Now that is too cool for the joules!

I just tried it and found it very fun for reading out Shakespeare and poetry. I had to turtle down the speech rate so that it didn’t sound like a telemarketer.

I hope that we soon get a more natural sounding voice/voices, I am imagine that computing power is a factor.

Hi Melissa! 

> stories read in Siri’s voice. Hearing it from her

Please try this:
 Settings > General > Siri > Language > English (United Kingdom)

When you write about her, remember that for many of your users that she is simultaneously a him…  Not sure how coping with that will fit with your highly individual and loveable style - hmmm… 

Please try this:
 Settings > General > Siri > Language > English (United Kingdom)

I tried that, but it wouldn’t find my location when asked. Apparently it only lets us use American English when in the USA.

When you write about her, remember that for many of your users that she is simultaneously a him

I didn’t think we could change the gender of the speech like we can on a Mac by choosing Alex or whomever. Is the English English voice a male?

Anyway, for me Siri is a petite brunet, librarian type, with big framed eyeglasses.

Hi Lee

Location-related services are not yet enabled in the UK version - e.g. find the nearest “xyz” - though, from what I remember, all the other services function.

I would have thought that you should at least be able to select the UK personality to try it out - I’m (obviously(?)) in the UK and I can invoke the others.

I wonder if there’s also something influencing this option in the International section - maybe temporarily selecting International > Voice Control > Siri > English (UK) will allow you to also select the UK personality for the voicing of the responses?

As for the gender, it’s not so much that there’s a choice - it just so happens that the UK voice is male.  See this story for some background on the UK side:
<http://tinyurl.com/7ca3qu8>

I also couldn’t get text to speech work with UK English, it defaulted to the USA female voice. Probably in a future version we may have more choices.

Speach does work (at least the ones I’ve tried) on the very latest version of iBooks (released today I think)

Thanks John!

Speech needs to pause a bit after a sentence stop. It shouldn’t be too hard to code that into the software. Just pause two beats after a period, question mark, and such.

Hi Lee

I noticed this ‘rush-on’ effect between sentences when I was using Speech on my iMac to proof-read a long email last night.  I had an idea and have now had a chance to test it.  If you put a single space between sentences the voicing will correctly handle the ‘breath’ between sentences.  However, if you favour the old-fashioned style of two spaces, as I do, you get the really short gap between the sentences.

I could easily accept that this exact same ‘feature’ is also present in the iOS text-to-speech software and is the root of what you’re describing.  I agree 110% that this should be dealt with through the software.

If you put a single space between sentences the voicing will correctly handle the ‘breath’ between sentences.  However, if you favour the old-fashioned style of two spaces, as I do, you get the really short gap between the sentences.

I am going to try it on some of my own writing. I noticed the nonstop when having it read from an iBook, Steve Jobs biography.

Edit: I just listened again and there is pause though it is subtle to my ear. Now this was on something I wrote in Notes on my iPhone. When I tried it in an app it seemed to the same speed through sentences. I need to get my singer and musician friend to listen, she can hear stuff I never discern.

Old fashioned spacing eh? I started out in this racket setting metal type into a composing stick. It was in a small job printing shop mostly doing forms, show tickets, business cards and such. We even had one hand powered press, but we did have another that one that electric powered.

> setting metal type into a composing stick

I have some experience there too.  In my spare time in the last few years at school, I did the dance tickets and so on.  We had a hand-cranked Adana flat bed press.  I first met Gill Sans as trays of lead type. 

You might appreciate LetterMpress…  Have you seen it?  Available on both the Mac and the iPad.  I’ve only tinkered with it a bit so far, but I love the attention to detail.
<http://tinyurl.com/7bkb9j3>

You might appreciate LetterMpress…  Have you seen it?  Available on both the Mac and the iPad.  I’ve only tinkered with it a bit so far, but I love the attention to detail.

Thanks for the tip! That is one steampunk looking app that certainly brings back memories. Only $2.99 in US dollars, I think that I will purchase a copy. No danger of the type falling out of the chase.