NextUp.com - Press Release - NextUp.com Finds iPods® Aren't Just for Music Anymore!

For Release Thursday, January 27, 2005

NextUp.com Finds iPods® Aren't Just for Music Anymore!

New Survey Results Clearly Show that Portable Devices such as iPods and Other MP3/CD Players are Increasingly Popular for Listening to Text, Not Music

CLEMMONS, NC — NextUp.com, a leader in providing quality Text-to-Speech (TTS) software, today announced the results of its latest Customer Survey, designed to take the pulse of the portable device market and aimed at customers for its popular TextAloud™ product. TextAloud uses the power of voice synthesis to "speak aloud" documents, web pages, e-mail and more, with text seamlessly converted into spoken audio you can hear on your PC, or save to MP3/Windows Media files for easy playback on portables like the iPod®, Rio®, iRiver®, PocketPC®, and dozens more.

Conducted over a two-week period in late November 2004, the NextUp Customer Survey provides an intriguing look at the way Text-to-Speech software is changing the way people work, study, drive, and relax. TextAloud enables NextUp customers to listen to everything from eBooks, to study materials, work notes, web sites, e-mails or articles - "on the go," and from the convenience of their portable devices.

"iPods are really hot in some surprising areas, ranging from students learning away from class, to lawyers proofreading documents during their commutes," comments Ken White, CEO of NextUp.com. "Music and leisure may be driving the iPod explosion, but we won't be surprised if ambition and work ethic are what sustains it."

With this in mind, NextUp conducted a series of online surveys with its TextAloud customers in order to gather feedback on their use of TextAloud with their portable devices, and to discover ways in which the company could continue to make the product more useful and accessible to this exciting and rapidly growing marketplace.

Survey Results at a Glance
The 2004 Survey of Portable Customers covered users' answers to questions about TextAloud, its use with Portable Devices, customers' portable brand preferences, their preferred locations for listening to text on the go, and much more - with some surprising results:

• Perhaps one of the most surprising results of the survey was the fact that most TextAloud users - nearly 70 percent - purchased their portables solely for text use! eBooks, study, and news proved to be the most popular activities (at 40, 26 and 15 percent respectively), with TextAloud increasing information retention and providing a unique way to 'read' for enjoyment's sake across the boards.
• With iPod® in a slight lead, a rich array of portable brands like Rio®, iRiver®, IPAQ®, and many more help TextAloud users get more out of their day.
• Also surprising was the fact that more than 65% of all portable users who responded to NextUp's survey use their MP3 players for significant listening to text-to-speech documents - nearly 20% doing so a whopping 81 to 100% of the time!
• Portable TextAloud users certainly love their cars! Survey results clearly show that today's portable users are always seeking to maximize their time, to listen to their text while they drive (over 57%), work out, or get out of the house (over 22%).

The results are clear: MP3 players aren't just for music anymore!

About TextAloud 2.0
TextAloud is a full-featured Text-to-Speech tool offering direct support for Word, PDF and HTML formats, as well as advanced pronunciation tools, an Internet Explorer Plug-In for easy listening of favorite web pages - and more.

Hailed by critics and users alike, TextAloud is priced at just $29.95, and is compatible with systems using Windows® 98, NT, 2000 and XP. The program is available for fast, safe and secure purchase via http://www.NextUp.com.

NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices™, NeoSpeech and Cepstral® for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere.

About NextUp.com
NextUp.com, a division of NextUp Technologies, LLC, provides award-winning Text-to-Speech software for consumers, business customers, educators, and those with visual impairment or learning disabilities.

In addition to TextAloud, NextUp.com markets other innovative Windows software designed to save time and deliver vital information. NewsAloud™ is a talking personal "news agent" that finds the stories users want, and then reads them aloud or to portable MP3 files. WeatherAloud™ is a weather application that lets users select and listen to personalized weather forecasts, while StocksAloud™ reads stock updates and related news headlines aloud for specific companies of interest.

Evaluation copies of TextAloud 2.0 - as well as limited packages including a portable audio player presented to reporters for their reviewing convenience - are currently available upon request. To receive a review copy, or for more information on NextUp.com or TextAloud, please contact Rick Ellis at rdellis@nextup.com.

All companies and products referenced in this press release, including TextAloud™, iPod®, Rio®, iRiver®, Windows®, and more are the trademarks of their respective owners.

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