Amazon’s Kindle in Wi-Fi and 3G now available at The Source
If you haven’t already checked out a friend or family member’s Kindle, and have harboured an intense curiosity about how the e-reader from Amazon feels in your hand, or how its screen handles the display of text, today’s your lucky day.
That’s because The Source is the first retailer in Canada to stock the Kindle and odds are, you live within a few minutes of a Source location (they have over 700 locations across the country). You’ll find the Kindle at most locations except those in Quebec.
While you’re there, be sure to get a sales associate to pull out one the other e-readers the Source carries – say the Sony PRS650, or the Aluratek Libre eBook Reader Pro, so you can compare them to the Kindle. The Sony and the Aluratek are great products, but I have a feeling that once you get your hands on a Kindle, you won’t want to put it down.
The Kindle’s pearl e-ink screen is easy on the eyes, and actually gets easier to read the brighter your environment which makes it the perfect outdoor companion this summer. Tablets are great and they can do so much – same with smart phones – but they have yet to create a tablet screen that handles sunlight as well as e-Ink.
I’m also a big fan of Amazon’s online bookstore and they way they’ve integrated it right into the Kindle. As soon as you’ve finished reading one book, you can immediately receive recommendations and have your next title sent to your device within minutes. It’s incredibly easy.
If there’s any downside to the Kindle, it’s the current lack of compatibility with lending libraries, at least in Canada. In the U.S., Amazon has a solution they are rolling out to enable library lending and with any luck, it won’t be long before that solution comes up here.
Pricing is $159 for the Wi-Fi only model and $209.99 for the Wi-Fi+3G model – which includes free 3G access for downloading books, magazines etc, in hundreds of countries. Interestingly, unlike the vast majority of the The Source’s product selection, the Kindle is only for sale in-store, not online.
If you’re still hunting around for that perfect Father’s Day gift, I highly recommend the Kindle. If, however, you can wait a little longer, the rumour mill is heavily favouring a price drop on the Kindle before the holidays.
Excitable 
I received a Kindle as a Mother’s Day present and although I love my Kindle I am really disappointed with the number of books NOT available to Canadian customers. That would be the biggest downside to Kindle users in Canada. I would suggest to Canadian residents in the market for an e-book to do a little extra research to see if their favourite authors are available through Amazon.com before purchasing the Kindle.
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Vuze.com
Feel free to sign up using your computer, and then search Kindle books…you will download an amazing amount of authors and their entire collection. I had just done this and have all the books right up until June 5/11. It is very easy and there are many tools to change other books right on your desktop to kindle format…check out technology…it will save you a fortune and make your Kindle soooo very far ahead of the rest. Use your kindle as a zip drive and carry over as many authors and books as you like.
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I too registered my KINDLE online and with the wi-fi capability have access to all of the Amazon books – has naught to do with being in Canada… amazing selection.
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I purchased my Kindle in January and have read more than 120 books and downloaded another 35. I agree that it is disappointing that some books are not available to Canadian Kindle owners. However, my bigger disappointment is in purchasing a Kobo through Chapters. Although it gives me some additional flexibility, it is much harder to use i.e. scrolling with only the directional button on the right side, internal keyboard that you use with the directional button and so many other downfalls. Will not give up my Kindle easily as I love it.
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What you forget to mention in this “article”/ “Ad” is the fact that Bell owns Sympatico and Bell owns The Source. The Kindle is also being released by other retails (i.e. STAPLES Stores across Canada).
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Hey Brock, you’re absolutely right about Bell/Sympatico/The source and I usually call that out in any articles we write on companies within our family. I’ve added that now. Thanks!
As to other retailers carrying the Kindle, I’m not aware of any. I received a press release from The Source, which was the basis of this piece. A quick Google didn’t turn any up, and I couldn’t find it listed on Staples.ca. (But then again maybe like The Source they can’t sell it online).
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The Source in Burlington, On, has higher prices for the Kindle that the one you indicated:Kindle WiFi 169.99; Kindle 3G + WiFi 229.99
How come?
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Hey Gabi, I had my PR contact at The Source look into it and it looks like the Wi-Fi and 3G models were incorrectly tagged. Call them back, they should be in line with what we quote in the article. Thanks for the comment and I hope this helps!
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I have tried the old Kobo and agree with Darlene on how not user friendly it is. I have also tried the Sony 6 inch and loved it. Was just on a cruise and everyone had the Kindle and spoke highly of it. The new Kobo touch screen will be out shortly or may already be out and if it is as good as the Sony may be the one to buy. I am going wait until I can get my hands on both the Kindle and Kobo touch screen before I buy.
I don’t think Chapters or Indigo carry books for Kindle but I may be wrong.
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I purchased a Kindle as a Valentine’s Day present for my daughter. She loves it! It has been great for travelling on the train and city bus!
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I bought my wife a Kobo because we always seem to get the last chance at newer tech toys. There is a bit of a learning curve with the kobo, but now that she’s onto it she’s really enjoying it. It works flawlessly, too. I wanted to buy a kindle instead but, as I said, we’re always last to get things here in Canada and I just hate that. Even now I’m not sure I’d buy a kindle because kobo was willing to launch into the Canadian market quite a while ago and now they’ve built up a good base of customers.
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I’ve had my kindle for about 18 months, in Canada, and can’t imagine doing with out it. Barely watch t.v. now, I just read and read and read…..
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Love my Kindle! I would never go to a Kobo.
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I tried the Sony, and the Kindle, and while I admit that it got me back into being an avid reader again, none of the available e-ink type readers impressed me enough to buy. Most of them are terrible for low-light reading, as the back/side lighting systems are awful. They are also not very good at reproducing cover art, or graphics/photos…….This really limits the type of reading that you can do.
I ended up purchasing a 7″ Pandigital Novel, Colour touch screen, Android OS, WiFi, and Kobo. A number of early Pandigital owners tried “hacking” the original Android-based e-reader to restore some of the notepad functionality, so Pandigital simply issued an OS upgrade which gave it full Android capabilities. I guess they just didn’t want to cope with repairing “hacked” units. At any rate, for $115-$150, its the closest thing to a notepad for under $600, and will run a lot of Android Apps (way cheaper than iPad apps), including games, browsers, players, etc.
It’s also a really great e-reader with an adjustable brightness, and also a night reading mode. Books are available from almost any source, bot on the units internal WiFi, and from your PC.
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Hard to understand the ‘pricing’. The Kindle presently sells for 139$ at Amazon Canada and 115$US on their US site.
Only in Camada!, Bob
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I love my Kobo! The touch screen version just came out and is sold for $139. I will probably upgrade to that version in the future. Other than that, I see no reason to switch.
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