What is Purpose of Microphone on New kindle?
In the press release of new Kindle announcement Amazon ignrored any detail on adding a microphone while it has been mentioned in the user guide saying that it has not been activited. In other words, the microphone is inside the machine; it can be activated through a software upgrade. It is possible that Amazon will activate the microphone in a couple of months.
However, Amazon is completely silent the reason for adding microphone on new Kindle. The result is people have started speculating on the use of microphone. Here are some examples:
- Some folks think it’s for voice navigation, which could give Kindle a major accessibility advantage over its competitors……But voice annotations and memos don’t seem too far-fetched; and if the apps developed using the Kindle Development Kit get off the ground sometime soon, I suppose the more hardware goodies third-parties have to play with, the better.- wired.com
- A microphone opens up the possibility that Amazon could add Skype calling to the ebook reader’s skills. There’s also a good chance that it could add voice navigation, annotations or a voice memo function. – electricpig.co.uk
- …may just lead to audio annotations down the road — but the hacker community (or more legitimately, Kindle developers) could do very interesting things with the discovery. We hesitate to even mention for fear the feature will get pulled, but we’re dreaming of Skyping across that free 3G connection already. – Engadget
- The exact nature of those “future use” applications is unclear, but suggestions include voice navigation (useful for those with sight-problems who might be taking advantage of text-to-speech), shared audio annotations and even a phone option for making voice calls. – Slashgear
- Already, Kindle fans are discussing the different uses for said microphone. The most logical possibility is to utilize the microphone to take voice notes. Another radical use involves chatting over the free 3G using an application such as Skype. – Erictric
- I can also envision shared or unshared voice annotation of e-books. In the case of the unshared variety, Amazon could still store the files remotely. And speaking of sharing, I notice that the Amazon software update for the iPad, iPod and iPhone includes some shared highlighting. – Teleread
- At the minimum we’ll get – notes, text to speech (if Amazon doesn’t provide it first), voice recording, spoken word journals, voice commands in apps, and perhaps voice activated games. There’s also the chance that developers use the microphone in ways we don’t anticipate - Karaoke? Another interesting area is using the microphone with sheet music and comparing how accurately you play or overlaying what you’re playing with an underlying track. – ireaderreview
- It will be certainly interesting what Amazon intend to do with the mic. Although it wont be anything ground breaking as it’s just a mic at the end of the day, hopefully it can help people who would make use of it most. – GadgetVenue
Here are some comments from Amazon Kindle Forum:
- I agree many people have thought ect while reading, but that’s what the annotation and bookmark feature is for. there’s no sense in adding a silly (and expensive) feature like a microphone for the .001% of the kindle-owner population that may consider using it. if the kindle did have a microphone, can you imagine the problems it would bring along with it? conflicts with memory for storing silly little voice notes, the kindle software trying to attack it, having to hold the device to your face to get it to register your voice properly; its just nonsense. Just for people who like the sound of their own voice. – R. Calaway
- Just realized how nice voice commands would be. Lying in bed with the K3 propped up, just saying “next” every minute instead of pulling your hand out from under the cover/pillow, etc. Of course, my wife would probably kill me.
– Keith Peters - Instead of worrying about touch sensitivity or keyboards (and perhaps in addition to same), voice recognition could provide a very natural way of controlling access to an e-book. One could say “open title”; “go to chapter 5″; “go to page 126″; go to home”; “show my settings”; “go to store”; “show me my archive”; “next page”; “goto sleep”; etc. — you get the idea. – edward boyhan
- My guess is that Jeff wants to get the Kindle qualified as accessible – so schools and colleges can use it en masse. – Pegi
Pegi also linked to the following piece from The Journal:
The United States Department of Education and Department of Justice have just issued a reminder calling for colleges and universities–as well as K-12 school districts–to make sure devices such as e-readers that are required in the classroom comply with accessibility laws. The federal action came on the heels of a settlement agreement made by Justice with five institutions that were running Amazon Kindle e-book readers as pilot programs. According to the agencies, Kindle devices aren’t accessible to students who are blind or have low vision.
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