Today, author Joe Abercrombie announced that his new book, Best Served Cold will be released in the US on the Kindle. I have found the Kindle app on my iPod Touch to be very readable on the largest font setting  and with the inverse color scheme (white text on a black background). Despite this,...
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I garnered some First Impressions of the New Kindle DX from the NYTimes’s Gadgetwise Blog. According to the post, the new Kindle DX’s main feature is its larger size. The DX has a 9.7-inch display, which the company says is 2 1/2 times the size of the Kindle 2. But the device doesn’t feel...
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All Access Blogging has some great Tips for Your Blog. All Access Blogging focuses on making the blogosphere accessible, a goal close to my heart as well. Tips include: Fix Your Feed Icon What’s In Your Blog’s Title Bar? Text and Background Colors On Your Blog Can Help or Hurt Your Readers Blog Quizzes: Make Them Work For...
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The Reading Rights coalition is organizing a protest today against the restrictions on the new Kindle’s text-to-speech feature. At noon in NYC, you can watch the event online. Please support us by joining our informational picket in front of the Authors Guild’s headquarters at 31 East 32nd Street in downtown Manhattan on April 7, 2009...
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Speeding up a recording used to make it sound like Alvin & the Chipmunks. Growing up, I had a cassette player for the blind that had a variable speed playback control. Being a kid, I used it mainly for entertainment value. Fun was...
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I read a lot. I always have. But as my eyesight has deteriorated, I have had to find alternative ways to get my fix. Audiobooks have been key, mostly bought from Audible.com in recent years. Lately, smartphones and dedicated e-book readers have begun to offer an accessible alternative. There is still a big trade-off...
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I read a lot. I always have. But as my eyesight has deteriorated, I have had to find alternative ways to get my fix. Audiobooks have been key, mostly bought from Audible.com in recent years. Lately, smartphones and dedicated e-book readers have begun to offer an accessible alternative. There is still a big trade-off...
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Last week’s tech section reviews the state of e-book readers in A Walk Through a Crop of Electronic Readers. THE release this week of Amazon’s Kindle 2 has put electronic book readers in the spotlight. Its proponents celebrate the ability to store thousands of titles on a single lightweight device; the access to newspapers, magazines...
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Spotted today on Slashdot, Amazon Releases iPhone Kindle Software. “The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync...
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An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos at Amazon Does Amazon have a Chief Accessibility Officer? Someone who oversees accessibility issues across the company? It does not seem so. With Amazon at the heart of both online shopping and digital books (audio and e-books), you need a strong corporate position on accessibility. Not only is there...
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Today Amazon announced that it was surrendering to the Author’s Guild – Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com. The new Talk To Me feature, a form of text to speech, in Amazon’s Kindle will be disabled at the whim of the publisher. How many publishers will not exercise...
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Following up on my rant against the Blount Op-Ed piece, the AFB has a well-written (much better than mine) blog post on the same issue: Kindle sparks a flame war, but fails to light the fire for accessibility – AFB’s Blog. While the Kindle offers text-to-speech options, it doesn’t include talking menus or fully accessible...
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Shortcovers, the alleged Kindle killer, went live this morning. So what is shorcovers? It is a e-book service built around mobile devices. The idea is to read books on your iPhone, your Blackberry or whichever smart phone you might use. Unlike other great e-book software, like Stanza, shortcovers is paired with a commercial bookstore...
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On today’s Op-Ed page in the New York Times, Roy Blount, Jr, head of the Author’s Guild, has penned a piece, The Kindle Swindle?, defending his organizations attack on the new text to speech (TTS) feature in the new Amazon Kindle 2. Over at O”Reill Media, there is An Open Letter to Roy Blount,...
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http://www.vimeo.com/3192599 Shortcovers will be an app for mobile devices, including the iPhone, that turns your device into an e-book reader. The release date is imminent (allegedly). I still am unconvinced that mobile device screens are big enough for sustained reading. More details when the app arrives. If you find this post useful or interesting, please consider...
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