#8, Phil, "So go outside of your own realm and understand this programs true value before posting any twit-witted comments." You mean, like yours? "Though I have no personal need of a program like this, I can see where the handicapped or arthritic portion of our population can." Well, duh, obviously these types of programs are useful to those with visual impairments. NextUp is clearly trying to broaden their market to the general population, for use in situations where reading is impractical, examples of which they posted in their product description at the top of this page.

For me, NewsAloud is potentially more useful than TextAloud. I like the idea of being able to get the types of news that interests me in an audio format while I'm doing something else. And since it keeps track of the articles, with the text available and the web-links available, I can read or save those articles which I heard and found interesting. And if I have the audio files auto-generated for use with a PMP, I can simply skip to the next article if the current one doesn't interest me.

As for the voices, I first started using text-to-speech over a quarter of a century ago. I haven't noticed any real improvement in voice quality. Many people confuse voice quality with TTS-engine quality, although developers like NextUp are partly responsible, because they generally call the combination of TTS-engine plus voice, a voice. The TTS-engine is the primary determinant of voice quality, and none that I've heard are very good. The best TTS-engines and voices aren't available in desktop products, but you can find them and try samples on the web. Never pay attention to the canned samples--some of them sound fantastic, but when you supply your own text, they screw up pronunciations as much as the other engines, it's simply that each engine screws up something different. For a given engine, there is variation in quality between the voices that are available for it, depending upon both the audio sampling rate and bit-rate, and the pronunciation of each phoneme. What's particularly irritating is that, although many aspects of pronunciation and inflection aren't covered by the extremely simplistic pronunciation guides that dictionaries provide, many of the most glaring pronunciation errors are. So, the question is, why aren't any of the TTS-engines using licensed pronunciation guides from a major dictionary? If high-speed spell-checking can be done, then clearly it would be easy to use the pronunciation guides. As for pronouncing abbreviations, special symbols, and numbers, I don't know if that's the responsibility of the TTS-engines, or the higher-level code. The TTS-engines on my computer do a poor job with abbreviations.

NextUp needs to have some consistency between their various products. I have 21 voices on my computer (all installed with Windows or by these TTS products). Some of the TTS products will use all 21, some only 19. Some have all enabled by default, some have only a few enabled by default. Also, different versions (older/newer) of the Microsoft Speech API get installed. I don't perceive much difference between the free and paid engines/voices; to me, they all sound pretty bad. However, they don't bother me like they obviously do many of the commenters here. I pay attention to the content, not the voice. I find TTS voices no harder to understand than the mumbled voices with the blaring background audio of your typical TV program. With NewsAloud, I just use Microsoft Mary with a speed of 230.

#8 thanks for commenting on the disabled community needing this type of software

... I'm aphasic (language portion of brain damaged). I have purchased versions of two NextUp softwares, plus 4 voices.

(I actually did ask them if they would develop a voice with a male southern ... aka Texas drawl ... maybe someday).

... When someone is in my home and I'm having an "in person" conversation, my computer speaks for me. The voices I purchased are natural sounding enough. For those criticizing the Microsoft voices, yes they do sound crappy. Try listening to your own some day. Might be worse.

#28 this is not an obsolete software; you need to get educated. Hope its not with a car accident or a brain injury where you actually NEED it.

... Obsolete for you. You lived and died and reborn already?

#35 you are soooo right!

#36 NextUp Technologies is working in a specialized market that will be increasing soon, including artificial intelligence technology.

... Maybe some of those "freedom shouters" should be thinking of the Iraq vets coming back with traumatic brain injury, many who will have language comprehension problems. Then learn to communicate.

#37 Have a car accident and a brain injury.

#44 NewsAloud is not the voices. Buy a voice.

#46 Nope they don't meet accessibility needs. Apparently you may have low standards, or bad hearing? (No insult intended, just wondering.)

I dont understand why you would need this..?
Windows XP and Vista have "Narrator" built in..Works for me..Will read almost anything including Menus etc.

Good useful program for the price (Free),despite the audio quality being poor and hard to understand. Nevertheless It is worth the download and hard drive space, although I would not pay the asking price unless there was more than one voice option and with something that sounds almost close to natural....which this program doesn't provide. Happy New Year and thanks for the giveaway! Rating 5/10

Thanks for letting me try it, but the voices are too hard to understand. Uninstalled.

Thanks for all the great downloads, and appreciate the oppportunity to choose and try out. Happy New Year to you and all the members.

Excellent for listening to quick update of top news.
If you don't like how the voice sounds, try adjusting Voice and Audio file Options: "Mary" sounds better to me with pitch set at 164 and speed at 165.
If you're tired of the usual sources, try these additions to RSS feeds:
RawStory.org-- http://feeds.feedburner.com/rawstory/gKpz
Americanprogress.org -- http://www.americanprogress.org/rss/atom.xml
HuffingtonPost.org-- http://e.my.yahoo.com/config/cstore?.opt=content&.url=http%3a//feeds.huffingtonpost.com/huffingtonpost/LatestNews

I visit this site daily as well as most of you that I've read so far, and can we all just move on from #9's Ignorant comment? Such a small comment and yet it's caught all of you all's eye. I too, would like to thank GAOTD for everything they do offer, good and not so great. Happy New Year!!!!!

#11--depends on where you are; my daughter is on Guam where they are 15 hours ahead of us, which means their New Year's Day started when it was only 9 a.m. here in Eastern Standard Time on New Year's Eve!

Hello Folks,
Please just provide what you do or don't like about a program. An yay or nay is not enought. Some details about what you find good or bad about the program helps. Look at the posts by Whiterabbit in the Games Giveaway of the Day for a good example. Ok, Whiterabbit's reviews should be in a gaming magazine, yet it shows some though, what she/he likes about a program, what is lacking, and offers alternatives if appropiate.

For this program the idea that you can create mp3s is nice to me, as is having a list of rss feeds, while knowing that naturally sounding voices is an additional expense is also helpful. I ride on the local tranportation system, and so having music, a podcast, or news as a mp3 is ideal for me, while the voice sounds as if it would get on my nevers. The list of rss feeds is ok, yet most sites I visit have an rss icon if they offer rss feeds, and I already have a rss newsreader, so the list is realy questionable for me.

I will pass on this one, and look forward to the other offerings.

>Ivan Hoe

"Complaints, complaints, nothing but complaints. Come on, boys and girls, the software is being “given away” for FREE."

Makes sense to me. If a restaurant serves me a plate of dirt for FREE, I should gobble it up and write a thank-you note to the chef. Oh, and I should tell all of my friends to eat the dirt, too. I mean, if I complained, that would be whining.

"So, take it or leave it. No one is forcing you to download and use it against your free will."

Actually, your argument is flawed. I'm not being coerced to download this program(which I hardly think is worth the time taken to do so), but I don't have any alternatives. What if the hypothetical restaurant served nothing but dirt? If there was another giveaway site like this one, then FreewareFan would already have told us about it.

"It’s FREE, d*** it!"

Your point?

"Personally I think it is a pretty cool software and worth the download."

By all means, download and use it, I'm not stopping you.

"Thanks GAOTD and NextUp Software. I hope you are not giving away “the house” and closing shop!"

Why would they?

Turn on the radio or T.V. My goodness what is this world coming to that everything needs to be on our computers. Pick up a newspaper and read a bit, wouldn't kill anyone I bet. I rate this as something that is wasting space on my hard drive.

I got it, no problems installing or running, I deleted it, I just don`t go to the news after my eyes have given up, but i do read eMail.
for this i use the Text aloud.
Now for my very own stupid opinion: NextUp Technologies doesn`t seem to be very well versed in marketing. Giveaways are great for getting people to try a product. BUT there is the thing about the very poor quality of the voices.
WHY not make a deal with the publishers of the needed voices to suoly a discount on the better voices???
It just seems to me that both parties would find this a benefit, by showing the ir products in the best light.
Now another stupid remark. Does anyone want to giveaway a program to sort all the STUFF that gathers on a very active computer by rhe Gb.
I,m sure most people have a problem with that,

The Grouser

Interestin responces today..hmmm...but I give it 8 out of 10...thumbs up from me!
I LIKE this program...no problems downloading, activating, and ENJOYING it completely...if you try it you'll like it too!
Okay, the voices aren't natural...but it's on a C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R...LMAO, so what if it sounds mechanical...it's free, interesting, and helpful!
I say to all the 'DRAMA QUEENS' (who have not the mentallity nor kind heart to be grateful to the folks that work so hard to provide ALL OF US fun and programs for free), to enjoy this site, the "CONSTRUCTIVE" comments, and stop being complainers.
I LOVE this site for programs and it's other site for games I simply cannot afford! And I look forward to getting my email so I can come and look, try, download (or not), and enjoy (or delete). And I will continue to LOVE THIS SITE and those that PROVIDE FREE games and programs!!!

Thank you GAOTD!
~Ceejay

(P.S. YES, America was founded on FREEDOM...but they just didn't complain and whine..they planned, fought, and gave lives to give YOU the right to be a DRAMA QUEEN and unproductive whiner! PLEASE,...don't wave the American flag when all you want to do is create problems. Instead make CONSTRUCTIVE comments about the programs, (or just post~"not for me"),....THAT IS the AMERICAN WAY!)

If I could, I'd ban #9 forever. Voicing an opinion, positive or negative, is one thing, but THAT comment is just ignorant, juvenile and uncalled for. Also, if a FREE program can spoil your New Year, it's clearly time to get a life. You weren't strong-armed into coming to GOTD for free programs/games. So if you have nothing constructive to say (good or bad), say nothing and leave!

I'm giving NewsAloud a try, and so far it's working as it should, although comments about the voices being "non-human" are right. I'm going to try to find one that's more pleasing. Thank you GOTD!!

Happy New Year To All :)

LOL You can tell those express ignorance, may be State side. I admit it took me awhile to realize it is the 2008 on the other side of GMT/UTC.

#9 only shows that those who need to learn what the small stuff not worth sweating live world wide.

All who like to complain about the giveaway in senseless, pointless rants in comment posts should visit this link, especially #9

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2206?replies=1

I grabbed this one from the Game Giveaway and it seems the are having the same problem over there. Even if you have the urge to voice your negative opinion to the GAOTD Team and the rest of the community about the giveaway...just think a little. They have had to write an article about this issue for people like you and to me, no one should have to waste their energy on issues like this. It is just not worth it. If you still want to bash anyone that gives you free things, you might as well hunt the people that post under the free section in craigslist and punch them in the face for giving away their free item. Sometimes I just don't understand the selfish people on this planet.

It is a trick! Well more like misleading I guess.
The whole naturally sound voices they called "optional". So if you pay for AT & T natural voices or obtain it illegally if that's possible, then there you go, natural sounding voices. I already have that textaloud or whatever prorgram so I guess I won't be using this till I find some free great voices.

Tt don't make any difference pos.or neg. it still gets there product known and gets feed back about there product. It also gives them ideas on improveing the product to make more money. so both sides are used.I WILL BUY THIS PRODUCT .Now I know this soft ware is around.I found out I like it, thanks to GOTD ,So COMPLAINERS do a service too.There was so maney complaints I had to check it out for myself. Florida Boy ,USA.

speech is so bad it isn't worth downloading. Sounds like a cross between a r2d2 and someone with a speech impediment. very poor.

#10. THE LAST I HEARD IT WAS A FREE COUNTRY, IF YOU LIVE HERE. Just ignore him/her.

Personally this software is obsolete. You can get a lot of free programs just like this one, but it's always nice that Giveaway gives us all a chance to try it, or move on. ;-)

Text Aloud is the most used program on my computer. And now that I've tried News aloud I can see it also will be close to the top. I've got the speed at 5 in TA which is much faster and more accurate than I can read. And I've sprung for NeoSpeech Kate and Paul which are by far the best voices. I've bought ATT voices and there not as good. I installed TA in Vista and of course Vista made sure it needed to be fiddled with in order to work. (run it as Win 98 and as Administrator ) The Tech help was great.
If you like to relax and give your eyes a break or multi task these programs are the best.

Another that claims to be a screen reader and then says the voices have to be bought from another company. Like most screen readers they use the voices you already have in the computer. Like the Microsoft Sam and a few others that are honestly so bad they make you want to throw the computer in the river. If you have windows you have a screen reqder.
This is not worth downloading.

how many times do we have to have the same crappy program, give me something like Isound, I have been waiting for a mp3/wav recorder. I had to reformat and lost the previous isound.

Complaints, complaints, nothing but complaints. Come on, boys and girls, the software is being "given away" for FREE. So, take it or leave it. No one is forcing you to download and use it against your free will. It's FREE, damn it! Personally I think it is a pretty cool software and worth the download. Thanks GAOTD and NextUp Software. I hope you are not giving away "the house" and closing shop!

When I went to school I learned how to read. So why would I need this.
No thanks... Maybe some better stuff next year Happy New Year to all.

Thanks GOTD,
I've got TextAloud and WeatherAloud with the NeoSpeech Kate and Paul voices.

Never have I had such natural sounding voices on my pc.

I also use the speech plug-in available with PopTray to have Kate announce when I have new Emails.

She sounds great...again...thanks!

Btw, I see the sycophants are back in full force.

You know, those that think that someone having honest criticism of a product will somehow curtail them being able to try out future shareware products. I guess they have missed having their noses brown.

For the cheerleaders and pom-pom boys, the idea is to give a review of the product may it be good or bad. Sinmple stating that something is wonderful, great, fantastic or that we should all buy it, or that we should even pay them more then they are asking isn't giving a review. That is being a shill.

If you don't care for reviews that are negative then might I suggest to grow up. It isn't a bad thing to be warned about a bad product, in fact it is the civilised thing to do.

I see that major twit-witted Phil once again puts up non-relevant remarks that make it clear that he has no clue what he is talking about and that he has no empathy.

For his information : if a program is stated to have "a natural, human sounding voice" then the least it could do is actual sound natural and sound human. That it can only do that if and when you buy & download additional voices is a major bad point against this software's description. Or to put it differently, they misrepresent their one product.

Oh and Phil, the only one mentioning anything about 'perfect English' is you. If you going to argue at least argue about something real.

Using the product as is, without buying a really proper voice, makes anyone that understands English want to go postal. Unless you're reading the text as it is spoken you'll have a hard time understanding the entire text. I dare you to try and listen to it for half an hour.
To suggest that it should be okay for those that are handicapped,arthritic or elderly is just horrific. That would be tantamount to torture. They would have to be very desperate.

*Stop plowing through email or spending hours surfing the net for the news that interests you.*

So will this program read your mind and seek out those news items that you are interested in no matter on what site it is? I think not.
Does all news come on RSS feeds? Nope.
Can it search out those particular news items that you might be interested in, without giving lots and lots of stuff that you couldn't care less about. Njet, nada, no can do.
So in the end all it can do is make a list of items that just might be of interest after which you still have to find those nuggets that you actual are wanting to hear. Between the time spend setting the program up, the time spend buying a decent voice and adjusting the programs settings so that you don't want to slit your wrists, the time spend weeding out the results to those that you want, and the time spend waiting for the program to read it, because one can read much faster when it isn't aloud, one has to wonder who the target audience is that has that much time on their hands.

*Instead let NewsAloud do it so you can listen while you work on something else,...*

So they expect us to do other stuff and still be able to understand what this program reads out no matter how badly it sounds? Very funny.

*..., or get your news to go and listen while you excercise, commute, or get outside for a change.*

Oh yeah, that's it. Listening to news that has been recorded by you, when you weren't excercising, commuting, or near your computer, so that you keep abreast of the state of the world as it used to be, listen to sports results days later, etc...
Am I the only one that can spot the fault in the premise?

If you are going to do the latter then why not do like OKFJ and use TextAloud. At least then you didn't install another program to do something that your system could already do. Unless of course you are one of those persons that just love to stuff their hard drives full with every bit of crap that they can get for 'free'.

This program is just a milking out of the TextAloud concept. That is it. If you are indeed in need of something to read out text and have the money to buy a voice for it and/or can deal with the sound then the better package is TextAloud.

Sounds like #9 got a sound bashing as expected and deserved, and I'll add my $.02 on that - if a free software offering that doesn't suit your tastes ruins your holiday then you've got problems :)

#16 - the jerks are abnormally vocal. It seems to go in cycles. On your daily review of GOTD, just look at the "comment by" part BEFORE reading... you'll soon get a feel for which ones to read and when you needn't bother.

Thanks for the offering, GOTD! Software seems easy to use and option to use other voices is great! Keep up the good work!

i've gotta say, i got the 'text aloud' the other day AND bought another voice (Samantha) and it's great! i was about to BUY the program AND a voice but now i'm $30 ahead. the ability to turn articles into mp3 (and then audio books with another program so i can get all the 'book' features) is fantastic and i don't know of any other prog that can do it....i'm glad to get this one too.

The negativity of the comments regarding free software amazes me. I check this site nearly every day. Many of the offerings are not of interest to me, but they are still quality products. I gratefully accept the ones I like and leave the rest. Has it become "cool" to be a jerk, or are the spoiled brats among us abnormally vocal?

#9's wording sucks but these open comments allow Viven and others to express it their way. I have to thank her for pointing out "this new year day" because my computer clock says it's still December 31. I have reset all of my clocks to the correct day. HAPPY NEW YEAR GAOD and thanks for all you do. It is genuinely appreciated by so many of us.

A quick follow up to my comment #11:

As I clicked the thumbs up button, I saw that NewsAloud is $19.95, and I feel stupid for not having bought it years ago, but thanks to the website, I can definitely recommend it. It's quite powerful and flexible.

Since user #9 opted to exercise his/her right not to use the software, it would have been nice if he/she would have opted not to post such a stupid remark.

I visit this site every day and if I don't like or think that I can't use the software being offered, I simply close this site and visit somewhere else. I'm sure that there are those who really don't care what the software looks or sounds like as long as it works. Just ask anyone that is sight impaired and has to use a computer. I'm sure there are better voice readers out there with better sounding voices, but those who have difficulty seeing also have difficulty working and something that is available for free is something they will use.

Just my 2 cents worth.

I've been using TextAloud off and on for years, clipping articles into it, and this is terrific. The AT&T voices are better than the free ones, but the free ones are completely understandable. You can create MP3 podcasts, load them up, and have what isn't available on Audible or any other source. A friend of mine does this with foreign language newspapers.

You can also dink with the pronunciation engine if a word comes up that too irritating to hear spoken wrong over and over again. (I actually had TextAloud create an MP3 of a novel I downloaded from the Gutenberg project for free, and it mispronounced the title and name of the town, but fixed, now).

I'm excited this is available. I never really understood what NewsAloud does that TextAloud didn't do, and with RSS feeds, this is fantastic. It's not a completely natural sounding voice, but it's amazing. I occasionally have TextAloud run through my email. Sorry more folks didn't get this. It's a fantastic piece of work.

#9 -- You expect GGOTD to be perfect, but you can't even get your days straight. Today is NOT New Year's Day! That comes tomorrow.

Wow comment #9 was uncalled for. Why do people like you even show up here? Nothing better to do then rag on free software and the people that bring you free software. Wow, what a bunch of jerks they must be to do that for you. Anyway........This program is not for me. But I can see who it WOULD be helpful to. Thanks GOTD and keep up the good work. Oh and Happy New Year!

damn,Google news gadget is better than this.
thanks,GAOTD for ruining this new year day with such crap software.
you could do much better than this.

Though I have no personal need of a program like this, I can see where the handicapped or arthritic portion of our population can. As far as those of you who don't understand the concept of "Human sounding" voice, then you've obviously havent met some of the individuals that I've met. It doesn't say that it speaks "Perfect english", but what it does do is give those impared, or just too aggravated to search on dial up an option. So go outside of your own realm and understand this programs true value before posting any twit-witted comments.Thanks GAOTD for a great program.

This is OK if you like many many news articles. I prefer to steer to my favorite online newspaper and copy articles I want to hear to the clipboard, thus instantly allowing "TextAloud" to read what I chose only. Saves hard drive space too.
If the free voices aren't to your liking, consider buying one or two. I bought a couple of Cepstral Voices. A Sound investment.
There's also a great little freebee called "Speak Clipboard" (it does that and nothing much more) from http://www.speaktools.com

I haven't tried any speech apps yet, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to check it out and try for free. Thanks!

who said natural human sounding voice? sound more like robot mike from the free voice microsoft provide. not to mention all the news around the world on your cpu. hmm any network station can play news and guess what? you can see and hear it thru their videos (CBS..etc). no thanks Gaotd this is not worth 19.95 and not worth being free. i have removed it from my cpu. thanks for the offer, but i find this program to be non human non useful.

Very interesting program, retrieves news feeds on topics you choose, retrieves many news articles and the voices are OK, and it is very easy to use. This program gives so many articles I had to click stop before it was finished. So overall, this program gets 3 points for news quantity, 1 for the voices, 2 for usability, meaning a 6/10 rating from me.

>> then reads them aloud in a natural, human sounding voice.


NOT!!!!!!!

I like the program and the choices of news providers though
but the voices are NOT natural sounding human sounding voices...

they are the crappy Microdift default voices available in windows....

Am I missing something somewhere in the settings? lol


good giveaway...
all in all, I rate it an 8 out of 10

thanks

Is NextUp going out of business or something? They've been practically giving away their entire collection.

The app might be nice, but the voices leave a LOT to be desired.

Vary nice my grand papy uses this! works wonders! buy it!



Vote this down to see how many ppl have read my advice!