eReader/Tablet for Senior

[alicepattinson]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But using FBReader for reading the eBook is a poor option as FBReader tends to ignore a lot of the CSS. It's just not worth the hassle.

I agree!

[BookCat]

According to Amazon, the Kindle Touch doesn't have audio. Maybe the first models did, but they don't anymore. Are you sure you have a K Touch Daffy?

EDIT: I asked the Kindle bods. Seems I'm wrong, sorry. This means that the Kindle Touch looks like a viable option. Not too pricey, either.

On the Amazon site, they've got a blank space in the audio capability. Odd. Obviously a website quirk.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by BookCat

According to Amazon, the Kindle Touch doesn't have audio. Maybe the first models did, but they don't anymore. Are you sure you have a K Touch Daffy?

I am so very sure. I own or have owned all the e-ink Kindles except the current Kindle Non-Touch. See below.


BTW, who are the Kindle bods?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by gabby98

Oh, OK....i had heard much worse horror stories about having to email the book to a special kindle email and waiting for their system to convert and download or deny the conversion etc.

The email conversion feature is primarily for personal documents. There is nothing difficult about putting books on a Kindle.

Does anyone know if kindle text to speech is only for some books or for any book?

TTS can be disabled on individual titles at the publisher's request.

Originally Posted by Rbneader

Yes, only the Kindle Keyboard has text-to-speech now. Authors claimed that Amazon's TTS violated their copyright

No, and 'authors' did not make that claim, the 'Author's Guild' did, which is a very different thing. And that was back in 2009 or so, and in response, Amazon added the feature to allow publishers to disable TTS.

Originally Posted by gabby98

thanks...i never really considered a kindle cause i heard it was very difficult to transfer books to if they were not from amazon...i know Calibre rocks, but wasn't sure how well it got around that issue.

Where do you expect the senior in question to be getting books from?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by gabby98

Oh, OK....i had heard much worse horror stories about having to email the book to a special kindle email and waiting for their system to convert and download or deny the conversion etc.

we may have to take a look at that.

Does anyone know if kindle text to speech is only for some books or for any book?

ty

Emailing the book is only if you want to store it in the Amazon cloud and see it under archived items, and to synchronize bookmarks and notes across multiple devices. However, Manually putting the book on your Kindle drive through the computer works just fine too, but you won't have it on your other devices as well -- unless you put it on via USB. It is a nice special feature but you can read without it.

In this case, it shouldn't be necessary.

Text-to speech is available for any Kindle that has audio capability. This includes the Kindle Touch, Keyboard, DX, and Kindle 1st and 2nd Generation. The Paperwhite and Kindle 4th and 5th Generation do NOT have audio capability.

I was going to say there is a Kindle 1st Generation being sold in good condition on Amazon for only $40 -- which I think is the cheapest you are likely to get a kindle -- but just realized, the 1st gen Kindle has audioBOOKS, and thus an audio jack but no text-to-speech (one would think all that requires is a software update, but no, Amazon *can't* fix that)

The Kindle 2nd generation does have text-to-speech though, and on ebay is $45. Or try this Kindle Touch for $50.

The Touch is vastly better of course, and only $5 more.

Originally Posted by BookCat

According to Amazon, the Kindle Touch doesn't have audio. Maybe the first models did, but they don't anymore. Are you sure you have a K Touch Daffy?

EDIT: I asked the Kindle bods. Seems I'm wrong, sorry. This means that the Kindle Touch looks like a viable option. Not too pricey, either.

On the Amazon site, they've got a blank space in the audio capability. Odd. Obviously a website quirk.

On the Amazon Kindle product page:

Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, rear mounted speakers

Originally Posted by ApK

TTS can be disabled on individual titles at the publisher's request.

Only the ones bought from Amazon, not the sideloaded books, and anyway, Apprentice Alf has a plugin for that...

[gabby98]

Originally Posted by ApK

....
Where do you expect the senior in question to be getting books from?

They will be coming from my personal library or the actual library....


Thanks to all who have responded so far. I will have to give the Kindle's a second look. I may even have someone I work with who may be trying to get rid of one. It was too much for her mother, but I don't think my Grandmother will get into the hard core tablet like stuff. If I can get my mother going I think I can get her going too.