The Kindle 2 May Not Read You a Bedtime Story Anymore
After coming under attack from the US Authors Guild, Amazon has decided to give authors and publishers the option to disable the “Read-To-Me” feature on the Kindle 2. With “Read-To-Me” the Kindle will read the books on your Kindle aloud thus freeing your hands for other things such as knitting or, I dunno, reading another book. The guild argued that this feature will impact the billion-dollar audiobook industry. By giving authors and publishers the option to disable it, Amazon feels that they will feel more in control and will quit complaining.
Marc Acito briefly mentioned this feature when I saw him a few weeks ago and how it isn’t doing any favors to the author who gets paid for the audiobook rights.
As a reader, I can not possibly imagine this feature being useful. Sure we can make it talk, but the reading wont be able to do the slightly different voices for each character, provide tone or dramatic pauses. In my mind it would probably sound like a robot reading to you.
I found this Youtube video which demonstrates this technology. Unfortunately, it’s in a book open room with lots of cameras clicking and is hard to really make out the quality of the reading.
Anybody with a Kindle 2, what are your thoughts on the Read-To-Me feature?
Source:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/usitinternetkindleamazoncopyright
March 1st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
First, a disclaimer. I hate being read to (apparently it's in the genes because my mom can't stand it and neither can her parents). I don't even like the “good” audiobooks such as Jim Dale reading Harry Potter or Neil Gaiman reading his own work.
So, that said, I think the text-to-speech function is a bit horrid. It IS like having a computer read to you. Some pronunciation is odd if not absurd. (My personal favorite is the word “metadata,” which is located in the Kindle2 User's Guide. It comes out something similar to the boar in Lion King saying “matata.”) And the pausing is a bit off as well. If a section or title head doesn't have a period or a comma, the voice doesn't recognize the hard return.
You can choose a male or female voice, and those I've talked with who have listened to the female voice find it a bit irritating in its register.
When it comes down to it, I don't see how this is going to hurt the audio industry because it is not pleasing to listen to. Audio readers are not going to replace their audiobooks with a readaloud Kindle.
That's my two cents, anyway.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:07 pm
If I listen to audiobooks, even while driving, I can't stay focused on them and they just become background noise. I wouldn't be able to follow the story.
I wonder how the Kindle does with foreign languages such as Spanish. Oscar Wao had a lot of Spanish in it and I doubt that the Kindle 2 can pronounce those words without butchering them.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I love it, and it's unfortunate that they're disabling it. The reader sounds a bit robotic, but not too bad. I was so looking forward to listening to Kindle while playing World of Warcraft. Now I'll just have to pirate audiobooks again! (Aaarr, you aren't the ONLY book pirate around, matey)!
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Whenever I pirate audiobooks, they are normally very poor sound quality and the selection isn't that good… not that I support pirating audiobooks or anything.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I love it, and it's unfortunate that they're disabling it. The reader sounds a bit robotic, but not too bad. I was so looking forward to listening to Kindle while playing World of Warcraft. Now I'll just have to pirate audiobooks again! (Aaarr, you aren't the ONLY book pirate around, matey)!
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Whenever I pirate audiobooks, they are normally very poor sound quality and the selection isn't that good… not that I support pirating audiobooks or anything.
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