Hi William. Yes, I persevered with my Kindle Fire seven and it is running fine,
though it does seem a little sluggish to me. I'm wondering, on that basis,
whether I would be better off with the newest Fire tablet. However, it may just
be that that is how it is and changing it won't make a bit of difference. I am
used to my iPhone SE which is extremely responsive.
So far, I have downloaded the OverDrive app and got that working just fine. I
have downloaded a kindle book which I pre-ordered from Amazon this morning and
that is okay, but I do have a quick question. The reading speed changes and I
am not quite sure why this is. When I initially started using the Kindle app on
the fire tablet, the reading speed was quite slow, not the same as the speed of
the speech when not in the Kindle app. However, when I stopped continuous
reading, and restarted it, the voice sped up to match that of the rest of the
tablet. I have since altered the speed on the tablet itself, and sacrificed a
little of this to listen to a kindle book at a slightly slower speed. Whether
that will work, I don't know yet as I haven't gone back into the app. The only
thing I did notice was, that the speed slowed down when I was using the overlay
and pressed play from there. If The overlay wasn't there, the speed of the
speech matched that of the tablet. Hope that makes sense.
I have been into the audible app, and so far that seems to work to o,so all the
things that I want it for work for sure even if it is a little sluggish. I
have 30 days in which to return it so I'll keep plodding along. The only other
question I have really is to do with user guide and help. So far i have only
turned up stuff for the amazon fir hd tablet 3rd edition and I know the
software has improved significantly since then. What I want to know is has
much changed since the 3rd fire tablet? Is there an up-to-date user guide and
if so, where might I find it?
Thanks.
Sent from my iPhone
On 27 Sep 2016, at 17:29, William Brandes <williambrandes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
hi all. let me kill a few birds with one stone so to speak.
i have read a number of reviews about the new kindle ereaders and some
seem to have the two versions that came out this summer kinda cross
mixed in their reviews. plus, most videos on the two kindle ereaders
nary explain the important new feature for this kindle ereader (it's
been 6 years. the last voice navigation and tts ereader being the
kindle keyboard ereader).
so, we got two new offerings from amazon this summer. the first was
the kindle paperwhite with the audio dongle offering voice view
navigation and tts. again, that was a special device in the paperwhite
series.
not much later, amazon brought out the kindle 8th generation ereader,
and, i think cutting the cord from previous nameplates was the right
move. we now have an accessible touch ereader that stands alone and
can be further developed to fit a special need. in two words, that's
us.
most importantly, amazon cut out the dongle, upgraded the audio
connection by way of bluetooth. we now are unhooked, have touch voice
view navigation and tts in a pure ereader.
so, imho, i think this is an important development if one is looking
for an ereader and not a tablet. not to mention that the new kindle
8th generation ereader is $45. less than the kindle keyboard 2nd
generation ereader i bought nearly 6 years ago /smile.
now, what do i use my kindle fire tablet for? i find it a good device
for purchased music.
i also use it to read kindle books. although i have not bought a book
for seven months. rather i borrow from the ohio digital online
library, often converting for my own permanent use with codex.
i also use the bard mobile app in order to listen to bard national
library for the blind talking books.
every morning, i run through my email with the installed email app,
take a quick look through my facebook and twitter feeds.
plus, i take a quick look at news headlines and read some with an
rss-reader app.
other apps?
iblink radio. this, i became aware of by a posting by russ. nice.
golf channel mobile. there is a one-hour live (audio only) segment of
the golf channel each morning. plus, many other features including
scores, news, etc.
pandora and spotify, both streaming music apps.
dropbox.
zoom.us which is a video/audio communication app which is completely
accessible. i use this twice a month to hook up with our church
conference live workshop offerings.
i also find the amazon silk internet browser to be very good.
using that browser, there are two churches that have live worship on
sunday, one in florida, and, the other in california that i listen to
with my kindle fire. one uses livestream and the other uses ustream.
both stream great.
and, other uses and apps.
this is an interesting read on 5 apps for blind users. voice dream
reader is included. i just might bite and kick out the $10 bucks!
http://www.visionaware.org/blog/visually-impaired-now-what/five-great-reading-apps-for-booklovers-who-are-blind-or-visually-impaired/12
lastly, i think the purchase of the kindle fire 7" was a good choice.
hope you take the time to get it to voice right out of the box without
sighted help. it's a real rush!
stay well ... william
