Iphone and kindle

[Knipples]

Ok, so i've got my kindle and my iphone, and the iphone has the kindle app on it.

I've got it so I can sync between the two, i.e. I can read on my kindle, then go to work, want to carry on reading the book on my phone, and then it sync's it to the phone, and back and forth and so on.

Does anyone know if me reading my books on the phone is using up my data allowance, I know it would cost a bit of my data when it actually syncs, but is it continuing to use up data (if im not on wifi) when I have the app open and am reading the book? (as in until I close the app)

[Kitten]

Once it's on the device it's on the device. It downloads onto the device in entirety.Only the downloading costs (unless you're on wifi etc)

[Knipples]

So the first time I download the book onto the phone, its there, and then its not costing me data when I read the book? (apart from it talking to the kindle back at home to sync it)

[Kitten]

Yes. Although you could test it yourself just by turning your data connection off and seeing if you can still read it.

[Knipples]

I thought so, just the stupid bint at o2 when I rang yesterday to ask, said that it would be using up my data and I should stop doing it unless I am on wifi.

[Kitten]

It will use data if you download/sync stuff on it,but if you've got it set to only sync on wi-fi, it won't. Once it's on the device it's there, that's how I understand it. It would be absolutely minimal anyway, most full books don't go higher than a few kb - most are under 1mb, it's just plain text. :)

[Knipples]

Yeah see sometimes I sync it if im at work (where its not even 3g sometimes, only the "Edge" signal) but all I do is sync it to the furthest read page, which may have been on the kindle at home the night before.

Then I just sit there reading it on the phone for a bit (like at lunch)

I can't always get to a wifi signal, hence my confuddlement.

[Kitten]

Seriously, I'm 99% sure it doesn't (you know me, can never commit to 100, just in case :p) but...even if it didn't, you'd be using less than 1mb every time you read a book. If you've got 400 mg, you'd have to a lot of reading to get anywhere near ;)

[LeperousDust]

If you're syncing or checking last read page on your phone, it's likely it's using some kind of data over 3g (unless you're connected to wifi). However the amount of data used doing this would be so minimal it's probably hard to count the individual bytes used :p But the actual act of downloading the book (the largest use of data in this scenario by far) will only be done once.

As kitten said, if you're really worried, or aren't sure if it will affect usage, then just turn the data connection off (many ways) and see from there...

[Mark]

Whispersync (Amazon's name for the sync function) doesn't need much data. It's certainly not downloading the book every time, and since it works just fine on my non-3G iPad while well out of range of wi-fi, it'll be fine. :)

Even if you do download the odd book, that'll be fine too. Unless it's particularly picture heavy (rare for Kindle), it'll be a few MB.

And I wouldn't worry about it anyway. If you get a text from O2 saying you've used 80% of your data, then I'd be a bit more careful (use the O2 app to monitor your allowance and limit use of data-heavy apps like web, mail and maps), but even if you go a little over you shouldn't get burned (check the T&C of your contract). I used 101% of mine last month. :)