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CLEMMONS, NC - Like most people nowadays, Anne H.'s rarest and most prized resource is time. The Melbourne, Australia resident works at a school canteen, is an accomplished beader and hobbyist, and is most of all a busy and resourceful Mom. With her busy days filled by children, work, daily household tasks, and more, although she loves literature and stories, Anne has had little time for them despite their place in her life as some of her favorite pastimes. All this changed, however, when she discovered TextAloud Text to Speech software from NextUp.com. Now, she could finally indulge her passion for reading by listening to it throughout the day, on her computer and MP3 player.

"I really wanted time to read stories, but needed to get the housework done," Anne comments. "I looked at a couple of programs, then found TextAloud to read to me. It was so easy to use and offered so many features I liked that I've never looked back."

TextAloud is an affordable PC program from the Text to Speech leaders at NextUp. The software downloads and installs in minutes, and enables computer users everywhere to easily listen to e-mails, websites, stories, novels, textbooks and more, as natural and enjoyable human-sounding speech. The program means that users have more choices than ever for listening to their reading, whether from the computer, or on the go, via an iPod or even audio CD.

Thanks to Text to Speech, suddenly Anne was able to enjoy her reading even while addressing so many of those activities that took up her time. She could simply copy the text of the stories she wanted to read, paste into TextAloud, and export to easy audio files for use anywhere she wished via her Phillips GoGear MP3 player. Using her MP3 player, she can now listen to her reading at the gym, while doing housework, while pursuing her beading hobby, and more.

Because of TextAloud's ease of use, "a simple copy and paste technique gets things going," comments Anne. "Just a few clicks more and it's done, and my reading is ready to listen to." This ease means that it's simple for Anne to follow her favorite ongoing Internet Jane Austen fan fiction chapter by chapter on an ongoing basis, even on multiple threads.

"I definitely appreciate Text to Speech," she adds. "And once you get started with TextAloud, you find more and more uses as time goes on. My son uses it to read his school textbooks, and has on one occasion even used it to create the voiceover for a short movie made for a class project." She adds, "I also find he uses it to read out web pages with discussions on the games he plays on the computer."

Anne doesn't just use TextAloud by day. The program has even proved beneficial to assisting her with her insomnia. "I have trouble sleeping at night, so would often get up to the computer to read stories online," she comments. "By using TextAloud, I am able to listen to my favorite stories with a pillow speaker and a stereo beside my bed. I do believe I get more sleep now than I did, and it makes falling asleep a lot easier."

TextAloud's most helpful tools for Anne include its easy and enormously helpful File Splitter Utility. "I really find I use that utility a lot. I get a lot of interruptions when listening, and find it useful to have smaller MP3 files so that I can go back to the part of the story that I was listening to without wasting time," she adds.

"I enjoy having entertainment around me," adds Anne. "I've always had the radio or TV on while I worked, and now I'm even better entertained with TextAloud, because I get to hear what I choose, what I wish to make the time for. TextAloud is such a great program, and it ultimately makes life much more interesting."

About TextAloud
TextAloud has been featured in The New York Times, PC Magazine, Writer's Digest, on CNN, and more. Hailed by critics and users alike, TextAloud is priced at just $29.95, and is compatible with systems using Windows (R) 98, NT, 2000, XP and VISTA. The program is available for fast, safe and secure purchase via /purchase.html.

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, 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.