Amazon bringing Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features to Kindle Fires for vision-impaired users

Amazon's been attuned to the needs of its vision-impaired customers for years, first rolling out text-to-speech technology on its original Kindle e-reader years ago. Today the company revealed plans to add to that feature set in its Kindle Fire and Fire HD (7-inch) tablets with Voice Guide and Explore by Touch technology. Voice Guide's an improvement upon regular text-to-speech tech that reads aloud any action performed by users -- things like announcing app names and book titles when they're selected. Explore by Touch lets folks swipe their fingers across their Fire's display and identifies each onscreen item as their phalanges pass over them. Once aware of what app or piece of content's being touched, a simple tap opens the item. Ready for the new assisted navigation experience right now? Well, all you anxious Fire owners will have to wait, the update doesn't land until early next year.Filed under: Tablets, Software, AmazonCommentsSource: Amazon Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2012-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #feature set #reads aloud #book titles

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Amazon bringing Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features to Kindle Fires for vision-impaired users'


SCIBA Mobilizes Against Festival of Books Amazon Connection

Partnering with Amazon for Festival of Books website sales makes L.A. Times an increasingly bitter target for SCIBA members. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sciba members


L.A. Times Festival of Books Partners With Amazon

When the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books unveiled its list of participating authors on Tuesday, the event caused a stir among local booksellers who immediately noticed the list featured buy links to Amazon. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #times festival #books partners #participating authors #local booksellers


Tracking Amazon: '12 Years a Slave' Has Lock on Entire Category

Thirteen of the top 20 19th century U.S. history books on the site share a title in common. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #tracking amazon #history books


How to Upload Public Domain Books Straight to Your Kindle — For Free

If you're looking for digital versions of older books to download, check out Project Gutenberg first. The site is filled with stuff that has lapsed into the public domain, which means it's free.     Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2014-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital versions #project gutenberg #public domain


'Hungry Girl Diet' Tops Amazon a Month Before Pub

The upswing in preorders followed a promotional email sent by St. Martin's to the Hungry Girl subscriber list of 1.2 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Living wage petition handed to Amazon

Demonstrators will descend on Amazon’s headquarters in London later today (28th February)... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Delhi’s GLOBALOCAL, Part 1: Many Voices, Many Observations

Vinutha Mallya recaps the highlights of GLOBALOCAL 2014, the 'forum for content' organized by the German Book Office, New Delhi and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Accidental Book and Movie Tie-In Brings Monumental Sales

Cara Putman didn’t plan on her new book sharing Amazon and Twitter space with George Clooney, but she and her publisher aren’t saying no. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #movie tie-


Bringing Tools of the Trade to Self-Publishing

In Publishing Perspectives' Issues on the Ether, Porter Anderson asks #EtherIssue participants to focus on tools needed by entrepreneurial authors. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


FSG Brings Out George Selden Classics as E-books

Farrar, Straus and Giroux is releasing George Seldon's Chester Cricket and His Friends series in ebook format for the first time for the new tablet-toting generation of young readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #friends series #ebook format #young readers


Why Amazon's Next Conquest Will Be Your Television

Amazon started as an online bookseller and transformed the entire publishing industry. Now it's assembling the pieces it needs to do the same to an even bigger medium: television.     Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2014-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #online bookseller


Amazon takes on Netflix with rebrand of LoveFilm video-on-demand service

Online retailer will fold film and TV rental arm into its Prime subscription service for combined price of £79 a yearAmazon is hitting back at Netflix in the UK by rebranding its LoveFilm video-on-demand service.LoveFilm, bought out by Amazon three years ago in a deal worth nearly £200m, will be... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #captain phillips


Amazon extends Coin use to Android devices

Amazon customers in the UK, US and Germany can now use its Amazon Coins currency on Android... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #android devices #amazon customers


Read Complex STM Books on the Kindle? Not Possible? Not So

Technical books, with charts and graphs, have always been a challenge for e-readers like the Kindle. DCL, working with MIT Press, believes it has come up with a solution. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #technical books #mit press


Epilepsy explored at Jonathan Cape

Jonathan Cape has bought a new book about epilepsy by writer and BBC Radio 4 science producer... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #jonathan cape


Amazon Publishing's advances move ahead of the market

The web giant's books imprint flexes its muscles after scoring an ebook No 1, but the little guy may yet win the dayA good month for Amazon's fledgling publishing business – the imaginatively-titled Amazon Publishing – just got better, after the imprint won the rights to Cath Quinn's historical... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #self-published novels


VSCO Cam app for iOS adds more 'community' features in a bid to take on Instagram

The VSCO Cam app has developed a pretty dedicated following of serious mobile photographers. Over the summer Visual Supply Co. even unveiled a minimalist publishing platform called VSCO Grid. But ties between the two were... let's say, weak. An... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2014-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Twitter Turns to Flipboard to Acquire Users for Vine

Got growth problems? Here's one way to solve it: advertising.Growth is a top-of-mind concern for Twitter and it appears app install ads are part of the strategy. In this case, a beautiful, magazine-like placement running in Flipboard this week for its six-second looping video app Vine.Digital ad... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2014-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Microsoft working on Kindle-like Xbox reading app for Windows 8

Microsoft's getting ready to follow Amazon, Apple, and Google into the reading game with an app for Windows to peruse ebooks, magazines, and comics. The new app appears be part of Microsoft's cross-platform Xbox entertainment services, which currently include Xbox Music and Video. Microsoft... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #job listing


Improving Skills and Exploring New Themes: Children's Books at the Taipei International Book Fair

At the Taipei International Book Fair, children's publishers presented Taiwan as a market open to exploring new authors, imported titles, and innovative themes. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |