 12:43 PM | #11 |
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There have been many negative comments about the Windows-centric approach that Sony took with the Connect store. Direct connection without any desktop machine in the loop gets round this, and should be very good for daily newspaper delivery. Based on the manual, there is also a typical USB client option for downloading content from a desktop machine. This should work from Linux/OSX, but MobiPocket is aggressively Windows-centric at the desktop level so some things (e.g. importing other file formats) will require Windows if you want to stick with MobiPocket software.
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09-14-2007, 03:00 PM | #12 |
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If it is totally self-contained, and doesn't require a PC, only a plug-in, it's the first device I'd consider giving to my grandmother, or someone else that doesn't know PCs well.
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