Amazon Disables 3G Web Browsing For New 3G Kindle Touch

destinyland writes "Amazon's going to disable 3G web browsing on their upcoming 'Kindle Touch 3G' — even though it was a prominent feature of the last generation of Kindles. Amazon will still allow web browsing on the Kindle Touch 3G using a local Wi-Fi connection, but it's one of many unsettling details emerging from Amazon's announcement last week. Apparently Amazon's cloud will now also include a list of personal documents that you're mailing to your Kindle. And the on-screen keyboard for Amazon's bargain $79 Kindles won't be a touchscreen keyboard, so users will have to nudge the controller repeatedly to gradually navigate from one key to the next."

Re:No 3G and No Touchscreen Keyboard?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

In the field of pixel-addressable e-ink screened devices, $80 is very aggressive pricing. It would appear that they have chosen to go with the "make it cheaper" option, (which advances in technology generally provide as an alternative to "make it better"), for this particular kindle.

Only the sales figures will say for sure whether it was a good idea; but encheapening the hell out of the lowest-end dedicated conduit to your gigantic electronic store doesn't seem like an obviously crazy strategy...

Non-touch is preferred for reading

[inflex]

I've used touch-screen page turning and I also use the K3 bezel-button page turning systems, I know when it comes to reading a book the bezel mounted side buttons are a lot nicer than having to constantly move your finger and tap the screen just to turn the page.

Sure, when it comes to typing out stuff the non-touch is a bit of a PITA, but I spend more time reading books than trying to type out things.

The $79 kindle is a great development, strips away the bits that a lot of people use infrequently, drops the price, size and weight - all good.

"Unsettling"

[tgd]

Its hard to imagine how anyone could be unsettled by a set of (completely obvious) changes to a consumer device.

Drama much?

- Obviously web browsing over 3G was going to be disabled. Amazon has *always* said it was experimental, and *obviously* they were going to remove it when they annouced free 3G access around the world.
- Obviously a device without a touch screen and nothing but arrow keys was going to be a pain in the ass to use. I can count on my hands the number of times in four years I've used the keyboard on my Kindle. The target audience for it will never miss it.

The submitter is a moron if those were so much as a surprise, much less "unsettling".

Re:No 3G and No Touchscreen Keyboard?

[shadowrat]

It worked great for the iPhone.

Just stating the obvious

[djchristensen]

As others have said, that the non-touch Kindle doesn't have a touch-based keyboard is a tad on the obvious side.

As for the 3G browser, this discussion is the first time I've heard it was available at all. When I got my Kindle, Amazon made it very clear and obvious that the browser was only supported over WiFi. It made sense to me that the free 3G connection was contingent upon the fact that very little bandwidth is used downloading books and checking the Kindle bookstore periodically. It just doesn't make sense that the 3G providers would allow a very low one-time fee for effectively unlimited data usage. If Amazon did open up 3G browsing, then I suspect they only did it because no one uses it. That might be different with the Kindle Touch, I suppose.