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Registerning a Kindle


mary

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I am sorry if this has been talked about before.

I have asked for a kindle for a Birthday present and know that it has to be registered to a UK address and UK e mail address, but can this be done here in france or does the first set up have to be done in the UK?

I realise if I do it here it will pick up a French IP address, therefore when you set it up, does it need to pick up the UK IP address the first time?

A friend thought that maybe if I don't return to the UK at least once a year to download X amount of books from a UK IP address, I may have a problem as it will know that I am here in France all the time and not the UK, therefore block my account.

Is it necessary to get the 3G to get around this or have some of you just got the WIFI version and experience no problems. I know about the XpatSheild, is this the way around it?

Many thanks

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Expat Shield is one method of fooling the website (Amazon in your case) into thinking you are in UK.  But you can only use it on a computer (desktop, laptop) on which you can download the program.  So it might be wise to use Expat Shield when registering the Kindle via the PC.  Each time you order do so from the PC under cover of Expat Shield and as far as Amazon are concerned you are ordering from UK.  When you connect the Kindle to wifi whatever you have ordered will be downloaded within 30 seconds or so - it does not seem to matter that the Kindle is on foreign ISP.  It appears that it is the location of the ordering device (the PC) that matters.

From here and Amazon forums it would seem that the 3g device can be used anywhere (where there's a signal) and it's only when ordering via wifi (from a PC or the Kindle itself) that Amazon interfere.  What happened to me was that I ordered about 5 books via PC for delivery to the Kindle. All went well. Then I went ot order another and got a message ''You are not in UK.  Are you travelling?  If so click on the following link''  This took me to a page that did not exist.  I wrote to Amazon explaining that I was at my 2nd home in France, spending part of the year there and the remainder at the UK address to which my account was registered (it's actually my parents' address).  Got a reply saying they would investigate and get back to me.  That was 18 months ago and I'm still waiting!  Now I order on PC using Expat Shield and have had no further problems even on the couple of occasion where I've forgotten to switch Expat Shield on.

Incidentally if you do get pinged for living in France they will divert you to the .fr site where you can get all the same books but pay more.  Not for me, thanks!

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Hello Mary, yes, this has been discussed extensively, but the forum search function isn't working for me, so maybe not for you either?

I think that the way to look at where you register your Kindle depends on where you live, and where you are most likely to buy your AMAZON books. I've emphasised Amazon because that really is the only issue; you can buy ebooks from other sources without restriction and there are loads of free ones out there too.

I bought mine (wi-fi only) from Amazon France and registered it here at my home address. Some French users have registered in UK and not had any problems buying from Amazon UK whilst living here, but other users have had no end of trouble.

I don't think that not returning to the UK in a 12-month period is really an issue; you could quite legitimately be abroad a lot and simply not had time to logon to the UK site... at least that's what I would argue! I can't answer your query about the IP address as I don't know how the Amazon registration process works from a technical point of view.

I previously had an Amazon UK account which I've used for over 10 years; as soon as I registered my Kindle with my French home address the account was switched to an Amazon.Fr account. In practice it makes no difference, I can still buy presents for delivery to UK etc. The only drawback I found is that French books (that's any book bought in France, English or French language) are generally more expensive over here. Bargains can still be found though, and as I said earlier you can buy books from other sites, just make sure you get the Kindle format (mobi). The Kindle will read some other formats but mobi is best. Needless to say, there are loads of pirated books for download too, just as with films.

After several months of pondering I got mine in November and I'm very pleased with it. I stocked up with a load of free classics to start off with, but now I generally buy newer novels. Amazon France has an offer of the day, which changes at midnight; these are normally 0.99€; a lot seem to be from new authors but there is the occasional well-known one.

You might consider 2 accessories: a cover to protect your Kindle; I got one for £5.95 from ebay.uk (the Amazon version is VERY expensive), and secondly a mains charger adaptor. The charge lasts for ages (better still with wi-fi turned off) but if you're going on holiday without your pc you could find it hard to recharge after say a week or two of constant use. I haven't got one of these yet and I'm still trying to decide whether a charger for an iphone (cost around £2) would be OK or whether I have to buy the Amazon version (considerably more expensive at 15€) . No point in buying this from UK as the mains pins would be wrong for EU.

Happy Kindling! 

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I have read these posts and maybe I'm missing something? I was bought a Kindle for Christmas(bought in the UK and fetched out to me at Christmas by my daughter). She registered it to my PC in France-no problems. I have downloaded about 10 books-some free some paid for- from the Amazon UK site with never a problem. I have never used Amazon Fr. and have never been switched to that site when ordering books.
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Mary, I still have my old Uk e-mail address, which is what the Kindle is registered to. Once registered to an e-mail address, it it quite hard to change the e-mail adress it's attached to. You literally have to unregister the Kindle and then re-register it.

I bought mine online, using a uk address and a uk address registered card, but had it delivered to an on-line shopping company in the Uk, who delivered it here for me (2 euros). I have no problems getting into the Uk Amazon site and getting books. The difference is that the Uk site has a lot of non-copyright books on it - A Christmas Carol etc. Basically books I'd always wanted to read. I can also access all the latest books from the Kindle in English, if I so desire. However, I can still get books from Amazon.fr if desired. The UK Kindle comes with a UK charger (3 pin) as well.

 

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[quote user="Mac"]I have read these posts and maybe I'm missing something? I was bought a Kindle for Christmas(bought in the UK and fetched out to me at Christmas by my daughter). She registered it to my PC in France-no problems. I have downloaded about 10 books-some free some paid for- from the Amazon UK site with never a problem. I have never used Amazon Fr. and have never been switched to that site when ordering books.[/quote]

But at least you can refer back to threads such as this if/when you do get the email.  There are plenty of Kindlers in France who have not had a problem, on the other hand there are others, like me, who have.  I think it only fair to point that out to prospective users.  Indeed there was a contributor to this forum who bought a Kindle on the strength of another poster's assurance that there would be no problem using .co.uk.  Then she got ''The Email''.  Eventually she found a workaround.  

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[quote user="JK"]

[quote user="Mac"]I have read these posts and maybe I'm missing something? I was bought a Kindle for Christmas(bought in the UK and fetched out to me at Christmas by my daughter). She registered it to my PC in France-no problems. I have downloaded about 10 books-some free some paid for- from the Amazon UK site with never a problem. I have never used Amazon Fr. and have never been switched to that site when ordering books.[/quote]

But at least you can refer back to threads such as this if/when you do get the email.  There are plenty of Kindlers in France who have not had a problem, on the other hand there are others, like me, who have.  I think it only fair to point that out to prospective users.  Indeed there was a contributor to this forum who bought a Kindle on the strength of another poster's assurance that there would be no problem using .co.uk.  Then she got ''The Email''.  Eventually she found a workaround.  

[/quote]

JK is correct, there doesn't, on the face of it, appear to be any logic in how registration works. There must be a set of rules, but I can't see them.

To make a further point, a Kindle is not registered to a PC. It's registered to the owner at his/her (permenant) address.

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[quote user="Keni"]

I have no problems getting into the Uk Amazon site and getting books. The difference is that the Uk site has a lot of non-copyright books on it - A Christmas Carol etc. Basically books I'd always wanted to read.

[/quote]

Dickens "A Christmas Carol" is available for free download from the Amazon.fr site

http://www.amazon.fr/A-Christmas-Carol-ebook/dp/B000JQUKKU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1327494602&sr=1-1

The choice of books in English, and free books, has improved a lot since I first starting looking 6 months or so ago.

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[quote user="sid"][quote user="Keni"]

Edited quote...... The UK Kindle comes with a UK charger (3 pin) as well.

[/quote]

Really?   The Amazon UK site says that the mains charger is sold seperately.

[/quote]

The wifi-only Kindle comes with a USB cable with a standard USB at one end and a micro-USB at the other (the end that fits the Kindle).  You can then charge the Kindle from a laptop or PC.  With the 3g (keyboard) Kindle you also get an adaptor unit to fit into a 3 pin socket (if you order from .co.uk).

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[quote user="woolybanana"]Amazon maintain that all this address bullshyte is for reasons of copyright, but my feeling is that it is to stop kindle users from shopping between the different Amazon sites and getting the best deal. In other words, profit, profit, profit.[/quote]

The restrictions are not imposed by Amazon themselves but by the publishers who hold the copyrights for different areas.  Amazon would be in breach of their licences with the publishers if they were to sell ebooks outside the licenced markets.  It is also the publishers, not Amazon, who determine the prices in each market.  This is a direct parallel of the Net Book Agreement outlawed in the UK 1/4 century ago to prevent book price fixing.  Seems there is an eNBA now.

And, yes, it's all about profit and it's controlled by the publishers.

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Thanks for all your replies.

When I looked at e books for sale on Amazon UK to see how much they cost from my French laptop, it said, 'this information is not available outside the UK, please redirect to Amazon.com' or something similar, which happened after a few minutes, therefore it must have picked up my IP address.

From what I did see before it booted me out, the books seemed alot cheaper on the UK site....thats why I assume everyone registeres them to Amazon UK.

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Yep, my Kindle came with a nice fetching white 3 pin plug/charger stamped with Amazon on it(!) and matching white lead with USB on one end. Plug one end into Kindle, USB into plug and plug into socket for charging - simples Sergei! x [:D]

 

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Mary: two suggestions.

Get to know Project Gutenberg: it hosts loads of free out-of-copyright books. Some of these are books that Amazon will sell you without telling you that you could have them for free instead.

If you put a lot of books onto your Kindle, consider downloading Calibre to your PC. It's a free e-book management utility, and it will help you keep track of what you've got (there's an excellent "Collections" tool available there), and it will provide a backup copy of books you haven't bought from Amazon. Another advantage of using it is that it will handle conversion of books in other formats into a Kindle (.mobi) format.

Enjoy your reading!

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The easiest way to change the kindle registration is to log into amazon using a PC (not the kindle). First get the serial number of your kindle - - this is on the original box or you can get it from the setting menu.

Log into your french amazon account and deregister. votre compte -> votre compte kindle

Then log into your .uk amazon account and register. "my account" -> manage my kindle. When you register it only asks for a serial number. It is not checking the IP address of where the actual kindle is located.

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That's a useful tip, thanks Richard. [;-)]

For the mains charger, I hope ANO is correct about USB connections because I've ordered one from Pixmania (France) for 9.99€ but it has adaptors for EU, UK and USA and answers all my travel needs (apart from the Space Shuttle perhaps, but then I'll have other things to look at [geek]). I thought I had read warnings about the current in these things, some being too "strong", and also something about the pins which are connected so that the Kindle "knows" that it's a genuine Kindle charger, but we'll soon find out!

 

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That's a useful tip, thanks Richard. [;-)]

For the mains charger, I hope ANO is correct about USB connections because I've ordered one from Pixmania (France) for 9.99€ but it has adaptors for EU, UK and USA and answers all my travel needs (apart from the Space Shuttle perhaps, but then I'll have other things to look at [geek]). I thought I had read warnings about the current in these things, some being too "strong", and also something about the pins which are connected so that the Kindle "knows" that it's a genuine Kindle charger, but we'll soon find out!

 

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[quote user="sid"]

For the mains charger, I hope ANO is correct about USB connections because I've ordered one from Pixmania (France) for 9.99€ but it has adaptors for EU, UK and USA and answers all my travel needs (apart from the Space Shuttle perhaps, but then I'll have other things to look at [geek]). I thought I had read warnings about the current in these things, some being too "strong", and also something about the pins which are connected so that the Kindle "knows" that it's a genuine Kindle charger, but we'll soon find out!

 

[/quote]You can also get a mains USB charger for France from Amazon, Fnac, you name it.  I charge my Kindle in both countries without problems just by using the appropriate plug. Ditto my Smartphone/MP3 player etc....
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