[tomsem]

I hope there will be updates for the original Fire to bring it into alignment with the upgraded one and whatever features it has. The only difference is a faster CPU and more storage. Seems to me that makes it a no brainer to update them both to the same level, fewer issues for CS to deal with then. But we'll see (as with the '3.4' rumors concerning Kindle Keyboard). However I don't think they have said that the new Fire 'non-HD' has TTS, and it definitely doesn't have the audiobook highlight feature.

Note that the Fire does have a TTS engine (Pico) but the Kindle reading app doesn't use it. But Android apps that look for it can use it (Mantano, Moon+, ezPDF, etc.). Pico is not as good as some other TTS engines on Android (SVOX, IVONA), which are quite good and much better than Kindle has. It will be interesting to see what TTS engine Fire HD will use and whether you can install a replacement if you don't like it, or if one can install additional voices for different languages, etc.