Kindle for IPhone now in Egypt

I love reading, paper book reading, where you can carry your book around, toss it anywhere, read while walking, or even read in the bathroom ... Working in the Software business made EBook and PDF reading on my PC is a must but was never as enjoyable as the intimacy you experience while holding your book
That's why always admired Kindle, Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device. It is really amazing, design and technology, if you don't know what is Kindle take a look here
What is amazing about it is the natural book feeling and the revolutionary electronic paper display


It has been on my wish list since its release in early 2008, but I live in Egypt, and we learned a lesson from our great great ancestors, the Pharaohs that you can (and in our days will have to) take your wish lists to the grave!! Kindle is supported in the US and that is it, if you live in the God forsaken parts of the Universe (which is in short outside the US) you can't have it. Of course nothing is perfect and you can argue a lot with Amazon's decision regarding the restrictions and the business model they follow with their Kindle.

A couple of days ago I was thrilled to find the Kindle for IPhone app, I downloaded the application without second thoughts and chose a sample of a book I was interested in, reading on the IPhone using this app was a rich experience and I enjoyed my 1.5 chapters of the book, now I want that book and I'm willing to pay the 8.99$ to get it on my IPhone, of course you can purchase it on Amazon used for 2.99 and up, and get free shipping with Super Saver ... but, uh, yeah, I remembered ... I live in Egypt! so shipping that 2.99 book will cost in total over 12$ so wireless shipping seems appealing.
I setup a new Amazon account, with an Egyptian Shipping Address (in case of future paper pack books shipping), and used my online credit card, typed in my Egyptian Billing address, configured 1-Click Shopping in Amazon and I'm ready to pay! !ERROR! "We are sorry ... we could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase ... blah blah blah"


"Ok, it is another one of those stupid restrictions because of the Shipping or the Billing address, or may be my online credit card has Egyptian origins and that makes it not good enough for online shopping!" I thought ... tried changing both addresses with no luck, so now it is either the credit card or the IP address I'm using to access the divine Amazon website, that should be easy. I accessed amazon using a new account from a Terminal Service on a remote machine in Europe and the same error message is there, provocatively staring at me, challenging me, depriving me from a simple item on my wish list, and dooming me with the same Pharaohs destiny of taking it along to the grave ... I searched around until I found this great tip on this blog of a fellow kindloholic in South Africa. It gave me some hope in the form of creating an account with a US shipping and billing address, NO credit card info and using an Amazon Gift Card to charge your account with the required amount of money. Can be risky but worth a try, logically a new account using a gift card shouldn't be considered 3rd-world and be deprived the luxury of reading on the go.


I purchased a Gift Card, and to add humor to the pain I personalized it with:

From: myself
To: myself
Message: Enjoy Kindle or lose a hard earned 10$ :)

Just to be sure, I used a different account to purchase the Card than the one I'm linking to my IPhone, got the redeeming code, charged my account with the 10$, trembling I clicked the 1-Click shopping and, YES! it works, I'm officially Kindled ... I was amazingly grateful that Amazon toke my money, thank you Amazon, I'm speechless ... you f*@%#ers
Now I have a Kindle book, have my IPhone and have my account balance reduced by 10$ plus fees ... I should be reading happily ever after