Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans? -

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Daphne Reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

17 Oct 2012, 06:40 AM | Post: #1

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Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

This post was last modified: 17 Oct 2012 06:49 AM by Daphne.

Am I the only person to love the Text-to-Speech feature on my Kindle? I have the Kindle 2 model - now almost three years old - and it had the T2S as an experimental feature. I use it all the time - the robotic voice has read all the Harry Potter books to me in its cheerful tinny tones with many mispronunciations and the wrong intonation. Somehow my brain self-corrects the errors, but why has Amazon not put any work into developing this feature when they have made so many other improvements to the Kindle? I notice that the Paperwhite doesn’t have the feature at all - and it is not available if you have Kindle on a tablet – even Kindle Fire. I can only assume that feedback said that people didn’t use T2S. Or maybe some publishers object to audio versions of their books being available for free? If I replace my Kindle it will have to be the Kindle Keyboard 3G – but I am worried that they will withdraw this option. Undecided

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J.S.Egan Reading

17 Oct 2012, 07:23 AM | Post: #2

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

It is odd, I agree - voice interfaces are clearly 'the future' - but Amazon seems to have decided that they are not a selling-point on the Kindle right now.

When I got my Nexus 7, I was very excited about TTS - I have had lots of fun working on an app which reads web articles aloud. (There are existing apps, but none of them are intelligent - the don't know where the actual 'article' starts, so you have to either "tell" it "start here", or it starts by reading you the menu!!)

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kaska Reading Song of Jikhoshi by Katie W Stewart

17 Oct 2012, 08:07 AM | Post: #3

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

This post was last modified: 17 Oct 2012 08:07 AM by kaska.

I would imagine that money spent fine tuning the TTS on kindle would mean more people would use it as a listening device as well as a reading one & drop the sales amazon gain from audible.

Often I buy an book to listen to from audible as I don't have the time to read it, if TTS was better I would listen on kindle, saving me money.

I personally thing the TTS is awful & couldn't possibly enjoy a book listening to it.

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Lou Reading Ryria Series by Michael J Sullivan

17 Oct 2012, 08:32 AM | Post: #4

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

The TTS on the Kindle Touch was actually very good and noticeably better than on the Kindle Keyboard. I never got around to using it much myself, but if you are thinking of replacing an older model and really would like TTS, I would recommend trying to get hold of a Touch.

I'm actually thinking of selling mine if anyone's interested.

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Daphne Reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

17 Oct 2012, 09:13 AM | Post: #5

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

J.S. Egan - my son has a Nexus 7 and has been showing me how he can speak to it/ask questions and it will give answers. It is a clever piece of kit - but his Kindle app doesn't have T2S.

Kaska - I think you are absolutely right about Amazon wanting us to buy from Audible - and of course the quality is way better than T2S (I have a couple from Audible, but they are expensive.) I can reduce my daughter to tears of laughter when I play a book aloud on my Kindle with T2S. And you should hear it trying to tackle French!

Lou - I didn't know that about Kindle Touch, but will bear it in mind if my Kindle gives up the ghost. It is nearly 3 years old, and I do worry about the battery life, especially as I use T2S all the time and it is heavy on battery wear.

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Kew Reading Fellowship with Demons (Murray of Letho) by Lexie Conyngham

17 Oct 2012, 10:54 AM | Post: #6

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

I'm sorry to hear that, I am also a T2S fan - I often let it read to me whilst I am crocheting or ironing. My Mum has cataracts forming and I've been trying to persuade her to try T2S. I agree that although it sounds weird to start with, I also autocorrect in my own mind, I often get lost in the story and don't even notice the robotic voice anymore.

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Daphne Reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

17 Oct 2012, 03:41 PM | Post: #7

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

(17 Oct 2012 10:54 AM)Kew Wrote: I also autocorrect in my own mind, I often get lost in the story and don't even notice the robotic voice anymore.

I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in my love of Text-to-Speech. And I quite agree that once you get lost in a story you just don't notice the voice anymore. Kindle Smile

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Susanne Reading The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson

17 Oct 2012, 03:58 PM | Post: #8

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

And yet, when you buy an audio book, they usually promote whoever is reading the book because it adds to the experience of "hearing" the book.

I have not used TTS, apart from trying it out when I first got my Kindle, because I found it too annoying. I have a few audio books on CD and have always enjoyed listening to them, and particularly because of the reader's voice.

Steve (Robinson) posted about this a while ago when he was approached about having one of his books produced as an audio book and apart from anything else, I know he was concerned about the voice they would use to read his book.

Still, using TTS is very different from listening to a real audio book.

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Notoriety Reading The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

17 Oct 2012, 04:57 PM | Post: #9

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

This post was last modified: 17 Oct 2012 04:57 PM by Notoriety.

I've never tried TTS on my KB3 - but now they are removing it I might. Is there any way you can tell which of your books are TTS enabled once you've downloaded them??! Undecided

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Daphne Reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

17 Oct 2012, 05:18 PM | Post: #10

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RE: Amazon drop Text-to-Speech from new Kindles: any other T2S fans?

(17 Oct 2012 04:57 PM)Notoriety Wrote: I've never tried TTS on my KB3 - but now they are removing it I might. Is there any way you can tell which of your books are TTS enabled once you've downloaded them??!

Tony

In my experience most books can be listened to on T2S - the only one I can think of on my Kindle that doesn't have this facility is the version of the H.G. Wells book with War of the Worlds and Time Machine which I have. The only way I know of checking is to click on the AA button at the bottom right of keyboard and the box comes up to alter text size/words per line etc. If the Text-to-Speech option has "turn on" you just click on that. Occasionally the option is greyed out - so no T2S.

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