Readspeaker?

Achab   Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:05 am GMT
Hello Antimooners,

Take a look at this product:

www.readspeaker.com

It's a software supposed to read aloud English texts with a correct, native-like pronunciation, even if in a slightly robotic intonation.

Do you think it delivers what it promises?

To what extent could it replace audiobooks in a learner's quest for improvement?

With every good wish,

Achab
Dan   Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:37 am GMT
Yes it is great
bubble   Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:06 am GMT
It's better than most. It sounds particularly robotic (improper stress) on the uncommon/recent words, like "podcast" where you can hear it combining pod and cast (as well as on 'ReadSpeaker'). It also doesn't differentiate between titles and regular text, or do anything about the ends of sentences the way a human would.

I would not use this instead of audiobooks, movies, internet radio, podcasts, etc. if I was learning English and had those options, for two reasons:
1. the flaws I mentioned
2. it would bore me pretty fast, whereas I could enjoy a podcast or a movie, etc. for much longer. This would hold true more or less regardless of the subject material, because half the fun is the irregularities and specificities of different human voices. That's just me though.