Kindle tips and services
May. 13th, 2020 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kestrellI've been using a Kindle Fire with the VoiceView screen reader for the past year. If you are using an iPhone with Voiceover, the gestures, including the inclusive of a learn mode, are very similar. Also, you can use Alexa to read your Kindle books to you, and do all the things Alexa does, including playing podcasts.
Here is a link to a list of other kinds of Kindle content you can access with your Kindle.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-full-advantage-of-your-kindle/
Here is a link to a list of other kinds of Kindle content you can access with your Kindle.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-full-advantage-of-your-kindle/
I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 06:54 pm (UTC)Is it as polished as Alexa herself?
Does Alexa read in her own voice?
I can't find where I read it last week, but somewhere there was an intriguing discussion of the quality difference between offline voices and the cloud-based ones -- right now, that's Alexa, Hey Google, Microsoft's Immersive Reader and Siri.
The offline voices have been improving a lot in the last decade -- I started with the Echo II speech card in an Apple, which sighted users claimed was incomprehensible but it was what was available.
Re: I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 07:39 pm (UTC)So, VoiceView: I think it is pretty impressive. Like all TTS, it tends to flub those made-up science fiction words, but I've finally decided to listen to my sf in audiobook form. By made-up science fiction words, I'll use _This is How We Lose the Time War" as an example. Did you know that the National Library Service is now using a lot of commercial audiobooks? Especially for sf and fantasy.
There is a Kindle for PC app, and Freedom Scientific recently posted a free webinar (I really hate that word) on how to use the app with Jaws. This means you can listen to the VoiceView voices yourself, which I recommend, because mileage really varies where it comes to synthetic speech.
Also, there are a number of accents and voices to choose from with VoiceView. I always set mine to female, UK English. I don't reember if there are more downloadeable voices, and the offerings are not as vast a Voice Dream Reader.
If I ask Alexa on my Echo to read me a Kindle book, it's read int eh Alexa voice, and that is the same if I turn on Alexa on my Kindle and ask Alexa to read me a Kindle book.
Judging whether the VoiceView voices are good or not is going to be a matter of taste and experience. Personally, I think anyone who spent the 1990s and early 2000s listening to TTS voices is going to think they are great. It's still not in danger of hitting the Writer's Guild claim that TTS is infringing on audiobook human narrator territory.
Re: I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 08:35 pm (UTC)When I checked to see which voice that was, I was prompted to download 2G of data to "enhance" that default US female -- Samantha -- which improved things dramatically. It's as large a leap as the change from Echo II to DECtalk was, back in the early 80s.
My searching skills are lacking -- surely some enthusiast hosts a page with audio samples to compare various TTS systems, past and present?
On iOS I use the "Susan enhanced," except for Siri, who's set to Australian female.
Re: I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 08:49 pm (UTC)https://aws.amazon.com/polly/
On a completely different topic: WOW! NLS using commercial audio blows my mind. I'm grateful to have watched so much change happen in the accessible reading universe.
Re: I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 07:41 pm (UTC)Re: I have so many questions!
Date: 2020-05-13 08:41 pm (UTC)