Quote:
Originally Posted by emellaich
I wonder why they dropped TTS. Was it to promote audible? Or to get the price down?
I dropped my Voyage three weeks ago and the screen cracked. I was using the Voyage to read and a Fire to listen (TTS). It was such a pain to switch back and forth.
So I've reverted to my old Kindle Touch for a bit. This has some scratches and a few broken pixels. It's grayer than the Voyage, and the booklight in the case is just barely hanging in there. However, it is a real joy to be able to read and TTS on the same unit again. I probably stick with this until the booklight snaps off.
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I think TTS is gone for a number of reasons: Fire tablets are available (for as little as $50USD), and these have much better TTS for people that want or require that feature, and that also works in non-English languages. Manufacturing cost is another consideration, as is eliminating 'one more thing to go wrong', which reduces support costs. Then licensing costs (I think Kindle used Nuance? or at any rate, it was not owned by Amazon).
It would be interesting if they added Bluetooth to Kindle so you could connect external keyboard/page turn devices and audio. But again, most people that need to do that can just use a tablet or smartphone for that. There might be some demand but probably not enough to justify it.