VoKnow Launches New Mobile Web Audio Experience via TTS

VoKnow has released a free audio news reader for the mobile Web that allows people to create personalized news programs and listen to them over the Web or through their Android mobile phones and tablets or Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

VoKnow doesn't depend on pre-recorded audio. VoKnow's text-to-speech streaming technology reads freely available content off the Web, from news sites, blogs, and Twitter. News programs can comprise content from millions of sources, including specific companies, celebrities, sports teams, and even friends and family members.

"VoKnow reads me tweets from my clients, colleagues, and industry experts while I commute or travel from one meeting to another," said Cynthia Gilbert, a patent attorney from Cambridge, Mass. "VoKnow lets me get ahead on all those tweets that are piling up right now. Then when I get into the office I don't have to add 'catch up on Twitter' to my to-do list."

"I listen to VoKnow every day on my iPhone out in the garden," said Simon Wetz, an IT consultant from Perth, Australia. "I'm too busy during the day to read the latest technology news, and I don't want to sacrifice personal time to read it. VoKnow allows me to catch up on the latest from TechCrunch, Mashable and others while I do my gardening."

VoKnow also creates a new customer and market communications medium for businesses. Companies and organizations can turn their current Web marketing and customer service communications—blogs, e-newsletters and Tweets—into instant audio programming. 

"Companies we've talked to publish great marketing and customer service content to their followers. Unfortunately, consumers don't have a lot of time to spare, so only 10 percent of it gets read," said VoKnow founder and CEO Frank Qiu. "VoKnow allows that content to reach more people, audibly, without them having to take time to read. All they have to do is create a list of Twitter accounts, blogs, or news sites to follow and email the link to customers. VoKnow will read them news from those sources with just a click."