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View a PDF file for this press release TextAloud is a simple program that allows anyone with a PC to easily and affordably export text from books, websites, or even PDFs into natural, human-sounding speech. "For millions of people, commute times are increasing every day," comments Rick Ellis, President of NextUp Technologies. "In commutes, we so often lose valuable time that could have been used for both personal and professional use - time we don't get back. By using TextAloud as Brandon has done, commute time once again becomes our own." "I had little time to devote to reading for work, as well as for reading assignments in my Masters classes," comments Brandon, "so I began to look for a program that converted text to audio. There were also a variety of online resources and articles I wanted to review, but I never had the time." TextAloud, however, made it easy for Brandon to convert online articles, resources, and more to audio files that he then burned to a CD so that he could listen on his way to and from work. Once he'd chosen TextAloud, Brandon quickly settled on premium voice 'Mike' from AT&T Natural Voices®. "It was the first of the Natural Voices® I used," he adds, "and he just sounds familiar to me now." Brandon's course books and other work materials were PDF files, but TextAloud was still able to easily convert them to text and then speech files. "It was easy to do," he comments, "and I was able to listen while I drove. It often allowed me to review work or course materials two or three times per trip." TextAloud proved easy to use, and maximized Brandon's time on commute in a variety of ways. He was able to convert lengthy texts into audio, breaking them up so that each section was its own separate, shorter track. "It was the best thing I ever did," he comments. "Working this way makes it easier to listen to when you want to find and listen to separate critical sections more than once. It can be very difficult to find those kinds of moments if everything is lumped into a single 60-minute audio file." Brandon now actively recommends TextAloud and Text to Speech to others seeking to maximize their commute times. "I've been amazed at how many people don't realize that there is software to convert text to speech," he comments. "And of those who DO know about it, they all seem to assume that the voices are still the old mechanical-sounding ones. People need to realize that there are natural, human-sounding voices available today." For Brandon, TextAloud has given him back those double-digit hours of commute time each week, turning the minutes back into time he can turn to active use for work and study. "A single hour of text-to-audio conversion," he adds, "can provide many hours of audio for my commute -- time that's no longer wasted." Thanks to a program that frees up his schedule and maximizes his commute, "TextAloud changed my life," says Brandon.
About TextAloud NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices (TM), NeoSpeech (R), Nuance (R), Acapela (R) and Cepstral (R) for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include U.S. English, U.K. English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, French, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, Castilian (European) Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish and Arabic.
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