July 2004

[1 - Greetings - Win Something from NextUp!]
[2 - Follow US Election and Other Breaking News with NewsAloud]
[3 - TextAloud is Great for Back to School]
[4 - Exciting NeoSpeech voices available now]
[5 - TextAloud in Writer's Digest 2004 Guide to Writing Software]
[6 - Tell Us About Your Scanning Solutions]
[7 - Win a NextUp.com PC Mobsters T-Shirt]

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[1 - Greetings - Win Something from NextUp!]
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Hello from NextUp.com!

Congratulations to Lucy, our contest winner from the previous issue.  This month one lucky reader will win a one of our cool new NextUp PC Mobster t-shirts so be sure to read below for details on how to enter the drawing.  Best of luck, and thanks for staying tuned!

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[2 - Follow US Election and Other Breaking news with NewsAloud]
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NewsAloud version 1.0 was released last month and has been well received.  NewsAloud can automatically pull news stories from dozens of major news sources in the categories you select, then read the stories to you or create audio files so you can listen to the latest news away from the computer on your iPod, PocketPC, or other portable MP3 player.

Additionally, NewsAloud supports RSS feeds, which are a growing method of sites publicizing their latest stories.  Given what seems like unprecedented international interest and the obvious importance of the United States Presidential contest, we thought we'd highlight some unique sites to help you keep up with the latest news using RSS feeds and NewsAloud.  The URLs below are URLS you paste into NewsAloud under Options->RSS Feeds.  NewsAloud will then always keep you up to date with new stories on those sites.

Bloggers, or amateur journalists offer some of the best coverage

http://www.bopnews.com/index.rdf
http://mathewgross.com/blog/index.rdf
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/Trail.xml
http://conventions.nationaljournal.com/index.rdf
http://www.wnyc.org/blog/lehrer/index.xml
http://www.miniluv.com/feed/rss2/
http://brain.mu.nu/index.rdf

Not quite mainstream but far from amateur, the pupular DrudgeReport has up to date breaking news and rumors

http://myrss.com/f/d/r/drudgereport78oxhc1.rss

And not to be too US-Centric, a couple of global news sources at

http://myrss.com/f/n/e/newsnowUkZc5r3c0.html
http://myrss.com/f/g/o/googleGnworldleftnavVuztk10.html
http://myrss.com/f/s/t/stuffNzE8xwo40.html
http://myrss.com/f/s/k/skyHomeNh9huc1.html

Give these a try in NewsAloud or search through thousands of others at

http://www.myrss.com/

Let us know what you think of RSS support in NewsAloud.  You can purchase NewsAloud at

http://nextup.com/purchase.html

or download the latest version at

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

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[3 - TextAloud is Great for Back to School]
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If you're a student or educator then you probably already know that TextAloud is a great tool to help you with studying, proofreading, presentations, and more.  Or maybe you have a student in the family who already has an iPod, PocketPC or other portable MP3 device and could use TextAloud to help them do their best this fall.  With the hot-selling iPods, people are beginning to realize these devices can do more than just music.  Check out this story from Duke University

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/ipods_0704.html

You can purchase TextAloud for only $24.95 or with the optional 16kHz AT&T Natural Voices on CDs for only $49.95. Learn more here

http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/

and go to this page to purchase

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

There's an option on the order form if you'd like to make it a gift purchase and ship it directly to your student.

We also do a lot of business with schools who purchase TextAloud for use by students.  Please tell your school to contact us for site license pricing

sales@nextup.com

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[4 - Exciting NeoSpeech voices available now]
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Last month we announced a partnership with NeoSpeech to bring NextUp.com customers 2 exciting new voices, Kate and Paul.  The response and feedback has been excellent so for folks who may have missed that, these SAPI5 16kHz voices sound great and work really well with TextAloud and our other products.  To hear samples, try an interactive demo, and purchase these fantastic voices, visit

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

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[5 - TextAloud in Writer's Digest 2004 Guide to Writing Software]
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Many of you who are writers might have caught TextAloud in the Writer's Digest 2004 Guide to Writing Software in their July issue.  Here's what Writer's Digest had to say:  "TextAloud, a text-to-voice program, is a surprisingly useful proofreading tool.  It employs voice synthesis technology to create spoken audio from your text.  That may sound like an indulgence, but hearing someone else read your writing aloud is one of the best ways to identify clarity problems.  Now you don't have to bug your spouse to get that valuable help."  We couldn't have said it better.  Get TextAloud for yourself or if you have friends who are writers let them know about it.

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

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[6 - Tell Us About Your Scanning Solutions]
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We hear from a lot of you who use (or would like to use) scanners to convert paper documents into electronic text that can be read using TextAloud.  We've played around with this some, but we know many of you know a lot more than we do about the best solutions for this process.  We're interested in learning more about what scanning software you use and why, as well as any general information you can tell us about how you handle scanning text.  We'd like to continue enhancing TextAloud to help you in this area so your input is much appreciated.  To say thanks, we'll draw one winner from replies on this subject to win a NextUp.com coffee mug.  Send your email to

scanners@nextup.com

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[7 - Win a NextUp.com PC Mobsters T-Shirt]
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Our contest this month is easy.  One lucky reader will win a NextUp.com PC Mobsters t-shirt.  You can see it now in our store at

http://www.cafeshops.com/nextup

All you need to do to enter is send an email to

gimmethatshirt@nextup.com

We'll draw a winner from entries received by Friday, August 6.  Thanks for entering and good luck!

If you find our products useful, please share the news with your friends and at your place of business.  We offer Volume pricing with Site Licensing available to schools, organizations and businesses.  If you'd like more information on this or have questions about any of our products, please don't hesitate to contact us at

support@nextup.com

Thank you for your interest in our company & products. 
 
The NextUp.com Team
NextUp.com
The Power of Spoken Audio
http://www.NextUp.com

A Division of NextUp Technologies, LLC
 

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