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

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Goodreads Asks Users to Help Combat ‘Review Bombing’

In an October 30 message, Goodreads officials urged users to report activity designed to “harass readers or authors, or attempt to artificially deflate or inflate the overall rating” of books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Sues Scammers Targeting Authors

Amazon sues some 20 websites falsely claiming an affiliation with Amazon that are designed to lure authors into paying fees to publish. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales Rise, Profits Soar at Amazon

Total sales at Amazon increased 13%, to $143.1 billion, in the third quarter ended September 30, 2023, over the comparable period in 2022, and operating income jumped to $11.2 billion, from $2.5 billion in the third quarter 2022. Online sales rose 7%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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10 of the Best Queer Books on Kindle Unlimited in 2023

Here are 10 of the best queer books available on Kindle Unlimited in 2023, from sapphic sci-fi to trans fantasy to M/M romance and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-26 10:34:00 UTC ]
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All The Public Libraries Offering Free Access to Banned Books: A Comprehensive Guide

A comprehensive guide to the public libraries offering free access to banned books. Here's where and how. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-23 10:40:00 UTC ]
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Do I Sound Asian? Do I Sound Gay? Curtis Chin on Finding His Voice While Narrating His Memoir

As my debut memoir plowed towards print publication, I suddenly remembered that my agents had negotiated the audio book rights with my publisher. Although I had the option to try out for the role of narrator (essentially to audition to be myself) my agents suggested that I should consider... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-23 08:50:26 UTC ]
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How New York Comic Con Brings the Brands to the Fans

From Oct. 11-14, more than 200,000 people made the pilgrimage to Manhattan's Javits Center for New York Comic Con, the annual gathering of fans across movies, television, comic books, anime and video games. The massive convention floor was filled with activations of all sizes from some of the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2023-10-20 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Rollout of Scholastic Book Fairs' New Diversity Offering Comes Under Fire

Scholastic said that it created its new "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice" offering as a way to protect librarians and school officials dealing with restrictive new state laws and policies, but critics say that the program invites censorship. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Palestinian voices ‘shut down’ at Frankfurt Book Fair, say authors

Open letter rebukes LitProm decision to cancel award ceremony for Adania Shibli due to ‘war started by Hamas’Israel-Hamas war: latest news and live updatesSeveral prominent authors and publishers from around the world have accused the Frankfurt Book Fair of “shutting down” Palestinian voices,... Continue reading at The Guardian

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Hitting the Books: Voice-controlled AI copilots could lead to safer flights

Siri and Alexa were only the beginning. As voice recognition and speech synthesis technologies continue to mature, the days of typing on keyboards to interact with the digital world around us could be coming to an end — and sooner than many of us anticipated. Where... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-10-15 14:30:20 UTC ]
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10 Best Prime Day Kindle Deals (2023) for Book Lovers

Prime Day means our favorite e-reader, the Kindle, is on sale. Plus, deals on other Amazon devices we like. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2023-10-11 16:06:00 UTC ]
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The 35 best Amazon Prime Day deals to shop for right now

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[ Engadget | 2023-10-11 00:21:03 UTC ]
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How to get Amazon Prime for free for October Prime Day

Amazon’s Prime Day sale is happening once again on October 10 and 11, and as always, you’ll need to be a Prime member to partake of the deals. Prime is Amazon’s $139-per-year service that provides two-day shipping on all orders, as well as a ton of extras like the Kindle lending library... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2023-10-10 16:04:22 UTC ]
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We found the best Prime Day Kindle deals for October 2023

An ereader lets you take a whole library of books with you wherever you go — and even lets you borrow titles from your actual library too. Kindles are probably the best known (and top selling) ereaders on the market and they make great gifts for the holidays. During... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-10-10 14:35:09 UTC ]
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The best Amazon Prime Day deals for October 2023

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[ Engadget | 2023-10-10 13:43:42 UTC ]
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9 Best Prime Day Kindle Deals (2023) for Book Lovers

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New Voices, Fresh Thinking Highlight Mountains & Plains FallCon 2023

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The best early Amazon October Prime Day Deals for 2023

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[ Engadget | 2023-10-02 17:30:05 UTC ]
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CALIBA Brings Fall Fest to the Bay Area

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Amazon has taken some steps to stem the tide of books written with artificial intelligence, but another solution may already exist. Continue reading at Wired

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