I-Speak for Pocket PC

Rating:
Summary: I wish I could give it 0 stars!
Review: Dear Unwary Customer,

This product is absolutely terrible..... Please avoid this insipid attempt to save you time. You won't be able to understand a damn thing. The voices sound like your listening to a bad McDonald's drive through speaker from about 10 feet away. You can barely understand them.

I think this is the worst product I've ever purchased. What a lousy product! I'll never buy another one of Fonix products and neither will any of my executive business associates and partners. I'll personally and passionately recommend against it. In fact, I wish I could find a more public venue to voice my disgust of this product besides amazon.com!

I think the software engineers that developed it need to go back to the drawing board. They need to develop better voice quality; or rather ANY voice "quality". I wish I'd never bought it! To bad CompUSA doesn't allow a return on software.

Very Uncoridally Yours,

Mr.Ripped Off in Michigan, CEO

Rating:
Summary: I love this product
Review: I read the other two comments, actually, I had iSpeak read them to me. This is one of the best products I've ever owned. I agree that it doesn't allow for multitasking, but when I want to just sit down and enjoy a good book, but not strain my hours reading tiny print, iSpeak is perfect!
I am definitely looking forward to having more Fonix software on my computer in the future!!!

Rating:
Summary: A great time saver (with Headphones or car adapter)
Review: This ISpeak is a great program! I purchased the entire suite and love it. The voices are sometimes hard to understand, but you can change the speed at which they speak, the pitch and the actual voice! I recommend a car adapter for the sound or headphones for the best sound, since the voices aren't always loud enough, that is why the program is 4 not 5 stars (although with a better PDA it might be louder and clearer).

Rating:
Summary: I love this product
Review: When I saw the derisive, one-star rating below, I had to respond, and throw up some stars for iSpeak. Hey, if you're looking for a prime-time product that's as slick and polished as an ESPN sportscaster, then move along. Watch TV. Technology is not that far along--yet. But if you feel somehow cheated by this software that can miraculously read virtually any digitized writing you throw at it, then, well, You might be a redneck.

Seriously, the software has raw, functional quality. It will read to you. With impressive accuracy. The reading voices are not euphonous, it is true. They tend to speak in monotone. Ha! But it can grow on you. As I listened to iSpeak read "Alice in Wonderland," I came almost to relish the deadpan irony. Monotonous tone is likely the first problem that you will notice with the program, but in my opinion, it is not the most significant. For me, the most significant problem is that, although the program reads in an audible, relatively lucid manner, a listener does have to maintain close focus in oder to take in certain words. This means that the program is not very handy for multitasking. You can't necessarily unpack the groceries and fold paper bags while catching all the nuance of a George Will column.

Let me give high praise for user-friendliness. I tend to struggle with software, and this works for me like a breeze. All you need do is highlight text from the Web or your wordprocessing documents with a mouse, and click a button, and the program will read to you. Incidentally, I have tried one other reading program and, for me, iSpeak was much better than the other. I relish the thought of a little more progress. In a couple of years, Fonix is likely to have a product that has more universal appeal. If you buy this software, you may wish to check out Project Gutenberg on the Web, which has a large number of public domain books. iSpeak will read them to you.

Rating:
Summary: This glass is half full, and then some
Review: When I saw the derisive, one-star rating below, I had to respond, and throw up some stars for iSpeak. Hey, if you're looking for a prime-time product that's as slick and polished as an ESPN sportscaster, then move along. Watch TV. Technology is not that far along--yet. But if you feel somehow cheated by this software that can miraculously read virtually any digitized writing you throw at it, then, well, You might be a redneck.

Seriously, the software has raw, functional quality. It will read to you. With impressive accuracy. The reading voices are not euphonous, it is true. They tend to speak in monotone. Ha! But it can grow on you. As I listened to iSpeak read "Alice in Wonderland," I came almost to relish the deadpan irony. Monotonous tone is likely the first problem that you will notice with the program, but in my opinion, it is not the most significant. For me, the most significant problem is that, although the program reads in an audible, relatively lucid manner, a listener does have to maintain close focus in oder to take in certain words. This means that the program is not very handy for multitasking. You can't necessarily unpack the groceries and fold paper bags while catching all the nuance of a George Will column.

Let me give high praise for user-friendliness. I tend to struggle with software, and this works for me like a breeze. All you need do is highlight text from the Web or your wordprocessing documents with a mouse, and click a button, and the program will read to you. Incidentally, I have tried one other reading program and, for me, iSpeak was much better than the other. I relish the thought of a little more progress. In a couple of years, Fonix is likely to have a product that has more universal appeal. If you buy this software, you may wish to check out Project Gutenberg on the Web, which has a large number of public domain books. iSpeak will read them to you.