Kindle 2 Announcement on Amazon Front Page

[RWood]

If there ever was doubt, Amazon's new Kindle 2 is front and center on the current Amazon home page.

In a letter to everyone from Jeff Beros, the Amazon founder said that the Kindle 2 features:

• New design,
• Improved battery life,
• Crisper display,
• Greater storage, and
• Text-to-speech.

Just as last year's wireless 3G network raised the bar for other readers, so too does the text-to-speech option introduced this year. Now millions of people with poor or no eyesight can hear their books.

Get on-going coverage of the press conference from Nate in this thread.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RWood

If there ever was doubt, Amazon's new Kindle 2 is front and center on the current Amazon home page.

In a letter to everyone from Jeff Beros, the Amazon founder said that the Kindle 2 features:

• New design,
• Improved battery life,
• Crisper display,
• Greater storage, and
• Text-to-speech.

Just as last year's wireless 3G network raised the bar for other readers, so too does the text-to-speech option introduced this year. Now millions of people with poor or no eyesight can hear their books.

Get on-going coverage of the press conference from Nate in this thread.

RWood,......this 'text to speech' How does that work? Is the the same as audio books, where a talented reader makes the book come alive, or is it a mechanical voice?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

RWood,......this 'text to speech' How does that work? Is the the same as audio books, where a talented reader makes the book come alive, or is it a mechanical voice?

Ha... no it is a text to speech software. Not talented readers. If you want talented readers buy an audio book.

However, it does look like the battery is not replaceable by the user nor is there an SD slot.

However, the specs say 16 shades of gray.

BOb

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

this 'text to speech' How does that work?

At the press conference, Stephen King called the Kindle's voice "the GPS voice".

The options include male and female voices and reading speed.

[grooks]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

RWood,......this 'text to speech' How does that work? Is the the same as audio books, where a talented reader makes the book come alive, or is it a mechanical voice?

Reading a different web site, it is a computer voice. Or as they put it a 'GPS voice'.

[ahammer]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

RWood,......this 'text to speech' How does that work? Is the the same as audio books, where a talented reader makes the book come alive, or is it a mechanical voice?

bob is right on point. dont see anyone buying this if they just want it for even tts. I would think it would be better to run tts then encode it into mp3

could see using tts sometimes when you want to mutitask thou.

Originally Posted by http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/live-from-amazons-kindle-2-press-conference/

10:40AM He just called the Kindle's voice "the GPS voice" -- ha!

10:27AM It's reading! It actually sound fairly good -- still very computer-voicey, but totally listenable.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ha... no it is a text to speech software. Not talented readers. If you want talented readers buy an audio book.

However, it does look like the battery is not replaceable by the user nor is there an SD slot.

However, the specs say 16 shades of gray.

BOb

See, thats what I was thinking. So WHY in the name of all that is good an holy, did they spent time doing THIS when they needed to address more important things???

Like folders, international coverage, etc etc.

Oh. Because its Amazon, and they own it and they can do whatever they want.

True, but if they really wanted to make money, they could have gotten their heads out of the ground and looked around. They could have spent time HERE, listening to them that uses -ebook reader devices on a regular basis.

People all over the world were begging for the Kindle.

They could have opened up Amazon to the world.

[CCDMan]

They could have opened up Amazon to the world.

As I have said elsewhere, why would they want to deal with the costs and hassles of international when they are selling all they can make as it is? They are in business to make money, period. They are not in the business of making folks happy (other than their stockholders). That is the way it works in private enterprise and if it were not for said private enterprise, we would likely not have such devices at all.

And think about it, if Amazon started selling internationally today, their present 2-4 week back order time would double or triple (at least) and how happy would that make folks?

I am sure we will see an international Kindle once the saturated sales in the US slow down and not a second before.

They aren't going to keep the K1 for sale, so they limited production while producing k2s (and it backfired).

Could be - we shall see in the next few months. I also think the Oprah thing may have come as a (pleasant) surprise to them and affected stock levels.

My guess is that they have an international version already designed. Remember that they also have to make a load of deals with many cell carriers for international - a lot more complex than just dealing with one carrier like Sprint in the US.

[lilac_jive]

The more that I think about this, the more I think that the backlog was semi-intentional. They aren't going to keep the K1 for sale, so they limited production while producing k2s (and it backfired).

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by CCDMan

efore.

My guess is that they have an international version already designed. Remember that they also have to make a load of deals with many cell carriers for international - a lot more complex than just dealing with one carrier like Sprint in the US.

I know all this. I"m the one who has been preaching this for the last 6 months to people wanting to know why it wasn't available, etc.

However, instead of spending all this time and coming up with such a lesser product, they could have been figuring out how to install folders.

I wanted to see them come out with a better product, not one that offered less.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

The more that I think about this, the more I think that the backlog was semi-intentional. They aren't going to keep the K1 for sale, so they limited production while producing k2s (and it backfired).

Agreed.

I'm surprised that there's no external storage option (SD or otherwise), but I guess they figure a few gigs are enough to hold books and newspapers.

[rcuadro]

Hmmm... I dont really need it but it is rather tempting...

[TallMomof2]

No SD slot is my biggest disappointment and close behind is no folders.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Agreed.

I'm surprised that there's no external storage option (SD or otherwise), but I guess they figure a few gigs are enough to hold books and newspapers.

Thank you, Amazon, for telling me what I need.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Thank you, Amazon, for telling me what I need.

Well, sometimes when you write software you come up with a list of use cases and you implement those. As a software developer I know that we have clients that want some feature or they want some feature to work some way. But, the use case for one reason or other is not one that we implement.

Then again, how hard would it have been to put a microSD slot in this thing? Or, perhaps the storage is all microSD and we don't just know it yet. Isn't 100% of the DR1000 via the SD card?

BOb