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This makes sense

Nearly all of Britons don’t use their gadgets’ full functionality
Despite spending more than £350 each last year on new gadgets, the majority of Britons don’t use the full extent of their functionality

I’ve had a Kindle for 6 weeks now and I still can’t work out how to get it to download a book.

42 thoughts on “This makes sense”

  1. There are several ways. Wi-fi is easiest.
    You can also do it without wi-fi.
    Project Gutenberg offers a download option to the pc. Then plug in the Kindle and drag and drop.
    Only suitable for out of copyright works though.

    How much did you really want one, if you haven’t workout how to download?

  2. If you buy legit books from Amazon, it does it all automatically. If you have pdf books and wotnot you can email them to it… but most the setup and wotnot happens on the Amazon website, not on the device itself.

  3. I agree that’s what is supposed to happen but it isn’t what actually does. Connect to Wi Fi and try to enter the Amazon site and it says not connected to wi fi. So, can’t actually download anything.

  4. Maybe you need to enter the password for the wi-fi network you are using. The password should have been told to you when the network was set up.

    On the Kindle press the Home button (or touch screen equivalent of you have that), then the Menu button with the little lines, then choose Settings. Then scroll down to Wi-Fi networks and click on View. It should show what wi-fi networks are available. Choose yours and enter the password. I can’t remember the exact prompts but they were fairly self-explanatory. You only need to enter the password once, from then on you just can order with one click on the Amazon website if you have that set up.

    At least that’s the procedure that worked for me when we changed our router and the downloads stopped working.

  5. Yes, got that far. And it tells me that I am on wifi. And then refuses top do anything further.

  6. Full functionality? Who uses that? I don’t use my laptop for gaming. Many people do. I don’t use it for watching movies. Again, many people do.

    I do use it for designing secure network architectures and for penetration testing. Few people do either of those.

    It is much easier to build extra functionality in to a generic device and let people use what they want. Which will usually be a small subset of the overall capability.

    However, on the Kindle thing, you are in severe danger of living up to Chuka’s ridiculous attempt at generating a stereotype.

  7. bloke (not) in spain

    Can’t say I’d advise downloading books to Kindle, anyway. They download as the Kindle proprietary .AZW format with all sorts of restrictions. Download to a computer & as Alex says, use Calibre to reformat to .MOBI
    Apart from at set-up, my Kindle’s never been connected. Won’t be either. Connect to Amazon & you’re sharing your book list with them. None of their bloody business.

  8. I’m with Surreptitious Evil (above at June 25, 2014 at 9:01am) on this.

    My car has a cigarette lighter and it has never been used. Is that the price of a car wasted?

    In the course of my work, I buy quite a few textbooks: but its rare for me to read every page; they are for reference or for their coverage of a particular (or a few) technological issues. What a waste!

    As for using the full functionality of any one of my computers and its software — life is not long enough.

    What sort of crap article is this in the Telegraph? Is this some sort of sophisticated bears sh*t in the woods article? No, it’s advertising for another function of Barclays Bank that will not be used by well over 50% of its customers.

    Best regards

  9. Yes, got that far. And it tells me that I am on wifi. And then refuses top do anything further.

    And I was so enjoying the unfamiliar pleasure of feeling quite the expert.

    My only remaining suggestion is that you must have failed to placate the gremlins. Burn some engine oil.

  10. I had to do the wi-fi connection 3 times when I first got my kindle, but after that it worked fine.

    A damned nuisance, having to put in the bloody access code 3 times by scrolling through the on-screen typewriter (mine is the cheap non touch-screen version), but it worked after that.

  11. It has been connected, yes, I managed to download half a book at home in Portugal. But just cannot get it to work here in Czech.

  12. You downloaded half a book from Amazon? I don’t think that’s possible. Anyway, try a reset. Hold the power button until the green light flashes.

  13. It could be the network you’re connected to is doing some kind of filtering, or has a heavily contended Internet connection, resulting in unreliable connections. TCP /should/ prevent that, but I see ‘not connected to Internet’ type messages on my various Android devices when I’m using my ADSL connection heavily (e.g. a large download from a fast external site).

    Keep trying, and try other networks. Try tethering with a 3G phone if you have a suitably unlimited contract that won’t charge you exorbitantly for doing so.

  14. Just wanted to make sure it was a real Kindle, not a Fire.

    Is your laptop connecting through the same connection? It’s not one of these systems that let’s you connect OK but then returns a log-in screen when you try to do something?

  15. Too thick to work a web site. And what you are looking at here is a …?

    I can tell you that a lot of tech problems arise from the kit being tested in the US with clean, fast, reliable broadband and then falling flat on it’s arse when you try to use it out here in the real world.

  16. Does Amazon run a country segragation with the Kindle like itunes and netflix (ie you trying to download in other contries from your normal one casuses problems)?

  17. The Other Bloke in Italy

    Tim, I am sure it is not you, or your UKIP membership (Julia: Hah!). Kindles can be a bugger to network.

    At one stage, my lady’s Kindle went straight into an old router – I think it was a pre-War model – but refused to connect to my sooper-dooper-rooter contraption. Trouble was, the old router died at that moment.

    A bit frustrating, as I wanted to test a book I had published to Kindle. However, I gave my Lady’s device a good swearing, them left it left beside the router overnight. In the morning it was there.

  18. You could come at this from another angle, if you have a smartphone – install the kindle app and see how far you get. If that works, then at least you know your account/library is OK, and might rule out some of the possible network problems.

  19. @TimothyA. You can download books from Amazon.co.uk in foreign lands but for MP3s you can’t… unless you use a VPN that pretends you’re in UK.

  20. So Much for Subtlety

    Nearly all of Britons don’t use their gadgets’ full functionality

    I wonder how many different tools you would need on your Swiss Army knife before 90% of owners didn’t use them all? Not even once. I would guess it was quite low – like maybe eight.

    We all have a lot of gadgets with a lot of functions. I haven’t even used all of my TV’s functions. Not even all the options given to me by my microwave. Come to think of it, I used to have a bread maker which had unexplored options.

  21. You may have a software problem.

    Contact Amazon support and they will replace your device.

    I’ve had two with this problem. Connected, but can’t access anything. (they were old fashioned Kindle Keyboards, and Amazon replaced one with a spanking new Paperwhite for nout).

  22. … which is like saying, despite diners going to an expensive restaurant, they don’t eat all that is on the menu.

    There is a difference, as a salesman will tell you, between features and benefits. Not all features are benefits to everyone.

    Having many features on a gadget allows choice. And choice has a price.

  23. Shopping with Kindle.

    First you do not need to be connected to a wi fi network or a PC

    Kindles use mobile phone networks.

    Menu. Turn Wireless On

    Wait

    You should get a symbol top of screen EDGE… next to battery icon and signal strength.

    (If you are in a bad reception area you may not get a connexion or it may take a while.)

    Then in Menu: Shop in Kindle Store.

    You should see top screen, ‘Wireless connecting’

    Then you should be in Kindle store can browse and purchase. Purchases download automatically over the mobile phone network… you are not charged for the connexion.

    When finished best to go into Menu and ‘Turn Wireless Off’ to save battery.

    One of the reasons why Kindle does not work in some markets is because Amazon have not done a deal with the mobile networks.

    I bought my Kindle on the US website before it was available in France, and I was redirected from the French site.

    I also had to purchase books from the US site, and still do, because at the time they were not available in France.

    Hope that helps.

  24. Tim, I had a similar problem on my shiny new Samsung Tab 3. I coudn’t download the Amazon app or the Kindle app whatever I tried.

    I finally googled the problem from my laptop and it was suggested that I clear the data and cache for the Play Store app. I did this, (using Settings), and the Tablet downloaded new versions of all it’s apps and then it could finally download the Amazon stuff. I think the Play Store thing, which controls all downloads in Android, was stuck in some test mode and hadn’t registered the new wi-fi setting.

    Of course all this information is useless to you as it concerns an Android tablet rather than a Kindle, except to note that googling the problem might get you an answer.

    As for not using it’s functionality, I only bought it to read cheap sci-fi books and listen to good opera while I sit by the lake, (or more accurately in a bar vaguely near a lake).

  25. Quickest is to buy the book through your desktop or laptop (avoids messing about with Kindle simulated keyboards).
    Unless your Kindle is off the back of a van, yours will have been registered when you bought it & named something twee like ‘Tim’s Kindle’. So, on laptop, browse for book, check the reviews etc, select Kindle version and 1-Click buy. It’ll ask you to confirm that you want it downloaded to ‘Tim’s Kindle’ then zip it to your Paperwhite (which you should swiched on WiFi). When it’s downloaded you’ll see the title pop up on the book list & should then switch off WiFi since it’s a battery hog.
    This works for me in rural Italy via Telecom Italia lines draped over trees, so should work anywhere on the planet.

  26. Buy a book. You know, those paper things that superseded scrolls, which were shown over 1000 years ago to be crap.

    Remember, anything vaguely like a scroll is crap. That’s why we abandoned them.

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