Color your iSpeech!

We've added an advanced options editor to the embed code generator. You can now customize colors or use the 'mini' version of the iSpeech player.

We've also streamlined the new 'colorized' iSpeech player and made it 180 pixels wide so it now fits snuggly into almost all sidebars.

You can access these options by clicking on the 'Advanced' tab under any embed box.

Text to Speech is Free Now... Put Away Your Credit Card

We are happy to announce that we now have a free text to speech voice on our conversion clusters!

Anyone can come and get a feel for our service using the free voice, and when they decide that it would be helpful, they can try our premium voices free too. We have been working on this for quite some time and we would like to thank all of our wonderful customers for their patience.

New iSpeech Office in Newark, NJ

March 1st, 2009, we begin the move into our new office! Going from working in the dark datacenter basement to a nice new building at NJIT's Enterprise Development Center is thrilling and gives us all quite a sense of accomplishment. After being accepted into the incubator many doors have begun to open for us.

If anyone would like to visit us at our new office, you will need to call and make an appointment. Maybe you can be the first to help us test out the sweet conference room?

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We finally have our dry erase board up! It takes up an entire side of the office, but is a nice addition to the decor. Having a bright blue office is fun and it makes the white really jump out. We had a smaller easel before but there is so much to do that this enormous board actually works for us!

We try to prioritize every day for each member of the iSpeech team. This board enables us to record everyone's daily goals. We are a group that appreciates color, creativity, and organization all in one. With the dry erase board, each of us has our own color and way to display our daily challenges and allows us to acknowledge our goals that we meet each and every day. It is very rewarding to be able to go up to this huge board and draw a red line through the items on the lists we have made for ourselves.

If you are looking to get organized in a big way, try a dry erase board that you can mount on your wall!

iSpeech is "very impressive" according to Speech Technology Magazine

On November 11th

Speech Technology Magazine's blog introduced iSpeech to the speech technology community. Adam B. had this to say:

"iSpeech is a web-based solution that allows users to convert websites and blogs into audio. iSpeech has been in development for more than eighteen months and does not require users to download or install anything. They simply cut and paste what they want to convert into the box provided on the site, or upload the files in question. After that, it’s easy to share the files in pretty much any format or forum.

I decided to test it out with the following quote from Speech Tech Blog favorite Emma Goldman:
“No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time.”

The results–which can be heard here–are very impressive.

So impressive, that we may start using iSpeech for the Speech Tech Blog. We will keep you posted."

I wanted to take a second and thank Adam for his kind words. iSpeech is still in beta, and I am confident that if you like iSpeech beta, you will love what's to come! To Adam and all of our friends at Speech Technology Magazine, thank you!

Technical Post - New Filing System at iSpeech - MD5

We have a new filing system at iSpeech to ensure that no two documents will ever collide. In case you have heard someone else's audio, it has been fixed!

The problem: computers cannot be truly random, even when generating a 32 bit sequence.

The solution: Files are named according to their message digest checksum, a hash of the actual file contents- aka MD5.

Note: any file that was previously converted will continue to work as normal. This fix only applies to new text to speech conversions.

iSpeech.org is recognized by KillerStartups.com

At iSpeech.org (http://www.iSpeech.org), we always appreciate recognition for our hard work, but we were very happy to see that KillerStartups.com http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/ispeech-org-read-with-your-ears recognized us as a viable startup business. It seems that every day there are at least a few new Web 2.0 sites launched with hopes ranging from filling a niche market to becoming the next Google. Fairly recent success such as PlentyOfFish.com has sparked a free website rush. iSpeech.org definitely qualifies as Web 2.0 and as Free, but there is something that sets iSpeech apart from other Web 2.0 sites.

iSpeech is a true Webservice that converts any text into speech instantly. Not only does iSpeech convert text to speech, but it also allows the user to download an MP3, podcast, and even embed a customizable widget into any website or blog that supports objects. But why stop there? Why not give users the ability to convert any Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat (PDF), HTML, or RSS feed into spoken audio.

As per customer service, contact iSpeech.org and ask for an improvment or an add-on. Your idea will be met with open minds and may very well make it onto the site.