[nfbmi-talk] FW: creative writing Kindle book reader for the blind

David Andrews dandrews at visi.com
Fri Jul 30 01:19:08 UTC 2010


The answer to your questions is "probably."  Amazon has said they 
added speech to menus etc., so you can read etc.  It doesn't 
specifically say you can independently browse, choose, and order 
books.  Presumably you can, but until some blind guys try this thing 
out I would be guardedly optimistic.  They also have said that you 
need sighted assistance to turn on speech, and you can't 
independently turn it on in books where it is off.  Also, Amazon 
disables text to speech in some books, if the authors ask them to do 
so.  There was a Tweet on twitter today that said that TTS was 
disabled on about 50 percent of the books.

So this may be a solution that isn't quite ready for prime time.

Dave

At 05:20 PM 7/29/2010, you wrote
>Does this mean that we will be able to purchase ebooks through amazon and
>then we would be able to use the kindal? Woot woot and that is a great price
>this makes me very happy because I will no longer have to wait for books to
>be uploaded on to bookshare or the NLS website. If this means that I will be
>able to download and purchase any book I want even on the day of it release,
>I'm most excited, and say its about time.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>On Behalf Of Fred Wurtzel
>Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 5:21 PM
>To: 'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'
>Subject: [nfbmi-talk] FW: creative writing Kindle book reader for the blind
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: explorations-in-creative-writing at googlegroups.com
>[mailto:explorations-in-creative-writing at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Phil
>Vlasak
>Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 1:32 PM
>To: explorations-in-creative-writing at googlegroups.com
>Subject: creative writing Kindle book reader for the blind
>
>Hi Folks,
>The new Kindle will be more blind friendly than the current version.
>Kindle Wireless Reading Device,
>Price: $139.00
>Our all-new Kindle will be released on August 27th 2010.
>Read-to-Me
>With the Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read English newspapers,
>magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder
>
>made the feature unavailable.
>You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot
>is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being
>read, so you can listen hands-free. You can choose from both male and female
>
>voices which can be sped up or slowed down to suit your preference. In the
>middle of a great book or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn
>on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.
>
>Voice Guide
>With Text-to-Speech, Kindle can read out loud to you. New Text-to-Speech
>enabled menus allow customers to navigate Kindle without having to read menu
>
>options. In addition to listening to books aloud, users now have the option
>of listening to content listings on the home screen, item descriptions, and
>all menu options.
>Other features:
>Wi-Fi, 6 inch Display,
>Eight adjustable text sizes for comfortable reading
>Battery Life of Up to One Month with wireless off,
>Double the Storage - Up to 3,500 Books,
>Storage approximately 3GB available for user content,
>
>Massive Selection,
>Over 630,000 books,
>including 109 of 111 New York Times Best Sellers,
>plus audiobooks, periodicals and blogs.
>Over 510,000 books are $9.99 or less, including 80 current New York Times
>Best Sellers.
>
>Free, Out-of-Copyright Books
>Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available such
>as Pride and Prejudice.
>
>Listen to Music & Podcasts
>Transfer MP3 files to Kindle to play as background music while you read. You
>
>can quickly and easily transfer MP3 files via USB by connecting Kindle to
>your computer.
>
>Audio 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, rear-mounted stereo speakers.
>Content Formats Supported
>Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3,
>unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG,
>BMP through conversion.
>
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M

                         David Andrews:  dandrews at visi.com
Follow me on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/dandrews920





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