Technical Difficulty

I got paid for my teaching gig and I thought HEY NOW, maybe I’ll pick up the Kindle 3 I’ve been lusting after. I can sell the K2 or maybe give it as a gift and I’ll have a shiny new (lighter! brighter! faster!) gadget. Since I was running some other errands, I ducked into Target and picked it up. It’s safe to say I was pretty excited.

Once home, I got it charged and then put a screen protector on it (because I am a nerd) and THEN decided to turn it on and use it. The contrast is definitely better than on the K2. It’s smaller, which for me is neither here nor there, and supposedly lighter though you can’t prove it by me holding it and the K2 in opposing hands. It feels about the same. The keyboard is a little offset because they moved the 5-way navigator, which is a little annoying but a small blip. More annoying than that is that they did away with the number keys. Especially if you have to enter passwords.

These are things I knew about though. I’ve read reviews and had an idea what to expect. I knew some of  these things would just be glitchy habit-breaking issues. Then I tried to register it.

Pretty much immediately it tried to access my wireless internet connection. Due to the lengthy password which involves capital letters (an epic PITA on the Kindle it seems) I thought I’d try to get it to access the 3G, which I obviously use all the time on the K2. No love. I go into the menu to make sure the wireless is on and that I’d bought the right Kindle (which I’d checked BEFORE I bought it but, you know…) Right Kindle, no access. Now I’m a little annoyed.

I turn on my K2 which promptly shows me 4 bars of access. I call customer service and then have to explain to the very nice man on the phone in India that I haven’t registered the device because the GD wireless won’t work*. When I mention that I might return it because it doesn’t work, he points out that it has global coverage so I can use it in Canada and the UK among other places. I politely tell him that I don’t give a shit about that if I can’t use it IN MY HOUSE. He registers it for me over the phone and has me restart it. When it reboots, it says EDGE and varies between 1 and 2 bars. My K2 shows full bars. WTF. He can’t explain it. I think maybe it will be enough or whatever so I hang up with the very nice support guy and go back into the basement.

The Kindle 3 promptly shows no wireless and wants me to connect to my wifi. My Kindle 2 still shows 2-3 bars. WTF.

Eventually the K3 shows up with EDGE again, but no bars. What the fucking fuck.

I’m going to give it another day or so to see if this resolves itself but then it’s going back. It’s too bad because I was excited about the new device but it’s useless to me if I can’t get the access I want where I need it most. What’s worse is that there doesn’t seem to be a logical reason for it: why would the earlier device work and the latest device doesn’t in the EXACT same place and time?

*Yes, it will connect to wifi. However, if I wanted to use the wifi I’d have bought the GD wifi version. I love the whispernet coverage, the wifi was just going to be a bonus.