Kindle 2 text-to-speech smackdown
Posted by: Mary
Author, audiobook narrator, and actor extraordinaire Wil Wheaton takes on the whole kerfuffle (worthy of a NYT opinion from Roy Blount) on how the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech capability of any book downloaded on the eBook reader does/does not violate the book author’s rights. Wheaton created a ten-minute human vs. machine smackdown. Here’s what he says:
To find out, I picked a short passage from Sunken Treasure and read it. Then, I took the identical passage, and let my computer read it. I recorded the whole thing and put together something I call “Wil Wheaton versus Text 2 Speech” so you can hear for yourself.
I was planning to Skype with my son this weekend so that he could have his Kindle 2 read to me via webcam. But Wheaton has saved me from that exercise in tech-geek. Listen to the results and see what you make of this 21st Century John Henry contest! Thanks to Cory Doctorow for the link on BoingBoing.
