For more than two years now I couldn't use my car radio because I have misplaced the anti-theft code. The other day I saw an ad for a MP3 car radio that has an auxiliary USB port. My idea is that I can use this to listen to podcasts during the commute. As a step further, I could scan most of my blogroll if I could convert them to MP3. A quick look suggests that TextAloud is a good choice to convert text to MP3. Actually, I am planning to add AT&T Natural Voice speech engine if the whole experiment works out. Interestingly, AT&T license is a stiff one not affordable by an individual. So I can use it only for personal use. I can convert my entries as well, but with a not-so-good speech engine. On an experimental basis, I will make my entries available in MP3 format. I call them Tcast, because it is a TTS output. Let me know what you think of it.
By the way, installing the new radio was an experience by itself. Of course I got it professionally installed. It took good time to do the job even for them. I wish the radios are designed in such a manner that is one has to just pop the old one and slide the new one. The industry just has to define a proper pin-out interface.
Posted by aswath at August 14, 2005 11:48 PM