Probably for the same reason that phone companies can get away with charging up to $0.10 per text. Either the convenience seems to outweigh paying the charge or, well, they just can. And at $0.10 for 140 bytes of data, that comes out to somewheres around $748/MB.

Or more traditionally: AT&T will tack on 1000 SMS's for $10. Or about 136KB for $10.

Just sayin

I already mentioned this higher up, but so I'll try to summarize how it works (I was off put by how they were charging, too)

Amazon only charges for data and services that move through Whispernet over 3G. Amazon makes it super easy to control your spending if you decide to use 3G Whispernet services in your account, too. You can set limits on a maximum individual charge, which prevents you from accidentally sending enormous files to yourself and paying out the ass for it. Or you can just send things to your user@free.amazon.com account, which won't whisper its way to your Kindle until you're on wifi. Finally only approved email addresses can even send content in. True, it's very easy to spoof an email address, so I just created a very obscure email address name and use that as the only approved address.

Maybe that information will fill any gaps in what you've researched. It was all pretty confusing to me and I ended up just buying a book and having Whispernet give it to me over wifi to see if I was charged. Nope! As far as how much they charge? Well, that's one of those 'vote with your dollar' sort of things.

For my part, I owned a Nook and really didn't like it. When Kindle 3 came out I did a lot of reading. I didn't feel the need to buy the 3G since I can just flip it on in the morning at home and let it sync and then go about my day. I don't subscribe to periodicals, but even if I did I could set up a small script to hit up those websites and send it to my user@free.kindle.com account for free translation into their PDF format. And finally, well, I can't imagine (personally) sitting somewhere without access to wifi or a computer and thinking, "Shit! I need to buy and read a book RIGHT NOW!!" And if I do? Odds are my phone is around.

Any file transfer done with the Kindle's Wifi connection is free. It's just the 3G data that you'll have to pay for. You get free 3G for browsing, etc. But all the Whispernet services have chareges associated with them. IE, if you email a document to get converted and have it delivered over 3G, you'll have to pay for it. But if you email it and have it delivered by Wifi, no charge. Same with books. The only time you pay a delivery fee is over 3G.

I email documents that I have to review for work to Amazon for conversion all the time and never pay a cent. I also forward articles that I'd like to read later via instapaper's website. Amazon makes it painfully simple to prevent getting charged for anything by setting a set limit on how much of a bill you're allowed to rack up at any time. Set it to zero and you can't accidentally spend $10. So there really isn't any reason to get bent out of shape. Amazon isn't being (too) evil here. Somewhat like with phone subsidization, they're fronting the cash for your 3G connection, but you only pay if you use it.

Whether or not it's a fair price should be the question. When compared with, say, a cellular data plan, it's about 3-4x's more expensive per MB. When compared to texting plans? Well, let's say it sits much closer to cellular data fees. It's a convenience charge. It's up to you whether or not you want to pay it.

(Also, I have a Kindle 3, so I'm not sure what they do with Kindle 1/2 users.)

Great. Now I need to buy a digital cliche meter. This summery of this story nearly caused my mercury cliche meter to burst.

Can you imagine being the people who were responsible for the widget? Not that I like them, but they must be pretty proud that it worked for as long as it did...

Nevermind...

I don't agree with everything Franken does but I do like how he works. He seems to be attempting to be the untouchable politician that you see in movies get taken down after his wife/kids/wookie is ransomed or something. You should have been here during the campaigns. All Coleman could do is use a handful of common guys (and one who bore a slight resemblance to Ron Jeremy) talking about Al's stand up routine and his hand in the pron industry. Most pathetic mudslinging ever.

At any rate. I really hope he can get this regulated. The municipal monopolies that Comcast and Qwest hold are already bad enough. Last thing I need is them telling me about their 'great new plans' where I can pay an extra $15 a month to get multicast packets from video based websites at the normal speed....

I had to order a MacBook Pro for myself to use from work but they wouldn't pay for me to NOT get the glossy screen. I really do detest them... Just a preference. I understand why people like them, I just... don't.

They aren't doing anything to prevent used sales. They're encouraging new sales with free stuff that makes the game a bit more fun or interesting. The DLC that this kid didn't get is completely unessential. There is no prevention. Prevention would be requiring downloading DLC that makes the game playable or completable. Even if they did make you do that, we have no right to be outraged unless the publishers don't tell us about this.

Bioware knows that people would catch on pretty fast if they had to download things to finish or play the game so they offer something trivial that you may or may not want. It isn't quite the difference in price between used and new, but who knows. I think it's brilliant.

It's not like they're charging money for the game to be playable or completable. I think this is a brilliant way to keep people buying new content. Bioware knows that they're losing a used sale so they make up for it by offering some trivial (I have played Mass Effect 2, and it IS trival) DLC that you may or may not want. They also know that there would be massive upheaval if they forced you to pay $5 to complete the game if you buy it used.

Also, I think that the case is valid against Gamestop, and that it is a used game. New means unused, by anyone.

During my huge weight loss periods I experienced the same thing. I didn't appear to lose muscle mass, however I couldn't lift like I could before.

During high school and year one of college I was around 240. I stopped drinking pop, soda, what-have-you and instantly reduced my calorie intake by about 600-1200 Pepsi calories per day. In two months I had dropped down to 170. I spent the next years lifting and training lightly and never seemed to exceed 180. Then came alcohol. I hovered around 190-200 for a few years. About a year ago I took some serious measures and got back down to 175 for a few months after a shoulder injury. Around then... I started dating my wife about a year ago. In that time I've gotten back up to 200-210 and I have no time for a structured workout regime and I'm one of those casual eaters who doesn't notice that I just ate a candy bar or an entire pizza. Ever. I'm working on it, and I'm sure that if I am mindful of it I won't have the problem anymore. I'm also cutting out beer for a few months.

Sounds like a great program. I seriously wish I had the time for something like that. Currently, eating right and logging my intake is all I can do.

Exactly. I'm about 205 with a BMI of 31.2 which puts me in the "Obese" category. I work for a health care organization and before the economy died here they used to give us free, voluntary yearly health assessments. Each time my height, weight, cholesterol, etc was recorded and anyone with any risks was contacted by a nurse.

Every year I was contacted by the fitness and consoled over the phone on weight loss and the side effects like stress and depression. So, I'd go to their meeting and they'd kick me out. At the time of my last meeting my lean body mass was about 85%. So, I'm obese on paper and fit in real life. Except since I got married a few months back. I'm up about 10-15 lbs of fat. My wife knows how to cook and I never really cooked before.

This is a method I use quite often. The only problem is making sure the flash is off so you don't annoy the instructor. Absolutely priceless. However, I find that if I don't copy the pictures into a notebook then I won't retain it. I just get to do it a little slower.

(also, taking a video of a long lecture is AWESOME)