Military Instructor Learns On the Go with TextAloud

The versatility of Text to Speech technology makes it ideal for supporting a variety of tasks and professions. However, the program excels most in its multitude of uses for students and educators, as discovered by Tom Jensen, a civilian instructor and trainer for military and civilian personnel for the U.S. military. Tom discovered just how valuable the technology could be when he began to use TextAloud in pursuit of his degree.

With a busy schedule that includes training civilians in the areas of security, law enforcement, and combat skills, Tom first discovered TextAloud in 2004, during his online studies for a B.S. degree in Criminal Defense. While pursuing his degree, Tom found that, like many people, he actually learns better by listening, than by reading, and this made TextAloud the perfect tool for him while pursuing an intensive course load. "TextAloud is a helpful learning tool - especially for people like me, who learn better by hearing over seeing," he comments. Tom then converted his online books from PDF to text, then straight to portable audio files, which freed him to listen to lectures on the go, instead of trapping him in one place to sit and read printed material.

When Tom discovered TextAloud, he was already a fan of Text to Speech, and he soon found that TextAloud was a considerable improvement over the other Text to Speech programs he had first tried. "The quality and functionality of the program are much better," comments Jensen. "First, the runtime was much quicker for the conversion of text to speech, and there was a real improvement in pronunciation with TextAloud, such as in sounding out possessive cases (such as the apostrophe 's') - it sounded proper with TextAloud, as opposed to the previous program, which would pronounce a word like 'it's' as 'it-ehs', which was quite irritating."

TextAloud soon became a regular and helpful tool during Tom's online studies, especially since almost all of his materials were provided in the form of online PDF files. TextAloud allowed him to take those PDF files, copy and paste all text from the documents, and convert to audio. "While other students were burning through tons of printer ink and paper," he comments, "or tiring and burning their eyes trying to read from their computer screens, I was able to turn my PDF files into lectures for listening while driving in the car, cleaning or doing laundry, watching my children swim in the pool - you name it." TextAloud enabled Tom to walk and work, listening to his lectures "hands-free" rather than being stuck reading for hours on end. Tom also used TextAloud to "read back" his own written papers to himself - an approach he found a tremendous help for editing, as well as in further saving time in editing and review.

TextAloud has ultimately proven to be a cost-effective, highly valuable asset to Tom in his learning environments, both as student and teacher, as well as maximizing his ability to take his reading on-the-go. He is currently pursuing Graduate work for a Masters of Divinity in preparation for Army National Guard Chaplaincy, and will continue to use TextAloud throughout his Graduate work. Adds Tom, "And probably on to a Ph.D.!" He even anticipates being able to share the program with his kids. "TextAloud will benefit their academic experiences, too as they progress in their studies," he adds. "I highly recommend it -- it's a great product."

You can download the demo of TextAloud at

http://nextup.com/TextAloud/download.html

For more information about TextAloud and its features, visit

http://nextup.com/TextAloud/index.html

and you can purchase TextAloud at

http://nextup.com/purchase.html

Mechanical Engineer Earns MBA, Avoids Eyestrain with TextAloud

As any student knows all too well, the intense and repetitive visual concentration required by the quiet act of studying can be a tiring experience, especially over prolonged periods, which can also add eyestrain into the equation. When he encountered severe eyestrain in his recent grueling studies for his MBA degree, mechanical engineer David Grove turned to TextAloud.

A busy professional by day, David earned his MBA online while also working a demanding full-time job as a senior engineer. "I'd gotten to the point where if I had to read another text ROI, I thought my eyes would explode!" he comments. "TextAloud allowed me to transfer the text to my MP3 player so that I could listen to the books in the gym, saving time -- and some pretty severe headaches. I wish I had found TextAloud sooner."

Online courses in particular require a tremendous amount of reading - an amount that increases exponentially for MBA studies. Navigating that sheer volume of reading required to maintain studies and attain his degree was a huge challenge, so David devoted every possible moment to study. However, even with reading glasses, his eyes physically could not handle the strain. Luckily, TextAloud enabled him to find a study solution that would ease his tired eyes.

To achieve his degree, David used TextAloud for study and memorization, and he also used the program to proof his papers and written reports, catching errors aurally that he would have missed visually.

In his day-to-day use of TextAloud, David praises TextAloud's built-in voices, but prefers its premium voices for high-volume usage. He also took advantage of TextAloud's powerful customization features to personalize his library and correct TextAloud's pronunciation of the technical or more obscure words and acronyms he used or encountered most often in his papers and studies. The program's versatility and ease of with a variety of portable electronic devices allowed David to use TextAloud with his MPIO, Creative Zen MicroPhoto, and LG Dare.

Thanks to the power of Text to Speech, David completed his studies. "TextAloud made all the difference in completing my MBA," he comments. "I would not have been able to complete my studies at the pace I did without it."

You can download the demo of TextAloud at

http://nextup.com/TextAloud/download.html

For more information about TextAloud and its features, visit

http://nextup.com/TextAloud/index.html

and you can purchase TextAloud at

http://nextup.com/purchase.html

NextUp.com releases new Nuance RealSpeak Voices

New TextAloud Voices Available from Nuance RealSpeak

Since their introduction, the TextAloud voices from Nuance RealSpeak have been very popular. We are excited to add 17 new voices in several languages including UK British, Irish, Scottish, Taiwanese Mandarin, Spanish, Danish, Italian, Basque, Catalan, Hindi, Icelandic, Czech, Norwegian, Swedish, Finish, and Turkish.

You can sample and purchase these at

http://www.nextup.com/nuance.html

As you likely know, these Nuance RealSpeak voices work only with TextAloud and our other Aloud products.

Kindle Competition

http://www.phoric.cn/viewthread.php?tid=399565

Kindle 2 vs. Sony PRS-505?

Kindle 2 vs. Sony PRS-505? I was about to buy the kindle 2, but then I heard about how they could take books back anytime they wanted. I then turned to the sony PRS-505. The sony is about $40 less than the kindle. I dont need the wireless whispernet technology the kindle 2 has to offer, but it would have been nice to have. In the sony book store books cost more than they do in the kinle store, but with the kindle you are limited to only kindle 2 ebooks. I like that i get to save the $40 with the sony.... but which one should I get? Sony PRS-505 or the Kindle 2?

Best Answer

Recently, Amazon take back the Kindle books "1984" and "Animal Farm" just because they are pirate version. The publisher indeed doesn't have the right to publish the book. So personally I think it is quite reasonable for them to take the book back and issue a refund back to the book buyers.

I'm a Kindle 2 owner. I don't think Amazon can take any book back if there aren't any good reasons. I personally have bought over 20 Kindle books, and a number of my friends also have the Kindle, but we haven't met such a problem so far... I'll say it is just some exceptional case. More...

SBA sued on accessibility

Virgil Stinnett, a Honolulu resident who owns a Good News HI, and the National Federation of the Blind have filed an administrative complaint with the Small Business Administration saying the SBA's Web site is inaccessible.

The action claims the site can't be used by blind people who use text-to-speech screen access technology or Braille displays to access information on the Internet. It claims blind people cannot fill out forms on the site because of this or take online courses offered by the SBA. More...

Apple Patent on TTS

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/23/new_apple_patent_filings_cover_device_ejection_text_to_speech.html

Text message to speech

While this patent filing centers around multimedia data transfer, the most interesting part of the summary deals specifically with text messages.

"The reading of text messages can be troublesome due to, in part, the small size of the typical display screen or the inability to control ambient light conditions," the patent states. "This is particularly troublesome to those users having impaired vision where reading a text message, of any reasonable size, for example, is difficult."

Filed for on March 27, 2009, this patent, revealed Thursday, describes the transmission of vocalized multimedia data to a "receiver unit by way of the voice channel without the use of a backend server." Essentially, it would directly transmit the audible interpretation of a text message to an independent receiver.