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[Plug-Ins] [Plug-In Pack]

Talker
[Imagemap]

Purpose: Reads Web pages aloud
Company: MVP Solutions
Platform: Mac
Plug-in cost: Free
Developer tool: Any word-processing software
Download from: http://www.mvpsolutions.com/PlugInSite/Talker.html

Matt Pallakoff was already a big fan of PlainTalk - Apple's text-to-speech software - when Netscape released its plug-in API at the end of 1995. Using Netscape's guidelines and Apple's technology, Pallakoff set out to build a plug-in that could read We b pages aloud.

A few months later, Pallakoff and business partner Kim Crocker released Talker, a free plug-in for the Mac that uses a cast of robotlike voices to read Web pages. Synthesized speech isn't perfect, of course, and garbled words are part and parcel of the plug-in; in fact, they're part of the fun. Witness the hilarious Talker rendition of Macbeth: The delivery of "Double, double, toil and trouble" has never been more memorable.

Talker's strength lies in its economy and ease of use. The voices (several dozen) are provided by Apple's technology and integrated into the Web page by a series of HTML-like tags. So publishers can add sound without actually recording anything (all th ey have to do is choose the voices, or direct them, if you will), and users can listen in without downloading large audio files.

The Talker plug-in's easy to install, and it doesn't cost a dime. However, you need a Macintosh equipped with Apple's text-to-speech software to run it. You can download the software - in English or Mexican Spanish - from Apple's Pla inTalk pages, but be sure to turn on your Speech control panel; otherwise, you'll miss the show.



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