Amazon Kindle 3G

Yeah, my 2011 Kindle 3G needed a new battery, but otherwise, it's still as good as new. Were the quality standards just different back then?

I only use eInk to read at the beach or pool. I am still happily using a Kindle 3G. That’s an old, old model, but it still works and it has physical page turn buttons. Too old to work with the Kindle store even over WiFi. But sideloading works just fine, and I always have a laptop on vacation. As long as I have 3-4 books ready each day I’ll never be caught short. Download, strip DRM if desired, sideload. Now I suppose it will just be Anna and me doing the sideload.

It did! I took one with me when traveling by sea for a few weeks and it was great to be able to download the news whenever a scrap of 3G appeared from whatever remote island or coastal outcrop. I even remember using the janky browser to try find a hotel when arriving somewhere in the middle of the night when everything was closed. Sadly the "free worldwide 3G" offering has died in recent Kindles, making them less useful as a travel device. My experience with the Kindle 3G back in the day made me feel like there should be some kind of international public service set up to provide free worldwide internet, just enough to send email and download the news and weather. I think if you have a high-end phone you can buy eSIMs nowadays that should work in multiple countries, but there's something appealing about the idea that people would never have to worry, just knowing that wherever they end up, with whatever device they have available to them, they'll be able to access basic informational services in their own language.

I still have my Kindle 3g. I love it. The battery on mine is toast right now so it's not operable. I was going to buy a new Kindle but the prime day preview in Canada doesn't show any Kindles on sale and I was hoping Amazon was going to release an oasis v2 with USB-c before I replaced this. I might just pay $30 for another battery and stick with this Kindle keyboard.

Yeah. My friends swear by it, but I can't stand it. I miss my old Kindle 3G with side buttons.

I have a third-generation Kindle 3G (edit: [2]), and I'm happy with it - since I never used a cover I got a few broken "pixels" on the display, but these are not very annoying, they look more like ink smudges. I'll probably get the new Paperwhite next (and definitely with a cover!). For software I use Calibre, I have never used Amazon's own thing. If I buy from Amazon I use the USB cable and Calibre to transfer it, the WLAN/whispernet is always off. That way battery lasts for about a month and I don't get any "unexpected surprises" from Amazon [1] I have held the Kobo in store and it's pretty much identical in terms of dimensions/clarity/weight. Not sure about the rest. [1] Like this one: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama... [2] Here's one on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amazon-Kindle-3rd-Generation-WI-FI-w...