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Authors Guild Silent Over iBooks Text-To-Speech
Last year we discussed news that the Authors Guild took issue with the Kindle's text-to-speech function, claiming it was illegal for the device to read their books aloud. Amazon disagreed, but said they were willing to disable the feature upon request from rightsholders. Now, jamie notes a recent article by David Pogue at the NY Times in which he points out that Apple's free iBooks app does the same thing, yet the Authors Guild has remained silent. Quoting: "... Now swipe down the page with two fingers to make the iPhone start reading the book to you, out loud, with a synthesized voice. It even turns the pages automatically and keeps going until you tap with two fingers to stop it. Yes, this is exactly the feature that debuted in the Amazon Kindle and was then removed when publishers screamed bloody murder. But somehow, so far, Apple has gotten away with it, maybe because nobody's even realized this feature is in there." That said, the feature was certainly noticed during the launch of the iPad, so perhaps the Authors Guild has other reasons for holding their peace.
Starting an ipad reading winnie the pooh at the slowest speed, then hiding it in an air vent at work is one of the greatest gags ever!
It's only "hidden" in that it's "in a menu." True, most people don't look in the config menus, but the iPhone's config menu is simpler than many (most?). It's user friend because most people can pick up an iphone and immediately figure out how to do most of the things they want to do. Upon hearing about the VoiceOver feature, the first place I went was "Settings" and then "Accessibility" ... perfectly logical.
Mac OS X is somewhat similar in terms of their being a LOT of shortcuts and all you can use, some of which aren't readily apparent. Think of them as bonuses for power users.