BUT, there’s A SOLUTION!
- Amazon doesn’t ship Kindle out of the US. Therefore you must register with Vpost first. With Vpost, you can buy products from countries like, US, Europe and Japan.
- Go to Amazon.com, log into or create an account if you do not already have one. Buy the Kindle 2/DX and have Amazon shipped it to your Vpost (USA) **address. I will skip the rest of the procedures between you and Vpost as you can find them at their site.
- Once you receive your Kindle 2 in Singapore, the fun begins!
- Log into your Amazon.com account and buy a Gift Certificate and email the code to yourself.
- You should be able to receive the gift certificate code in your email in a matter of minutes.
- Copy and paste and apply the code to your Amazon account.
- Delete ALL you existing credit card information. Reason being that when you buy a Kindle book, the system will check this information and when it recognises that your credit card is not issused by a US bank, the purchases won’t go through.
- Drum rolls please…..
- Congratulations! You should now be able to buy books for your Kindle 2. Just ensure that the gift certificate has enough credit for what you are purchasing.
- To download your purchased books and sync to your Kindle via USB, go to ‘My Account’, scroll down to ‘Digital Content’ and click on the ‘Manage Your Kindle‘ link.
- Scroll down until you see, ‘Your Orders’. You should be able to see all your purchases. And on the right, there is an drop down menu that says, “Deliver too…”.
- And in that menu, choose the option that says, “Transfer via computer…” or something to that effect.
- Connect your Kindle via USB and drop the newly purchased book(s) into your Documents directory of your Kindle and HAVE FUN READING!
- Hope the above instructions help. If you run into any problems, feel free to ask me via this blog.
*Updated on 2 Jul 09: Thank God, I finally found the original blog where I learned this trick from. Credit must go to NerdGirl! I just tweaked it to people here living in Singapore. 
WARNING! (dtd 10 Jul 09): DO NOT use IE 8 to purchase your Kindle books. A reader, David, had problem purchasing his Kindle books, even with the gift voucher. Until he changed to Google Chrome, the problem was solved!
Update: 10 Jul 09: PDF Conversion: If you want to read pdf books, no problem! Just send your pdf book to yourusername@free.kindle.com. And in a few minutes time, an. azw (Kindle) version will be sent back to you. There’s no need to add Subject or Body heading. But remember the word, “free.” must be added in front of “kindle.com”. Therefore, it should be @free.kindle.com, not @kindle.com.
**Update: 11 Dec 09: Spoke with a Singpost staff and asked her especially with regards to the Amazon Kindle. She told me to ship it to Portland Oregon address instead of the Compton California’s. Reason being Compton is very strict with battery stuff. I’d suspect it’s the state of California that is strict, not Compton itself. So, just ship to the Portland Oregon address.
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Hey Michael,
Yes, the US catalogue beats any country hands down. But if you were to buy the Australian Kindle, most likely your account will be treated as an Australian account. As such, you may not be able to see the US catalogue. As for my method, it was written when Amazon only had one KIndle version; i.e. the US one. Back then, I believe many people, including Australians, have already used this method to buy their Kindle.
Hey HongJun,
I really don’t know if Singaporeans will ever get their very own Kindle or not. In my opinion, it looks like our country here is too small for Amazon’s consideration.
Hi Melvin,
do you think I could use this method for my Australian Kindle, or when I return to Singapore next year? The US catalogue still beats the Australian one.
Thanks.
Any updates on Kindle 3 for Singapore?
Hey Rini,
Alternatively, you can go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680 and just follow the instructions there.
Hey La Papillion,
Don’t worry about it as long as your link is legitimate. In SEO term, it’s a nofollow link anyway.
Hi Rini,
You might want to check out my post.
http://bullythebear.blogspot.com/2010/07/kindle-firmware-updates.html
(Sorry Melvin for putting up my site link here)
I uploaded the files needed for the update up onto a new site, because I myself had trouble downloading them. If you have trouble downloading the files, do contact me. I see what I can do for you.
Hi Melvin,
How to upgrade to the latest version? I’ve been through ur site but cannot find. Did I miss it somewhere? Just realised mine is version 2.3
Hey Kathia,
The instructions and answers to your questions are already all there in the post.
Thanks.
Hi,
I have a question about buying kindle books from the US catalogue.
I noticed the Asia-Pac catalogue was very limited so I checked out the US one. I also noticed a lot of the books I’d like to buy have a ‘auto-delivered wirelessly’ tag on them.
Have you tried to buy those using the gift coupon hack? I was just wondering if there is an option to force those with such delivery to be sent via email to be downloaded. Alternatively, are we able to download it wireless in SG using the same coupon purchasing method?
I have yet to purchase a Kindle but I’m very keen to do so. But it’s a deal breaker if all the books I want must be delivered wirelessly with no way around it.
Thanks!
-Kathia
Bee Bee… Yeah, kinda heart pain… just bought mine and month later kindle 3 came out… Arrgghhhh… Nicer and Sleeker…. Sooo Heart Pain… I did scream all out, but still pain… hahaha
Hey Keith,
I’m still buying Kindle books.
Y’know, before I bought the Kindle, I’ve also bought lots of things from Amazon. When I decided to buy the Kindle, all I did was to remove every trace of Singapore footprint. And at the same time, I also remove the “One Click” thingy. I’m not sure if things have changed since then.
As for the gift card, it’s an e-gift card. Therefore, no address is necessary.
I’m not sure if my answers help. But there’s all I know so far.
@bee bee: I have already placed my order for the wifi model. In future new issues of my magazine subscriptions are going to be sent directly into my kindle just like how it works for US users now. I have an iPad but I still love my kindle!
hi Melvin
Are you still buying kindle books?
i already have an amazon account because i used to buy dvds from amazon to ship to singapore.
So when i buy the kindle, do I still use back this account with the singapore address and credit card info (singapore credit card) or i need to create another account with a US address and US credit card?
what about the gift card? do i use the same singapore address?
Thanks
scream all you want; yell all your tops off.
Kindle 3 is out at US$189 for both wifi and 3g
and only US$139 for wifi model !!……………….
with better specs all round..
Hi Melvin,
It came unregistered, because I think the owner degistered before selling it to me from ebay. I couldn’t register it on the kindle (even though I can register from the amazon account online) because the registration requires the whispernet to be on. Since I’m not in US and I’m carrying a US version, I can’t switch it on and I can’t register.
The hacking is not as serious as it sounds, haha
It just involves updating the registry on the Kindle 
Glad I’m on the updated firmware…somehow the kindle looks sharper and with more contrast , haha
I love the pdf zoom function too 
Hey La papillion,
Mine is also a US wireless version. And it’s also registered to my Amazon account. If fact, when I first bought my Kindle, there wasn’t any other versions. Do you really have to ‘hack’ it? Can you not just unregister it and re-register it to your account? Just make sure that your account doesn’t have any trace or smell; if you know what I mean.
Hi Melvin,
Oh, I didn’t get it from Amazon directly. Mine is a 2nd hand one bought from ebay. There’s some screw up so I ended up with a US wireless version instead of a global version that I wanted…but that person charged me cheaper for it….so I guess it’s okay.
I initially had a problem because since it’s not registered, I can’t apply the firmware update. Hence the search for a ‘hack’ to register my kindle first.
The newest version of kindle looks good
Hey La papillion, thanks for the heads up. But mine came registered even though it’s a US version. And I’ve updated to the latest 2.5.2 version manually a month back already. Did you not buy your Kindle direct from Amazon?
Hey Melvin,
Kindle dx had a new firmware update to 2.5.2. Since I had the US version, I had to register it first before I can apply the patch. The update is great, as it has the pdf zooming function that I’d always wished my kindle would have
There’s a guy called Nifty in a forum that will teach you how to ‘hack’ your kindle to get your kindle registered so that you can update the firmware. I’ve tried it personally and found that it works! Apparently you have to download some files but since I had problems downloading it from the link given, I upload it to another (hopefully) more stable site.
Maybe you can do a post on it to update people who had kindle but had problems registering it and patching the new firmware update
Hi Melvin
do steps 10 to 13 required?
i thought it will be downloaded automatically using
3G whispernet network in singapore without additional charge?
no?
Yippeee yeah… Its been here one week already… Enjoying every sec… Bought a couple of skins too… Btw i did use the VPN and without… both ways.. First I didn’t use the VPN, cause I didn’t know about it. They put me into the asia/singapore region. Then scared that they might detect me again, I used the VPN and changed my location to United States. Then after sometimes, its kinda tedious to switch on and off whenever I visit the site. So I switched it off. When I go to amazon again, the location stayed at united states. so till now I am not using vpn. I think only a handful face this problem and I might just agree with Bee Bee that these are the ppl who got quarantine… Anyways thanx all about the kindle info…
@meng @jeffrey about VPN: I think there must be some records that are US which is recorded on their system, which is why you can surf without the VPN. Think: if location was an issue, how would others in non-authorized countries could buy the books?
I’m just guessing about this idea. @jeffrey said some people got quarantined. I think thats because they left hints somewhere about their actual locations.
Make sense?
Any K gang here to join & discuss?……
Hi Melvin, thanks for writing the blog. My cousin in Canada bought the kindle for me. according to your blog, I should then register on amazon with vpost & purchase a gift cert. what do you mean by deleting credit card info? info on amazon or vpost?
Do I need to use VPN or can I get by using your method above?
@meng, yeah that’s what I find puzzling. If I don’t use the VPN, amazon will detect that i’m not in the US and automatically change the thing to Asia or even Singapore (in which case my bookshelf will have zero books.)
So what I’m curious is how come you and others don’t need to do this? I also regularly get emails from sg users whose accounts are ‘found out and quarantined’ by Amazon because they are not in the US, just got another user in this situation a few hours ago…
@Jeffrey: The “Your country or region” setting on the top left hand corner of the home page shows “United States”, so I think I am accessing the US store. Maybe some of our SG users don’t have the right (US) country setting, that’s why vpn is required??
@BeeBee and @Jeffrey: Actually, all this while, I’ve never used VPN before. As for whether it’s a subset of the full ebook catalogue or not, I really do not know. All I know is as long as I can find the book I want, I’m happy.
@meng et al., if you’re not using a VPN, won’t the Kindle bookstore show a subset of the full ebook catalogue (Asia & Pacific)?
@Bee Bee: I don’t have to use vpn when I make ebook purchases in the US store, so I am puzzled as well why some of us need to do that.
finally got things running, and am thankful to all who helped!
now the issue is about buying/downloading books… am wondering how different people do it online…someone taught me about vpn & it is one sure way.. but i am curious how some people could just buy without the vpn..
@alvin
thanks for the advice! I’ll try. Just not too happy with the funny name and the funny address. It gives me a lot of problems. Wonder how many people are doing this here….
maybe we should all have a party sometime and share the heck of stories out of all these? Sounds fun to me….
@BeeBee
You can try registering the Kindle to your Amazon account. So long the account is has no ‘Singapore’ specific information, you should be ok. Nothing to lose.
@alvin thanks for the info. How did you lost your kindle? How could it be disappeared off just like that? I am in a panic. What I’ve done is I’ve also asked vpost to degreister it. But I wonder if they would do that? I thought when they bought the device they should have put in my name instead but they obviously didn’t. So if I open an amazon account and register, I should be ok? I can try. If this is done, what should I be expecting ? Now I feel like I’m Casper already…
@melvin
you are spot on. I think the same too. Because the device is registered under a different name and given a kindle email address, it doesn’t recognise me. So I can’t read anything. I went to reset to factory default and the device was unresgitered though. Should I do it again and register it on Amazon? The risk here appears that the dictionary may disappear again along with the eguides.
Now I wonder how this system works. Hell !
Hi Bee Bee,
Melvin’s right. You cannot read your own books on a Kindle that is registered to someone else. Try registering it under your name – Amazon website under your account. If that doesn’t work, you really need the seller to unregister it. I doubt you need to do that as I lost a Kindle before and it magically disappeared from my account list after that. That means it was somehow registered under another name.
@melvin
thanks for the reply.
Yes I was able to read it on PC. Not the ipad etc.
What happens is I bought it through Vpost. I think thats why they had this funny name and funny address. What am I going to do with it?
I can’t deregister from the machine, can I ?
Or could I mentioned it was a gift?
Thanx lots Melvin for everything… Now waiting for the moment to arrive.. Hope no probs aft that…
Hey Bee Bee,
I can’t really give you much advice since you bought it from a 3rd party because I don’t know what did the 3rd party do to it. I’m guessing the reason why you can’t read the book is because the device is not registered to your name. So even if you managed to purchase the Kindle ebooks, you won’t be able to read them until you register the device to your Amazon account. This is one way Amazon can use to protect the book from being circulated. Anyway this is just my guess only. I’m not certain about it.
How do you read .azw files on the PC? Do you mean you’re reading it with the PC/Mac/iPhone/iPad/Android/Blackberry app?
As for the strange and unknown name, I think the only way to get rid of it permanently is to get the 3rd party to unregister it. Otherwise, anytime you log onto the internet, it will always point back to the registered name.
@melvin:
–all the formats of ebooks are all azw but I couldn’t open it. Even my free download ebook from project gutenberg through the wireless didn’t open. The crazy thing is I was able to save it on the PC and read it on the PC. Now I can’t read it on the ebook reader. If thats the case, what happens if you bought the book and the book can’t be downloaded to the device?
–I bought it through a 3rd party so that may be the reason why the unknown name and the unknown email address. Any advice on how to change it?
–Lucky to get my dictionary back on the machine. But under a spooky occurance. I don’t know how this works but the dictionary was also deleted off my head into the air. then I decided to reset machine back to default in the hopes to get the dictionary back. When it didn’t, I went panic. Off i went to read the guide since the e-guide on the machine vanished too. Then out of the blue, it auto linked itself online wirelessly and re-registered back to the original unknown name and email. Thats when the dictionary returned and the eguide came back.
Is this normal? I doubt it but since those came back like casper the ghost, I assume its ok
Hey BeeBee,
What are the formats of your ebooks? Note that not all ebook formats are readable by the Kindle; especially those of other ebook readers.
Can the ‘weird’ name be the name you used to buy the Kindle? Or did you buy direct from Amazon or through a third party?
As for the dictionary, let’s put it aside first. The thing is, can you read .azw, .txt, .pdf and other approved Kindle files now with your Kindle?
Hey Rini,
I don’t have the UK adapter charger. So I can’t advise you on that. Maybe other of my blog reader can?
Another help: I restart to factory default thinking all will return to normal only to find the dictonary has gone too. What a nightmare.
I need help. Just got my Kindle and you know what? It self registers itself the moment I switched it on with a given name that I don’t even know. I surfed for a while & I realised something: I cannot open download free books off from non Amazon sites. Neither can I read downloaded AMZ files. Could I be in trouble? Because of the jam, I went to reset the machine. Now there is no registered weird name and all. So is this cleared?
Btw can the iphone usb uk charger adapter be used to the kindle through usb to charge. I am a dummy when it comes to electricals n electronics stuff…
Thanx Melvin, Thanx Jeff… I think I jus get the normal one then… How about VPN? Do I use the VPN during surfing as well or only when I want to checkout? I know Melvin has never done so and still doing fine, but jus to be on safer side. So during surfing Amazon, I use the VPN or Only when I logged on or When I want to check out? Sorry, Still new in this…
Oh.. I am not using a VPN and am still using a Singapore issued cc. So far no problem…. fingers crossed. Maybe the checks are targeted on the more recent kindle buyers?
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