Large-Screen Kindle DX and TextAloud

Just as we speculated here not too many wseks ago, Amazon has now unveiled a larger-screen Kindle.   You will be reading about it in your morning newspaper tomorrow.   While the Kindle 2 is about the size of a popular paperback novel, the new DX model offers a 9-inch screen, making it more like a magazine.  For me, the biggest news is that the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Boston Globe will all be offering Kindle editions at introductory bargain rates.

This is, of course, great news for writers — another step forward in the development of new delivery systems for the written word.  This new model will appeal to writers who are more in the trade book arena:  history books, trade books, self-help and such.  And, of course, magazines and newspapers, who will flock to it for its cost-cutting and instant delivery advantages.  It may also be ideal for textbooks, though as I reported previously some publishers may be slow to adopt this reader in fear of losing such lucative print-version sales.  However, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that three of the major textbook publishers, who represent 60 percent of college textbooks, have already singed on — and several major universities will participate in pilot programs for their students this fall.

There’s another Kindle DX feature that will likely be enormously significant for writers who publish in PDF e-book format.  The DX will display an entire PDF page without the need of scrolling, which has always been a major, sales-limiting inconvenience.

What struck me most of all was the announcement by Bezos that already Kindle titles generate 35 percent of the sales in the Amazon book division.  That figure has been a major trade secret up until today.  It’s a jaw-dropping number!

OK, I know, you want to SEE IT.  Just look over in our sidebar in the Vodpod Box — the video will be available ther for a short while.  If it’s not there, you can go to our VIDEO FOR WRITERS collection where you can also SEE IT, along with almost 100 other videos.

First-hand reports from the unveiling do point to some flaw.  The refresh time for each page turn is noticeable, rather than the near-instant response of the smaller Kindle 2.  Moreover, the display is still black-and-white only.  When will color come along?  No one yet knows, though several companies are working on it.

There will also soon appear some rivals to the Kindle DX. So stay tuned.

TEXTALOUD:  YOUR PROOFREADING ASSISTANT

I recently found myself in an email conversation with Ken White, one of the developers behind TextAloud and other computer-related businesses.  He’s read this blog and thought you readers might be interested in a post on his own blog from several years ago.  The TextAloud software, which turns text into spoken speech, can serve very well as a proof-reading device.  Not only do I agree — I’ve been using the software for five years already — but I’ve even made the same observation on this blog some time ago.  Still, newer readers may wish to check into this link to see just how TextAloud can be deployed.

Oh, by the way, the text-to-speech technology has really improved in recent years.  The voices are no longer robotic.  In fact, for about $30, one can purchase a premium voice that is amazingly life-like.  I’ve bought three of them and sometimes turn to them to read news reports off my computer screen.

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    Comment by
    BobCat
    7 May 2009

    Great post, Tom. The advances text-to-speech has made are simply amazing. Another great text-to-speech service is VoiceForge.com. VoiceForge, powered by Cepstral, owns up to 60 voices giving the user many more choices then other providers.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    7 May 2009

    Thanks for the reference to VoiceForge, which is new to me. I\\'ll check it out.

    Comment by
    tomcolvin
    7 May 2009

    Thanks for the reference to VoiceForge, which is new to me. I\\'ll check it out.

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