No Audio on “PaperWhite” Kindle?

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From the ffeature list and comparison chart for the new PaperWhite Kindle, you can see that it does not support audio of any sort (no speakers, no headphone jack), the same as the bottom-of-the-line Kindle.

Since I do not use my Kindle for anything but (visual) reading, this does not matter to me. However, if you like to listen to the occasional audio book or use the text-to-speech feature available on other models, then you may want to wait and see if the PaperWhite display technology will make it into any audio-enable Kindles.

On a side note, I find this audio omission a bit surprising, based on the lengths Amazon went to a couple years (?) ago to get Kindles accepted by educational institutions, eventually leading Amazon to include an audio option for the Kindle’s menu system as an accessibility feature. Perhaps they are no longer courting that market, or maybe only with the Kindle Keyboard — or the Fire?

Comments

No Audio on “PaperWhite” Kindle? — 2 Comments

  1. Agreed. That was one of the first things I noticed reading the specs.
    It even seemed a bit dishonest after all the noise they made about “Whispersync for Voice”. But I when back and looked and all the audible book stuff was related to the Fire.
    Perhaps they intend to use the new parent controls to make the Fire suitable for use in a educational setting.

    Oh well the kindle keyboard is probably best for education anyway and I
    hope that one does support the Whispersync for audible books.

    For me I was surprised it took them this long after buying audible to
    sync the audio books for the kindle versions. I would listen to audible
    using my phone and I would hope my Kindle could sync to that.

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