Listen to Word docs and emails on your MP3 player
Quote:
MagneticTime has announced the MT1 series of downloadable programs that convert emails and Word documents into speech via MP3s for use with iPods, mobile phones, PDAs, or any PC.
Three versions of MT1 are currently available for download: MT-iPod, MT-Phone and MT-Pda. Each comes with a desktop player that allows emails and Word documents to be played on a PC or laptop.
The software is priced at £30.99 (Euro 44.99, US$54.99) and currently available in English with new languages like French, Spanish and German to follow, and will be available for Apple Mac in 2006.
Users get a huge discount on the second product they buy; the third they get for free.
Might make life a LOT easier for people who have a long commute to and from the office - give them a chance to catch up on emails and to listen to a whole bunch of other stuff, too.
Might be regarded as yet another thing that sees work encroaching on our free time, of course!
The company is also promising to launch a podcasting app that lets you, in effect, type out a script and then have this turned into an MP3 speech file. Or take a review or news story and and have that turned into MP3 speech.
Mmmm!
Check out MagneticTime's official line here and let us know about your own ideas for using these apps.
Bob
Installed and working - with a file for you to try
So, I've now installed the stuff then done an install over the top of a new and better voice and have done a few conversions.
I've uploaded one of these at random for people to compare with the original.
If you want to do that, you first need to download the MP3 file of a TDK press release - and I've put that here (and it's 1.75MByte).
After you've downloaded that, dive over and get the press release from http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4837
Compare and let us know what your think.
If you have any specific MS Word docs you want me to try converting, just shout - but they have to be docs that you're happy for us to publish (along with the MP3 file of the doc).
Bob