To be honest, I hate reading long documents on my computer. I always enjoyed reading books and magazines while sitting on my couch, relaxed and without having to stare at a computer display, no matter how good and eye-friendly that one may be.

Since it is possible to make my computer read some text to me, that's much better. No, this is not future technology, the same way as voice recognition is not future tech either.

Although none of these two technologies mentioned here is still pretty far from maturity, TextAloud is a very interesting text-to-speech software that can prove useful for a lot of people, so let's get in and find out more about it...

Setup

While the official site claims the current version of the program is 2.260, the download link leads to the setup package of the version 2.255, so this is what I'm going to review today. Anyway, I don't expect any revolutionary changes, since 2.260 is just a minor update...

The full program is priced at $29.95, and the trial version can be used for 20 days, with some minor limitations and, of course, some nag screens that appear here and there, but at least they didn't manage to become really annoying while I used the application.












Now, the download and install parts should be pretty easy, since the setup package has only 3MB in size, and I think everyone should be able to install this program without running into any trouble. One thing that is worth being mentioned here is that the setup type screen didn't give me any clue about the difference between "full", "custom" and "minimal" setup types, so I chose "full", to be sure I won't miss anything...Interface

As you'll see in the screenshots from the "Features" section of this article, TextAloud has a skinnable interface, so despite its simplicity, this program can look pretty good, depending on the skin you're using. The default look of the main window doesn't have anything special, as it looks like a Notepad with a toolbar, and nothing more. The large icons on the toolbar look pretty strange, but the good part is that you can switch to small icons, and they fit in really great. Other than that, you'll see and feel while working with the program...

Features

As you're probably waiting to find out, TextAloud reads text that you enter into the text area, while also being able to load various file formats, but there's an issue with this part. When trying to load a large text file (I tried with a 3MB TXT file), the program returns an "out of memory" error. Since I wasn't running any memory-hungry application at that time, I must conclude that TextAloud has some problems...

Anyway, what you want to know is how good can be this program at reading text, don't you? To be honest, the default voice, Sam, doesn't sound good at all. In fact, the voice quality and reading aren't good at all, in my opinion, but the big advantage of this program is that you can customize the way it "speaks" a lot. I know we all want to simply click and make it work, but in this case, you'll need a bit of customization work...












TextAloud can monitor your clipboard, sending the text from it right to Sam, so you'll simply sit back and listen (and sometimes laught your heart out, considering the way Sam can read). Don't get me wrong, this program is not bad at all. If you set pronunciation rules the right way, it may become an excellent tool, and using the additional natural voices set, available for a fee, everything can get much, much better.If you don't want the text to be read, you can also choose to save an audio file with a voice of your choice (in the trial version, there's only Sam, I have to remind this, so you don't get in panic because the lack of voice characters) in one of the available formats (WAV and MP3 should be enough for most people, anyway). Pretty cool, isn't it?

The Good

TextAloud is a good looking program that promises a lot, is very easy to use and has a decent price, considering its features. With a bit of work for setting the program right, you can even go to a restaurant while the computer reads tales to your kids, and get back just in time for the good night kisses!

The Bad

I don't have an ancient computer, but I must confess that TextAloud was surprisingly sluggish, and I really didn't expect this. At last, the default settings of the program make it look like a pretty bad solution for text-to-speech tasks, at first sight.

Conclusion

The machines still can't replace man in a lot of fields, and reading text aloud is one of these fields. The good part is that progress is obvious, and after using this program for a while, you'll probably agree with me that TextAloud is a program that deserves at least to be taken for a trial run, if not bought...

Developer: NextUp Technologies, LLC.
Price: $29.95
Trial Link: Download

Nokia and NTT DoCoMo Inc will be the first to implement Adobe’s new Flash technology for mobile phones, according to Adobe.

On Sunday, Adobe Systems Inc released Flash Lite 3 for its popular Flash Player, software which promises almost the same quality of videos on the mobile phones, as of videos on computers.

Adobe expects more than a billion Flash-enabled devices to be available until 2010, and Forum Nokia is launching a new development community for Flash designers and developers.
Lee Epting, the head of Forum Nokia, declared that "Flash Lite 3 will enable us to deliver richer content to our customers, such as videos and animated ringtones."
Flash Lite supports same video formats as Adobe Flash Player and will directly support the video streams from Adobe Flash Media Server.
This way, users will view a broad spectrum of Flash Player compatible content.

The software is supported by Symbian S60 v2/v3, Qualcomm BREW 2.x/3.x and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 platforms.