MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Firmware Update Kindle 2.0.3 officially disables TTS

demoric · 08-02-2009, 11:14 AM

Now that I have 2 Kindle 2's in my household I have been able to test the often held suspicion that the 2.0.3 firmware added text to speach disabling to the system.

My wife prefers to have all of her electronics un-modified, I myself just love to tinker. My firmware is 2.0.2 with various mods installed, my wife's was a plain K2 that started with firmware 2.0.0 as it was from the factory, but was updated to 2.0.3.

To test the theory out I purchased a couple of books that Amazon has listed as text to speach disabled. They were in fact disabled on the Kindle with 2.0.3, but the older firmware had no such restrictions.

My advice to new Kindle owners is to manually update to 2.0.2 and then install the screen saver modification or font mod, and keep it at that version. Firmware 2.0.3 seems to do nothing but remove TTS, disable USB networking in debug mode, and I don't notice any difference in the contrast between units so that aspect is still up for debate.

08-02-2009, 11:14 AM	#1
demoric Kindle 2 User Posts: 98 Karma: 496 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: S.E. Kansas Device: Kindle 2	Kindle 2.0.3 officially disables TTS Now that I have 2 Kindle 2's in my household I have been able to test the often held suspicion that the 2.0.3 firmware added text to speach disabling to the system. My wife prefers to have all of her electronics un-modified, I myself just love to tinker. My firmware is 2.0.2 with various mods installed, my wife's was a plain K2 that started with firmware 2.0.0 as it was from the factory, but was updated to 2.0.3. To test the theory out I purchased a couple of books that Amazon has listed as text to speach disabled. They were in fact disabled on the Kindle with 2.0.3, but the older firmware had no such restrictions. My advice to new Kindle owners is to manually update to 2.0.2 and then install the screen saver modification or font mod, and keep it at that version. Firmware 2.0.3 seems to do nothing but remove TTS, disable USB networking in debug mode, and I don't notice any difference in the contrast between units so that aspect is still up for debate.