Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis

Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis

Amazon’s Kindle eReaders used to include support for text-to-speech, allowing you to plug in a pair of headphones or use a built-in speaker to listen to a computer voice read books out loud to you. But Amazon hasn’t released a Kindle with those features since 2011.

Now it looks like text-to-speech may be making a comeback. While Amazon hasn’t confirmed support for Bluetooth audio in the new Kindle Oasis eReader, FCC documents show that the device has a wireless chip that support Bluetooth.

Continue reading Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis at Liliputing.

Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis

Amazon’s Kindle eReaders used to include support for text-to-speech, allowing you to plug in a pair of headphones or use a built-in speaker to listen to a computer voice read books out loud to you. But Amazon hasn’t released a Kindle with those features since 2011.

Now it looks like text-to-speech may be making a comeback. While Amazon hasn’t confirmed support for Bluetooth audio in the new Kindle Oasis eReader, FCC documents show that the device has a wireless chip that support Bluetooth.

Continue reading Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis at Liliputing.

Smartphone: Meizu Pro 5 mit Ubuntu ist für 330 Euro erhältlich

Der Verkauf von Meizus jüngstem Smartphone mit Ubuntu hat begonnen: Das Gerät kann für umgerechnet 330 Euro versandkostenfrei bestellt werden – allerdings dürften dazu noch Steuern und Zollgebühren kommen. (Meizu, Ubuntu)

Der Verkauf von Meizus jüngstem Smartphone mit Ubuntu hat begonnen: Das Gerät kann für umgerechnet 330 Euro versandkostenfrei bestellt werden - allerdings dürften dazu noch Steuern und Zollgebühren kommen. (Meizu, Ubuntu)

Videostreaming: Youtube führt nicht überspringbare Haiku-Werbung ein

Youtube führt neue Werbeanzeigen ein, die deutlich kürzer sind, sich dafür aber nicht mehr überspringen lassen. Die Werbung im “Snack-Format” soll vor allem auf Smartphones zum Einsatz kommen. (Onlinewerbung, Google)

Youtube führt neue Werbeanzeigen ein, die deutlich kürzer sind, sich dafür aber nicht mehr überspringen lassen. Die Werbung im "Snack-Format" soll vor allem auf Smartphones zum Einsatz kommen. (Onlinewerbung, Google)

AMD’s Polaris will be a mainstream GPU, not high-end

But with AMD promising to grow the VR install base, it may be just as powerful.

AMD's upcoming Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 graphics chips won't be powering high-end graphics cards, according to recent comments by AMD. In its latest financial report, the company noted that Polaris 11 would target "the notebook market," while Polaris 10 would target "the mainstream desktop and high-end gaming notebook segment."

In an interview with Ars, AMD's Roy Taylor also confirmed that Polaris would target mainstream users, particularly those interested in creating a VR-ready system.

"The reason Polaris is a big deal, is because I believe we will be able to grow that TAM [total addressable market] significantly," said Taylor. "I don't think Nvidia is going to do anything to increase the TAM, because according to everything we've seen around Pascal, it's a high-end part. I don't know what the price is gonna be, but let's say it's as low as £500/$600 and as high as £800/$1000. That price range is not going to expand the TAM for VR. We're going on the record right now to say Polaris will expand the TAM. Full stop."

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

German city embeds LED red lights into sidewalks for smartphone addicts

Hey smombies, pay attention to the bompeln, ja?

Distracted smartphone users will be alerted about when it's safe to cross the road, after a neat pilot traffic light system was launched in a German city.

Authorities in the city of Augsburg—which is roughly 35 miles from Munich—have embedded rows of LEDs into the pavement. They will flash red when the crossing is closed to pedestrians.

According to German television station N-TV, it has become necessary to bring in what is a novel approach to controlling pedestrian movement, after a 15-year-old girl, who was wearing earbuds and looking at her smartphone, was killed when she stepped in front of a tram.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Studie zu Digitalisierung: Das Milliardenpotenzial von Industrie 4.0

Industrie 4.0, Digitalisierung, vierte industrielle Revolution: Das erzeugt bei vielen Unternehmen und Mitarbeitern noch immer Ängste. Eine neue Studie zur digitalen Vernetzung von Mensch und Maschine stimmt optimistisch. (Industrie 4.0, Studie)

Industrie 4.0, Digitalisierung, vierte industrielle Revolution: Das erzeugt bei vielen Unternehmen und Mitarbeitern noch immer Ängste. Eine neue Studie zur digitalen Vernetzung von Mensch und Maschine stimmt optimistisch. (Industrie 4.0, Studie)

“Dyson Supersonic” to cost $399, look unlike any other hairdryer

“Intelligent hair dryer” will never overheat your hair, Dyson claims.

British technology company Dyson, best known for its futuristic takes on vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, has turned its attention to the humble hair dryerbut it won't be cheap.

In fact, the device (full name: Dyson Supersonic) will cost £299 when it goes on sale in the UK in early June. That price tag is around twice as much as hair dryers used in high-end salons.

Dyson claimed to have invested £50 million and four years of research into development of the new technology, making it quieter and—apparently—less damaging to hair. The resulting device has a motor that the company said was eight times fasterand a lot smallerthan those used in the most popular hair dryers sold in Japan, where we're told 96 percent of the population owns one. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dyson's hair dryer will go on sale in Japan first.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Judge rules in favor of child porn suspect: Search warrant was improper

FBI used a Tor vulnerability to find child porn on suspect’s computer.

(credit: Brick Police)

A second federal judge has now invalidated a search warrant that authorized a search of a suspect’s computer via a Tor exploit, meaning the child pornography authorities say they found on that man’s computer cannot be used as evidence. For now, the case remains live, but absent a successful government appeal, it will be quite difficult for the case against Scott Frederick Arterbury to go forward.

A week ago, a federal judge in Massachusetts made a similar ruling and similarly tossed the relevant evidence. The Massachusetts magistrate judge and now the Oklahoma magistrate judge came largely to the same conclusion: that only more senior judges, known as district judges, have the authority to issue out-of-district warrants. Because the warrant was invalid ab initio, or from the beginning, any evidence that resulted from that search must be suppressed.

Experts say that with two similar results by two different judges across judicial districts, some if not most of the other 135 "Operation Pacifier" child pornography cases that are being prosecuted may be in jeopardy. (Here, in United States v. Arterbury, an Oklahoma district judge could overrule the magistrate's ruling, and even that ruling could be appealed further.)

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Russian leadership reportedly not amused by latest launch delay

Russia planning to try again 24 hours later.

Vladimir Putin, center, and Dmitry Rogozin, far right, tour Vostochny in October, 2015. (credit: Kremlin)

On Wednesday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country's senior space official, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, were on hand to see the inaugural launch from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in the far east of Russia. They had to be disappointed after a technical glitch with the rocket delayed the launch for one day.

Based upon an unnamed source, the Russian TASS agency reported the delay came after the rocket's automated launch system "identified a glitch in one of the instruments of the control system responsible for starting and stopping the engines, for the separation of rocket stages, and for the direction of flight." The delay was not due to a problem with the the new launch infrastructure, according to reports.

It is not clear how Putin took the delay, but he will apparently remain at Vostochny for 24 hours to see the launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket on Thursday (10:01pm ET Wednesday). However a displeased-looking Rogozin apparently "hastily withdrew" from a launch observation deck after the cancellation and did not respond to questions from reporters.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Former Top Gear team sets sights on domination of the four-wheeled Internet

DriveTribe: “Richard Hammond said it was like YouPorn, only with cars.”

James May (left), Jeremy Clarkson (middle), and Richard Hammond (right).

You have to hand it to Messrs. Clarkson, May, and Hammond. Together with producer Andy Wilman, they took a moribund BBC show about cars and turned it into a global phenomenon—we are of course talking about Top Gear. Under their revised format, Top Gear dropped the idea of being Consumer Reports for cars, instead opting for comedy banter, insanely impractical road trips, and breathtaking cinematography. When things ended badly with the BBC, Clarkson, May, and Hammond were snapped up by Amazon with a budget reported to be $7 million (£4.5 million) per episode. But they evidently want more. On Monday Variety revealed that the gang, together with a tech entrepreneur called Ernesto Schmitt, want to create a digital home on the Internet for car people.

The site will be called DriveTribe, and will cater to a range of different car enthusiasts—or tribes—with verticals full of written content as well as video. Each tribe will have a different host, including Clarkson, Hammond, and May. According to Hammond, "Gamers have got Twitch, travelers have got TripAdvisor and fashion fans have got, oh, something or other too. But people who are into cars have got nowhere. There’s no grand-scale online motoring community where people can meet and share video, comments, information, and opinion. DriveTribe will change that. And then some."

Clarkson was more succinct: "I didn’t understand DriveTribe until Richard Hammond said it was like YouPorn, only with cars."

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments