no more text to speech??? are you sad?? if you are, read my kindle review from the amazon website:

I absolutely love my Kindle 2 from Amazon. I never write reviews, and for good reason. I cheated at typing in high school; therefore typing is such a chore for me. But my zeal for the Kindle has me pecking away at the keyboard like mad today. If you love reading buy it. Now. You won't regret it---I guarantee. Ladies and Gentlemen, I guarantee you will love your Kindle or you can ship it to me, NO questions asked.
Highs:
The screen is beautiful
It works as advertised
It sits nicely in the hand--buy the amazon case...it rocks, too.
Someone may actually ship me their unloved kindle
Lows:
The interface is slow (but intuitive)
The web-browser is lame but it works
Price... still worth it though.

I think this "no more text to speech" is misleading, and not supported by Amazon's announcement. All they said was that they will give copyright holders a way to turn of TTS for selected titles, at their option.

which will be the majority of titles, I wager

Is the TTS turned off and publishers can have it activated or the TTS activated and publishers can have it deactivated?

Wasn't ever going to use it. Not going to miss it.

While I certainly understand people's desire to have one device that does everything for them, I bought my Kindle to read books on. That's it. Over. Done. It does its job in an exemplary fashion and I have no complaints (though I will be quite pleased when I have a real cover for it).

which will be the majority of titles, I wager

Actually I doubt it would be. I think the Author's Guild wanted to establish that it was their right to allow or forbid it. That doesn't mean that they won't be generous in allowing it. After all, they risk the ire of the disabled community and others by forbidding it but they don't really lose anything by allowing it. The technology as it stands today is not really competition for a professional audio book. It makes sense for them to protect their rights early on, though. They don't have to forbid TTS to do that. They just have to establish that Amazon needs their permission.

which will be the majority of titles, I wager

Well, that's still just a guess on your part. Consider the following:

1. All Public Domain/Non-DRM files will be TTS enabled.
2. All Newspapers, magazines, periodicals, blogs etc. will be TTS enabled.
3. If people do not buy non-TTS books as much as TTS books, the copyright holders will not have much of a choice.

In any case "No More TTS" is definitely incorrect. Many titles, perhaps even most titles, will still have TTS.

I agree, I have way more non-Amazon books on my Kindle and I truly enjoy having a book read to me and often as not, I follow along with the text, but it's nice to gaze out a window and still listen to the ongoing story or cook a meal, etc. I like the ability to multitask. I even have Kindle read to me while I am in the tub. Now that's the height of luxury!

TTS is a wonderful thing to have when you are driving across country ... my husband and I put in a lot of miles between his family and mine (1500 miles between 'em!) and we are loving the TTS option. Audiobooks are really expensive ... this is a wonderful option for us.

TTS is a wonderful thing to have when you are driving across country ... my husband and I put in a lot of miles between his family and mine (1500 miles between 'em!) and we are loving the TTS option. Audiobooks are really expensive ... this is a wonderful option for us.

If the two of your are in the car, can't one read to the other? I would much rather my wife read to me than listen to TTS.

Also, you can get audiobooks from many libraries. You can rent them at Cracker Barel (US) and return them at any other cracker barrel.

BOb

Well, pilotbob, you make a good point. But, many people (including myself) cannot read in the car because it makes us nauseous. Audiobooks are great, but more expensive for casual use. I am a gold member of Audible.com, but I find myself only using it for books I want to keep for a long time, since they are more expensive. I don't know about libraries in Florida, but in California, their selection sucks big.

Well, pilotbob, you make a good point. But, many people (including myself) cannot read in the car because it makes us nauseous. Audiobooks are great, but more expensive for casual use. I am a gold member of Audible.com, but I find myself only using it for books I want to keep for a long time, since they are more expensive. I don't know about libraries in Florida, but in California, their selection sucks big.

I understand the not being able to read in the car thing. I just don't think I could take the TTS for more than 5 minutes.

SO, you listen to more than 1 audible book a month? I guess you do alot of driving?

Have you looking into the NYPL? You can get a non-resident card for $100 a year. They have a great ebook selection... I think they also have audio books.

BOb

Yes, Bob, thanks for your good advice, however I work ++++ hours (doctoral student, nurse practitioner practice and I teach at an out-of-country University) and literally can't squeeze in trips back and forth to the library between trips (got real tired of the overdue fees). Also, I get car sick. PLUS it is the only time right now we get to enjoy one another and stare out of the window and comment on things. No, the TTS is a really nice option for us. We are just leaving for another trip for my research and family visit and Kindle2 is all packed and ready to go!

Yes, Bob, thanks for your good advice, however I work ++++ hours (doctoral student, nurse practitioner practice and I teach at an out-of-country University) and literally can't squeeze in trips back and forth to the library between trips (got real tired of the overdue fees).

The only trip you will have to make to the library to borrow an audio book is with your web browser. :D

I'm glad you are enjoying the TTS.

BOb

Bob, you do realize that the TTS voices in the K2 sound noting like what is in the Amazon example video they posted a while back? It's actually quite good. At least on par with anything I've heard using programs like Dragoon, etc, before. It is not mechanical sounding like that advanced video showed at all.

I can listen to eBooks with no problem at all using the new TTS feature on the K2. Other then some proper nouns not being necessarily pronounced correctly, it's actually pretty nice. I don't use it very much preferring like most to read my books instead, but I certainly don't hesitate to use it due to the quality of the voice. Just my $0.02.

Computer have, for a quite a while actually, have been able to read text. never used it on my computer and I dont see me using it on the Kindle. Well, I may use it just to listen to it once, but that is about it.
When I cant read (I get car sick too) I just will listen to music or do something else. I have never tried an audio book but my cousin swears by them. She gets them from the library, puts the on her iPod, and listens away while she cooks, cleans, knits...

my partner and i need the text to speech option. i hope that future e readers have this option includeded in future models.

we love the option of being able to read ebooks on different formats as we have alot of books on sd card.

Text to speech is far more wonderful than most people give it credit for, and the Kindle text to speech is among the best you can get right now. I seem to be in the minority, in that I greatly prefer the woman's voice (her name is Samantha, btw).

I am looking forward to more voices being made available. If you want a taste of what's in store, try the samples at www.nextup.com. Text to speech is not just good for when you're traveling, it's good for any time. It is superb for helping pull yourself past text that you have a hard time reading because, say, it's boring. It is excellent for a lot of special purposes, and the more choice of voices, the better it will be.

Many books that I have purchased allow text to speech, and all of the many I've gotten for free do.

I am looking forward to more voices being made available.

My Garmin Sat-Nav has dozens of voices to choose from. My favourite is the Swedish girl, "Ingrid" :).

Well, Harry, your Satnav probably has a limited vocab and so Ingrid is probably a real girl! The text-to-speech on the Kindle is also based on real people, but the vocabulary is NOT limited, so it's harder to have elegant voices. But I still say that the female Kindle voice, Samantha, is much better than the male voice.

I think that a lot of people who despise text-to-speech are mainly basing their opinions on memories of what text-to-speech used to sound like, or on FREE voices. These days, even the free voice that comes with my prerelease Windows 7 -- her name is Anna -- isn't that bad.

Here is what is great about text-to-speech produced by a computer: it gives you the thoughts of the author without the intervention of some actor. When you listen to a human reading, you are hearing a PERFORMANCE, an interpretation. You think the actor talked to Dickens before adopting a certain tone of voice? No, he didn't! He's just making it up. The computer makes no assumptions and just reads the material to you in the clearest way it can. It doesn't try to sell you on hearing the text the way it imagines it.

I think this "no more text to speech" is misleading, and not supported by Amazon's announcement. All they said was that they will give copyright holders a way to turn of TTS for selected titles, at their option.

Which is why I didn't cat a vote.

TTS is a wonderful thing to have when you are driving across country ... my husband and I put in a lot of miles between his family and mine (1500 miles between 'em!) and we are loving the TTS option. Audiobooks are really expensive ... this is a wonderful option for us.

I only tried the text-to-speech function once -- in my car. The A/C drowned out the tiny speakers. Perhaps if I used earplugs it would be a different story, but then I would probably (and deservedly) get pulled for reckless driving.

If I ever get a car system that allows me to plug into the radio, I may try it again. I have listened to audiobooks on my iPod that were broadcast through the car speakers. Of course, that involved books that were read by real people; not some computer-generated voice.

TTS is a very important feature for non-native speakers of the language.
I hope Amazon will allow to install other voices (my mothertongue is Italian, and I am interested not only in English, but also in French and Spanish).

TTF is also very important for visually impared people.

In my opinion, any device that will support TTS will corner in the market devices not supporting it.

Just got my Kindle. I was shocked that the text-to-speech worked as well as it did and am enjoying reading along with the read word. i find I retain more and don't find myself daydreaming and mechanically reading.