TTS Lets Users Wake Up to the News

WebComms has launched a talking alarm clock application for the iPhone that reads the news, calendar events, and much more. Powered by state-of-the-art speech synthesis technology, the News Alarm app lets users listen to their choice of information using one of four available voices.

News Alarm can read RSS news feeds, and comes packed with a directory of 300 feeds, including CNN, CBS, Reuters, The New York Times, Fox, NASA, and the BBC. The news is read like a news bulletin: A short sound is played, then the headline is read,and then the news summary. Users customize the number of stories read, the voice used, the speed of the speech, and the headline sound.

While the news reader is speaking the news, the story is also displayed on the screen together with the all the details from the story, including images and links. A link is provided to view the full news story using the iPhone's Safari Web browser. 

This app also connects to the iPhone’s calendar and reads out any events scheduled for the day. It can also look in the contacts and read out anyone who has a birthday on the day, speak the time, read a custom phrase, or play an alarm sound. The user can choose from a digital, retro, or birdsong sound and set the duration of the alarm and whether it gets gradually louder.

The News Alarm app lets users choose from four voices: a male or female voice in either U.S. or U.K. English.