text to speech

A Kindle Swipes Fine, but Still Hooked on a Nook

Katherine Boehret in The Digital Solution on November 15, 2011 at 3:23 pm PT

A head-to-head comparison of the new Amazon Kindle Touch and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch.

Google Translate Can Now Say “Take That, Siri” in 14 Languages

Ina Fried in Mobile on October 13, 2011 at 11:00 am PT

The company’s Android app, which began testing speech-to-speech translations in English and Spanish in January, now supports a bunch more languages.

Wi-Fi Hotspot Safety and Mac Viruses

Walt Mossberg in Mossberg’s Mailbox on December 29, 2010 at 2:50 pm PT

Walt answers readers’ questions on just how safe are Wi-Fi hotspots and should Mac owners worry about computer viruses.

Intel Makes Leap in Device to Aid Impaired Readers

Walt Mossberg in Personal Technology on November 18, 2009 at 6:03 pm PT

Walt Mossberg reviews the Intel Reader, a book-sized device aimed at assisting people with impaired vision or language-related disabilities.

Shut Up, Kindle

John Paczkowski in News on February 27, 2009 at 4:55 pm PT

Rather than argue with the Authors Guild over the text-to-speech feature of its new Kindle 2 e-book reader, Amazon is modifying the device’s software to make it optional. Authors and publishers will now be able to decide if they want the function enabled or not on titles for which they own the rights.

Authors Guild President: What, Then, of the Playing and Talking Machines?

John Paczkowski in News on February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm PT

The idea of derivative rights and royalties for text-to-speech “audiobooks” like those provided by Amazon’s Kindle 2 might seem ludicrous now, but will that be the case in a few years when the device’s grating text-to-speech voice has been inevitably humanized? A reasonable question, and one that Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild, poses in an Op Ed in the New York Times today.

Authors Guild to Kindle: Shut Up When You're Talking to Me

John Paczkowski in News on February 13, 2009 at 9:58 am PT

The Authors Guild, a trade group that once maligned Amazon for its ”notorious used-book service,” is at it again–this time taking issue with the text-to-speech feature of the retailer’s new Kindle 2 e-book reader. Seems it feels the device oversteps its bounds by creating rudimentary audiobooks for which it doesn’t own the rights. But as author Neil Gaiman notes, the idea of derivative rights and royalties for text-to-speech just seems silly.

Authors Guild to Kindle: Shut Up When You’re Talking to Me

John Paczkowski in News on February 13, 2009 at 9:58 am PT

The Authors Guild, a trade group that once maligned Amazon for its ”notorious used-book service,” is at it again–this time taking issue with the text-to-speech feature of the retailer’s new Kindle 2 e-book reader. Seems it feels the device oversteps its bounds by creating rudimentary audiobooks for which it doesn’t own the rights. But as author Neil Gaiman notes, the idea of derivative rights and royalties for text-to-speech just seems silly.