MyVocal Serves Up Mobile Audio Content

MyVocal, a developer of mobile services and applications, this week released its mobile audio content service for commuters. The service had been in beta testing for the past few months.

MyVocal’s new mobile content service brings various spoken audio content to millions of mobile users worldwide. Users simply create an account and playlist at MyVocal.com, and then dial into a local telephone number to access their audio content from preselected feeds, such as podcasts, audio books and magazines, travel guides, streaming radio, and interactive services. Users can also upload their own content and have it converted to audio. They control the service with simple spoken commands, customize content on their phone or via the Web, and can share content on Twitter and Facebook.

MyVocal relies on I6NET's VXI* VoiceXML browser and the LumenVox Speech Engine on the open-source Asterisk platform as its underlying technologies.

The service is currently available to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Singapore. It is free right now, and the goal is to make it advertiser-supported. MyVocal might also charge publishers to post special content to the MyVocal service, and might charge users under a pay-as-you go model for specialty content, according to company spokesperson Lauren Miller.

Along with the service release, MyVocal is also releasing more than 60 application programming interfaces to third-party application developers.

For now, the startup company’s main focus is on  building its subscriber base and improving the sound of its audio output. “The [text-to-speech] is getting better. It still sounds a bit robotic, but we’re looking to improve it,” Miller says. “We want to make MyVocal as pleasant as possible to listen to.”