# Amazon bringing Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features to Kindle Fires, but?



## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Supposedly, Amazon is coming out with Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features for the Kindle Fires for the blind and vision-impaired.  And I'd say this is great news for totally blind and extreme low vision wannabe Kindle Fire customers, but this doesn't look like something Amazon would write, so how do the rest of you see whats been written below?  The other thing that's strange is the statement saying that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" already has these features, but the Kindle Fire 7" and Fire HD 7" won't get them until sometime next year  How does that even make sense to have it already in the firmware of one table in the series but not in the others?  Check out the message below, it is presented here exactly as it showed up in my email. - Gene

Amazon bringing Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features to Kindle Fires for vision-impaired users (update) By Michael Gorman posted Dec 6th, 2012 at 6:47 PM
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Amazon bringing Voice Guide and Explore by Touch features to Kindle Fires for visionimpaired users Amazon's been attuned to the needs of its vision-impaired customers for years, first rolling out text-to-speech technology on its original Kindle e-reader years ago. Today the company revealed plans to add to that feature set in its Kindle Fire and Fire HD (7-inch) tablets with Voice Guide and Explore by Touch technology.
Voice Guide's an improvement upon regular text-to-speech tech that reads aloud any action performed by users -- things like announcing app names and book titles when they're selected. Explore by Touch lets folks swipe their fingers across their Fire's display and identifies each onscreen item as their phalanges pass over them. 
Once
aware of what app or piece of content's being touched, a simple tap opens the item.
Ready for the new assisted navigation experience right now ? Well, all you anxious Fire owners will have to wait, the update doesn't land until early next year.
Update:
The good folks at Amazon reached out to let us know that the Kindle Fire HD
8.9
already has both Explore by Touch and Voice Guide.
Source:
Amazon


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Just another thought, which is if this is a hoax on the part of someone in or out of the blind community who thought it would be funny to pull one over on the blind community at large, it is a very cruel thing to do since this population of people are constantly forgotten and passed over by the manufactures.  While at the same time, they are being bombarded by all the same media buzz on these new mainstream products that everyone else sees, reads, and hears, about on a daily basis.  Anyway, I hope I'm wrong, but based on all the really weird stuff we all see in the news these days, nothing would surprises me.  OK, my moment of paranoia has passed, I'm moving on to better things. - Gene


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

This is real. I saw this press release linked from Amazon's site this morning.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1765284&highlight=


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks for the link, I'll post it to the VI Kindle support list. - Gene


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

One thing I don't understand is if these features are already built into the Kindle fire HD 8.9" tablet, why aren't they available for the Kindle fire and fire HD 7" tablets until after the new year?  Also, have any of you with an 8.9" Fire played with these features yet?  If so, what's it like? - Gene


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

There do seem to be some differences in the firmware for the 7" and 8.9" devices; the 7" is version 7.2.2 and the 8.9 is version 8.1.3.  And, for example, a keyboard update appeared first on the 8.9 and later on the 7.

Haven't played with it yet...or even looked to see if it was there.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Saw a blog post by Bufo Calvin from yesterday, I think, and he says the voice guide is definitely there on the 8.9.  Available under accessories.  I haven't tried it because it's of no interest or real use to me.  Perhaps, in the interests of sharing for the members  I'll check it out when I go back downstairs to where the thing is charging.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Saw a blog post by Bufo Calvin from yesterday, I think, and he says the voice guide is definitely there on the 8.9. Available under *accessories*. I haven't tried it because it's of no interest or real use to me. Perhaps, in the interests of sharing for the members  I'll check it out when I go back downstairs to where the thing is charging.


I think you mean Accessibility...  Stop trying to confuse me.

And yes, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch are there; you can't turn on Explore by Touch separately from Voice Guide, but you can have Voice Guide on without Explore by Touch.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I think you mean Accessibility...  Stop trying to confuse me.
> 
> And yes, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch are there; you can't turn on Explore by Touch separately from Voice Guide, but you can have Voice Guide on without Explore by Touch.
> 
> Betsy


Bah! Yes. . . .Accessibility. sorry. 

Here's the blog post by Bufo: http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/kindle-fire-8-9-has-voice-guide-coming-to-2nd-gen-7/


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Mine is right here...I turned 'em both on...

OK...here's the deal.  Voice Guide tells you what you've tapped on.  "Home" "Favorites" and brings you there.  Explore by Touch will tell you what you've tapped on without going to it.  You have to double tap to actually activate it.

Here's my issue now....I can't get back to Settings to turn the darn thing off, because double-swiping doesn't do anything and simply swiping just has Explore by Touch telling me what the notification bar says (nice to know what my battery used is, but I need to turn this thing off!)     

So, still fiddliing....if anyone has an idea, please post, LOL!

EDIT:  Swiping with two fingers did it...LOL!  Whew!

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

That's the same problem Bufo said he had. . .he said he got the hang of it but didn't explain what he did. . . unless he means tapping it the second time after it announces what it does?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Tapping it once says "home" "favorites" "temperature is 44 degrees"

Then, you double-tap to actually do the action. (Or swipe with two fingers instead of one.)  Single-tapping a second time after it speaks just makes it speak again.

Tapping on items in the Carousel makes it say "Item 106" and the name of the item.  Which was pretty cool.

I did think having both on slowed down the system a bit.

Betsy


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Sorry Betsy, I get frustrated with VoiseOver on the iphone, so I can relate.  The issue for anyone who doesn't need these adaptive add-ons, is that they completely change the behavior of how the user interacts with their tablet.

On a side note, I find it interesting that Amazon would go this route with the Fires when they could have made Kindle for IOS accessible and saved themselves a lot of work.  And the real benefit to a Kindle owner who is blind, is that they can throw the entire device is a shirt pocket.  You really can't do that with the dedicated larger Kindle readers unless you have a big shirt pocket.  That would be the best of all worlds. - Gene


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