Google Assistant already lets you interact with many gadgets using just your voice to play music, check appointments, get weather forecasts, and much more. Now you can also use it to “read” web pages. Google has announced a new “OK Google, read this page” option that will let the company’s virtual assistant software read web […]
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Video: Make your own Kindle Audio Adapter for text-to-speech (or buy one for $20)
The last Amazon Kindle eReader to feature a headphone jack and speaker that worked with Amazon’s text-to-speech software was the 2011-era Kindle Touch. But if you have a recent Kindle, you can still have it read text-only books aloud to you. It just takes a little extra hardware… and a bit more patience. Amazon sells […]
Kindle text-to-speech could make a comeback with Kindle Oasis
Amazon’s Kindle eReaders used to include support for text-to-speech, allowing you to plug in a pair of headphones or use a built-in speaker to listen to a computer voice read books out loud to you. But Amazon hasn’t released a Kindle with those features since 2011. Now it looks like text-to-speech may be making a […]
Android Text To Speech update improves voice quality
Google has released an update to its Text-to-speech app for Android, and it removes the “high quality” voices the company introduced earlier this year. Don’t worry though… they’re only gone because Google says its standard voices now sound better than the high quality voices they replace (although some users disagree). They also take up a […]
Lilbits (3-05-2014): Google Android finds its voice
One of the key features of Google Android is its voice recognition and text-to-speech engine which lets you talk to your phone and receive spoken replies. But if your phone’s voice has always sounded a bit… basic, the latest version of the Google Text-to-Speech app could improve things dramatically. Instead of voice data files that […]
Toshiba BookPlace Mono eReader hits Japan
Toshiba’s new eBook reader has a 6 inch, 758 a 1024 pixel E Ink display, WiFi, a touchscreen, 4GB of storage, and a microSDHC card slot. The Toshiba BookPlace Mono is expected to go on sale in mid-April for about $100, although the price will go up to $145 in May. The Digital Reader reports […]
Amazon acquires text-to-speech software maker Ivona for use in Kindle products
Ivona Software offers a range of text-to-speech software for PCs and mobile devices. The company currently offers 44 different voices in 17 languages, and they pretty much all sound better than the default voice that reads you driving directions or answers your questions on your smartphone. Amazon has been using Ivona voices to power text-to-speech […]