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Amazon has release two new Kindles, one with 3G and WiFi (3G is free for use everywhere in the world) for $189 and one model with only WiFi for $139. 3G + WiFi model is available in Graphite and White and the Wifi Model is available only in White Graphite. The landed cost of 3G+Wifi version is ~$284 which is approximately Rs. 13,300 The landed cost of just the Wifi version is ~$216 which is approximately Rs. 10,100 The New Kindle  has better contrast (50% better than the previous models) 21% smaller size (while keeping the same size screen) 15% lighter 20% faster page turns Storage has doubled one MONTH battery life As always the Kindle DX model is available in Graphite for $379, (landed cost $540 which is approximately Rs. 25,200)

Please Note: Prices have fallen further and new variants are not available. Please see this post. http://chirag.patnaiks.in/2010/07/prices-in-india-of-new-kindles-3gwifi.html See below for links to some other posts on how to buy the Kindle in India Original Post: Just eight months after the launch of Kindle International version, the price of the regular sized Kindle has been dropped by a whopping $70 (Primarily because of the drop in price of the Nook reader). The total cost of importing the Kindle is now down to $283. Which is approximately Rs. 13,000 including shipping and taxes. This is about $100 less than before. Quite cool. Makes the device much more attractive than before. If you have been waiting on the sidelines, this is a great time to buy it. Go here and get it. PS: You may get a 2-3K customs deposit refund. In which case the price drops to a range of Rs. 10,000, bang in the price range of the Infibeam Pi. See other posts on the subject below http://chirag.patna...

The Amazon Kindle currently does not support Hindi and other Indian languages. So I was experimenting and messing around with the Kindle, till I discovered that we can actually display Devanagari (and Bengali) text as well. Here are a couple of samples. More instructions coming soon.

At my workplace are doing some work with Infibeam for their new ereader Pi. A quick rundown on the specs (from the Infibeam site) Height     188 mm Width     118 mm Thickness     9.5 mm Weight     180 gm Screen / Display     * 6" E Ink® Vizplex     * 600x800 pixels     * No backlight. Daylight readable. Battery Life     7 days File Formats Supported Books / Text     PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, MOBI, DOC Images     JPG, BMP, PNG Audio     MP3 Control & Connectors     * 3 mm Audio Earphone Connector     * SD Card Slot     * Mini USB Slot     * Button for 4-Way Navigation & Selection.     * Buttons back, home, plus / minus for size changes etc. Internal Memory     512 MB SD Card Slot upto 4GB   ...

About 10 days ago, a journo from HT Brunch followed the ever popular Kindle in India post and left a comment saying he would like to speak to me regarding my experience using the Kindle. So he called up and asked his questions. He then called back asking if they could photograph the Kindle (amusingly HT, which publishes a Kindle edition did not have a Kindle handy to shoot) which he did against the backdrop of my wife's Agatha Christie collection. (in case you are curious, the book open in the Kindle is one from the Star Wars series). I was quoted some. You can read the story here .

We recently got a bookshelf made for our house and all the books that had been jammed into clothes cupboards and  were lying around the house came together into it. I found (re-discovered) a a book titled The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary , a book I bought almost a couple of years ago at a BN store in Baltimore . Anyway so I finally decided to start reading it. A few dozen pages into the book I was wishing to myself. Does it have a Kindle edition? ( It does .) In a few short weeks I have become addicted to reading on the Kindle. I don’t think I will ever be comfortable reading long form text on a computer screen as it exists today. Even reading physical books  seems to be a bit old fashioned. I will admit that there is there are lots of merits in a physical book. No battery. You can toss it anywhere with almost anything without anything happening to it. You can stamp on it etc. etc. But still. The only reason one would want books is for be...

A big part of the cost of the Kindle was the Import fee deposit $98 or so. This along with shipping costs brings the total landed cost of the Kindle in India to $378. If you have read about my experience ordering the Kindle in India , I mentioned there that the Customs officer said that consignment carried a duty of around Rs. 3000. I wondered then as to what happened to the remaining Rs. 2000 or so. This morning I was in for a pleasant surprise. Over the weekend I got a  mail from Amazon.com telling me that I was entitled a refund of $37.35.  This immediately brings down the cost of the Kindle in India to $341 or so. Which is about Rs. 16,000. My Kindle purchase is looking more and more attractive. :). If there ever was an example of great customer service. This is it. The only catch is that I got this money back after nearly two months.  What are you waiting  for? Get your Kindle from Amazon .

Amazon.com sold more Kindle books than physical books not quite the tipping point, but a significant milestone has been reached. Keep in mind that Amazon already sells more books than any other retailer. Good to know that I am on the leading edge of a trend.

Please note: Amazon has released new versions of the Kindle. For prices and features, please go to Prices in India of New Kindles 3G+WiFi and WiFi editions Original Post: My wife decided that she needed to gift me a Kindle for our anniversary. I asked a colleague, if her husband (who was traveling to the US) could carry back one. He couldn't, because of an erratic travel schedule. So we decided to order one right here directly since Amazon was kind enough to open up direct shipping to India. So we ordered on a Tuesday evening (India Time) and Amazon being Amazon shipped the device straight away on the same day itself. I very eagerly tracked the package using the DHL sites (yes, I used three different DHL sites, US, UK and India. They give different info when the package is in that respective country) and in three days flat it was here across the seven seas at Delhi airport. Only I was in Noida which is an interstate delivery for DHL. Which meant that I had to fill out an ar...