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Looking beyond the “Text-to-Speech” Kindle Kerfuffle

(My weekly post for TeleRead.com for Friday, 2.13.09)

By Stephen Windwalker, founder and publisher of the weekly Kindle Nation newsletter

This week we shall speak of robots and pirates and a kerfuffle without a cause. Or not.

Among the more intriguing innovations new to Amazon’s just-launched but still unshipped Kindle 2 is a “Text-to-Speech” Read-to-Me feature wherein a somewhat creepy and robotic “voice” will read aloud to you from any text file that you purchase or otherwise acquire and download to the device. Whether it’s the latest New Yorker, a memo your boss sent you, or The Brothers Karamazov, the Kindle 2 will read it aloud while you are cooking, driving, or dozing off (hopefully not in that order), turn its own pages for you, and mark your place in case you wish to return to more active reading later. I fully expect that a future volume of DSM-IV will have a name for at least one syndrome originating from its victims’ childhood experience of having been forced to listen to bedtime stories read by the Kindle 2.

However creepy or psychologically scarring it may be under some circumstances, Read-to-Me scores high enough on the convenient and cool gadgetry scales that Amazon may have a clear winner: a feature that will drive Kindle device and book sales by adding new and special value to the books and other content that people buy from the Kindle store. Amazon and its Kindle already have a huge edge on e-book competitors based on access to publishers, front- and mid-list titles, and readers and their credit card information and practices. Read-to-Me will only magnify that edge, if it survives.

Which, if Author’s Guild executive director Paul Aiken has a say, may be in question.

Amazon has labeled the Read-to-Me feature “experimental,” which means that it reserves the right to discontinue it at any time. When the original Kindle was launched 15 months ago, its “experimental” features included the free 3G Whispernet wireless web, which was a great selling point and a keeper of an idea, and another idea so goofy that, well, the fact that it made it as far as the Kindle’s launch suggests that it may have come right from the top. That idea was called “NowNow” — think Ask Jeeves meets the Kindle, but just don’t ask Jeeves any questions about Amazon or the Kindle! — and it was neither a keeper nor much of a starter.

So, why is Amazon applying the “experimental” label to its “Text-to-Speech” innovation?

Those of us inclined to put two and two together may divine some connection between the “experimental” hedge and the fact that Aiken has come out swinging against “Text-to-Speech” with the distinct sound of a man who is speaking to copyright attorneys about an authors’ rights lawsuit.

“We’re studying this matter closely and will report back to you,” says the Author’s Guild website, and it advises authors to be tenacious with their e-book rights. The website also notes that audiobooks “surpassed $1 billion in sales in 2007,” much higher than e-book sales. After principles can be much more compelling when they are backed by 10-figure revenues.

The Author’s Guild is not widely known as a particularly democratic, open, or truly author-driven organization — compared, say, with PEN or the National Writer’s Union — but it has received plenty of ink lately with a reasonably successful legal settlement against Google Book Search and a less effective campaign against the Amazon Marketplace used book portal. At times the Guild has diminished its own gravitas by taking positions such as one which was widely interpreted to question the right of libraries to lend books to their patrons.

Amazon’s attorneys are no slouches, and most of the smart money and the smart people are on Amazon’s side here. When lawyers parse these issues they may make distinctions between public and private practices and between recordings and the transitory rendering of a purchased text in audio form.

If Paul Aiken should walk into a public performance hall at some point and find a Kindle propped up at a lectern reading aloud to a crowd of rapt listeners, he should by all means make a citizen’s arrest. But a copyright case targeting Kindle customers who purchase an electronic book file and then use available software to listen to part or all of it in the privacy of their homes seems as laughable as the one about the library books.

Still and all, as much as I am hoping to enjoying listening to my Kindle 2 read to me, discreetly, for years to come, I wonder if this “Text-to-Speech” kerfuffle may lead us into a further roiling of the waters. After all, this “Text-to-Speech” software is the product of Nuance, the Burlington, MA, software developer behind the popular Dragon Speaking Naturally “Speech-to-Text” programs. To my knowledge, nobody yet has sufficiently hacked Amazon’s DRM-laden .AZW Kindle text files to open them up beyond the Kindle Store where untold acts of piracy might be lurking, but if “Text-to-Speech” starts talking to “Speech-to-Text,” might there not be hell — and a lot of lawyers — to pay?

Stephen Windwalker has been writing about Amazon’s strategic innovations since his niche bestseller on online bookselling in 2002, and his Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle was the top-selling title in the Kindle store for 17 weeks in 2008, but on advice from Amazon’s attorneys Windwalker refuses to divulge how many books have been sold. Stephen is also publisher of A Kindle Home Page and the weekly Kindle Nation email newsletter.

Special Opportunity for Kindle 1 Owners

From Amazon’s new Kindle 2 web page:

Even though we’ve increased our manufacturing capacity, we want to be sure our original Kindle owners are first in line to receive Kindle 2. Place your Kindle 2 order by midnight PST on February 10th and you will receive first priority.

Here’s something cool just reported by Len Edgerly of the Kindle Chronicles: The New Yorker is now available on the Kindle!

Q & A on the Kindle press conference

What follows are my questions. We’ll see how many Amazon answers.

What are they calling the new Kindle?

Bezos: “Today I’m excited to introduce the Kindle 2.” Here’s a link to the new Kindle 2 detail page. “If you have previously placed an order for Kindle 1, and have not yet received it, your order will automatically be upgraded to Kindle 2. You need to do nothing.

Has Amazon fixed the most glaring problems with the first-generation Kindle? (Gratuitous page turning, poor content management)

The page-turning buttons are much more compact, so that problem should be solved. I’ve got nothing on content management other than WhisperSynch and the fact that we can now delete content directly from the home screen. But with 1,500-title native storage, there better be folders!

What’s new about the Kindle 2 hardware?

It’s 0.36″ thick (about 3/4 as thick as the iPhone), with 7 times as much storage capacity as the original Kindle so that it holds 1500 books. The new Kindle is half an inch longer and half as thick as the old Kindle (at the widest edge of the Kindle 1’s wedge).

It looks just like the pictures that have been showing up on the web recently with improved button/bar placement and a grid keyboard. There’s an elegant 5-way controller that allows you to move the cursor through documents, preview stories, etc.

There is a built-in “text-to-speech” feature so that you can automatically listen to any book or document you are reading. Way cool, I think: Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

The battery life is 25% greater, according to Jeff. A graphic says you can read for two weeks on a single charge. (From my experience, that would be more than a 25% improvement).

The screen refresh is marginally faster: about 20 per cent. Even better, the display now features 16 shades of grayscale for much more elegant graphics.

What’s new with the Kindle 2 software?

A new feature called WhisperSynch automatically synchronizes what you are reading (including the “page” you are on) between your various Kindle-enabled electronic devices.

From the Kindle 2 product page: Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.

What’s the price for the new Kindle?

$359. Interesting change: the Kindle cover is no longer included in the box, and must be bought separately. This will be a boon to third-party Kindle cover manufacturers and sellers.

When will the new Kindle ship?

“This item will be released on February 24, 2009.

What’s the deal with Stephen King and the new Kindle?

The early word is that the Kindle may actually come loaded with a Kindle-exclusive Stephen King story that features a Kindle-like device. Product placement gone wild! The story is called “Ur,” and the Kindle in the story can access other worlds, which may be a 3.0 feature.

Has Amazon enhanced the Kindle’s audio features?

Yes, the new Kindle comes with 2 built-in stereo speaks on the back of the device. There is also a nifty built-in “text-to-speech” feature so that you can automatically listen to any book or document you are reading. Way cool, I think: Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

How about USB-recharging and improvements to the Kindle battery?

The battery life is 25% greater, according to Jeff. A graphic says you can read for two weeks on a single charge, and four days with the wireless turned on. (From my experience, that would be more than a 25% improvement).

And, on the Kindle 2 product page, Amazon says: “Fully charges in approximately 4 hours and supports charging from your computer via the included USB 2.0 cable.” (emphasis added)

What has Amazon done to keep its production in synch with its orders?

On the Kindle 2 product page, Amazon says: “… we’ve increased our manufacturing capacity.”

Questions that will wait for another day:

What is Amazon doing to get the Kindle into schools and public libraries?
How about new features like a Kindle Buffet?
Is Amazon saying anything about specific plans for a larger display or a textbook-friendly Kindle?
Is Amazon showing signs that it will see Google and Apple as partners in the growth of digital reading?
How many Kindles has Amazon shipped, and how many will it ship in February 2009?
Has Amazon provided any specifics about opening the Kindle Store to other devices?
Has Amazon made any moves toward going open source?
What is Amazon doing to support social networking among Kindle owners and other readers?
Is Amazon taking specific steps to empower Kindle owners as Kindle sellers?
When will Kindle owners be able to connect easily with the main Kindle store?
Where and when will the Kindle go global?

A Stephen King exclusive for the Kindle

News is spreading this morning that, among other things, Jeff Bezos will announce today that Amazon has signed Stephen King on for a (temporarily) Kindle exclusive book deal. This is a great idea.

And I apologize for being a teensy bit self-referential in pasting in this paragraph from p. 92 of the August 2008 paperback print edition of The Complete User’s Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle:

Since I ordinarily come at these things from a bookselling perspective, I’ve been thinking for a while that the time should come soon when Amazon should arrange with Stephen King or J.D. Salinger to release his or her next book for the Kindle 60 days ahead of print, and then keeping doing this about once a month. Of course Amazon already knows that: nothing sells TVs like must-see TV.

After all, this one is not rocket science. But I’ve had a crush on Sissy Spacek for over 30 years and it is great fun that somebody managed to snap that picture of her holding her Kindle….

Counting down to Amazon’s Kindle press conference

from TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

TeleRead Editor’s Note: We are happy to welcome Stephen Windwalker as a regular contributor to TeleRead. Stephen has been writing about Amazon’s strategic innovations since his niche bestseller on online bookselling in 2002, and his Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle was the top-selling title in the Kindle store for 17 weeks in 2008, but on advice from Amazon’s attorneys Windwalker refuses to divulge how many books have been sold. Stephen is also publisher of the Kindle Home Page blog and the weekly Kindle Nation email newsletter. Paul Biba

Far be it from me, just hours before the heralded launch of the Kindle 2.0 (or whatever Amazon plans to call it), to pull back the curtain with wild claims about any of the device’s new features. Tomorrow I’ll do my best to base all of that on the actual news, rather than the rumors, and pack it into tomorrow afternoon’s felicitously timed weekly issue of my Kindle Nation email newsletter.

Tonight seems like a better time to look back at the prospective Kindle 2.0 features that I suggested last summer in The Complete Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle. We could all agree on the obvious fixes demanded by thousands of Kindle owners including, most notably, those pesky next- and previous-page bars and a user-friendly system of content management folders or labels. Other hardware enhancements such as quicker refresh, a touch screen, and a color display will happen when the technologies are ready.

But the more significant questions to be answered at Monday’s press conference may tell us how aggressively Amazon is prepared to pursue the still unrealized revolutionary potential of the Kindle. Without making too much of the fact that these suggestions are discussed in much greater detail in my book, let me here provide the briefest of discussions of a few of the high notes Jeff Bezos could hit in between those signature fits of forced laughter. [Read rest of post]