Amazon Adds Speech To New Kindle

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, unveiled the Kindle 2 on Monday in New York. [Photo by Michael Appleton/NYT]

Amazon in Big Push for New Kindle Model NYT 020909

Amazon introduced several new features for the Kindle. A new text-to-speech function allows readers toswitch between reading words on the device and having the words read to them by a computerized voice. That technology was provided by Nuance, a speech-recognition company based in Burlington, Mass.

Amazon is also allowing Kindle owners to transfer texts between their Kindle and other mobile devices. Amazon said it was working on making digital texts available for other gadgets (like mobile phones), though it did not specify which ones.

One competitive threat Amazon is facing in its effort to dominate the world of e-books is Google, which has scanned in some seven million books, many of them out of print. Google has also struck deals with publishers and authors to split the proceeds from the online sales of those texts.

Google recently said it would soon begin selling these books for reading on mobile devices like the Apple iPhone and phone