Will Kindle ever do a touch-screen

[queentess]

Originally Posted by quasiv

To my mind, the Kindle is a (comparatively) cheap and cheap-looking device.

Pff. My Kindle is a classy lady, and you will refer to her as such.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by quasiv

I’m sure the touchscreen will be a long shortly, but I do hope that this appears as an another model and that a device with the basic features remains on the market and just gets cheaper and cheaper.

My sentiments exactly.

[Piper_]

I'm ambivalent about touch screens, but this...

Originally Posted by Marcy

As to the visually impaired, anyone impaired enough that they can't read the index of books and get their finger on the 1cm strip of screen devoted to each book, is in the legally blind range and not the target audience of an ereader.

Hey, I love the Sony too, but let's not get carried away here to protect it, ok? Sony doesn't have to be, but the Kindle has been a Godsend for too many people who are legally blind, like my grandfather and others I've seen online.

I'm not legally blind - barely need glasses - but have an illness that hits my optic nerve and sometimes all but blinds me or often makes it painful to read or even open my eyes.

It's not cool to say we don't belong in the ereader market. Amazon is accommodating us and that should be credited - not blown off as useless because Sony doesn't choose to accommodate us too.

Originally Posted by Marcy

No, I do understand. The Sony is fine for someone visually impaired, but who sees well enough to read on the larger font sizes. It isn't enough for someone who can't read the book titles.

And since the Sony doesn't do text-to-speech at all, that is a non-issue for this device. It isn't meant for the legally blind. The legally blind that want text-to-speech won't be getting a Sony and it has nothing to do with the touch screen.

If vision is so bad you can't see the screen, I can't imagine enjoying text-to-speech via a synthesized voice on a regular basis. Why not just get audiobooks instead and stick them on a cheap MP3 player? Why pay for an ereader where most of the cost is due to the screen *that you can't see*?

-Marcy

I enjoy it on a daily basis. I even use it when I'm feeling and seeing fine. I can't stand audiobooks. The narrator's interpretation makes it worse than just listening to television. And navigating them isn't as easy as navigating the kindle.

Sorry, but nothing irks me more than to be told to give up on ebooks and just read an audiobook - they're not the same.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Marcy

If vision is so bad you can't see the screen, I can't imagine enjoying text-to-speech via a synthesized voice on a regular basis. Why not just get audiobooks instead and stick them on a cheap MP3 player? Why pay for an ereader where most of the cost is due to the screen *that you can't see*?

-Marcy

Perhaps the reader/listner wants to read material that is not sold as an audio book. Perhaps the reader/listener wants to have more options then are available on tape. So they buy a Kindle or a Pocketbook so that they can listen to books that are not available as an audio book.

Or perhpas you are someone with a learning disability. You pump up the font size so their are fewer words on the screen and you use text to speech. This is a practice that teachers, parents, and grown adults with learning disabilities are reporting has allowed them to read more and enjoy what they are reading.

Just because we do not use a feature on a day to day basis does not mean that it is not useful to others.

I know folks who use TTS at the gym because it changes the pages for them when they are working out on the treadmill. Turn the volume down and read without having to push a button or swipe a screen, it sounds safer to me.

[quasiv]

Originally Posted by queentess

Pff. My Kindle is a classy lady, and you will refer to her as such.

My point was very poorly expressed. The Kindle's refinement, I should have said, renders it unattractive to that section of the market concerned with the tacky multimedia bells-and-whistles of technological status-seeking.

Or something.

[Lilly]

The technology for e-ink was not yet perfected by Amazon standards. Sony who likes to have both touch & stylus capability took a while to get the touch technology right. Now that they have, I'm sure Amazon will jump on the bandwagon. Big business live to copy of each other. Which will not be a bad thing because the more player that jumps in, the cheaper the technology will become.

[kjk]

I have zero doubt Amazon will release a touch-screen device within the next 12 months.

I just don't know if it will be called a Kindle. (but will have a Kindle app)

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by kjk

I have zero doubt Amazon will release a touch-screen device within the next 12 months.

I just don't know if it will be called a Kindle. (but will have a Kindle app)

hmm...would it be wiser to wait, then? D:

[kjk]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

hmm...would it be wiser to wait, then? D:

Like all consumer technology, something better is always coming in the future, for those that can wait.

I'm not really good at waiting, myself