Archive for February, 2009
Amazon announced it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud.
The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to them in a male or female computerized voice. The president of the Author’s Guild, Roy Blount Jr. says that this undermines the market for the professional audio books that are sold separately. Amazon maintains that the feature is legal, and that it would in fact increase the market for audio books but said “we strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.”
Here is the full text of Amazon’s statement:
Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Furthermore, we ourselves are a major participant in the professionally narrated audiobooks business through our subsidiaries Audible and Brilliance. We believe text-to-speech will introduce new customers to the convenience of listening to books and thereby grow the professionally narrated audiobooks business.
Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rights-holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.
Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title. We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is.
Customers tell us that with Kindle, they read more, and buy more books. We are passionate about bringing the benefits of modern technology to long-form reading.
Amazon appears headed towards a showdown with the Authors Guild over text-to-speech technology.
The Authors Guild seems to be of the opinion that the Kindle 2’s Read-to-Me feature is ripping off authors in terms of audiobook rights. They used a quote from an audio expert as ammo, but that expert doesn’t agree with their ideas about Read-to-Me.
Roy Blount, Jr., president of the Authors Guild said the Amazon Kindle 2 was swindling authors in terms of audiobook revenue, because of its Read-to-Me feature. He even quoted Andy Aaron of IBM’s Thomas J Watson research group speech team but that same expert said that if you compare Read-to-Me to an audiobook, there’s no real choice between the two.
“I’m a big believer in (text-to-speech) and a booster of it,” said Aaron. “But I don’t think at this point, or for the foreseeable future, it’s going to compete meaningfully with a professional book reader… Am I going to sit down and put my feet up and listen to text-to-speech read ‘War And Peace’ or Harry Potter for six to eight hours? For someone who has the choice, I think they would rather get an audio book.”
Sources: cnet | RealTechNews
- Beckhoff CX controller server side (INTELVISION PLC runtime)
- Configuration Program (for PC) – to configure I/O, Logic, timers, groups, ext.devices (MediaCenter, IRTrans, Moxa, Kramer etc.), ext.interfaces (RS485, lon, knx, enocean etc))
- Visualisation library – dll for MS Blend with a large amount of additional elements (dimmers, relays, command senders, buttons, IR, bells, video (Axis) etc.)
- Native iPod Touch/iPhone software – take a look at the video below (no programming needed, just install software, enter the IP of the controller and interface will be build automatically based on the configuration that was first created with the configuration program and then uploaded to the controller).”
Click on image to view full size.
Wow! This guy’s nuts.
I don’t care what you say, that’s gotta hurt your tailbone just a little.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Check out this crazy video. It’s got a couple of guys in it that actually appear to be changing the size of your browser. My link to it should open a new browser window but if you have tabbed browsing make sure you right click and tell it to open in a new window or it may resize your existing browser window.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,
An electrical pole with precariously mounted meters is photographed at a village in the central province of Quang Ngai, Vietnam.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Hardcore Computers has a revolutionary line of new PCs in which all of the heat producing components are totally submerged.
Every computer you’ve ever used has been limited by heat—until now. First-of-its-kind submersion technology allows for the maximum, most reliable and most sustainable component over-clocking.
- Maximum performance as active components maintain low temperatures
- Even highly over-clocked parts keep operating due to safe, non-stressing temperatures
- Unmatched cooling capabilities—Core Coolant absorbs 10x more heat than air and circulates through our radiator at 2.5 gallons/minute
- Long service life—components not subject to heat last longer
- Superior gaming—you’ll stop before your computer does
While the Kindle is an excellent reading device, but let’s face it, sometimes you just want to do something mindless for a spell. You can play Minesweeper on your Kindle, but everyone else will think you’re being productive.
1. Go to the Home screen.
2. Press ALT+Shift+M.
3. The Minesweeper game will appear.
This neat little tip came from tech-recipes.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,