Pocket PC Phone Edition fun

[Andy Sjostrom]

I have been using <a href="http://www.nextup.com/">TextAloud MP3 from NextUp.com</a> for a while. The application reads any text and samples it into voice reading, using any of the installed voices. A great use of this is copying and pasting an article I don't have time to read, sampling it into an MP3 or WAV file and then listening to it while driving home from work.<br /><br />Now, I have found another fun way of using it! My Pocket PC Phone Edition can play WAV files. So, anything I type and convert into sound can be used aa a ring tone or a sound signal for events like new mail, new SMS, ActiveSync connecting and so on! These are two samples I just copied over to my Pocket PC Phone Edition: <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/calling.wav">"There is someone calling! Please, pick it up!"</a> and <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/connected.wav">"Pocket PC Phone Edition is now connected!"</a>. Fun!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/textaloud_01.jpg" />

[Arne Hess]

"There's someone calling! Please, pick it up!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/calling.wav) and "Pocket PC Phone Edition is now connected!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/connected.wav). Fun!

Are you sure you sampled it with the application? Sound more like Michael Jackson... 8O :lol:
I'm not sure if I want to hear him, if my xda rings... :lol: :wink:

[Arne Hess]

Are you sure you sampled it with the application? Sound more like Michael Jackson... 8O :lol:
Hmmm... :?: I've listen to it 5 times more and :idea: it is :idea: Michael Jackson. Now I wonder if he is real anyhow, no - I don't mean his face/body, this isn't real but at least I thought the voice was real...
Andy, please can you also sample "I love you all", just to verify it!? :wink:

[Andy Sjostrom]

OK. Here you go!

Here's a WAV you can use when you go connected with your Pocket PC:
"Mr Hess is now connected to the real Internet!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/real.wav).

... and your order (although with a different voice):
"I love you" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/love.wav).

:lol:

[denivan]

Two words pop into my mind : GEEK POWER ! :rock on dude!:

Okay, okay, actually I'm kinda jealous that my T68i can't do this ;)
(Although I can let it walk around the table when someone rings)

Greetz

Ivan

[Arne Hess]

OK. Here you go!

Here's a WAV you can use when you go connected with your Pocket PC:
"Mr Hess is now connected to the real Internet!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/real.wav).
Great! Thanks a lot!!! I will use this in futrue for sure, can you also compile a WAV for: "Mr Hess is now connected to the Wireless Internet aka WAP!"? :lol: :wink:

... and your order (although with a different voice):
"I love you" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/love.wav).

:lol:
Okay, now I know for sure. Michael Jackson isn't real and I have two thoughts now:

1st: MJ is a complete computer animation?
2nd: Andy is MJ?

For Andy's bank account I hope he is MJ... :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Andy Sjostrom]

OK. Here you go!

"Mr Hess is now wirelessly connected to the Internet!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/wireless.wav).

I also did a little WAP rap for ya:
"WAP e dee dap" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/wap.wav)

(Nope, I just checked my account. I am NOT MJ!)

[Arne Hess]

OK. Here you go!

"Mr Hess is now wirelessly connected to the Internet!" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/wireless.wav).

I also did a little WAP rap for ya:
"WAP e dee dap" (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/files/wap.wav)

(Nope, I just checked my account. I am NOT MJ!)

LOL... :lol: I love the WAP rap... :D
However, I hoped your account would have some more $$$ to make a big "wireless" party next time we will meet... :wink:

[Mr. Anonymous]

Haha, the WAP rap is great! "I love you" is a little....creepy :)

[ipaq-PHD]

This is a great program !! Thanks for the link ! :)

[dbrahms]

Is there a way to make standard PPC sounds change to diff sound files? I would prefer to have my PPC say "active sync connected" every time i throw it on the cradle...or "You and an appointment soon" when i would normally get the regular old "ding" notification. Is there a way to associate these actions with different sound files?

[Andy Sjostrom]

That's just what I am doing!
Just put any WAV file in the \Windows directory, and select it for the appropriate event in Settings > Personal > Sounds...

[PPCRules]

Is there a way to make standard PPC sounds change to diff sound files? I would prefer to have my PPC say "active sync connected" every time i throw it on the cradle...or "You and an appointment soon" when i would normally get the regular old "ding" notification. Is there a way to associate these actions with different sound files?
Furthermore, can you get it to read subject line of incoming email, rather than just announcing "you've got mail"?

On the otherhand, that could lead to some embarassing situations. Maybe just who the email or SMS is from?

[JMountford]

Ok Andy I really think you have way, WAY too much time on your hands! :lol:

[Jonathan1]

*sighs* Is Apple and AT&T the only companies that can make a voice sound real? This app, from what I've heard from the samples, is somewhere between Apple's built in voice software (High quality) and MS's built in voice software in XP or Reader (Total crap)

Dang it when are we going to get away from War Games?!?!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?.......

[Andy Sjostrom]

Jonathan!
I chose a "robot-like" voice. There are "human-like" voices in there too!"

[PlayAgain?]

You can get this voice generator by downloading the free Speech API (SAPI) from the Microsoft site. it has a text to speech generator as an example application and the voice used here is one of the options. It outputs as a WAV file, but you can encode that into MP3 at your pleasure.

I don't have the link to hand, but I know that my PC at home has been talking for just about every event, even MSN events...... it would just rabbit away in the background. It can get annoying, but has a definite wow factor for visitors.

I don't like it on mobile devices though. I sometimes like to read (e-books) on the toilet, and I don't want somebody in the next cubicle hearing a woman's voice telling me that she loves me!

[brianchris]

Newbie Reader question guys, but someone briefly refered to a question I've had for a while in this thread, and thought I should finally ask:

Is there anyway to have the Reader in PPC read text (.lit files)? I know I can play audible audiobooks via Reader, but anything that can just read the .lit text? Is that built in functionality or is it another app I have to install, or does this not exist at all?

TIA!

-Brian

[jdhill]

Is there anyway to have the Reader in PPC read text (.lit files)? I know I can play audible audiobooks via Reader, but anything that can just read the .lit text? Is that built in functionality or is it another app I have to install, or does this not exist at all?
This can be done in the desktop version of Reader, but is not a feature of the Pocket PC version. Also, the desktop version will only "read" certain books depending on the level of Digital Rights Management used to create the book.

[Jonathan1]

Jonathan!
I chose a "robot-like" voice. There are "human-like" voices in there too!"

OK You have my attention again. How are the other voices? Do the words flow together well?

[cyj]

Jonathon; I'm not sure I understood you, but are you aware you can get AT&T Natural Voices for TextAloud for an additional fee. Well worth it, although I've used the free voices that came with TextAloud for the past two years or so without any complaints:

http://www.nextup.com/attnv.html

They come as 8Khz and 16 khz - you have to check your processor and hard disk space. If you try to use it without a proper match you will get pauses. I can only use the 8 khz voices but they are excellent.

I turned books and articles into mp3 files for quite some time. I also use another great product of theirs: NewsAloud. It downloads Reuters, AP, New York Times and other text articles to your PC and then turns them into mp3 files. Then I move them to my PPC and listen to them.

Perhaps some will insist on "real" voices such as Audible. But not me. I can listen to exactly what I want, as long as I can get it in digital text form. And its free. I am a big fan of Nextup.com.