Job Discussion Forums

[Imdramayu]

Where can I buy a Kindle in Bahrain?

[spiral78]

The title of your thread seems to suggest that you have one for sale...suggest you might change it to attract people with info about kindles available for sale/where can I buy a....etc...

[johnslat]

Dear Imdramayu,

From the Amazon Kindle Discussions:

"Nope. If you are a resident of Bahrain you cannot get the Kindle or Kindel content. On the product page for the Kindle on the right side is a link that says Outside the United States, if you click that and select your country (Bahrain) you get the following:

Bahrain
Unfortunately, we are currently unable to ship Kindles or offer Kindle content in Bahrain.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_search_res_ti?ie=UTF8&cdMsgNo=2&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx392E61I9JI2H6&cdMsgID=Mx2HFIWAPRSOGJB#Mx2HFIWAPRSOGJB

And about WhisperNet:

"use the Amazon "Whispernet" service, which is only available within the U.S.A. Instead, she downloads the books to her PC over the Internet, then uses the Kindle's provided USB cable to transfer them from the PC to her Kindle.

See Dusty Reader's post at: <http://www.amazon.com/Does-Kindle-work-the-only/forum/FxBVKST06PWP9B/TxRJ132DPX3M6T/1/ref=cm_cd_et_md_pl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdMsgNo=12&asin=B000FI73MA&cdSort=oldest&cdMsgID=Mx1D5WKDSOD01FP#Mx1D5WKDSOD01FP>.

Note that Amazon require you to have a credit or debit card from a U.S. bank, with a U.S. billing address, in order to order the Kindle or to order e-books from Amazon's Kindle Store. Also, Amazon require you to have a delivery address in the U.S. for them to ship the Kindle to you. Once these difficulties are overcome, however, you can purchase e-books from the Kindle store over the Internet and have them delivered to your PC, from which you copy them to the Kindle.

But Amazon's "Whispernet" service is only available within the U.S.A. The present Kindle hardware, indeed, uses a cellular telephone modem that uses frequencies and protocols (the "EV-DO" 3G extension of the CDMA protocol, with the "1xRTT" 2G protocol as a backup) -- protocols that are not used in Europe or in the Middle East."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-forum/kindle/ref=cm_cd_search_res_ti?ie=UTF8&cdMsgNo=1&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx7O67XHPWYNER&cdMsgID=Mx1PNUZBGH46B3C#Mx1PNUZBGH46B3C

Regards,
John

[spiral78]

I dunno about 'whispernet' but I am in Europe and I use wireless connection to browse the Kindle bookstore and to order stuff directly to my kindle. It works anywhere, almost, that there is a phone or wireless internet connection, including on many trains, in restaurants, and in hotels as well as at home.

This obviously doesn't help our friend in Bahrain, but a direct connection to the kindle store is definitely available in Europe and Canada (mine also works there). And my current billing addresses are in Europe and Canada - I have not had a US address for 14 years.

[johnslat]

Here are a couple of threads from the Saudi Forum:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=83906&highlight=kindle

(you're on this second one, spiral )

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=89809&highlight=kindle

Regards,
John

[jadoaus]

If you have friends/family in the states/UK/Canada/Europe

1) have them buy a kindle/order one on your log in on amazon.co.uk/co.whatever
2) have them register it in your name (Can't remember, but think you do this both on the kindle and the amazon website)
3) have them ship it to you
4) use the USB cable to download books you buy or find online.

Obviously you need to have a card registered to your account from a UK/Wherever bank.

Doubt they will have them in the Gulf any time soon. There is no whispernet coverage here (though I suppose you could still use it at wifi spots, as I did in the UK despite not buying the 3G model), and no Arabic language support.

Go for it - best thing I've bought in years. Also makes it easy to read decent newspapers, on time and cheaply - 1 month subscription to the Economist for �10, or buy a copy here, late, for BD 5-6

[jxyz]

I bought a kindle fire in Doha - allegedly the last one in the country. But it means that if they're here, there could be somewhere in Bahrain that has a few.

As for only using them in the US, I haven't had a problem buying books for it with my UK credit card and downloading them straight to the kindle here in Qatar. You can't use Amazon Prime, but I probably wouldn't anyway. The Amazon App Store is also restricted to the US for some reason, but a quick look at the internet and half an hour by the computed let me 'root' it and get apps from elsewhere.

[misterkodak]

I've got the Aramex (www.aramex.com) shop and ship service which gives subscribers an address in the US, UK, and China and forwards the mail on. I ordered my Kindle and had it shipped to my Aramex address using my Omani credit card. The brilliant thing about amazon is the free shipping, so I only pay the Aramex fees.