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Ask Soylent: Where Have All The Good eBook Readers Gone?

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 22 2016, @12:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the way-of-the-dodo dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

My ad-supported Kindle's buttons are dying, so I'm in the market for a new eBook reader. I figured the upcoming sales would be a good time to buy one. To my surprise, eBook readers seem to be regressing rather than advancing. My hard requirements are:

  1. e-Ink display
  2. Text-to-speech
  3. Don't need company's software to transfer books

And my preferred features include:

  1. Good PDF support (so a larger display with the same aspect ratio of a piece of paper). I want to read technical books on it, something I can't do with the Kindle.
  2. Stable software
  3. Doesn't spy on everything you do (Kindles track absolutely everything)
  4. Support for multiple voices. The same voice gets annoying after a few books.

I'm unable to find anything which fulfills all those conditions. Any recommendations? Before you say smartphone, it needs an e-Ink display. Are smartphones and tablets killing eBook readers?

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  • (Score: 2) by Celestial on Tuesday November 22 2016, @02:17PM

    by Celestial (4891) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @02:17PM (#431216) Journal

    Yep. IIRC, very few people used the text-to-speech feature so the few remaining eReader manufacturers (mostly Amazon and Kobo) decided that it wasn't worth it. That, and some conspiracy theorists speculate that audiobook publishers pressured eReader manufacturers to drop it, but erm... good luck pressuring Amazon. However, there was some push back so Amazon decided to appease by making the text-to-speech accessory.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday November 22 2016, @04:15PM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @04:15PM (#431289) Journal

    That, and some conspiracy theorists speculate that audiobook publishers pressured eReader manufacturers to drop it, but erm... good luck pressuring Amazon.

    Umm, the Authors Guild actually DID pressure Amazon -- you can still read their statement here [authorsguild.org]. encouraging authors to restrict their rights on the argument that the text-to-speech option was "creating a derivative work" which would be subject to separate copyright protection. (There are loads of other interviews and statements from authors at that time, if you poke around the internet.)

    Amazon subsequently DID cave to that pressure [theguardian.com], basically making it "optional" for authors to allow text-to-speech or not. Presumably Amazon's lawyers must have determined they could have a legitimate legal claim for this, or else Amazon wouldn't have backed down.

    That was in 2009; Amazon ultimately dropped the feature in 2012. I imagine it was some combination of factors you mention (few people used it, extra cost) combined with the ongoing nonsense with the publishers (some of whom restricted text-to-speech rights wide swaths of books, which Amazon was required to enforce).

    In any case, it isn't really "conspiracy theorists" who "speculate" about this stuff. There was pressure; it did have an effect. How much of an effect it had on Amazon ultimately dropping the feature completely -- well, Amazon never made a statement on why it did so. I agree with you that it's probably a variety of factors.

    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday November 22 2016, @04:47PM

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @04:47PM (#431324) Journal

      Oh, I'd also note Amazon released the Kindle Fire in 2011, and the Fire HD in 2012. Note that the original Fire did NOT have TTS, but Amazon subsequently enabled it. Thus, it seems most likely that Amazon banked on the fact that those few users who wanted audio would buy their new product line (which supported audio, full-color video, etc.), while they could make the old Kindles cheaper and less bulky without any audio support.

    • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday November 22 2016, @07:34PM

      by meustrus (4961) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @07:34PM (#431433)

      Presumably Amazon's lawyers must have determined they could have a legitimate legal claim for [the text-to-speech option..."creating a derivative work" which would be subject to separate copyright protection], or else Amazon wouldn't have backed down.

      Either that or they decided that the litigation could get drawn out to the point that litigation became more expensive than the feature was worth.

      --
      If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?