Should I get the Touch 3G?

[pitbullandfire]

I don't usually do this but I thought I'd reach out to you wise Kindle Forum members for some guidance.  I have the FIRE, K3 and K4 but I'm considering getting the Touch 3G.  I use my K4 and K3 the most, possibly the K4 wins out because I take that around with me everywhere because it's so petite in size.  My FIRE is my nighttime reader and shopping tool.  It's definitely not a need, but a strong want.  I sold a couple things and got a couple gift cards, so it won't be a burden on the family budget.  Should I get the Touch or save and wait for a later version?

[Leslie]

Given that we had a blitz of new Kindles (the mini, Touch, and Fire) in the space of 6 weeks, I don't expect any new versions any time soon, especially to the eInk readers. There may be an upgrade/new version of the Fire, according to a few articles.

I bought the mini on a whim and used it exclusively for 6 weeks while I waited for my Touch to arrive. I love its size and the buttons are perfect for me. What I didn't like was the Wi-Fi only. I am definitely an "anywhere, anytime" book person and I discovered (in a hotel with lousy wifi) how much I missed the 3G.

My Touch is here. I've spent the last week, 24/7 working on Kindle Touch for Dummies so I have learned all the ins-and-outs of my Touch. It's good, the Touch screen is responsive but you know...if there was a mini-K with wifi and 3G, I think that would be my ideal Kindle.

If you can live with Wi-Fi only, I might say to wait. If you really want 3G, then you should probably splurge on the Touch.

L

[corkyb]

I don't think the Touch is ready for Prime Time.  I know folks who have had lots of problems with it and have returned 3 or 4 versions.  I wouldn't get the Touch if I were you.  That being said, I do have it, but it's glitchy.  My 30 days are up, but I think we can return til sometime in January and this baby might go back.  I LOVE the Baby K and agree with Leslie, if it had 3G, it would be the perfect Kindle.

[CrystalStarr]

Love my Touch 3g!  Handed my K3 off to my husband and never looked back!  There are a lot of benefits to that touch screen.  LOVE IT!  Not one issue.  If you have the money and no other bills or debt or anything then buy what you want.  I probably wouldn't if I had what you had.  But that's just me staring at the mortgage balance and a retirement account that needs some fluffing and 3 kids to put through college.

[VictoriaP]

I guess I'd ask what it gives you that you can't live without and don't already have? Or what don't you like about what you have that the Touch improves upon?

When I upgraded, I went from the K2 to the Touch wifi. The pearl screen, crisper fonts, and wifi ability made that a pretty easy decision. I dropped 3G because frankly, I used it perhaps 6 times outside the house in almost 3 years--my iPhone and iPad are far more useful for the internet, and I generally don't need to pick up more books when away from wifi. It was absolutely the right device for me, a significant upgrade over what I had, and I'm not experiencing most of the issues that have been reported (some of which appear to be user error, some are definitely firmware problems that will need an upgrade from Amazon, and the usual few that are hardware defects).

In your case, you already have one reader (that has full 3G, not the semi crippled version of the Touch), an out and about reader that's portable when you want the smaller size (both with the upgraded pearl screen), and a tablet. To my perspective, the only thing you're missing out on is XRay, which is in its infancy and pretty much useless at this point both because it's present in so few books and because the quality of the information it provides is weak.

If you were planning on giving up your K3 or K4 (or both) I could see it, but since you make no mention of that, I'm guessing you want to complete the collection. Which is totally fine, if that's what you want to do!   (I can empathize if that's the case; I saw the Nook Touch two days ago and got it into my head that I needed one of those. My KT is less than a month old. It's a disease--must have new shiny! And yes, I passed on it, though it was hard.)

But if it were me, with what you already have, I'd bypass it and wait for the next hardware upgrade. If you buy it without getting rid of one of the others, there's bound to be at least one device, possibly two, sitting around and never getting used. There's no compelling need, and both the Touch technology/firmware and the Xray capability should be well improved the next time around.

My .02 worth.

(And of course, if the answer you really want to hear is "Yes", then sure, go for it. Because, after all, enabling is what we do best around here!)

[pitbullandfire]

If there was a mini-K with wifi and 3G, I think that would be my ideal Kindle.

BINGO!!!  That would be my ideal too!!

[pitbullandfire]

In your case, you already have one reader (that has full 3G, not the semi crippled version of the Touch), an out and about reader that's portable when you want the smaller size (both with the upgraded pearl screen), and a tablet.

Is the 3G on the Touch not the same or not as good as the K3's?  3G and portability are the main features I'm looking for.  I've been stranded too many times with poor wifi.

[TraceyC/FL]

Is the 3G on the Touch not the same or not as good as the K3's?  3G and portability are the main features I'm looking for.  I've been stranded too many times with poor wifi.

From what I understand it only works for buying books (and maybe shopping at amazon?), and not in the browser like prior devices, hence not as big of a deal for some people.

[VictoriaP]

Tracey is correct. You can use it to buy books & look things up in Wikipedia. It does NOT provide full Internet access. You will only have full access while on wifi.

[pitbullandfire]

Tracey is correct. You can use it to buy books & look things up in Wikipedia. It does NOT provide full Internet access. You will only have full access while on wifi.

And this is different than the 3G on the K3?

[VictoriaP]

On the K3, using 3G, you can access any site--so for example, you can use mapquest for directions, gmail or yahoo mail, Dropbox to store and retrieve your books, check the news sites...etc.

[pitbullandfire]

On the K3, using 3G, you can access any site--so for example, you can use mapquest for directions, gmail or yahoo mail, Dropbox to store and retrieve your books, check the news sites...etc.

Dang, any rumors on why the more limited 3G was put on the Touch?  That does make me re-consider my Kindle add 

[VictoriaP]

Dang, any rumors on why the more limited 3G was put on the Touch?  That does make me re-consider my Kindle add 

It's logical--it was getting too expensive for Amazon to support between the number of Kindles sold and the lower price point. Plus there's the simple fact that if you give someone free bandwidth, a sizable percentage will abuse it.

While I agree with Leslie that we won't see new models soon (12-18 months would be my guess), I'm still not seeing a compelling reason for you to upgrade. And this is coming from someone who loves the Touch and has only minor firmware bugs crop up occasionally.

[LauraB]

I love my touch with 3g and haven't had any problems with it.  I bought the k1, k2, k3, and DX (none of which I have anymore). But I had to return each at least once, because of glitches. The touch is the first kindle I've had that has worked out of the box without issues!
Should you get it? Well, that is up to you. The only advantage I know of, over the others, if the x-ray on some books, and the touch. The touch also has audio, which the mini kindle doesn't. I didn't used the internet browser on any of them to surf, so I haven't noticed the "limited" 3g. Even on the ones available it is just to slow and clunky.

[zeppo]

in regards to the limited access via 3G on a Touch, can someone with a Touch with 3G test this out, please...

First, if you haven't already, you will need to create a couple of short highlights or notes on one of the books that you have loaded on your Kindle Touch with 3G.  It doesn't matter if you have opted to make your notes public or private.  

Next, when you are at a location where you haven't set up wifi access for the Touch (so we are sure the 3G is being used and it is not defaulting to wifi), go to the browser and type in this URL:

http://kindle.amazon.com  

Question 1:  Will the touch let you navigate to this page using its 3G (not wifi?)

If so, at the top right of the webpage, there are some options.  Select (touch) "Your Highlights".

It should take you to a log in screen and you will then log in with your Amazon account, just as you would as if you were going to buy something on Amazon.  Log in to your account.

This should pull up a list of all your highlights and/or notes sorted by book.

Question 2:  Are you able to view this page with all your highlights listed?  

If so, great.  Then it is likely you will at least still have the advantage of reviewing all your highlights when your only option for access is via 3G, not to mention the use of the "Daily Review" feature, one of the other options, that pulls up flash cards of all your notes (organized by the book or title on which they are found) which you can scroll thru once each day (apparently no more than once.)  Not a bad option to have if you are studying abroad.

One last test...  this one may be tricky if you have set your browser setting to disable images (presumably to load pages faster).  You can either first set it to enable images again for this test, or just proceed with the hint I will provide.

Each highlight listed will have either an "edit" link next to it  or an "Add a note" link (if you have only a highlight without any note attached.)   Select (touch) one of those links.  If you have difficulty getting a particular "edit" or "add" box to respond, try one on another note.  I know with the K Keyboard browser it is sometimes it is tricky to get the arrow over the right spot, so perhaps it could be with the Touch browser that one particular link is hard to activate with a touch and another might respond better.

A box should pop up ready for you to start typing in.  Type in a short test note.  You will either be adding to your existing note or creating a new one if you hadn't had one yet.  When done typing, select the little box named "save" just below the lower left corner of the box in which you typed.   Here's where it could be tricky.  If you have set your browser to disable images you won't see any "save" box, but it is there.  So just touch in the area just below the lower left corner of that box where you just typed (not inside the box) until you see the box with the text you typed disappear.  You may even see an outline of a tiny box appear when you do this (that would be the "save" box without the image of the word "save" inside it.)  Once you see the box with the text you just typed disappear, you have successfully saved that note.

Now, if the Touch let you do all that via its 3G (not wifi), then you naturally should be able to see this note that you just typed in from any location where you can access  your account, for instance, your computer at home, assuming you have refreshed the page.  It doesn't require a sync because it is done via the web.

When you do type in a note on the Kindle when you are accessing a book instead of this webpage, you will of course need to do a sync for that note to be accessible from another device on your account, OR you can also reload this webpage of your highlight listings, and that automatically syncs the stuff you typed in via book access before the page loads.  Wasn't sure this would happen, but it did when I tested it.  

So if someone doesn't mind testing this feature, I think it would be cool to know that notes can be accessed and managed with this webpage using the Touch with 3G when wifi is not available.  I believe it is likely that all this can be done with the Touch with 3G using its 3G, but of course I won't know for sure unless it is actually put to the test.

thanks

[tubemonkey]

Dang, any rumors on why the more limited 3G was put on the Touch?  That does make me re-consider my Kindle add 

Because it has a touch screen.

I have a wifi K3 and I never use the net for anything other than ordering and retrieving books. I tried surfing a few websites and doing email once, but gave up on it. Constant clicking this way and that with the D-pad was a big PITA. I won't do it again. If I had a touch screen Kindle, I'd be all over it; and I'd get the 3G model so Amazon would pay for the free unlimited internet. I'm sure Amazon realizes this and that's why they stopped offering it for the new Touch.

[WilliamEsmont]

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied Touch 3g. Do I like it more than my old K3 3g? I'm not sure. The touch functionality is pretty slick, and makes casual reading much more natural. But - and there's always a but, there are a few things that really annoy me:

1. Occasionally (more than a few times actually), I've managed to catapult myself into the hinterlands of whatever book I'm reading via an errant touch. Finding my way back to where I want to be is a fricking nightmare, consisting of a bazillion swipes. The 'sync to last page read' doesn't seem to get me where I want to be - I guess after the catapult touch, the Kindle believes I really want to be in the last chapter when I've really only started the book. I don't know what combination of touch does this, but my wife and I have both experienced this.
2. You can't read in the tub. I used to throw my K3 in a big zip-loc and jump in the hot tub. Since the K-Touch is capacitive, this no longer works . I'm sure there will be a solution for this (probably already is), and I'll be able to purchase it for $29.99 from Amazon.

[zeppo]

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied Touch 3g. Do I like it more than my old K3 3g? I'm not sure. ...
1. Occasionally (more than a few times actually), I've managed to catapult myself into the hinterlands of whatever book I'm reading via an errant touch. Finding my way back to where I want to be is a fricking nightmare, consisting of a bazillion swipes.

There is a "back" button you can pull up that takes you back to your last page, much like the back arrow on Internet Explorer (in otherwords it is not to the previous page in the book, but to the previous location you were at on the kindle, whereever that may be.)

As I recall, it is on the far left of the toolbar you pull up by touching the top of the kindle when you are in "reading" mode.

[Ann in Arlington]

Because it has a touch screen.

I have a wifi K3 and I never use the net for anything other than ordering and retrieving books. I tried surfing a few websites and doing email once, but gave up on it. Constant clicking this way and that with the D-pad was a big PITA. I won't do it again. If I had a touch screen Kindle, I'd be all over it; and I'd get the 3G model so Amazon would pay for the free unlimited internet. I'm sure Amazon realizes this and that's why they stopped offering it for the new Touch.

Even with the touch screen, I wouldn't count on the browser to be particularly speedy -- though navigation would, quite likely, be easier.  Note that the 'experimental' browser is still available on the Touch; it's just that it can only be used when connected via WiFi and not when connected via 3G.

I personally think this is fair:  Amazon foots the 3G bill so you can get books (Amazon content) anywhere, but I don't see a reason for them to subsidize your random internet browsing.  I always felt the 'full access' in previous Kindles was an an extra benefit that wouldn't last forever.

[Ann in Arlington]

2. You can't read in the tub. I used to throw my K3 in a big zip-loc and jump in the hot tub. Since the K-Touch is capacitive, this no longer works . I'm sure there will be a solution for this (probably already is), and I'll be able to purchase it for $29.99 from Amazon.

The touch technology is actually infrared on the KTouch. . . .the Fire has a capacitive screen.  A couple of members have experimented with using it with a waterproof bag, with mixed results.  It seems to depend on how taut the clear plastic is across the screen itself.

[WilliamEsmont]

The touch technology is actually infrared on the KTouch. . . .the Fire has a capacitive screen.  A couple of members have experimented with using it with a waterproof bag, with mixed results.  It seems to depend on how taut the clear plastic is across the screen itself.

Thanks!
I'll have to give this a try..

[WilliamEsmont]

There is a "back" button you can pull up that takes you back to your last page, much like the back arrow on Internet Explorer (in otherwords it is not to the previous page in the book, but to the previous location you were at on the kindle, whereever that may be.)

As I recall, it is on the far left of the toolbar you pull up by touching the top of the kindle when you are in "reading" mode.

Cool. I have to go try this now.

[tubemonkey]

Even with the touch screen, I wouldn't count on the browser to be particularly speedy -- though navigation would, quite likely, be easier.  Note that the 'experimental' browser is still available on the Touch; it's just that it can only be used when connected via WiFi and not when connected via 3G.

Speed wasn't the issue for me; navigation was. Touch is definitely easier.

[pitbullandfire]

I personally think this is fair:  Amazon foots the 3G bill so you can get books (Amazon content) anywhere, but I don't see a reason for them to subsidize your random internet browsing.  I always felt the 'full access' in previous Kindles was an an extra benefit that wouldn't last forever.

Okay, so this might help me pull the trigger...I do not need the 3G to surf the net or use it for other things...I just need to get new books or download books at will if possible...With lack-luster 3G on the Touch, can I get books from Amazon anywhere and anytime (for the most part)??

[mikeschr]

Okay, so this might help me pull the trigger...I do not need the 3G to surf the net or use it for other things...I just need to get new books or download books at will if possible...With lack-luster 3G on the Touch, can I get books from Amazon anywhere and anytime (for the most part)??

Yes, you can, wherever there's a 3G connection available.