TechWag

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While I like the new kindle the only compelling thing it had going for it was the idea that it could do text to speech, until I heard Will Wheaton’s text to speech demo for his new book Sunken Treasure. Text to speech like most text to speech is more functional than grand, more machine than human, not that great, but better than nothing at all. I think that Jail breaking your Kindle is going to be the next great sport on the internet.

Thinking of all those blind people out there who have been living on audio books, thinking of people who drive while listening to text to speech, all the different ways we use our computers, or even our cell phones to help us access data when we are busy doing something else, or have a handicap that does not let us do what we wanted to do with what we have.

Text to speech was a good idea, it still is a good idea, and I am saddened that Amazon has decided to allow publishers the choice of how their product will be used, rather than users. This is a fundamental retreat, one that will haunt us for years until someone else is willing to step into the breach and see what they can get away with.

Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocate group for the rights of Web users and technology companies, said he was grateful that Amazon went out of its way to make the point that the company didn’t believe text-to-speech technology violated copyright. “Nevertheless, Amazon decided to allow copyright owners to make the decisions themselves whether to use the feature,” von Lohmann said. “They are entitled to do that. The issue of text-to-speech will have to wait for another innovator.” Source: Cnet

Amazon Kindles text to speech is like any other text to speech system, mechanical and flat. I have an opinion, which is anyone who wants to text to speech any book I write can go right ahead and do it. If anyone wants to text to speech anywhere I write, blog, short, news, you go right ahead and use the content I produce in a way that makes sense for you to use it. The author’s guild was thinking of something, but when it comes to accessibility, that means everything to people. People want to do stuff with content the way that makes sense for them.

When you throw up hurdles over how something can be used, people find ways around that. I would expect to see “Jail Broken” Kindles here in a little bit as people work out what flag will turn on or turn off the text to speech and how to break it. Much like Jail Broken Iphones, cracking DRM, or other ways that people go around hurdles that are made on systems, we will be seeing Jail Broken Kindles on the internet in the near future once people work out how it works.