The reality of getting my textbooks (and all books in general) into an audio option is getting closer and closer all of the time. ReadTheWords.com is offering up a service that lets you upload text and listen to it, now or later. Here's what Mashable.com had to say about it:
ReadTheWords - Free Service That Reads Your Text Aloud
March 18, 2008 — 03:13 AM PDT — by —
ReadTheWords is a free online service that will read any text you enter aloud. There are many ways to do this, but this site distinguishes itself with several interesting options.
To be able to use the site properly, you must register, which will give you a profile page where you can save the spoken word documents you’ve created.
Here’s what else they offer:
Text Sources:
* Upload MS Word
* Upload Adobe PDF
* Upload HTML File
* Write Text Content
* Cut & Paste Text
* Website Address
* RSS FeedOptions & Features:
* Choose 1 of 15 Readers
* We Cover English, Spanish and French
* Control Reader’s Speed
* Superfast Conversion Speed
* Less than 1 minute to generate over 1 hrs worth of Reading.Results:
* Listen to your Reading Online
* Download mp3 to your Ipod
* Post Your Reading in Website or Blog
* Turn Your Reading into a PodcastUnfortunately, I don’t see many options for the visually impaired users (for example, simple navigation via hotkeys) which would be logical given what the site is about. Furthermore, the site is experiencing some technical problems, which will probably get much worse if it reaches Digg front page (and it’s in the queue). Still, it’s a nice idea which might get really useful with a little polishing. How they’re going to monetize the site, well, that’s another matter, but I’m guessing that ads which are read to you leave a bigger impact than visual ones, so they might be onto something here.
