Questions about the Kindle 2

[Xixius]

Now. I never had a Kindle of any kind. I just heard about them by pure chance via Google. My question is simple: How's the text-to-speech? In general, I firmly believe all audio-read things suck. Always a crummy robotic voice or a human voice with absolutely no variation between characters or anything. I've heard the TTS on Kindle 2 isn't that sort of robotic crap, but every sample I checked on Youtube said otherwise.

[BookishMom]

Unfortunately, YouTube is right (in my opinion). I don't even use the feature on my Kindle. If you want to listen to audiobooks, I'd suggest getting a good MP3 player and purchasing from Audible.com or another audiobook store, or checking to see if your library has audiobooks via CDs or a digital download collection via OverDrive or NetLibrary.

[The Hooded Claw]

I can confirm BookishMom....The Kindle TTS feature is usable only for short periods of time for most of us.  Even with that, it is still superior to some computer-dictated audiobooks I downloaded from The Gutenberg Project....Those were positively PAINFUL to listen to!  Kindle is a step above that, but still not great.  And some amusing mispronunciations like "son-err" for "sonar" and "win-eh-maker" for "winemaker".

[Betsy the Quilter]

There a clear difference between the TTS and an audiobook.  That being said, many of our members do use the TTS for those occasions when they are deep in a book and can't actually READ it, like driving to work...or on the treadmill.

Betsy

[911jason]

A few people had also mentioned in a thread about a month ago that they found with extended listening to TTS the voice eventually faded away and it became similar to just reading in their own head, if that makes any sense. I can't say, I haven't used TTS except for very short demos of the technology during my frequent enabling sessions here at work.

[pidgeon92]

The TTS is not terribly good, it has no inflections and often mispronounces words.

Also, not all books are enabled for TTS.

If that is your main reason for looking at a Kindle, you would no doubt prefer audiobooks.

[BruceS]

A few people had also mentioned in a thread about a month ago that they found with extended listening to TTS the voice eventually faded away and it became similar to just reading in their own head, if that makes any sense. I can't say, I haven't used TTS except for very short demos of the technology during my frequent enabling sessions here at work.

TTS may be like talking to a person with a foreign accent for whom English is not their primary language. I find that the longer I talk with someone like that the easier it is to understand what they are trying to say.