Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I buy a lot of audio books. A good audiobook is a "performance" of the work in every sense of the word (I particularly recommend Barbara Rosenblatt's reading of Elizabeth Peters' "Amelia Peabody" series as a superb example of the "art" of audiobook reading). There is no way that a TTS system is even in the same ballpark.
As has been said, though, if the Kindle is "illegal" then so is every PC and Mac for the same reason - all can do TTS.
|
A agree with the audiobook performance aspects and I buy Audible books for this reason. However, while TTS is available on PCs and Macs there are restrictions on its use as supplied by Microsoft and Apple. Some eBooks do not support this feature and it will not work on those eBooks as enforced by the Microsoft Reader and the Adobe Reader. TTS is also an extra cost feature on GPS devices that support it. I am not sure Amazon will win this if it goes to court but I do think TTS is not the same as audio performances so we'll have to wait and see what the courts say.
Personally I like this feature on the new Kindle. I noticed that no one seems to have noticed the new AAX feature. This is an audible eBook format that includes the ability to display maps and pictures while reading a book aloud. Personally I think this is also an important feature and a great step forward. The images are embedded in the format and appear automatically in the correct place.
Dale