My Kindle Wi-Fi with Special Offers ($114) has arrived from Amazon (despite a scare of delayed delivery due to the storms hitting the eastern half of the country; I even received a nice email from Amazon 25 minutes ago about the delay; which is roughly 3 hours after I received it). Amazon may not have named it the AdverKindle, but I kind of like the nickname and promptly named mine just that (although it was just after I took the pics, so it doesn't have it's real name in them). I've taken a few pics to show the differences between it in the K3G that I have (couldn't track down Hubby's K3-WiFi, but they are essentially the same).I've already signed up for one offer and had it sent to my inbox: Get a $10 Amazon credit if you buy a "bestseller" with your Visa card. Turns on that the list of 48 books isn't all $9.99 and above books, either, and I can buy a book for as little as $3.82 and get the credit ($6 increase to my account!). You do have to use your Visa card (any Visa), so need to (a) make sure you don't have a current gift card balance and (b) set you one-click settings to use a Visa card. So, I have my offer, but haven't tried it out yet - I still have 83 cents in credit on my account and I already have several of the books on the list, so want to spend the credit first, in case it requires the full purchase go onto my Visa card. Another offer tells you about the 3x points when using an Amazon visa card (which I have), but if you don't have one, wait: I've seen ad copy for an offer of $100 back if you sign up for a new Amazon Visa card using one of the Special offers, but that one isn't on my Kindle yet.
The first thing you notice, even before opening the box, is that the box itself tells you this is the Kindle with Special Offers (no doubt to make it easier for those in the warehouse). Other than that, there is no indication inside the box or on the Kindle that it is any different from a regular Kindle WiFi. In fact, until you turn WiFi on for the first time and get it registered (mine was automatic, as soon as the Wifi was on), you don't even get any ads; they have to download via WiFi. Once you do, though, you get a screensaver such as the one above, with a matching ad at the bottom of the home page (left) 
after you use the slide to turn the Kindle on (the matching ad on the home page matches the screensaver that was previously seen). If you want to take advantage of an offer, you use the 5-way to move down to the ad and click on it (just like you use it to open a book). When you do, you get a new ad page (right) 
, which has a clickable link to get the offer sent to your email (the main email on the Amazon account -- which could get a bit irksome, if you have more than one of these Kindles on a shared account, as that one email address will get all the offer links). Clicking on the link resulted in an email, just as promised, which in turn had the link to the list of books and the full terms of the offer. If you buy a book you were already intending to get, it ends up being essentially free, such as with Virgin River books 1-4 or Devil's Food Cake Murder ($9.99 each), but most of the books are actually below $10, so you end up being paid to buy the book (use the extra on one of the Agency books and you end up getting one of those at a discount!).Other than the ads, there is no difference between this Kindle and the WiFi only Kindle my husband has. It doesn't have the 3G access my K3G has (which I use when not at home, on the road or during power outages), but it also isn't rebooting constantly (as my K3G now does, after the last update, anytime the wireless is on). The big question is whether or not I'll keep it: perhaps sell one of the others off or use it just to read review copies? If enough ads that are interesting turn up in the first 30 days, it could work out to be a free backup reader.
To see a gallery of pics for my new Kindle Wi-Fi with Special Offers, click HERE.
