iBooks Read Out Loud Feature?

[Alchematron]

It's called VoiceOver screen reader on the iPad

Something you plan to use?

I wonder how the robot voice will compare with the Kindle?

 

[sfwalter]

I also wonder if there's a publisher kill switch like there is on the Kindle.

 

[old-wiz]

I have a friend who is blind and it's really annoying that the publishers won't allow kindle to read books to him. Most likely the same thing will happen to Apple. The publishers only care about their money.

 

[Alchematron]

There are no copies being made, it's simply a machine function.

Robot voice vs professional narrator voice

Let the people decide what they want!

 

[goobot]

um....audiobooks??

 

[Alchematron]

um....audiobooks??

That's what I mean by professional narrator voice

If I want that, then I will pay for it

But if I want my iPad robot voice function for a book that I bought, then I want that freedom of choice

 

[old-wiz]

Audiobooks have a different license scheme; they don't have the printed text. The publishers feel you should buy the audiobook if you want to listen to it. It is not a question of a copy being made; the publishers simply feel you don't have a license to have the book read to you by the computer if it is a normal ebook.

It's totally stupid since it would imply it's wrong for me to read a book out loud to my friend who is blind.

 

[ditzy]

The publishers are just being greedy. There is no need for them to ban this, but they hope that people will go out and buy the audiobook if they don't allow this, which doesn't actually happen unless you wanted the audiobook in the first place.