New "top of the line Kindle" details coming next week

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Better in which ways?
Better contrast? Battery life? Weight? New features?

<snip>

... a plastic substrate display ... Audio/Alexa integration.

Hopefully plastic would be less likely to crack. The glass screen on my voyage didn't last after it met my tile floor.

My biggest hope is for audio/TTS. When my Voyage broke I replaced my combo of Voyage/Fire(for audio) with my old Kindle Touch. My Touch let me easily switch back and forth between reading and listening the same book -- it was so nice.

Alexa would be cool and I see why you want it. Your ereader would become a universal remote control. Lay down on the couch and control the TV and lights. Use bluetooth to connect to the phone and you can answer phone calls even if your phone is on the counter. However, for me I'd rather keep it simple and focused on ereading. I'd use my phone or tablet for a universal device.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Alexa would be cool and I see why you want it. Your ereader would become a universal remote control. Lay down on the couch and control the TV and lights. Use bluetooth to connect to the phone and you can answer phone calls even if your phone is on the counter. However, for me I'd rather keep it simple and focused on ereading. I'd use my phone or tablet for a universal device.

Actually, the big benefit of Alexa isn't so much the home automation play (there's cheaper solutions) as the seamless audible and TTS integration for the blind.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I didn't say he was lying.

Propaganda falls into a category similar to marketing. Neither is the factual truth, but since they are an accepted "truth" you can't call them a lie.

Like anything else there's honest marketing and dishonest marketing. We're all familiar with the dishonest marketing. We see it every day. Here's a good example of dishonest marketing:

A used car dealer has just taken in a badly mistreated piece of junk and he wants to unload it quickly so he calls his grandmother, asks her to drop by and take the car to the grocery store to do her shopping.

A little later he's showing the car to a customer and explains that it was driven by a little old lady to do her grocery shopping. The customer buys the car, convinced it must have a long history of good treatment.

The dealer never said one untrue word. That's honest marketing.

Barry

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Steve H

Agency pricing works wonders for Kobo and Barnes and Noble. Amazon will make soup out of rotten vegetables...that's all.

Even Agency isn't likely to save Nook. Kobo sued to keep it in Canada IIRC.

[cerem0ny]

Just my two cents, that Voyage screen is incredible! Have dropped my device so many times and not even a scratch anywhere on the glass, its about a year old too... My last Kobo H2O appeared to have a random new chip or scratch every month after a while which was a total bummer and the reason I sold it and got a Voyage... and then bought myself a new Kobo H2O a few days - I missed the customisation and screen (however I've spent more time editing font weights and installing patches then I have reading, can't work out if that is a curse or a blessing!)

Oh and if anyone has a nice, readable, ligature-d and kern-ed font file for Goudy please share it here! :-P

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by cerem0ny

Just my two cents, that Voyage screen is incredible! Have dropped my device so many times and not even a scratch anywhere on the glass, its about a year old too... My last Kobo H2O appeared to have a random new chip or scratch every month after a while which was a total bummer and the reason I sold it and got a Voyage... and then bought myself a new Kobo H2O a few days - I missed the customisation and screen (however I've spent more time editing font weights and installing patches then I have reading, can't work out if that is a curse or a blessing!)

It all boils down to this: there is still not a perfect reader for everybody

I'd love a reader, with a plastic substrate, waterproof, 6.8", backlit, physical buttons, customizable layout settings, reading all formats, bluetooth so you can connect a bluetooth headphones for audio, solar powered and probably many other things I don't yet know about, but will find out I'll miss when I finally buy that device that has everything I want

[shalym]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Actually, the big benefit of Alexa isn't so much the home automation play (there's cheaper solutions) as the seamless audible and TTS integration for the blind.

I don't understand why people keep talking about this...Alexa already does TTS and Audible. Seamlessly. Why would I need to *connect* my Kindle to Alexa? What would it give me that I don't already have? The ability for me to tell Alexa to turn the page for me? I'm not sure I want to have to yell "Alexa, turn the page" every time I get to the bottom of a page.

Shari

[Yolina]

Alexa is purely a US thing so it would be of no use anywhere else, unless of course they are planning on rolling it out

[ApK]

Originally Posted by shalym

I don't understand why people keep talking about this...Alexa already does TTS and Audible. Seamlessly. Why would I need to *connect* my Kindle to Alexa? What would it give me that I don't already have? The ability for me to tell Alexa to turn the page for me? I'm not sure I want to have to yell "Alexa, turn the page" every time I get to the bottom of a page.

Shari

I don't understand what's not to understand. He's not talking about pairing a kindle to an echo. He's talking about having Alexa in another device. A kindle in this case. Alexa's connected abilites are more powerful than what the kindle can currently do on its own.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by shalym

I don't understand why people keep talking about this...Alexa already does TTS and Audible. Seamlessly. Why would I need to *connect* my Kindle to Alexa? What would it give me that I don't already have? The ability for me to tell Alexa to turn the page for me? I'm not sure I want to have to yell "Alexa, turn the page" every time I get to the bottom of a page.

Shari

Huh?
Current Kindles don't do TTS/Audible, Echos don't have screens, and the FireTVs don't do ebooks.
An Alexa Kindle links the two ecosystems and solves the Kindle accessibility issues that require waivers from the ADA regulations.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Huh?
Current Kindles don't do TTS/Audible, Echos don't have screens, and the FireTVs don't do ebooks.
An Alexa Kindle links the two ecosystems and solves the Kindle accessibility issues that require waivers from the ADA regulations.

Why wouldn't you get the same thing just by adding audio capabilities back to the e-ink kindles, so they can do TTS and Audible? Unless you're talking about managing your home automation and alarms through your e-ink Kindles?

What I'm saying is that there is no need to add Alexa to the eink Kindles to get audio on them, and no need to add your Kindle to Alexa to get TTS.

Shari

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by shalym

Why wouldn't you get the same thing just by adding audio capabilities back to the e-ink kindles, so they can do TTS and Audible? Unless you're talking about managing your home automation and alarms through your e-ink Kindles?

What I'm saying is that there is no need to add Alexa to the eink Kindles to get audio on them, and no need to add your Kindle to Alexa to get TTS.

Shari

Accessibility for the blind.
Americans with disabilities act.
It is the biggest obstacle to selling Kindles into education and government.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...ebook-readers/

It's worth noting that this is a limited waiver that only affects a single regulation, and does not exempt ebook readers from all accessibility regulations. (For example, libraries and other public institutions are still going to have to buy devices that are accessible to the disabled.) That's a nuance many missed when this story broke in August 2013.

It would sell more Kindles than Liquavista.

[underscore]

well...the week is almost gone with no further details :-)

[ApK]

Originally Posted by underscore

well...the week is almost gone with no further details :-)

The tweet is from THIS week and said there'd be info NEXT week.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Accessibility for the blind.
Americans with disabilities act.
It is the biggest obstacle to selling Kindles into education and government.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...ebook-readers/



It would sell more Kindles than Liquavista.

But TTS and audio capabilities would satisfy the ADA...no need to hook it up to Alexa. That's what I don't understand. What do you gain by hooking the Kindle to Alexa that you don't gain by simply giving it TTS?

Shari