[gui-talk] Kindle books

Joel Deutsch jdeutsch at dslextreme.com
Sat Dec 6 17:48:26 UTC 2008


Cindy,

This portable device, the Kindle, wasn't developed in the spirit of what you 
and I think of as portable devices to play writing to us. It's a different 
concept, meant to hold many books that can be called up by the sighted 
reader and looked at. The effect is like having one book-sized plastic 
device that sort of looks like a real book, which a person can hold and read 
the text on the screen. Those who have really reported enjoying the Kindle, 
for instance, have reported taking them on long airplane journeys and having 
the ability to read from any of the many books that they may have purchased 
online and loaded onto the device. They would not have preferred to be 
listening to somebody reading one or another of those books. They like to 
read print, and listening to audio literature may be for them at best an 
occasional convenience for times when they have their hands full and are 
otherwise occupied, say while driving a car or exercising at the gym. 
itotherwsie literatture wo7uld They are simply reading the print, just as if 
it were a real book. It has not been recorded for them by a reader. If they 
wanted audio literature, themselves, and they sometimes do, they'd get the 
recorded stuff from audible  and other vendors, just as we do, although 
without the issues of blind accessibility to the controls of the playback 
units.

Anyway, as the list of book titles Amazon produces in Kindle form along with 
the print books of the same titles, this list may overlap with some of the 
recorded titles we are accustomed to seeing offered, but there will be a lot 
more books that haven't wound up produced in commercial audio or by the NLS. 
If I could read visually, I'd at least consider this device, although I'd 
think of it as a bit of a luxury. But its list of titles is likely to be a 
lot more inclusive, and a good bit less dependent on nothing but sales 
ranking, than the titles that are chosen for audio production, and which we 
can already get for ourselves. It's a unique new book marketing model, not 
that easily evaluated or understood in blind book terms.

Hope that helps.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books


I guess I just don't understand, with all the other sources for books out
there, which are available to us, why try to make this particular device
accessible.  If it was the only portable means of reading books, I could
understand why we'd want to have access.  But, there's so much out there,
already.

Cindy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books


Like the Everly Brothers sang: "Dream; dream dream dream!"

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: Ted Shelly <tshelly at optonline.net>
To: 'Ationfbnet GUI Talk Mailing List' <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Date: 2008/12/05 15:33:27
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books

>
>
> What Amazon needs to do is to make their Kindle book format an open
> standard
> that other device manufactures can build into their products.  If for
> instance the iphone could use the books they would sell a lot more books.
> Then devices for the blind like the Victor Stream could build that into
> their products as well.  This would open up a huge new source of reading
> material for us.  I imagine this will happen eventually, but it may take a
> while.  Amazon is not an easy company to contact, but someone mentioned
> they
> had a line to the Kindle developer.  Maybe we could start a
> letter/every-mail
> writing campaign.
>
> Ted
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Cindy Handel
> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 9:54 PM
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
> What would be the advantage of adding text to speech to the Kindle Reader;
> especially since we already have the Victor Stream?  The reader, itself,
> is
> already more expensive than the Stream.  Adding speech would increase the
> cost.
>
> Cindy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Loy" <loyrg2845 at gmail.com>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 7:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
>
> I corresponded with the developer of this product and asked if it would be
> possible to add text to speech to this product and he replied that he
> would
> look into it.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Baracco, Andrew W" <Andrew.Baracco at va.gov>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2008 11:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
>
> It is the sighted guy's equivalant of the Victor Stream.  The display
> looks just like a printed book, to give a familiar frame of reference.
>
> Andy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Cindy Handel
> Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 2:21 PM
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
> Well, I think the idea is that you can purchase and download books from
> Amazon; put them on this reader and take several books along with
> y...j as we do with the Very Rather Stream.  I'm sure it is the software,
> in the reader, which makes it work.  But, you have to have the little
> screen and controls to read the books.
>
> Cindy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "tribble" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 3:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
>
> so apparently you need to have this hardware reader in order to read a
> kindle book, which is in some proprietary format? I would think there
> would
> be software that could do the job just as well...
> Thanks.
> -comle
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Cindy Handel" <cindy425 at verizon.net>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 5:38 AM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Kindle is a hardware reader.  It looks like a book, but has a screen
> instead
> of pages.  There are controls to allow the reader to turn pages and to
> move
> from one book to another.  That's really about all I know about it.
> But, it
> has no speech and is not accessible.  It's also more expensive than the
> Victor Stream.
>
> Cindy
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "tribble" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>
> To: "Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List"
> <gui-talk at NFBnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 11:49 PM
> Subject: [gui-talk] Kindle books
>
>
> Hi all -- Has anyone had experience good or bad reading books on Kindle
> sold
> by amazon?
> Is Kindle a software reader, or a hardware device like an ipod?
> Is it accessible? I'd like to get an armload of books but since I would
> be
> scanning them anyway, I would prefer getting them in some electronic
> format.
> What is Kindle anyway?
> I guess I'll go back to amazon and read up on it, but I wanted to ask
> the
> list first.
> Thanks in advance.
> Oh, and the books aren't on bookshare -- I checked.
> -comle
>
>
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