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Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin

Blio eReader software to have Nuance text-to-speech technology

By | August 24, 2010, 11:34am PDT

Summary: When the Blio eReader software is finally released next month, it will also include Nuance Vocalizer text-to-speech technology with a pair of “lifelike” voices to choose from.

When the Blio eReader software is finally released next month, it will also include Nuance Vocalizer text-to-speech technology with a pair of “lifelike” voices to choose from.

Blio is a software program that was first announced way back at CES 2010 in January. The platform attempts to stay as close to the original paper medium as possible with image-rich digital versions of books and magazines.

The Nuance Vocalizer brings on support for more than 30 languages and two voices (“Samantha” and “Tom”) to make the reading experience more natural and alive. Both the Vocalizer and Blio have been optimized to work on a number of different gadgets, such as smartphones and PCs.

Note that the Vocalizer will actually be available as a “downloadable accessory” from Blio eBookstores. Thus, there might be a fee involved here.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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yeah, now if only it could handle a few more formats besides xps, pdf, and epub.
ill stick with calibre thank you very much.

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