Amazon announces new 7" waterproof Oasis with 32GB storage option

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by BenG

That would be an expensive page turner if you bought one for each book.

True, but with TTS, you didn't have to buy anything.

I hope it takes Audible books from Overdrive though (not that I ever listen to audiobooks, but I might listen in the car if I can borrow them).

[rguion]

I wonder how many of us here get a Kindle with the cellular option? Wifi has always been my option and I thought, well, cellular is a waste of money. But the other day I was somewhere and needed to have the Kindle catch up with Whispersync from Audible. If you're in a Starbucks or somewhere with wifi, no problem. Although I guess I just described a use case for using Audible on the new Oasis.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by rguion

I wonder how many of us here get a Kindle with the cellular option? Wifi has always been my option and I thought, well, cellular is a waste of money. But the other day I was somewhere and needed to have the Kindle catch up with Whispersync from Audible. If you're in a Starbucks or somewhere with wifi, no problem. Although I guess I just described a use case for using Audible on the new Oasis.

I've had a mixture of wifi and cellular kindles but I honestly don't use the cellular much so for the Oasis I've gone back to wifi. I plan to use it at home as I have a cellular Voyage for out and about so wifi will be fine for me.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by rguion

I wonder how many of us here get a Kindle with the cellular option? Wifi has always been my option and I thought, well, cellular is a waste of money. But the other day I was somewhere and needed to have the Kindle catch up with Whispersync from Audible. If you're in a Starbucks or somewhere with wifi, no problem. Although I guess I just described a use case for using Audible on the new Oasis.

For these situations, I create a hotspot with my phone and connect my kindle to it over wifi. Granted, Data contracts are very cheap here and even allow me free roaming in all of Europe AND in the US, which was brilliant this summer.

[BenG]

I know you get a $20 credit toward your next kindle reader purchase but can you use the money for the trade-in itself for a new kindle?
I had earned a little from my Amazon credit card use but I could only use it for the Oasis cover and not for the device itself. It was the same with a gift card I got from Microsoft for using Bing.

[lkmiller]

I enjoy listening to audiobooks as a performance, but I need to read along in order to really grasp it. My attention will wander, and I'll realize I haven't taken in what what was said too often otherwise. I read mainly SFF so what Barty said about needing to see spelling of unfamiliar terms may be part of it as well. That being said, I'd still rather have the audiobook on another device than the ereader.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't get the attraction of reading a book while someone reads it out loud.

Learning English.
You listen and look at the words.
English spelling is ... strange ... when you start learning it. In other languages a written letter "A" is always pronounced the same way. In English, in Word "Australia" you have three letters "a" and each one is pronounced differently. Take word angel and angle. In each word the letter "a" is pronounced differently, despite the fact that it is followed by TWO identical letters - "ng".

Old PocketBooks did have tts. You could also tweak speed of reading, if I remember correctly. They also highlighted the sentence that was being read. Great for beginners in English or, might be, for people with borderline or mild dyslexia.

It is true, the speed correction did not allow for 4x speed increase, but some people used it as a fancy "automatic page turning" feature. You dial down the TTS sound, dial up the speed and read. [not my cup of coffee, even when I was a beginner] If there is only a little bit of text on the page the page gets turned more quickly than full text pages.
Also, when you are reading books for the purpose of learning English you usually do not read that fast.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by rguion

I wonder how many of us here get a Kindle with the cellular option? Wifi has always been my option and I thought, well, cellular is a waste of money. But the other day I was somewhere and needed to have the Kindle catch up with Whispersync from Audible. If you're in a Starbucks or somewhere with wifi, no problem. Although I guess I just described a use case for using Audible on the new Oasis.

My first Kindle was the Kindle DX and had 3G only. I didn't have a cell phone, didn't know anything about cellular service, and didn't know much about WiFi. Since the DX i've had WiFi only. I simply don't have a need for 3gG. I suppose if I lived somewhere without WiFi I'd have to use cell service but I don't so I simply don't worry about it.

I can listen to books, if I choose, on my cell phone. I'm not sure why I'd want to use my Kindle to listen to books. I'm hard of hearing but I'm not blind, yet.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Pjama

True, but with TTS, you didn't have to buy anything.

I hope it takes Audible books from Overdrive though (not that I ever listen to audiobooks, but I might listen in the car if I can borrow them).

Why not just use the overdrive app and your phone? Especially in the car. There’s just so little reason to listen to an audiobook on a dedicated ereader when even a $50 smartphone will do a better more convienent job.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by kacir

Learning English.
You listen and look at the words.
English spelling is ... strange ... when you start learning it. In other languages a written letter "A" is always pronounced the same way. In English, in Word "Australia" you have three letters "a" and each one is pronounced differently. Take word angel and angle. In each word the letter "a" is pronounced differently, despite the fact that it is followed by TWO identical letters - "ng".

Old PocketBooks did have tts. You could also tweak speed of reading, if I remember correctly. They also highlighted the sentence that was being read. Great for beginners in English or, might be, for people with borderline or mild dyslexia.

It is true, the speed correction did not allow for 4x speed increase, but some people used it as a fancy "automatic page turning" feature. You dial down the TTS sound, dial up the speed and read. [not my cup of coffee, even when I was a beginner] If there is only a little bit of text on the page the page gets turned more quickly than full text pages.
Also, when you are reading books for the purpose of learning English you usually do not read that fast.

English is an odd language.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

English is an odd language.

This is quite a nice article on how English spalling came to be so inconsistent.

I never knew that we could blame the h in ghost on Flemish typesetters, or the b in debt on 16th century latin-obsesssed spelling reformers.

[seanyyz]

I bought one kindle without cellular and had trouble on extended trips trying to use WiFi. For instance, going to Europe, if I wanted to download a book to read on the way home. A lot of nice characterful hotels don’t have free WiFi or if they do it’s finicky. Same with airlines. Cellular is easier.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't get the attraction of reading a book while someone reads it out loud. Personally, I read at probably 4x the speed that I could read a book aloud, so I'd constantly be getting ahead of the narration. What's the appeal of it? If I have the book in front of me, I could just read it aloud myself! It seems to negate the real benefit of audiobooks, which is that you can listen to them while doing something else, like driving.

I went through a phase of doing this. I've mentioned before my anxiety over not being able to retain as much from reading as I once did due to poorer memory. For a while I felt like reading whilst I listened was a way of improving retention. Maybe it is but I didn't keep up the habit. I would usually listen at 2x but I could probably read a bit faster.

I do like listening to audiobooks whilst doing something else but I prefer podcasts. I get annoyed if I miss something and can't easily rewind (e.g. when driving). I have to read or listen to every word to feel like I've really read a book. I have loosened up a little bit on that. For some reason this bothers me less with podcasts.

[Mandersen]

Reading this thread with great interest, I will chime in about the size of the Oasis 2 and about the size of the screen. The latter first: I think 7" is great; more text on a page. So about the size and form of the device itself: I would have preferred the same form (but bigger) as the Voyage and the most other Kindles. The width of the device is just too big to make it a POCKETABLE device for me (inside my jacket, for instance). (I can bring with me without problems the Voyage in my inner pocket, but the with of the Oasis 2 make this impossible.) In many situations I don't usually bring a bag with me, and I still would like to have a Kindle with me: That has to be my Voyage. Therefore I am a bit reluctant to buy a Oasis 2. I am also a bit uncertain about the non-symmetrical appearance, and about the weight difference as follows. On the other hand, the bigger screen size is a great plus for me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There are plenty of cables with USB-C on one end and USB A on the other. Depending on what advantage you are looking for. To use a brick charger this will work fine. To take advantage of speed you will need a USB 3 port at least and perhaps a USB-C 3.1 port.

Dale

A microUSB can run at USB 3 speeds if it's chipset is USB 3. so that means there's no actual need for USB-C. Just make the microUSB run USB 3.