Heh, now that'd be a major court case if they tried that. I do worry though that Kurzweil's up and coming Ebook reader software might inadvertantly allow them to do just that. Consider, if we have access to something else even if it doesn't have all the content, that gives the author's guild more push to say we need a special device or service which is their current stance on the issue. Following from that, it could be reasoned that paying extra for tts capability could qualify as that special service. It's rather sobering.
On Dec 8, 3:04 pm, louie <[email protected]> wrote: > Do you think we will have to pay more to read a book that is > restricted to visual only? > > S > On Dec 8, 2009, at 2:02 PM, Larry Wanger wrote: > > > > > > > Hi, > > > My wife has a Kindle and, despite the publishers refusing us access, > > it's > > actually optional for magazines and books to offer this. My wife has > > demonstrated the text to speech feature and it's fairly good. Many > > magazines > > and some books do still offer the speech option so know that once this > > change is made to the menus we will enjoy some of what is available. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Esther > > Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 1:29 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Text-to-Speech Support on Kindle coming for Vision > > Impaired > > users > > > Hi Jacob, > > > Jake wrote: > > >> But will we be able to actually read the books after the author's > >> guild basically said we have no right to and Amazon caved to them? It > >> can have all the audible menus in the world, but if I can't read the > >> book based on a licensing decision then it's still of no use. > > That's the next step! and I agree that I'd rather have an accessible > > iPhone app through Stanza. > > Cheers, > > Esther > >> Personally, I'd rather have an accessible version of the iPhone app > >> anyway. $400 simply for an Ebook reader is just too much. > >> Currently, the Kindle II has tts capability for books but only if > >> thepublisher allows it, and most do not thanks to the author's guild. > > >> Esther wrote: > >>> Hi, > > >>> I'm surprised that I haven't seen any mention on this list of > >>> Amazon's > >>> announcement that they will update the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX to > >>> include an audible menu that will use text-to-speech and add new > >>> large > >>> fonts to better support vision-impaired users, and will implement > >>> these changes in 2010. This has been covered in a few places since > >>> yesterday. > > >>> Here's the press release at Amazon: > > >http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle... > > 2556&highlight= > > >>> A few links to articles reporting on this: > >>> . Yahoo (basically the news release) > > >http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Blind-and-VisionImpaired-bw-2422175966.... > > 0&.v=1 > >>> . Techflash (has some commentary from the NFB, student reaction, and > >>> other description) > > >http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/12/kindle_to_feature_new_tools_... > > nd_visually_impaired.html > > >>> and here's some of the older (November 2009) criticism of the > >>> Kindle's > >>> text-to-speech access from geek.com: > > >http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/kindle-dx-text-to-speech-access-... > > zed-20091111/ > > >>> Cheers, > > >>> Esther > > >> -- > > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > >> Groups "MacVisionaries" group. > >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected] > >> . > >> For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en > >> . > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups > > "MacVisionaries" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups "MacVisionaries" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected] > > . > > For more options, visit this group > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en > > . > > louie > [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
