Upcoming Talking iPod?

[WildCowboy]

I think Apple owes me an inventor's fee for suggesting the idea 18 months ago. I'll e-mail Steve Jobs my PayPal account info so he can pay me. If he'd rather handle it with royalties based on sales, that's OK too.

No dice...they filed the patent application in November 2004. I'm surprised you didn't get a cease-and-desist letter from Apple's lawyers after you posted that. (I guess they're powerless to do anything since the patent hasn't been issued yet...but watch yourself once it does.) 😉

 

[aswitcher]

This could be quite useful if coupled with wireless headphones because of the lack of visual controls.

 

[Cygnus311]

I would not want this. The break between songs that should run together is already bad enough.

I would love to see them put a microphone on it, and somehow incorporate voice recognition. Even if it means you have to be holding a button down while talking or something, it would still be easier than searching through 500 artists while driving, running, anything-ing, etc.

 

[pink-pony115]

I would rather use the iPod's backlight, than listen to a talking iPod.
I would hate an iPod to be like a furby. 😡

 

[yola]

Infovox iVox

I'm not buying it for the simple reason that auto-read voices for text still sucks.

Try putting this in Text Edit and having the voice read it. 🙄

Next Up - My Balls, Your Chin by Snot.

mhm ... go here:
http://demo.acapela-group.com/

and test it with Ryan or Heather ...

Now, go here, and read the announcement:
http://www.assistiveware.com/pr.php#PR050606

yes ... there will be very soon a very good new MULTILINGUAL TTS engine on mac OS X ... and very good compared to MacInTalk.
As it seems be integrated into Speech Manager, it could be easy for iTunes to use it to synthesize the ID3 tags of your mp3 files

 

[Teqanjel]

mhm ... go here:
http://demo.acapela-group.com/

and test it with Ryan or Heather ...

Now, go here, and read the announcement:
http://www.assistiveware.com/pr.php#PR050606

Or you could just go here: http://www.cepstral.com/
Cepstral voices have been available for the Mac since March of 2005. They were released in conjunction with OS X's VoiceOver. Unlike typical computer-synthesized speech, these are actually derived from real human voices. It's achieved by concatenating the waveforms of actual human utterances in a wide variety of contexts. The result is synthesized speech which closely resembles the pronunciation and prosody (melody and rhythm) of natural speech.

In addition, voices like these (as well as AT&T Natural Voices, currently PC only) are available in a number of dialects, each of which interprets text according to different language rules. This means that when the French voice Juliette speaks “c’est la vie”, it sounds like “seh-la-vee”, not “sest-la-vye”. I use these frequently on both Macs and PCs -- they do a much better job that standard computer-generated synthetic text-to-speech.

And keep in mind: "option" means you can turn it off if you don't want it. It's just available to you if you do.

Any accessibility features Apple adds to its hardware or software makes it more attractive to school districts and colleges. Schools need to purchase technology that will help them meet federal legal mandates regarding academic accessibility. That's what prompted development of VoiceOver: it's hard to pitch Apples to school districts considering Dells when there is no screen reader software available for those Macs, but PC users have JAWS, WindowEyes, and other options. So Apple trumped the Windows world by building these capabilities right into the operating system -- for free! (JAWS, by comparison, cost nearly $1000 per license.) I see the same thing with iPods and iTunes. If you don't like it, turn the option off. But for people who needs it, and for districts or post-secondary institutions who might require it, it's built-in, free, and the standard of the industry. Who educational institution can resist that sales pitch? And up goes Apple's educational market share.

 

[nxent]

maybe this is something apple made for kicks and will never see the light of day. makes you wonder how many projects/prototypes apple's worked on that were never released. now how many of us would like to get into THAT storage room...

 

[nxent]

Yes, it makes perfect sense if you're driving and don't want to be distracted by futzing with the iPod itself. This is just like the max volume setting that was implemented -- something that will likely be heralded as a great safety measure and will get Apple great accolades but the average user will hardly ever use.

as oppposed to waiting a second or two to hear and therefore recognize the song?

 

[~Shard~]

maybe this is something apple made for kicks and will never see the light of day. makes you wonder how many projects/prototypes apple's worked on that were never released. now how many of us would like to get into THAT storage room...

I think Apple might be a tad too busy to just sit around making things "for kicks"... 😛 😎

That being said, yes, seing the "storage room" for their R&D division would be quite fun.... 😀

 

[yellow]

mhm ... go here:
http://demo.acapela-group.com/

To me, that STILL sounds like crap!

 

[JackSYi]

Say the name of an artist/song/album to play it? That would be cool, it would definitely make it "none-touch".

 

[~Shard~]

Say the name of an artist/song/album to play it? That would be cool, it would definitely make it "none-touch".

Yeah, but if you didn't like what song was coming up next you would still have to touch it to advance to the next one... 😛 😉

 

[Lollypop]

Here is a though, let iTunes on the host Pc generate the voice sample, it gets integrated in the actualy music file, the iPod will only play that sample if the feature is turned on or reqested. Apple extends the music offering on the ITMS to have the actual artist say the song name ect of the song, so new music downloaded will have whoever say the song details.

 

[crees!]

Here is a though, let iTunes on the host Pc generate the voice sample, it gets integrated in the actualy music file, the iPod will only play that sample if the feature is turned on or reqested. Apple extends the music offering on the ITMS to have the actual artist say the song name ect of the song, so new music downloaded will have whoever say the song details.

They wouldn't combine the two. Plus you'd have to put que points in the file and I don't know if AAC supports that. Plus what about the files you burn from a CD?

EDIT: Yea yea, I misread the comment.

 

[princealfie]

sounds good but how will this function in practice?

 

[Lollypop]

They wouldn't combine the two. Plus you'd have to put que points in the file and I don't know if AAC supports that. Plus what about the files you burn from a CD?

EDIT: Yea yea, I misread the comment.

I think AAC is a very capable format, if you look at some of the enhanced podcasts based on AAC, bookmarks, pics for each section, urls ect... Even if the voice bit is in the file it doesnt mean that it has to be used, if apple can create a overlay for the videos surely they can have two tracks play at the same time? So while the track is starting to play the artist will anounce what is about to play. I personally think this could be a nifty feature, apple just needs to do it right, have have a off buttom for those who dont like it.

 

[christian_k]

Non English speaking world

Hello,

if they want to make iPod able to speak music titles, it has to be capable of doing more than just playing sampes, it must have some sort of speach synth.
These things very often ignore the world outside the US (and other English speaking coutries). OSX includes such a tool, but if I put some German text into it, I get some fun, but it is "not suitable for daily use".

If they want to create such a device to sell it worldwide, they are facing some problems !

Christian

 

[yola]

OSX includes such a tool, but if I put some German text into it, I get some fun, but it is "not suitable for daily use".

If they want to create such a device to sell it worldwide, they are facing some problems !

It is why i've posted the link in my comment before ...
Apple has only american TTS ... but other companies have better TTS ... Try the link i posted before, i know a little about this TTS and it is very very good in european languages

 

[netdog]

They can call it the MrEdPod, of course.

 

[Cobrien]

I know this is in the past but in regards to the widescreen touchscreen iPod or whatever you want to call it.

I have only came back from holiday and got my pre-order of the new album complete with a couple of videos. The alternate live video was in widescreen format and it was pretty wide.

Are any other videos starting to become like this or is this a one-off.