Amazon Kindle now available for South Africa

The Kindle Wireless Reading Device  is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and will start shipping on the 19th October 2009.

Just a note for fellow South African’s going through the order process, a physical address is required for delivery and an import duty deposit of approximately $40 is charged with your order.
Only the priority international shipping option is allowed for the Kindle to ship to South Africa.

With shipping the total for my order came to $342.95

So, why am I so excited about a device for reading PDF files?

Well for starters there’s the content delivery network they have devised for getting new books to your Kindle, called Whisper Net.

The Kindle will connect via 3G to the cellular data networks to allow free browsing of the Kindle store and downloading new books to your Kindle.
No more waiting for a month for your book order to be shipped and arrive (if you are lucky:) ).
Now you can get the book you want instantaneously via a download in a matter of minutes.

The prices seem to be around the $10 range which is cheaper than you can get it in a store in South Africa.

The whole operation takes place without the need for a computer or an internet connection, which makes the product much more accessible and practical in South Africa.

And it’s not just books, there’s a huge range of really top quality content such as magazines and news papers available for subscription.

There also seem to be a whole bunch of cool features, such as being able to download mp3’s to the Kindle via USB and then listen to them while you read.
And there is a text-to-speech option for it reading you the book if your eye’s are required for other activities, not holding my breath on that feature being any good though, the voices are usually terribly artificial.

Well, I’ve preordered my Kindle, I’m waiting for my order to ship and arrive.
When it does I’ll do an in depth review and see how the idea of the Kindle measures up to the reality.