[Raffeer]

From today's NY Times-

From an Amazon spokesman, Andrew Herdener in an e-mail to the paper that Nuance Communication (they do the text-to-speech) ".............has updated its dictionary which we plan to include in an upcoming wireless update to Kindle devices."

The complete article is on the front page of the paper.

So? There's going to be an update to Kindle devices. Note the plural there.

 

[MarthaT]

Wonder if that applies to all of them?

 

[intinst]

Two Kindle 2's would be devices, I don't hold much hope for my Klassic.

 

[mwvickers]

Two Kindle 2's would be devices, I don't hold much hope for my Klassic.

I agree. I don't think we have had an update since the release of the K2. I doubt we'll ever get one again. LOL

 

[KindleMom]

Can you post a link to the article or does the NYT not allow that?

I supposed I could google it. 

 

[KindleMom]

I agree. I don't think we have had an update since the release of the K2. I doubt we'll ever get one again. LOL

I don't think we will either.

DH has the K2 which hasn't been able to update because he can't figure out how to get his screensaver hack off of it. He, he, he. It keeps trying though.

 

[Raffeer]

Not sure if this will work. You may have to register (no charge)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/business/media/08kindle.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Kindle&st=cse

or, to make life simpler, - http://tinyurl.com/qljpfm

 

[Ann in Arlington]

Sounds like the 'update' has to do with the 'read to me' text to speech feature.  So there'd be no need for it to be sent to a K1.

Ann

 

[Annalog]

I hope they also correct the pronunciation of "spacebar" and some other relatively common words. I realized that there must be a list of special pronunciations for words when I was checking to see how words in Spanish sounded in Distant Cousin by Al Past. The following sentence (location 257) in English was very funny to me as the last word was pronounced "Mississippi," especially as the sentence began with "Silly or not."

Silly or not, all the children called her "ma'am," or "miss."

It is good to learn that the pronunciation dictionary can be updated.

Anna

 

[stevene9]

I hope they also correct the pronunciation of "spacebar" and some other relatively common words.

"Spacebar" is a common word. OK, I'll show my ignorance, what is it?

 

[Annalog]

"Spacebar" is a common word. OK, I'll show my ignorance, what is it?

OK, not a common word but a variant of spelling of "space bar." It occurs once in the Kindle 2 User's Guide 3rd Edition, and more often in The Complete User's Guide to the Kindle, and The Kindle 2 Cookbook.

 

[Dallas]

Just saw this on Yahoo. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Amazon's Kindle can't say "Obama"

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/141596

The New York Times (no stranger to writing about the Prez) says that the name "Barack Obama," when read aloud by the Kindle's computerized text-to-speech system, sounds something like "Brack Alabama."

No word, however, on how the Kindle handles the pronunciation of the words "Ahmadinejad," "Schwarzenegger," "Guantanamo," or "nuclear."

 

[marianneg]

The following sentence (location 257) in English was very funny to me as the last word was pronounced "Mississippi," especially as the sentence began with "Silly or not."

Silly or not, all the children called her "ma'am," or "miss."

Now that's a good one!

They actually do have a kind of pronuncitation dictionary, though. Len Edgerly interviewed someone from Nuance on the Kindle Chronicles podcast a few weeks ago, and they talked about it a bit. Len was saying that his Kindle pronounces Obama as if it rhymes with Alabama.