[meljackson]

I tried to listen to the voice for text to speech on one of the videos last night. That would be a great voice to read I-Robot lol.

Melissa

 

[mwvickers]

I tried to listen to the voice for text to speech on one of the videos last night. That would be a great voice to read I-Robot lol.

Melissa

I'm actually impressed with it. It obviously isn't the best (a human with good emphasis and intonation would be better), but it is not as robotic as I thought it would be. In addition, and this is sad, it actually puts more tone and variation than some human readers I've heard. LOL

 

[KindleMom]

That is sad.  And I have to agree.  My 10 yr old reads like that.  Hopefully he'll get better as he gets older.

Mr. KM is very excited for this feature and thinks it'll make his commute more enjoyable.  I loved the lady on the beach listening to her book in the promo stuff.  That would be great too!

 

[luvmy4brats]

The more I think of this, the more I see the benefits of the text-to-speech.

I homeschool. My two youngest are learning to read. My son has vision problems. If the text-to-speech works with personal documents, I can create documents of short sentences and words for them and then have the kindle read it to them. It could come in very handy whileI'm working with one, the other can "play" with Mommy's Kindle. They love audio books, we listen to them all the time. But to be able to do my own documents...Yeah, that could be very cool.

I already like that I can put my kids lessons on there (I can download them as PDFs)

 

[Vegas_Asian]

I figure one of the uses of text to speech is the fact it pronounces words for you....which would be especially helpful for medical terms.

 

[meljackson]

I'm looking forward to trying it out with my 6 yr old who is learning to read. We read so much at night my throat is scratchy. This will give me a break and she can still follow along.

Melissa

 

[Roos Mom]

If this Text to speech works half as good as i hope it will be a wonderful thing.  I travel a lot during the next few months and it would be great to be able to finish a book without having to stop. All new things take time to get used to and this will be no different.  I love my K1 and I'm sure i will love my K2 just as much. 

 

[KBoards Admin]

The text-to-speech sounds better in this demo by Bezos than it does in the video in the Amazon website. (Thanks to artsandhistoryfan for the link.)

 

[Linda Cannon-Mott]

I think it sounds great. I know I would enjoy that feature.

 

[Benjamin]

Yeah, that actually does sound pretty good for a robot voice hehe.

 

[Ruby296]

I wonder if it also chews up the battery faster?  But I agree, it seems like a great feature to have!

 

[meljackson]

Thanks Harvey, that does sound a lot better!

Melissa

 

[artsandhistoryfan]

The text-to-speech sounds better in this demo by Bezos than it does in the video in the Amazon website. (Thanks to artsandhistoryfan for the link.)

Sure thing! Was good to get your impressions of this one.

I just wanted to add that the text to speech segment started at minute 9:00 into the original
Bezos press talk clip but that Harvey has excerpted the text-to-speech portion for us!

Thank you!

LATER EDIT: I should also add that youtube.com compresses the uploads in both video and audio
so while this is definitely clearer than we have heard from the other, echo-y clip, this is a tad less clear than the full 10 minute one at http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/jeff-bezos-introduction-to-the-kindle-2-2009029/ although you have to wait for the buffered pointer to move to minute 9:00 (it takes about 3 minutes).

But that original source won't be THAT much clearer, although it makes a difference for me in naturalness. And I can't understand Bezos well on the excerpt here because of youtube's changes after the excerpting of it, while I can understand him in the full geek.com clip. So I'm using both, with friends. The resolution of video and audio are just better on the original though it could be that some won't hear the difference and the short one is more than good enough for most listeners!

I have one ear with loss of treble after a middle-ear infection, so the difference is likely more pronounced for me, as the compression seems to distort the digital voice's words some because of my current hearing situation.

 

[Brenda M.]

So, can you listen to a book say while driving to work then at lunch time pick up the Kindle and read where you left off listening

I've been saying for months this would be killer! Not that I want robotic voices, but it may be worth it.

(I've had V1 since it came out and am just now rading about V2)

 

[TM]

So, can you listen to a book say while driving to work then at lunch time pick up the Kindle and read where you left off listening

yes

 

[Brenda M.]

ARGH!!!! Now I want a new one!!!

 

[luvmy4brats]

It's a nice feature that may save me money in the long run. I doubt I'll run out and cancel my Audible subscription, but it may reduce the number of Audible books that I do buy. Heck, some of them may sound better in this format..I've had a run of bad readers.

 

[Chris]

This is one of the features that got me to upgrade from the K1.  I listen to audio books on the treadmill.  Sometimes I have been known to buy an audio book to supplement the regular book I am reading.  This way I can be reading a book, go on the treadmill and listen to the book and then pick up right where I left off...

Golden!!!

Chris

 

[marianneg]

I homeschool. My two youngest are learning to read. My son has vision problems. If the text-to-speech works with personal documents, I can create documents of short sentences and words for them and then have the kindle read it to them. It could come in very handy whileI'm working with one, the other can "play" with Mommy's Kindle. They love audio books, we listen to them all the time. But to be able to do my own documents...Yeah, that could be very cool.

You'd really hand your Kindle to a child that young? You're much braver than I Although, I guess you'll still have the K1 for backup!

I wonder if it also chews up the battery faster? But I agree, it seems like a great feature to have!

I'm sure that it does. But, hey, if a charge lasts a week with just reading, I'm sure you can get through a day of moderate listening.

 

[CuriousLaura]

The text-to-speech is one of the things I like the most about my upgrade. To me it doesn't sound that bad, I mean of course is never like a good bed time story read by mom (in my case she read Arabian Nights: 1001 Nights, and just like Scherezada she stopped whenever she did, I hated it ).
So back to the topic, I love the feature, I would use it a lot, sometimes I just can't stop reading, this is gonna be perfect. I'll give you mi REAL impression once I get Lady Macbeth delivered.