

A Canadian company called ReadPlease Corp has developed toolbars that read aloud stuff for you — a process that’s not unnaturally called text to speech. ReadPlease PLUS ($50) uses AT&T’s Natural Voices software which offers some seriously lifelike characters, while the free version uses the more basic Microsoft voices. Yesterday they announced a version for Internet Explorer called ReadingBar for Internet Explorer ($70) which can can read back web pages and create .mp3 files so you can listen to your web pages while jogging, riding the car or having the in-laws over for dinner.
I haven’t tried it yet; I’ll get back to you when I do.