Amazon’s next-gen Kindle 2 eBook reader, introduced earlier this week, is due to go on sale on February 24. However, publishing industry insiders already anticipate an impending controversy over its text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities.
As noted in our hands-on impressions, the Kindle 2’s biggest step forward over its predecessor appears to be its ability to vocalize text, reading manuscripts like an audiobook for the benefit of end-users. Unsurprisingly, it’s a feature that many book publishers are taking odds with.
According to sources within the publishing industry, Amazon failed to inform its publishing partners about Kindle 2’s speaking capabilities in advance of the device’s public debut. Many publishers only found out about this technological innovation at the same time consumers did.
