Kindle Text to Speech Part 2 - The View From The Other Side

Technology is supposed to enhance the experience, convenience and introduce new features that aren’t available through the existing environment. However in our haste to secure, batten down content we have created a situation where some would say we have fewer rights than we do today and are restricted at every turn by those who want us to embrace the New World that they are shaping by their acts. Today we don't have the right to share the book, to resell it; to openly transfer it between devices and in the principle to give a ‘private performance’ of the book for non commercial is being limited by the Author Guild.

Much debate has taken place since Amazon introduced its Kindle 2 text to speech feature, the Authors Guild objected and the subsequent reposition by Amazon. Its interesting that authors appear to be far more engaged in this debate that that of the Authors Guild on the Google Book Search, but its also interesting to hear how rights are interrupted in an attempt to justify what some would argue is unjustifiable.

Jane Little in her blog makes the case ‘Why Amazon Was Wrong to Back Down from Authors Guild’. Courtneymilan in her blog makes an equally strong case in ‘read-aloud-now-with-bad-pictures’.

We recommend that they should be read by the Authors Guild, but somehow we doubt that they will.

Kindle Text to Speech - Make Your Own Mind Up

We came across two interesting articles which are worth reading about the Amazon text to Speech conflict with the Authors Guild. We believe the case is far from proven and the only winners will be the lawyers, the losers will be the consumers, the authors and those trying to move the industry into the 21st century in a sensible fashion and not follow the chaos of other media sectors.

First is an interview between the Guild’s Paul Aiken and Engadget, ‘The Engadget Interview: Paul Aiken, Executive Director of the Authors Guild’.

Second an essay posted in the NYT and written by the President of the Guild Roy Blount Jnr. ‘The Kindle Swindle?’

How we can differentiate between the Kindle as a dedicated book device and other electronic devices such as PCs that have text to speech as a feature, or the future smartphone, is highly questionable. When you change the typeset font, size, pagination, are you breaking rights? Does every file format need to be specified and rights against it agreed in advance? When I read a book on a PC and use text to speech is that ok? If I read a book out loud but through a microphone and amp is an infringement? Remember all the rights that the physical copy gives you today that the digital copy doesn’t.

What is fair use and is this about rights or money? If the later how will you determine the usage on a downloaded file? If you merely slap on a supplemental charge for a feature you may never use, can’t monitor and is accepted by all all poor file quality, is that what we call fair?

Some would suggest that this debate, like others, is based on emotion and not logic.

We will soon have kids wishing to grow up as rich lawyers when they grow up!

Send In The Clowns

There are many instances where text in whatever form is read or transformed into audio; Parents reading to children, teachers reading to students, reading groups sharing feelings, Jaws enabling the visually impaired to enjoy books. The recent announcement that the K2 has a feature to convert text to speech has certainly ignited a debate on the interpretation of audio. So when is book an audio book? When is alright to convert text to speech and when is it a breach of copyright?

We have previously written about the complexities of generating synthesised voice from text and although it is possible to achieve high quality it isn’t there today and there is a distinct difference between an actor or author rendition and a synthesised one.

The Author’s Guild has quite audibly suggested that Amazon’s use of text to speech may be a copyright violation. Are they right or wrong, or as many would scream, who cares? The objective of publishing is to publish, disseminate, spread the word and ensure due reference and royalty ensues.

Some would suggest that the Author’s Guild is afraid this new feature would cut into sales of audio books. Others would point out that Amazon owns the largest audio book seller Audible and so would be potentially cannibalising their own sales. Others again would argue that the feature would offer an audio option to many books that today don’t have one and frankly never will under the current audio production model. So logic would suggest that the feature and any subsequent refinement of it may well generate new audio revenues that are not currently enjoyed by many of the Guild’s membership.

In fact, it seems the stand of the Author’s Guild only serves to protect audio book publishers and increase litigation and lawyer’s revenues. Probably these may be the same lawyers who will profit from the Guild’s last stand, or as some would argue, capitulation to the other Gorillas – Google and the Book Search settlement. Well when you have taken one battle and think you have won perhaps the smell of the chase outstrips logic.

We hope Amazon.com will stand by their decision to include Text-to-speech features in the new Kindle.

K2 Much as Predicted

Today was a bit like watching the edited highlight of a big sporting event when you know the score already.

So K2 has landed looking as predicted, priced much as expected and with a promise that the latent demand, built up since they stopped shipping, will be served first.

Has it ventured outside of the US – sadly no. Did it say anything about breaking out of the Amazon centric world that owns the content, exclusivily communicates with the devices and owns the DRM format- again as expected no.

The K2 may well excite many but this 'fortress Amazon' protectionist approach to the world could well backfire. After all, who seriously wants to be locked into a one way street when the mobile motorway running next to it offers so much.'Buy US' may resonate with many but it could drive those outside the US to look seriously at alternatives and once committed its hard to see these consumers returning to snap up a 'looky-likey' device that is closed to all others.

The Stephen King announcement is welcomed and we take our hats off to the pioneer who wrote Riding the Bullett what seems an age ago. But no matter how many celebrity endorsements are bought by Amazon, they aren't going to change things – its still an ugly duckling.

February 9th - eReader Day

We have written on Plastic Logic’s ereader which first surfaced at last year’s CES show and has taken a year to market. This is good news as it is clearly aimed at the ailing newsprint and business document market.

We have also reported on the Kindle 2 which is expected to be announced in New York on the 9th February, but what we didn’t expect was that both the K2 launch and the Plastic Logic reader would appear on the same day and in the same city. Yes PL plans to launch their device in New York on 9th February at the Tools of Change conference in New York.

We would ask if this is wise? It certainly will raise the column inches on both announcements but what will consumers make of two potential heavyweight offers squaring up to each other on the same day, in the same city? Bezos will have the consumer eyeballs and PL ,by their choice of venue, the technology attention.

Expect one to talk books and education and the other newsprint and business and the consumer to read about it all via their news alerts and on their iPhone.

February 9th - Kindle 2 Day?

So what do; the Beatles and The Ed Sullivan Show, American combat troops and Vietnam, Lithuanian democracy, Carole King and Mia Farrow and Amazon, all have in common?

Amazon has announced a press conference at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, scheduled for Monday, February 9th and hosted by Jeff Bezos himself. As you can see the day is not one of the biggest event days in history, but are Amazon planning on changing all that? The Internet is now rife with speculation that the book giant is planning to launch its long overdue Kindle 2 and a library would appear to be the perfect venue.

The speculation of what it would look like has started. Will it have a bigger screen, more feminine rounded corners, be thinner, rounded buttons, smaller side buttons and come in designer colour packages? Will it have faster screen loading, using the Broadsheet chip used in the Sony 700? Some may say that these are fairy safe guesses, but what may be the surprise, or has it again taken so long to get to this stage that there is very little surprise?

Whatever lands on the street on the 9th it is clear is that Amazon has some catching up to do in the market if it is to regain the initiative it created with the K1. Irrespective of how many of the K1 boxes were shifted, the spotlight has clearly moved from the eink grayscale readers to the full colour and ubiquitous iPhone and mobile platform. It will take more than a quick dust down, lick of paint, rounding of the edges and an Oprah stardust endorsement to get the K2 back to pole position. Sony has consistently plugged away and with its epub credentials and its educational moves and its availability and is starting to make the eink running. We have consistently stated that we believe that the end game is between the shrinking notebook/lapotop and the mobile smartphone, between download and online, between restrictive DRM and DRM free and more likely OLED than eink . It is unlikely that Mr Bezos is going to move any of these goalposts next month.

We now wait, speculate and listen to the noise, but just in case you are curious what some believe will pop out of the box next month here is a ‘leaked’ photograph from the gadget site Boy Genuis Report.

Amazon to Sell Online Mobile Rentals??

Last week literary agent, broadcaster and industry insider Peter Cox questioned whether Google would introduce an ebook reader to further monopolize its new position at the center of the emerging digital book world. Our response was that they had this covered already in their Android and could easily make Google Book Search a standard Android feature.

So what of Amazon with its Kindle 2 sitting on the launch pad and expecting to fly in the New Year? Has the Kindle 2 release been delayed for commercial, technical or strategic reasons? Why would Amazon miss out on the Christmas season sales?

Perhaps the answer is down to a change in strategy. Perhaps the explosion of smartphone applications has fired a shot across their bow and woken them up to the fact that maybe; just maybe, the kindle isn’t and never will be sexy or cover all the bases. No matter how many Ophra endorsements are given it’s still a clunky device which will find it hard justify the consumer investment. Maybe Amazon has realized that if there is a significant mobile swing and the world goes online as opposed to offline they are in a better position than anybody to take that market, or at least go head to head with the potentially biggest ebook retailer – Google.

Let’s step back and look at potential Amazonian moves. These may be far from the reality of what happens but they could happen:

Amazon introduces a Kindle mobile application for the major mobile platforms.
Amazon promotes an online book service based on their mobi format.
Amazon smartens up the Kindle reader and make it interoperable with the online service.
Amazon offers online rentals for both kindle and mobiles.

Amazon has the largest digital content outside of Google which is in their mobi or derivative format and serviced direct to devices not through the mothership PC. They don’t have a DRM issue as they own the Kindle / mobi offline DRM and online can be secured a lot easier. They also have reflow with their format so moving onto a mobile platform is easy.

We know what we would do if we were Amazon!

New Sony PRS700, Kindle 2, iRex but Little Change

So leading up to Frankfurt we have the new Sony PRS 700 ereader making an appearance along with a new marketing US promotion. We have the new iRex we covered earlier this week. We have thanks to Boy Genius Report sight of the much talked about and expected Kindle2 and we have the usual hype and opinion from all those standing on iPhones, ereaders, laptops and everything and anything between.

So what is news and what is noise?

Sony launches a US Reader Revolution campaign to promote their eBook reader using a world record speed reader, Dave Farrow. Farrow will be reading using the Reader around the clock for 30 days in a Manhattan storefront. For each page Farrow reads, Sony will provide an eBook library of 100 classic titles to a school or learning institution. The goal is to give 15 million eBook titles by the end of the program. The questions are whether these are mere public domain titles and what they will be read on?

At the same time they announce the Sony PRS-700. This their third version or model and will be available for $400. We doubt whether it be the last model of the Reader, and can only confuse consumers who await the ‘killer device’ or are weary of purchasing transient devices. Imagine you had been one of those who committed to the Waterstones’ launch to find that in less than two months it had be overtaken by another? Would you feel a little cheated – I think so? The 10-ounce device comes with a stylus, which can be used to highlight text or make notes and can hold 350 books in its memory.

It does not have wireless and remains tethered to the Adobe DRM and digital editions route and a PC. They are already intimating a wireless version is coming. Again why buy today when they haven’t even got it right yet.



Today we have the first sight via the Boy Genius Report of the new Kindle.
Is it significantly different? Well they have changed the shape and squared it off adding smaller buttons for Home, Next Page, Menu, a joystick, which replaces the scroll wheel and Undo and Previous, Page, and Next Page controls. The keyboard has also been redesigned and apparently they have replaced their own charger with a more sensible mini USB cable. It also comes with a leather pouch.

It is still uncertain when it will make it launch but given the activity in the market it should be soon.