*It is my understanding--- and I may well be mistaken--- that wi-fi is free but 3G is not in most cases.* If you have a wireless router in your house, an iPad, Kindle, etc. will connect up to it just fine, no charge.* Not so 3G.* Accessing 3G requires a contract, if you will, from your phone company or the 3G provider and you have to pay for it.Fighterpilot wrote:
Didn't realize one had to subscribe to something to use the GPS function on the Apple. That would eliminate the Apple for consideration. Do you also have to subscribe to something to use it in the house if you have wi-fi?
My wife has had a Blackberry Storm 2 for a couple of years (RIM's answer to the iPhone at the time).* When she got it she wanted to add GPS navigation (vehicle) to the capabilities of the phone through an app called VZ Navigator.* VZ Navigator was free- it came already loaded on the phone.* But in order to use it she had to add GPS navigation capabilities to her phone contract (Verizon) and it is x-amount per month extra.* This allows her to use not only VZ Navigator but a whole host of other apps like Blackberry Traffic and other apps to find stores and gas stations and whatever in relation to her location.
Now in the case of the Kindle, if you get the wi-fi/3G model, which is what we have, the 3G is free throughout the whole world.* I have downloaded books in a hotel room*in a remote city in China with no problems or no delay and at no cost.
BUT...... the free*3G in the Kindle only does one thing--- it connects you to the Amazon's bookstore.* That's it.
BTW, for anyone contemplating the acquisition of a Kindle--- and I'm talking about the e-reader, not the Fire which is Kindle's poor-man's iPad--- I strongly suggest you pay the extra fifty bucks or whatever it is now to get the Kindle that has 3G in addition to wi-fi.* The reason is that the Amazon*3G is free, and you can download books and whatnot anywhere on the planet where*you have a 3G signal.* Which these days is damn near anywhere you are likely to be.*
With the wi-fi only model, if you're on the road and want to download a book you*have to find somewhere that has a wi-fi signal like a Starbucks or whatever.
*
-- Edited by Marin on Friday 27th of January 2012 07:02:47 PM