MakeUseOf » text to speech

Announcify Makes Life Easier By Reading Webpages Aloud [Chrome]

Dave LeClair — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:31:32 +0000

Have you been in the middle of reading an article and your brain just shuts off? Sometimes your mind still craves information and knowledge, but the act of reading the words is just too much to handle. I understand; I have been there too. Sometimes I just want to know more, but due to lack of sleep or staring at a computer monitor at work all day, I just can’t seem to focus on whatever I am reading. If only I could convince someone to come and read material aloud for me, life would be a whole lot easier.

Well, there isn’t someone who will sit around and read stuff to you; however, there is something that will. That is a terrific Chrome extension called Announcify. With Announcify, we can rest our tired eyes and let the robots handle the reading for us. It’s like being able to turn every article on the Internet into an audio book. All that’s missing are the professional voice actors.

Installation

Installing Announcify is remarkably easy, but sadly, you will have to read to install the app. Simply head over to the application page on the Google Chrome Webstore and click the large “Add to Chrome” button. It will take a few seconds, and you will be ready to retire from reading for the rest of your life.

Using The Extension

Using Announcify is incredibly easy. First, open a tab of the article you would like Announcify to read.

On the top right of your screen, there is an icon that looks like a red alien face. If you click that little alien, Announcify will open a new tab and begin loading the story and waking the robots up to get to work.

After a few seconds of loading, the reading robot will tell you the title of the article and it will begin reading it aloud. One of the incredibly smart things the developers implemented is a blurring effect on the parts that you are not reading. This keeps your eyes on the area that the robot is reading. After all, you don’t want to get ahead of the robot or he will get seriously angry. Have you seen the movie iRobot with Will Smith? The last thing we need is a collection of angry and scholarly robots on our hands.

The voice of the robot does not sound human. It is easy to understand, but it lacks the natural feel. Fortunately, the developers included settings that allow you to customize the way your robot talks.

Settings

The developers let you tweak the pitch and speed of your personal reading robot. To access the settings, right-click the extension icon and click options. You can make him talk slower or faster. In addition, you can change the pitch of the voice.

I found that the default pitch (1.00) and slightly sped up (1.75) worked best for me. Of course, everyone will have their own preferences, and that is why it is so critical to have custom settings.

You can also raise and lower the volume of the robot. This way you do not have to mess with your system volume. Lastly, you can click the “Speak” button to hear how it will sound when reading.

Conclusion

This is an excellent application for people who are lazy, like me. For the most part, I love to read, but sometimes I just don’t feel like it, and when that happens, Announcify is exceptionally convenient.

Try the app, and let us know what you think in the comments. Please be courteous to your robot though, because we don’t need a robot apocalypse right now.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Give Your Computer A Voice With eSpeak [Windows & Linux]

Justin Pot — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:31:42 +0000

Let your computer do the talking. Install eSpeak and you can make your computer say anything, in a wide variety of languages.

Looking for a lightweight text to speech program? Whether you want to listen to your favorite blog while doing the dishes, or just make your computer say naughty words to your friends so you can giggle like schoolchildren, eSpeak is a great tool for the job. It’s “a compact open source software speech synthesizer for English and other languages” according to its website. You can use official versions of eSpeak on Linux and Windows.

Using eSpeak

In Linux, eSpeak features a delightfully minimalist user interface:

Enter some text, pick a language and hit play; the text is spoken and the words being read are highlighted in real time. You can then pause or stop the talking at any time by pressing the appropriate buttons. It’s just that simple.

Need to listen to text not in English? There’s a good chance eSpeak can speak your language.

Most major European languages are supported; check out the official list of languages supported by eSpeak, if you’re curious. There are also various English accents, but I couldn’t really hear much difference. Can you?

The Windows interface is a bit more complex, giving you the ability to open .TXT files and controls over speed and more.

Those creepy lips move while eSpeak talks, which I could do without. You can save any particular string of speak to a .WAV file, perfect for dubbing over creepy footage for anonymous revolutions.

Similar to the say command for Macs, you can use eSpeak from the command line in Linux. This is a great way to open entire .TXT files:

You can also use the command interface to pipe in the results from other command line programs. For example,

calendar|espeak

will read a bunch of random trivia about today to you.

Learn more about using eSpeak with other commands by watching this video:

Not sure where to find that pesky “|”? It’s the shift option on your backslash key, which is probably just above your enter key.

Potential Uses

Like the idea, but not sure what you’d use it for? Well, you could listen to articles while doing other things. Doing the dishes is way better when you’re listening to MakeUseOf. It could also be perfect if you’re editing something you’ve written. Hearing your work read out loud, even by a machine, can sometimes make grammatical problems obvious. Try it out next time you are writing something.

The command line interface provides anyone with some computer skills to make a custom startup sound that reads the weather or recites random poetry. Let us know if you come up with anything in the comments below. For most people, though, this software is simply a great source for creepy robot voices. Use them to surprise your friends.

Installing eSpeak

Ready to install eSpeak? Find the download here.

Linux users should check their package manager before downloading any files; eSpeak is almost certainly in there. Ubuntu users can simply click here to install eSpeak.

This software can be amusing at first, but the real challenge is thinking of uses for it. Can you guys think of any? Let us know in the comments below.

Convert Text To Speech For Free With Balabolka [Windows]

Matt Smith — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:31:18 +0000

Text is one of the pillars supporting modern civilization. The ability to write – and now type – text provides a way to encapsulate information and share it with others. There’s just one problem with text, and that’s the fact that it is a purely visual means of communicating. Trying to jog down the street with a Kindle isn’t easy both because it’s hard to see the text while moving about and also because you need a fairly large format on which to read the text.

The solution to this problem is text-to-speech, a task that’s becoming increasingly useful as digital books and other forms of electronic text become more popular. There’s options about, one of which is Balabolka, a free text-to-speech program for Windows.

The Basics Of Balabolka

Getting started with Balabolka doesn’t require much instruction. When you start up the program, you are presented with a large, blank text area and a few audio controls. The text area will accept text straight from your clipboard, and you can start hearing text-to-speech by placing your cursor where you’d like the speech to begin. The controls at the top of the text area focus on volume and rate. The function of the volume control is obvious, of course, and the rate control determines the speed at which the voice will move through the text. Faster speeds will reduce the time required to move through a piece of text, but may make the text-to-speech conversion harder to understand.

Balabolka relies on the Microsoft Speech API for its output, which is why it has tabs for SAPI4 and SAPI5. The version of Windows you are using will determine the quality of the speech output. The latest version, SAPI5, is called Microsoft Anna. It is a female voice that is clear and generally easy to understand, although acronyms and unusual proper nouns can trip it up, a common flaw among text-to-speech programs.

Advanced Text-To-Speech Features

Besides the ability to change the rate and volume of the speech rendered with Balabolka, there are also some more advanced features available, which can be found under the Options menu tab. From here, you can make some minor changes to the pitch of the voice, or you can open a Settings menu.

In the Settings menu you’ll find a few options that can prove helpful. Under the Reading tab you will find the option to ignore certain characters while reading. This can be helpful if you have a piece of text with erroneous or strange characters that are tripping up the text-to-speech translation. Under the Pauses tab, you can force the voice to pause for a specified period of time at the end of a paragraph or sentence. In the Text tab, you can automatically remove certain formatting features in order to alter the way the text-to-speech translation sounds.

Batch File Conversion

Although you may want to listen to text-to-speech while at your computer, chances are that you’re interested in taking text-to-speech files with you so you can listen to them on your smartphone, MP3 player, tablet or other portable device. That’s while Balabolka’s batch conversion comes in.

Available under the Tools menu, this feature lets convert a large number of text files to audio recordings quickly. Doing this is quite simple by clicking the Add Files button and then finding the appropriate text files. Balabolka supports common text formats including DOC/DOCX, TXT, and ODT. The text-to-speech translation will follow the settings you determined in the main text area – for example, if you set the rate to -3 to make speech slower and easier to understand, all of the text documents you batch convert to speech will be converted at the -3 rate of speech. The output formats are numerous and include WAV, MP3 and MP4.

Conclusion

Balabolka is simple and free. It’s also fairly quick and lightweight – there is even a portable version of Balabolka that will run from an .exe without the installation of any files. There are other options that provide better text-to-speech quality, but you’re generally going to have to pay for them, and most people won’t have trouble understanding the text-to-speech translation Balabolka is capable of providing.

If you have any text-to-speech favourites of your own, let us know about them in the comments.

5 Best Resources for Mac & Apple Device Users with Disabilities

Bakari Chavanu — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:30:12 +0000

If you or someone you know has a disability that makes using a Mac computer a challenge, you might not be aware of the many default assistive technology resources and tools available in Mac OS X and Apple mobile devices. Apple has provided standard features such as magnification tools, speech commands, audio assistance cues, and mouse and keyboard configurations for Mac users with low visual, hearing, or physical and motor skill disabilities.

All these Mac disability support resources are included by default in the Mac operating system, plus there are several online tutorials and websites to help users understand how to use the assistive technology.

Even Mac users who don’t have disabilities might find these features useful””such as the speech command features that allow you to navigate your computer without using the mouse or trackpad.

Universal Access Features

One of the most useful tools for Mac users with disabilities is the Universal Access features, which can be found in System Preferences > Universal Access.

When you first enable these tools, you’re welcomed to an on-screen tutorial guide for how to use its features.

Screen Magnification

For example, enabling the Seeing tool provides the visually impaired or those with learning disabilities the ability to magnify a desktop screen for easier viewing.

This feature has options for the range of zoom and how the screen image moves in relationship the mouse. It also, of course has keyboard shortcuts for turning the feature on and off.

Another way to enlarge the screen for those with low vision is to open System Preferences > Displays and change the resolution size of the screen, from the actual size to a smaller size, making the font and icons much larger.

Similarly, in Mac OS X”˜s Address Book, users with impaired vision may Control-click on a phone number label and select “Show in Large Type” to get a really huge display of a selected phone number.

Also, in Safari’s Preferences, users can click the Advanced tab and change the minimum font size for the rendering a web page, from say 14 points to 18.

Speaking Features

For Mac users with hearing disabilities, the OS X’s Calculator features a speech command that will announce the numbers as they are pressed on the keypad.

Also check Jeffry Thurana’s how-to article on using the Mac’s popular Speech Commands features which allow users to navigate any Mac without using a mouse.

Online Resources

The resources described above are only a handful of the more than 50 other tools available for Mac users are disabilities. These features are all built into the Mac OS X operating system. Other tools enable users to customize the type of digital voice used for speaking and text commands, as well as use the numeric keypad of a keyboard to control the VoiceOver commands.

VoiceOver also has interactive tools to help you get started with its features.

In addition, Apple provides a great set of video tutorials explaining how to use of accessibility features, including Voice Over, screen magnification, mouse and trackpad sensitivity, and audible keyboard cues.

ATMac.org is also a useful site dedicated to providing reviews, how-tos, and other resources for Mac users with disabilities, chronic illness, or other impairments.

Topics covered on the site include:

Accessibility news about all Apple products
New and updated AT software
Software which has AT uses, although it may not be written with this purpose
New and updated AT hardware that works with Apple products
Getting the most from your existing hardware and software in terms of accessibility
Hints, tips and tutorials about all of the above
Coding accessible software

Apple Mobile Devices

Many of the assistive technology resource described above can also be found in Apple”˜s mobile iOS 4 devices””the iPhone, iPod touch, and the iPad.

Tapping on the Settings app > General > Accessibility will provide similar Mac options for VoiceOver cues, zooming, and audible aide assistance.

I’m quite certain there are other enhancements Apple could make to further assist Mac users with disabilities, but it looks as though the existing features are great start.

Let us know of other resources that might be helpful.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Bring Accessibility Features To All Websites With TechDis Toolbar

Varun Kashyap — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:31:42 +0000

The web is huge and there is a lot of content for everyone. Sadly, it is not always formatted or presented appropriately for everyone. Some might need reading glasses to read a news site, others might not be able to read at all. Some might hope for a better more readable style, others might want to change the font to make a page more readable.

Web accessibility has been quite an issue for some time. Enter TechDis Toolbar. TechDis Toolbar provides a number of important web accessibility tools when browsing the Internet. It adds much needed features to almost every website out there, making it easier to access and interpret content.

Although the name mentions “toolbar”, there are a number of ways in which you can install TechDis Toolbar, which is actually part of the reason why TechDis is very useful. If you own a site, you can add the toolbar to your site so that every user can access and make use of TechDis Toolbar’s features. On the other hand if you want to install TechDis toolbar on your computer, you have even more options to choose from. You can install it via an installer, as a user script or as a bookmarklet. Let’s take a brief look at them all.

The installer is available here. This would give you the full blown version of the toolbar and is available for Windows only. If you are on another platform or just want to try things out, you can use the lite version of the toolbar. The lite version is available as a userscript or a bookmarklet. For userscript installation it is best that you visit this page and then follow the instructions for the particular browser that you use.

Those interested in the toolbar can simply drag this link onto your bookmarks bar and click it whenever you need TechDis Toolbar on a site.

Let’s now have a closer look at the features TechDis Toolbar has to offer.

First and foremost you can increase or decrease text size on just about any webpage. Such a simple feature that one expects on every site, but it’s seldom included. Note that this is different from the standard zoom-in, zoom out feature on most browsers, which tends to magnify everything on the page making images look blurry and pages go out of shape. Here though, you are only playing with the size of text on the web page. You can also change the font of the webpage if you so please.

Not only can TechDis Toolbar make the text more legible, it can also read it out to you. Select a part of the text and then click on the Text to Speech button. You can tell TechDis Toolbar to read out only the selected portion or the entire webpage. Simply awesome, imagine having that for every page on the web.

The page dictionary is another feature done well in the toolbar. Dictionaries are nothing new on the web, however TechDis Toolbar implements the feature very well. Like a number of browser dictionary extensions all you do is select a word and then hit the dictionary button on the toolbar. TechDis Toolbar will then go and fetch the dictionary entry for that particular word and display it as a popup dialog.

In addition, TechDis Toolbar can also pull out references from a webpage and also allow you to change the style of the toolbar and the webpage. There a number of pre-configured styles that you can use to quickly switch back and forth. I for one use the white or yellow on black style frequently when reading in the dark!

TechDis Toolbar is a wonderful addition to your browsing experience. The lite version, available as a bookmarklet, is an ideal addition to any web browser. You can quickly turn the toolbar on and off and use all of its feature anytime you need them on any site you want them on.

Do you know of any other web accessibility apps that makes it easier for people to access the web like this? If so, let us know in the comments.

Don’t Read Webpages, Listen To Them With FoxVox

Ryan Dube — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:31:33 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I took a training class about increased productivity. One of the most effective methods you can use to increase productivity is to reduce waste. While reducing the amount of time that you waste seems like common sense, for a lot of people saving a few mouse clicks just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort.

However, the magic of this approach is that all of the small investments that you make in saving time eventually accumulates, and by the end of the day you’ve won back several hours of wasted time.

One of the most effective tools I’ve discovered that can really help with reducing wasted time while browsing the Internet is the text to voice Firefox plugin called FoxVox.

FoxVox is a simple text to voice Firefox plugin that allows you to highlight text on a web page and then have that text read back to you in a digitized voice format. This plugin is similar to another plugin called Text To Voice that was covered earlier here at MUO. The obvious benefit of this is that instead of remaining focused on just one page while you’re on the web, you can actively surf or do work on other websites while the content of another page is read to you aloud.

In this article I’ll show you some of the cool features of this software, and how you can put it to work to increase your productivity significantly.

Use FoxVox To Multiply Your Online Productivity

Installing FoxVox is fast and easy, just like most other Firefox plugins. The basic functionality of this plugin is that you can highlight as much text as you like, and then enable the plugin to “speak text.” In my case, I use the plugin to read my Google Reader articles to me while I’m working on editing articles.

I find that while I could never concentrate on writing an article while my Google Reader articles are being read aloud to me, there are actually a number of activities where having a digitized voice read articles aloud doesn’t hamper concentration at all. A few examples include IM chatting, conducting Internet research, shopping on eBay or Amazon or shopping for music.

Just about every day, whenever I’m settling in for a long session of article editing, I open up Google Reader and highlight the latest batch of UFO sighting reports that I like to keep an eye on. In Google Reader, by holding down shift you can actually highlight as many items in the content pane as you like. I usually highlight up to 20 articles or so.

Then, in the Firefox menu bar, select Tools and choose the “Speak Text” option. After a few moments, you will hear a digitized voice start reading your articles to you out loud. Keep in mind that the free version of the FoxVox text to voice Firefox plugin has a male digitized voice that leaves a lot to be desired. However, it does serve the purpose of getting the content into your brain with very little effort on your part – all you have to do is listen. Even though the voice sounds like a cheap imitation of Max Headroom of 1980′s MTV fame, it really does get the job done.

Other Cool FoxVox Features

The “Speak Text” feature is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to FoxVox. There is another feature that makes this little plugin an invaluable text-to-voice conversion tool. If you have your own blog and you would like to convert it into an audio podcast, or at least provide an option for your readers to listen to your blog entries rather than just read them – then you’ll want to check out the Audiobook creation feature of FoxVox.

In the Firefox Tools menu item, above “Speak Text” you’ll see three Audiobook format options.

These are the three audio formats that you can convert any highlighted text into. One of the coolest uses for this is converting your blog entries into audio format and then providing the audio file as a free download from your site. In my example, I’m going to highlight an entire post on my blog and convert it into an MP3 file.

By the way – you don’t have to use the Firefox menu to get to the FoxVox tool – when you right click on any selected text, you’ll see the FoxVox option available.

The plugin opens up a new dialog box and shows you the status of its conversion efforts. Once it’s finished, the audio file is saved in the directory that you’ve defined. Just upload it to your blog and provide it as a free audio download for readers who want the audio option.

There are lots of other uses for converting text to audio files – the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Just think how cool it would be to highlight your favorite blog updates in the morning and convert them to an MP3 file that you could load onto your mobile device and then listen to it during the ride into work. If you like the flexibility that the text-to-voice plugin provides, you might even want to consider purchasing the full version that offers a high-quality digitized voice. Either way, I plan on using this plugin every day from now on, both for converting my blog updates to audio as well as for increasing my productivity during the day.

Have you ever used any text-to-voice applications? What do you think of FoxVox and the quality of the audio conversion? Share your opinions in the comments section below.

Convert eBooks to MP3 Audio With Spesoft Text to Speech Software

Guy McDowell — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:01:22 +0000

Learning skills to increase our income or just having a moment to read a book for fun is hard to do when you put almost two-thirds of your day toward paying yesterday’s bills. Or am I the only one that feels like that?

I’m trying to get through my Instrumentation Technician apprenticeship as fast as I can, but between my day job and my night gig, I don’t have a lot of study time. But what I do have is a fair amount of time in my truck, traveling from site to site. Hmmm, light bulb, convert my text books into MP3′s that I can play on my iPod. Hmmm, bigger lightbulb! Write an article on that.

Step 1: Get a Good Free Text to Speech (TTS) Program

Of the three Text to Speech software apps I tested with my text file of tongue twisters, the one I liked best was Spesoft’s Free Text To MP3 Speaker. I also tried Speakonia and Ultra Hal Text to Speech Reader. Unfortunately, those two do not convert the text directly to Mp3 format – just .wav. Other than that, they didn’t have as many choices on recording quality as Spesoft’s.

Step 2: Get a Good Book

There is a veritable cornucopia of copyright expired books out on the web. Project Gutenberg is probably the best known. Go on over, search for a topic and find the book you would like to read. Now download it. Please consider making a donation to Project Gutenberg if you can. It really is a great resource that has been going for about 30 years now.

I suppose you could do this with an eBook you own, as long as it wasn’t for public performance and you didn’t upload it on the web somewhere, and you had the express written consent of Major League Baseball, its broadcasters and affiliates. That’s just an opinion – do so at your own risk.

Step 3: Edit the Text as Necessary

You could skip this step if you don’t have the time. Keep in mind that older books often have different spellings or curious characters that might not be read properly by your TTS program.

Step 4: Open the Book in Your TTS

Well, this means that you open the book in your Text to Speech software application.

Okay, here’s more details. Click on the Load Text from File button.

From there, navigate to the text file you want converted. Select that text file, and click on Open.

Now, your text should appear in the main part of the program, just like this!

I take credit for creating the grumbling gremlin tongue twister. It came to me as I was thinking about a gremlin that was, um, grumbling. The car, not the monster.

Step 5: Let the TTS Do It’s Thing

This is the time saver part. Just hit Record and Create Audio File, save it with the file name you want and walk the dog. Don’t have a dog? Walk the neighbour’s dog – just tell them first or it gets ugly, and the neighbour thinks you’re taking the dog for that ritual you had planned for later. Or something like that.

Spesoft Test to Speech software also allows you to choose different voices, adjust the speed, pitch and volume of the voice as well as tweak the recording quality. Everybody seems to have different preferences, so you might just want to play around with that for a bit. Personally, I set the Output Quality and Sample Rate as high as possible. My iPod doesn’t have much on it. Not much of a music guy.

Now you have an Mp3 of the book that you finally wanted to read. Pop it on the iPod, crank up the Shakespeare and get ready to cruise the strip. That’s kind of lame isn’t it? Well, hot librarians might dig it.

Image Credit : yum9me

Make Animated Characters Talk With Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper (Windows)

Saikat Basu — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:01:45 +0000

Clippy The Paper Clip is as much a part of us as Microsoft Office. For the uninitiated, ‘Clippy’ is the animated paper clip which pops-up when we need some help from Windows. These animated characters make the computer a bit friendlier.

The brains behind Clippy or for that matter Genie or Bosgrove is called the Microsoft Agent. It is a technology which allows an enhanced form of interactivity with interactive personalities in the form of animated characters. These characters can move freely within the computer display, speak aloud (and by displaying text onscreen), and even listen for spoken voice commands.

Office 2007 saw the end of these animated characters because of user dissatisfaction but user interface agents are being increasingly being used in software and presentations to enhance interactivity. This is where the free Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper (MASH) comes in.

In simple words, MASH is a freeware application which allows you to set up animated 3-D characters and make them talk, move and gesture.

Using these animated characters, you can add more pizzazz to your desktop by having it pop-up and perform actions, make your presentations more interactive and also take it your webpages to make them eye-catching. You just have to record and playback what you want the characters to do.

MASH allows you to be creative with the animated “˜agents’ without you having to go under the hood with any programming. MASH turns the backend code into several scripting languages for use in websites, PowerPoint Presentations, email stationery and also as standalone executable files (*.exe).

With the help of the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine, voice activated menu commands can be used to launch programs, documents and websites.

Imagine an animated character giving an interactive tour of a website or just reading out a file, and you will get the idea behind the program.

The Nitty Gritty of the Program

The program comes with many configuration panels which help to set up the animated characters. The configuration panels can be detailed as follows :

1. Main:

2. Advanced Speak: Modify speech ability by adjusting the pitch, speed, volume, characteristic, and context of the TTS (Text-to-Speech) Engine.

3. Map Text: Here you can set up the character to speak one thing and display something else in the speech balloon.

4. Speak Wave: Here you can set up the character to playback the sound from a wav file or a Linguistically Enhanced Wav File from your computer.

5. Date/Time: Set it up so that the character speaks out the current date and time with any desired alternative text.

6. Character Size: Allows the character’s size to change before or during its action.

7. Sing: Let the character sing with a complex combination of musical keys.

8. TTS Voice: Select among the languages available and the specific voice to use.

9. Balloon Font and Style: Set the look of the speech balloon.

10. Desktop: Allows you to use the character to display images and play sounds during a presentation.

11. PowerPoint: Associate a Microsoft PowerPoint XP/2000 Presentation with your MASH Script (*.msh) or Executable (*.exe).

12. Bookmarks: Manage bookmarks which allow the character to play a sequence of actions in order.

13. Commands: Configure the right click menu for the chosen character. The menu items can also be voice activated.

14. Script Output: Select the type of script (for e.g. Javascript HTML, VBScript HTML, VB.net, VBA for Office) which you want MASH to generate.

15. Script: The script viewer with additional controls.

The available options give an idea of the level of customization possible with MASH. Though the program is user friendly, the list of configuration options are too numerous to explain here in detail. The detailed help does that job in detail. The beginner can go for the basic configurations while a power user can use the detailed aspects of the program.

The 5.97MB freeware is easy to use and easy to put together even without an iota of programming knowledge. It is supported by Windows XP and the older versions. The key requirement is that the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine be installed for the program to function correctly. If you don’t have it, here is a direct download link.

As an application, it has been around for some time. Have you used it to enhance your computing? Give us a comment about your experiences.

14 “OTHER” Ways to Use RSS Feeds

Aibek Esengulov — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:11:15 +0000

Undeniably RSS is one of the best things that has happened to the web after email. Not only has it made browsing a lot more productive, convenient, fun … you name it, but it has also introduced a number of new ways to interact with content that we could never have imagined before. While you’re most probably already familiar with the idea of RSS feeds and Feedreader (No? See this video) , there are several other ways you can make use of feeds.

(1) SendMeRSS – Send RSS feeds to email

SendMeRSS – Also known as R-mail. If you’re more of an email person and like to follow-up on everything from your email inbox then this is for you. SendMeRSS can take any feed and forward updates to your email. It checks for updates at least once in every two hours so whenever something new gets published it lands in your inbox within at most 2 hours. [All Features].

(2) MailBucket – Forward Emails to RSS feed

MailBucket – Ever wanted to forward emails to your feedreader? Enter MailBucket, a simple online app that can generate custom RSS feeds for your emails. The implementation is quite simple, first you need to create a filter in your email program and set it to forward filtered messages to XYZ@mailbucket.org. Next, open your feedreader and following feed: http://mailbucket.org/XYZ.xml (where XYZ can be anything you choose). While it may be neither convenient nor secure to forward all emails to feeds, it certainly makes sense in some cases, i.e. daily reports, newsletters etc. [All Features]

(3) TwitterFeed – Send RSS feeds to Twitter

TwitterFeed – I have been using Twitterfeed for sometime now and recommend it to everyone. It’s a free service that can be set to track several RSS feeds and send updates to a Twitter account. If you got a blog, you may also consider setting up a separate Twitter account for your blog and ‘twit’ all your blog feeds so that other Twitter users can “follow” it. We have one for MUO as well, you can check it out here.

(4) Pingie – Send RSS feeds to Phone

Pingie (US only) – Get feed updates as SMS messages. It’s absolutely free and works with any cell phone that can receive standard text messages. Nothing to install or download.

(5) FeedJournal – Print RSS feeds to PDF

FeedJournal – Here you can subscribe and convert multiple RSS feeds to an elegant printable newspaper. Just grab your favorite feeds, set preferred layout (i.e. 3- column) and generate a printable newspaper-style document. This is something that would go extremely well with news and lengthy articles.

(6) Wigitize – Add RSS feeds to your Website

Wigitize – If you ever need to add some RSS feeds to your website, Widgitize offers a quick and simple way to do that. Unlike other similar services, Wigitize gives you a really light and plain widget that you can style yourself.

(7) ReminderFeed – Send Reminders to Feedreader

ReminderFeed – Quick and simple way to schedule one-time or recurrent reminders to your feed reader. Just fill-in the reminder form, set start and end dates, and press “˜create’ button to generate custom feed for your reminder.

(8) TagMindr

TagMindr – Another tool to schedule RSS reminders. More than anything else, Tagmindr offers a simple way to remind yourself of webpages or some images you find while browsing the web. Once it’s set you willl be able to easily remind yourself of a link or image that gets bookmarked in your Delicious, Twitter, Flickr or Magnolia accounts. See how it works.

(9) FeedBlendr – Merge RSS feeds

FeedBlendr / FeeDoor – Combine muliple RSS and Atom feeds into one. You can even merge video and audio feeds (such as podcasts) with text feeds.

(10) FeedCrier – Send RSS feeds to IM

FeedCrier – Receive feed updates in your chat program. Feedcrier supports AIM , MSN Messenger, Jabber and Google Talk clients.

(11) ZapTXT – Monitor feeds for Keywords

ZapTXT – ZapTXT enables you to monitor RSS feeds for specific keywords and get alerts as soon as there is a new article that includes specified keywords. Alerts can be set to be delivered to email, instant messaging program or mobile phone.

(12) SpokenText – Convert RSS feeds to Speech

SpokenText – Automatically convert RSS news feeds to speech and subscribe to them as podcasts (via iTunes). You can also download your recordings as an mp3 file.

(13) RSSMixer – Combine RSS feeds

RSSMixer – This nifty tool lets you combine multiple feeds into one master feed and make it accessible via a regular feedreader, iPhone or Apple Dashboard. No-registration requied, simply enter the feeds you want to combine and click “Mix”. Next you will be prompted with a page where you can chose how you want to access it.

(14) AideRSS – Filter RSS Feeds

AideRSS – If you’re subscribed to dozens of popular sources and are having difficulties keeping up with feeds, then AideRSS is for you. Basically, it can take your current subscription list and filter out less popular stories leaving only the BUZZ. Please note, the best way to use it would be on multiple popular sources which publish more than 10-15 stoies per day (Engadget, Gizmodo, Mashable etc.)

Did we miss anything ? Let us know in comments.