Hi, Robin.
On the original Kindle Ereaders, you had a choice of either Tom or
Samantha from Nuance. They used the high quality voices and not the
compact versions which weren't as clear. I used to use a Kindle
Keyboard, sometimes known as a Kindle 3, and got very used to the Tom
voice. Since Amazon owns the Ivona software the newer Fire tablets use
Ivona voices, which are also used on the Fire TV products. They only
offer two Ivona voices for the U.S. English region, which are Sally and
Joey, although voices for other languages and dialects are freely
available. I believe there are more Ivona voices which Amazon does not
make available and I have read one user on the Kindle list express some
frustration at this, which I can understand. I have not used the latest
Kindle ereaders but I am assuming that the same voices are made
available for those devices, as well. The Tom and Samantha voices from
Nuance are not available for Fire tablets. It is possible to legally
purchase other voices for Android devices, such as Nuance, Acapela and
Eloquence. I would love to purchase some of these voices but it is
likely that they will not operate on the Fire tablets, although I have
not yet verified this.
On 7/29/2018 1:48 AM, Robin Frost wrote:
Yes because here all I have to choose from are default iOS voices far as I can tell.
I’m just curious what voices it uses when reading on a kindle fire type tablet as I don’t know.
Robin
*From:* David Goldfield
*Sent:* Saturday, July 28, 2018 3:51 PM
*To:* blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [blind-philly-comp] Re: New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS With VoiceOver
Robin,
Ah, so you'd like to see the Kindle app offer its own set of voices? Do you mean the way Voice Dream Reader does?
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 7/28/2018 1:45 PM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
Yes there have been massive reports of this I’ve seen on the ViPhone list I think it was that I saw it. So in short yes others have experienced this and are reporting it via the feedback area under more and help and feedback in the app as well. Thanks for citing this email address I didn’t know it existed. Always something new to learn.
I wish we had more voice choices in that Kindle app I surely do (smile).
Take good care,
Robin
*From:* David Goldfield
*Sent:* Saturday, July 28, 2018 10:02 AM
*To:* blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [blind-philly-comp] New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS With VoiceOver
Hi.
I am noticing a new issue when reading Kindle books on my iPhone. I sent the following report to device-accessibility@xxxxxxxxxx but I am reposting it here as I'm wondering if others on this list are able to reproduce this issue.
Hello. I am noticing a new issue regarding the Kindle app on my iPhone 8, running iOS 11.4.1 using VoiceOver.
Description
In the past, when performing a continuous read with the two-finger swipe down gesture the reading flow was always smooth. In other words, VoiceOver did not pause at the end of each line of text, but only paused at the end of sentences or paragraphs, making the reading flow sound natural. The only other pause was when the page needed to be flipped but this was very brief and produced a very short earcon.
Recently, this behavior has changed. Now, VoiceOver pauses after each line of text, making the flow of reading sound more unnatural. I have tried changing the font and adjusting font size and spacing but altering these settings does not resolve the issue.
Additionally, the earcon when the page flips is a bit different, sounding like the earcon you hear when opening an app, which makes the pauses between page flips more noticeable and jarring.
This behavior occurs with all of my books. The one exception is when reading a magazine in text view, where the app behaves as expected during reading.
Steps to Reproduce
1. With VoiceOver running, open the Kindle app and ensure that a book is currently open. Ensure that the book contains more than one page.
2. Swipe down with two fingers to cause VoiceOver to read continuously.
3. Allow the reading to continue past the current page so that the page flips.
Expected Results
When reading continuously VoiceOver should only pause during page flips and at the end of a sentence.
Page flip earcons should be very slight and brief.
Actual Results
During continuous reading pauses occur after each line.
Page flip earcons are longer than in previous versions.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
