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CLEMMONS, NC - Bradley George has a fascinating and creative hobby that's also truly unique, and with deep ties to the past. The Greenfield, Wisconsin resident creates talking View-Masters (TM), converting the booklets that came with classic old View-Master toy visual packages into text. He then uses TextAloud software from NextUp.com to read the text aloud in pleasant, enjoyable voices, for listening while viewing the View-Master's 3D slides themselves.

Bradley battles a disability daily, suffering from chronic vertigo, with vision that is often blurry and doubled, which makes reading very difficult for him. "I use TextAloud to help me during those times," he comments. "TextAloud enables me to read web pages, e-mails and PDFs by listening, and to do so even though I'm not very savvy with computers. But TextAloud is easy enough for me to use, and there is also always a lot of help at the NextUp.com forums, too."

As a software package, TextAloud is affordably priced from $29.95, and has proven to be an easy and affordable solution for converting written text to pleasant, realistic-sounding computer speech for thousands of users -- on everything from websites and e-mails to articles, documents and more. The software also easily exports that spoken text to audio files that can then be listened to on the iPod (R), Kindle Fire (R), iPhone (R), tablet, MP3 player, and most other popular portable devices.

As for Bradley, he uses the program on his HP laptop, then listens to the MP3 voice files he creates with TextAloud on his Nano (TM). His hobby harnesses a very real nostalgia popular today for retro or classic toys, and stems from his deep enjoyment of View-Masters in childhood.

"View-Master reels were some of my favorite childhood toys," he says. "I got to see different cities and faraway places, to watch classic children's stories, and favorite TV shows and movies in real 3D!" he comments -- a timely reminder in a culture currently crazy for 3D.

The hobby entertains while also creatively tying together past and present. "Many View-Master packages came with a 16-page booklet," explains Bradley. "I had a learning problem as a child, and my older brother would read the booklets for me while I looked at the slides," he says. "I still enjoy looking at View-Master reels today, even with my blurry vision. Today, TextAloud takes the place of my older brother and now reads the booklets for me."

For listening to his View-Master text, George enjoys TextAloud's easy copy and paste feature, where listening and file creation can be immediate. He also enjoys the software's ability to allow users to change voices within a single document. "I like to switch between voices," he comments. "In longer documents, I often use two different voices. And it's a lot nicer having a female TextAloud voice reading the parts of someone like Snow White, for instance, than having my brother try to impersonate her," he laughs, referring to the only way he was once able to do his listening.

TextAloud's effect on Bradley's life has been profound. "I have been able to listen to articles and text that in the past I wouldn't have been able to read because of my blurry vision," he comments. "I also enjoy history and use TextAloud to listen to many of the articles I find online through our local library's web sources, too."

About TextAloud
With more personalization options than ever before, TextAloud is the highly useful PC program for students, scientists, writers, business users, students and people from all walks of life. TextAloud enables anyone to experience their reading by listening, and has been featured in The New York Times, PC Magazine, Writer's Digest, on CNN, and more. TextAloud has become so popular as a supportive assistive technology in its own right with the learning and visually disabled, among others, that it recently achieved a da Vinci award (R) nomination in 2011.

Hailed by critics and users alike, TextAloud is priced from $29.95. System requirements include almost any version of Windows (R) (from 98 to Me, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8), as well as a minimum of 64 MB of RAM, 10 MB of disk space, and a sound card. TextAloud even works seamlessly with iTunes (R), for easy synchronizing with iPod (R), iPhone (R), or other iTunes (R)-compatible portable audio players, and unlike many highly expensive gadgets or eReaders, TextAloud doesn't require special hardware of any kind.

NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices™, Nuance®, Acapela® and Cepstral® for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include U.S. English, U.K. English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Faroese, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Castilian (European) Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

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 or vocal impairment, or learning disabilities.

In addition to TextAloud, NextUp.com markets other innovative Windows software designed to save time and deliver vital information. NextUp Talker is an easy and affordable program that allows people who have lost their voices to use the latest in high-quality computer voices to communicate with others.

Note to Editors:

Evaluation copies of TextAloud are currently available upon request. To receive a review copy, or for more information on NextUp.com or TextAloud, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043.

All companies and products referenced in this press release are the trademarks of their respective owners.