Text-to-speech software

[Dan Robinson]

I've become a fan of using text-to-speech software while on the road to listen to forecast discussions, MCDs, even forum threads and news articles.

Has anyone used a text-to-speech application that you like? I've been using the free version of Natural Reader, which is OK except you have to copy and paste text into it - which is a little too hands-on for safe use while driving. The free version also frequently interrupts with ad prompts, and the full version is quite steep at $70. Ideally, I'd like a Firefox browser plugin-based solution that will just read a web page with a single click. I've searched around a bit but haven't had much luck.

 

[Joshua Tee]

Dan,
Which mobile OS are you using? I notice Natural Reader supports both iOS and Android.

I do agree that ideally the app you use to view the content could/should also support TTS if it makes sense. I just added some basic TTS support to "wX" ( Android ) for the things you mentioned and it wasn't hard at all.

thanks - I didn't even think to look at this before and I suspect I'll be using this quite a bit.
Josh

 

[Tony Cook]

I've been using the SpeakIt plugin with Chrome for a couple of years now for this very purpose. It has lots of options and good voices. There is some hand-on interaction to deal with, but you can configure a keyboard shortcut to make things simpler. Ctrl+A then your KB shortcut will read an entire page. It is available for Firefox also, but I have not tested that version:

SpeakIt for Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speakit/pgeolalilifpodheeocdmbhehgnkkbak?hl=en-US

SpeakIt for FF:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/speak-it/

 

[Ryan Fleck]

I've recently created a small application called Storm Target to handle this exact problem. It automatically checks for watches, warnings, forecast discussions, meso discussions and more. When a new product is issued, it'll read it back using text to speech. It also has a customizable speech lexicon so those weather acronyms and hard to pronounce words can be handled correctly. You can get more info and download the program at http://StormTarget.com.