the talking iPod

[PS3]

Apple pips its rivals with the iPod that talks

Richard Gray, science correspondent

 

FROM Walkman to Talkman. Not content with changing the world's music-listening habits, Apple has come up with another innovation: the talking iPod.

 

A new generation of machines will use sophisticated software to convert the names of bands, albums and individual tracks into recognisable speech.

 

The new iPod will tell you what it is about to play, removing the need for users to look at the screen while selecting music, and making the device safer and easier to use while driving, cycling or in badly-lit locations.

 

Crucially, the talking machines could give the iPod a badly-needed new competitive edge in the hotly-contested digital music player market.

 

The iconic machines were last week reported to have lost some of their sheen, with consumers following a series of technical problems and controversy surrounding the working conditions of those who make them. To make matters worse, software giant Microsoft is said to be working on its own iPod-bashing digital music player.

 

Apple has flatly refused to comment on the design, but a patent lodged by the company in the United States makes clear the sixth generation of iPods will be able to convert those famous text menus into speech.

 

The ingenious system will rely on home PC processing power and clever software. The computer being used to download tracks will analyse each album title, song name and artist and convert them into sound files. These will be loaded into the iPod, along with the song files.

 

more here:

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=999772006

[Eldmannen]

What would be cool would be if you could place a text file in the iPod and then it would read it for you and talk and say whats in the file, then you could have a story/book like The_story_of_the_little_monkey.txt and you walk with your iPod and it would tell you it, like reading a book without reading.

[zaphirer]

I wouldn't want my iPod talking to me, tell me what song I was playing (if I ever bought an iPod..)

A much better feature would be one that recognized songs and told you what the titles and artists were, so you could find out that one really cool song on the radio that you have no idea what its called

[Eldmannen]

A feature I miss is support for playback of Ogg Vorbis and FLAC.

[zaphirer]

A feature I miss is support for playback of Ogg Vorbis and FLAC.

 

 

YES!

[PS3]

only thing i can say about the talking iPod is that its making us lazier and lazier.

 

but i have to admit its a good music player for the blind.