Kindle eBooks On iPad

I can now read Kindle eBooks on my iPad. One of my main reasons of buying an iPad in the first place was to read eBooks without having to go to bookstores and look for the titles that I want. Most of the titles that I want are unavailable in Brunei. They may be available but it takes a long time before they are on the bookshelves.

I tried to purchase eBooks from iTunes but then I was restricted from doing so as I live in a Asia Pacific country and eBooks for iBooks is only available for users with US Apple ID. As a matter of fact, I even tried to put a fake US address. But it still doesn’t work. So, I gave up trying in the end and went to AV Electronics and see if they could have a solution for me. They told me that the only way I can buy eBooks from iTunes is to buy iTunes Gift Cards from them and they could set up an US Apple ID, which roughly takes about 3 to 4 days.

Friend told me that it’s not worthy to get iTunes Gift Card from Brunei as the exchange rates that they used are horrendous. I knew that Andrea was reading eBooks on her iPhone so I asked her which app is she using. She told me that she is using Kindle for iPhone. Kindle can be downloaded from iTunes provided that you have a US Apple ID. Damn! And I was stuck again. So, I brought my iPad to AV Electronics and see if they could help me download the app into my iPad? I explained my situation to the sales guy at AV Electronics and he was kind enough to download it for me by using his US Apple ID. Thank you very much!

I was so excited when Kindle app was already been downloaded onto my iPad. So, I went home and window shopped at Amazon searching for the titles that I wanted. Only then, I was being reminded again that certain titles are only available in the US. So, I went to consult Andrea on how she managed to buy eBooks from Amazon when she is actually staying in Singapore. She told me to Google it coz that’s what she did in the first place. There is someone who blogged about it how he/she bought Kindle when living in Singapore.

So, I am gonna briefly explain how I did it by following the instructions given.

First, you have to set up a US billing and delivery address. You can do it by registering with vPost. I chose Malaysia to be my country of residence despite I am actually living in Brunei. I was born in Malaysia but fully bred in Brunei. Anyways, let’s get back to my original intention. Once you are signed up for vPost, they will send you an sms with your password to your phone number. Login with your given password and you will be redirected to another page whereby they will show you addresses in US, Japan and Europe.

Second, sign up for an Amazon account (if you don’t have one yet). I had mine before I signed up for vPost. Go to Manage Address Book and insert the US billing address that had been provided to you via vPost. Once you were all done with the above procedure, you are all ready to shop at Amazon. Note: Be sure that you have Kindle app ready on your iPad.

You need to set up your device on Amazon so that it will be automatically linked when you purchase an eBook. I set my iPad as my default device. So when my payment had been completed, all I have to do is to launch Kindle app on my iPad and it will automatically be downloaded.

 

That’s how Kindle app will looks like on iPad.

 

The first title that I bought for my iPad – It Started With A Kiss by Miranda Dickinson. Wanna try and see if it really works. So, I bought a cheaper title. I bought this for US$6.99. This is one of the books that I wanted to read actually. But I am more of Paige Toon and Jill Mansell fan.

Hope this helps! Thank you for reading.

Till then~~

iPhone: Good or Bad?

As some of you may not know, I have just replaced my old Samsung Galaxy i9000 with an iPhone 4 just two days ago. I intended to get a Samsung Note at first, but friends of mine who are using the phone complained to me that the phone is not good enough. Okay then, the phone goes off my list. And I am down with iPhone, Samsung Galaxy i9100 (S2) or Samsung Galaxy i9300 (S3).

A lot of my colleagues were using Samsung Galaxy i9100 and I have no interest of having the same phone model with them. Samsung Galaxy i9300 doesn’t look appealing to me. Probably because if it’s curvy bottom or edge. I have never considered HTC phones. Don’t know why, I just don’t like their designs. One of my colleagues had gotten himself a HTC One X, and it looked pretty cool to me. But no!

I was scouting for the cheapest iPhone 4S in the market last weekend and the cheapest that I found was B$850. Friend said I could always consider that one coz Shopping was selling for B$880 and the rest of the other shops are selling more than B$880. How can a small shop like that be selling an iPhone 4S for an amount less than what was being offered in the market? Therefore, I doubted it’s originality. So, I did not inquire further.

Two nights ago, my friend told me that he is going to The Mall to have dinner and at the same time wanna look for some stuffs. I requested him to check around for the price of an iPhone 4S at The Mall. Then he found me a reasonably priced iPhone 4. I was thinking, the only difference between an iPhone 4 and 4S is that 4S has Siri. And Siri doesn’t work most of the time anyways. Why spend extra few hundred bucks for something that I don’t need and doesn’t work as well?

So, I made my decision and got myself an iPhone 4. Friend paid for me first since I wasn’t there when he found and bought the phone. Screen protector was complimentary and I was given a free iPhone casing along with the purchase. I got myself an iPhone casing on my last visit to Shanghai last month. But I think I’ll just stick with the free iPhone casing for the time being since it’s so light weighted. iPhone is originally heavy and adding another heavy casing doesn’t help much either.

I know I have a Hello Kitty wallpaper on my iPhone, but I find it cute. That’s why I used it as my wallpaper.

After having used my iPhone for about two days, I have came up with a list of the pros and cons of an iPhone. Andrea said I should have done it before I bought myself an iPhone. But I did not have an iPhone to be tested in the first place. I don’t really like to test on my friends’ iPhone(s). Later, they think of invasion of privacy. And most mobile shops in Brunei doesn’t allow you to test iPhone. So, there you go.

Pros:
The most important thing that I see in a phone is it’s interface. I’ve got to admit that iPhone is user-friendly in some ways. It has smooth interface and you don’t get system crash or lagging that often compared to Android phones. What I don’t like about Android phone is that the system sort of slows down when you are charging up the battery. You cannot get smooth operation on the phone when it’s charging.

Internet is fast with just normal data connection from your phone. Most of my friends said that iPhone connects to Facebook faster than Android. And I have got to admit, it’s true. My previous Samsung Galaxy i9000 takes forever to connect to my Facebook account even if I am connected to WiFi. It’s even more daunting if its connected with just the phone data connection.

Can easily upgrade to the latest operating system. Unlike Samsung phones with Android OS, you need to bring to the local mobile shop and have it upgraded. You can do it yourself but it’s kinda risky. I have a friend who tried to upgrade her Samsung Galaxy i9000 herself and the whole system just crashed down on her. She had to send her phone to QQestore to have it fixed. And it took them freakin’ one month before it was fixed.

Battery doesn’t drain up fast even if you left it idle for one whole night. It’s only 1% gone after 8 hours of idling. My previous Samsung Galaxy i9000 drains up the battery rather quickly especially after I upgraded it to Android Gingerbread. Even if I left it untouched for 8 hours, one block of battery will be gone. It’s so frustrating sometimes. Let’s say if you still have half remaining battery left before you went to bed, your phone battery will be completely flat when you check on it the next morning.

There are lots of good and cute looking iPhone casings available in the market. Saw quite a lot of nice ones when I was in Shanghai last month. Even those with 3D blings aren’t expensive at all. But I wasn’t confirmed on getting an iPhone back then, so I did not get any of those 3D blings iPhone casing.

Most of the apps are only available for iPhone but not Android phones. Like Tweegram, it’s not available for Android phones yet. Instagram for Android was only launched recently.

Cons:
The first thing which I don’t like about iPhone in the first place is that they only have QWERTY keypad. I am still not used to QWERTY keypad and I ended up with lots of typos in most of my Whatsapp text messages. Jia was laughing so hard the other day when she was reading what I sent to her. The good thing about Android is that they come with 3×4 keypad, good for us for who doesn’t like QWERTY keypads on mobile phones.

No speed dial! Why iPhone have no speed dial? I am so used to speed dial with all my previous phones. I always set phone numbers of my family and close friends on speed dials. The closest that I can get for speed dials on iPhone is their favorite list. I even google-d to check if there really is no speed dial on iPhone. *sigh*

Ringtones must be in M4A format and they must be less than 40 seconds. I wasn’t aware of the 40 seconds thingy. I was so happy when I found a software that I could convert MP3 to M4A. Was wondering why the songs do not appear on my ringtone list even though it was already transferred to my iPhone via iTunes. Google-d for it and realized that maximum time duration for iPhone ringtone is only bloody 40 seconds!

Heavier than my previous Samsung Galaxy i9000 but I can get used to it.

Well, that concludes my review on iPhone today. I wouldn’t say I don’t like iPhone completely. There are pros and cons. But what can I say? There is no perfect gadget in the world.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Review: ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

This is not an advertorial post. This post is entirely based on my own personal opinions towards the gadget.

I got the opportunity to try out this particular gadget coz one of my managers bought it and told me that she couldn’t power up the gadget no matter how many times she pressed on the power button. So, I checked on the Internet forums whether there is some technical error. To my surprise, lots of ASUS Eee Pad users commented and complained about the same issue. Most of them complained that the gadget had been working perfectly fine for the first two weeks and then they were unable to power up the gadget two weeks later followed by issue like the gadget cannot be charged.

Fortunately, my manager was able to power up the gadget yesterday night after continuously pressing on the power button for some time. She asked me to help her set up the gadget and install software like Hotmail and stuffs. ASUS Eee Pad is running on Android OS.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is a touch screen gadget like iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. But the only difference is that you can attach it to a keyboard and uses it as a netbook. The gadget comes with a keyboard. Unlike Samsung Galaxy Tab and iPad, you have to get a separate keyboard. In terms of pricing, I find it pretty reasonable since it comes with a keyboard. It’s about SGD600++. I cannot confirm the exact figure but I know it’s more than SGD600 and less than SGD700. Hahaha … Lame, huh? 😛

Okay … Here comes my review on the gadget itself.

Pros:
1. Good screen quality
2. Affordable price for a touch screen pad which comes with a detachable keyboard

Cons:
1. Not so user friendly
2. Heavy for a touch screen pad
3. Power button not functioning properly

Will I buy it? Definitely not!