Technology is amazing. At this rate, pretty soon people won't even need to know how to read!
And while we don't think that's a good thing, we do think there are a lot of times we'd rather have something read to us than have to read it ourselves. For example:
- when we're exercising, or driving, or on a bumpy plane ride
- when we need to read one last document, but can't stand the thought of looking at a monitor for a single minute longer
- when we need to go over a speech or presentation one more time, but don't want to hear our own voice again
We've just recently learned about TextAloud, which lets us do all that! It transforms text into speech, letting us listen to, instead of read, anything on our PCs. And it's not with one of those nasty, flat, answering machine voices. It's with high-quality, human-like speech!
Review Written by Roger Thomasson
Features
The Fine Print
Testimonials
- Save any text on your PC to MP3, and listen anywhere on your portable audio player. Listen to work documents or study while you're exercising, commuting, shopping or even working on your house or in your yard.
- Proofread your own writing, much better than you would by reading it.
- Help someone with a reading disability, or with vision problems
- Get a great new study aid
- Make professional-sounding messages for your voicemail or answering machine
- Lose weight by listening to interesting audios while you walk or exercise.
- Study English as a Second Language, or improve your own speaking accent
- Be able to keep up with websites you're interested in, at the end of the day when your eyes are tired from working
- Buy an iPod, and write it off on your taxes
- Prepare for a trip by listening to text read in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish or Arabic
- Keep your kids amused by letting your PC read stories to them
- Make audio tracks for computer games or online demos
- Listen to your staff's status reports outdoors on your deck
- Improve your big speech or presentation by hearing your words read aloud
- Let that boring report put you to sleep on the plane
- You can download and install a free trial of this software before purchasing
- Download available for: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista
- Get all this at a discounted price!
- Prices do not necessarily include taxes, which will vary by country.
- Review what others have to say...
- “I use this program with a reading disability. I convert documents to MP3 and play them on my iPod. This allows me to listen to business documents while I am on the go.”- George
- “TextAloud is fabulous! I have always wanted to read articles from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and other newspapers and periodicals and now I can on a daily basis.”- Jane
- “I thought you would like to know that I am dyslexic and I have used TextAloud to death, to help me complete my MBA (Master of Business Admin), which I am in my last semesters. I convert all my course notes and cases studies to text and listen to them via TextAloud. I could not have completed this course without the help of TextAloud and the AT&T Natural Voice of Audrey.”- Edward (Australia)
- “Sometimes people get new software and they are excited about it only at first, over time it appears to lose it's value. Not the case with Text Aloud MP3! I have been a customer for at least 2 years now and I still use your software on a daily basis.”- James (Texas)
- “I really enjoy your product. I have been using Text Aloud to make study CD-Roms to Listen in my Car and while I Bike ride. It is a great learning tool. ”- Rich (Florida)
- “Oh my gosh! You have made TextAloud incredible! I love this program since I am an online university student and I use it literally hours every day. There were a lot of little things that I wish I could have changed in it but you have addressed every one in this version.”- Erick (Alabama)
- “The reason why your product is of such interest to me follows from the fact that I am currently working fulltime, whilst pursuing a PhD part-time. That means I don't have much time for doing the reading for my classes, but I do a heck of a lot of commuting. Your product allows me to encode my texts (at least, the ones I can find as e-texts), into sound files, and then "read" them during my commute time. I've tried one or two similar products before yours, but yours is the best in terms of ease of use and listen-ability.”- Lorin (California)
- “I've been been testing TextAloud 2.0 for about a week now. Opening PDF's and Word files is nice. Still playing with the Internet Explorer plug-in, I think it is very cool. Going to try the proofreading stuff next. I think you guys are going to help a lot of people with this new version.”- Ralph - NY, NY
