Comments on: Audible and Amazon Introduce Immersion Reading and Whispersync for Voice

By: Melissa S

Melissa S — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:07:12 +0000

The newest Fire and Fire HD have text to speech. In fact it is more fully featured than the old text to speech on the eink kindles as you can control reading speed better.

By: Dad of Autistic Son

Dad of Autistic Son — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 15:11:43 +0000

I read most of the comments below. I don’t care if the audio was $30 and the book $20 (which by the way they aren’t). I would still buy them. I am not rich or a 1%er or 10%er, or 20% or a 30%-50%er. I am a dad who has found that the combination of Audio Book and Digital book are actually allowing my autistic son to gravitate to reading.

THose who are not impacted by a family member with autism or by a family member with learning disabilities or reading comprehension issues. Language either written or verbal is a huge obstacle because processing the language is different for these folks.

THis new feature i have been waiting for for a long time, it will give my son the ability to zone out anything that is not being read. Easy for most, but damn difficult for a child with language processing skills who is distracted by “noise” (to many other words on the page, that he is not reading or focusing on).

If they brought the feature to meet the bottom line, I don’t care. The price of having my son read, AND LIKING IT. Is priceless and something that will never be taken away from him. Its a small investment on my part as my other kids can benefit from

By: catherine s

catherine s — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 04:12:29 +0000

Ok not the most techno wavy how do I sing e book on my fire with amazon to fire audible

By: Grover Gardner

Grover Gardner — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:10:38 +0000

I think some people are missing the point. Amazon just increased the potential audience for audiobooks by an exponential factor, exposing ebook customers to a simple, one-click option they previously might have avoided. Every Kindle customer now is a potential Audible customer in a way that wasn’t the case before. Even if a fraction of Kindle customers take advantage of the option, the difference could be huge.

There are no “decisions” to make–you can add the audio option at any point. And while text-to-speech is free, it’s no substitute for a professional performance. It’s also a contentious issue with audio rights-holders. *Of course* they’d rather make money!

The idea of a “hybrid” ebook has been floating around for a few years now. As a stand-alone product, a lot of people doubted how popular it would be. Amazon just solved this by making it a simple, one-click option. It’s really pretty brilliant.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:27:16 +0000

Sorry Arthur Avenue, but if you think text to speech and an audible book are the same thing, you don’t even know what an audiobook is. I agree that it is a problem paying twice for the same book, but if they give good discounts it could be a great deal for people that like to actually read a book but have a long driving to go to work, for example.

By: John

John — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:31:37 +0000

Hey dummy, Amazon still offers text-to-speech on the Fire HD.

By: New Amazon offerings may shake up eBook industry | Aptara News

New Amazon offerings may shake up eBook industry | Aptara News — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 04:06:43 +0000

[...] for Voice represents a step forward from the current Whispersync technology, as Publishers Weekly noted. With Whispersync for Voice, an individual can switch between the digital and audio versions [...]

By: New Amazon offerings may shake up eBook industry | Aptara News

New Amazon offerings may shake up eBook industry | Aptara News — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 04:06:43 +0000

By: Peggy Post

Peggy Post — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 03:49:46 +0000

The new Kindle HD models DO have text to speech. The product pages have been updated to reflect this (see the “read to me” section).

By: John H.

John H. — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:08:41 +0000

This “collaboration” with Audible is the very reason I won’t buy another Kindle. I want TEXT-TO-SPEECH capabilities, and Amazon has eliminated that function on the newer Kindles. I plan to convert all of my Kindle books to PDF files, and have them read to me on my Android and Apple systems.

I been able to quadruple the number of books I can read because of TTS. And the voices are getting better and better each year.