Call me crazy, but my Android phone and I have been having some great
conversations lately.
With Google's new Voice Actions, I've been using voice commands to
control my handset every day. And now, thanks to a new app about to
hit the Android Market, my phone's started talking back to me, too.
The app is called BuzzVoice, and it turns your favorite blogs and news
sites into personalized streaming podcasts. It's aimed at making it
easy (and safe) to keep up with news on-the-go -- in your car, at the
gym, wherever -- and it has the potential to change the way you
consume information.
I was able to spend some time with the program in advance of its
upcoming launch. Here's an exclusive sneak peek at how it works and
what it can do for your phone.
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BuzzVoice for Android: The Vocal News App
BuzzVoice works by literally reading you the news. The program offers
feeds from more than 1600 sources -- everything from The New York
Times to Slashdot -- so it isn't hard to find something you like.
When you first open BuzzVoice, you'll spend a few minutes building
your personal playlist. BuzzVoice breaks down the news into a dozen
categories, each of which has a handful of subtopics to help you
discover the sites you want. After selecting "Technology," for
example, you can narrow down to sources specific to Android news,
gadget news, social media news, and so on. With the basic BuzzVoice
service, you can keep up to 15 different feeds in your playlist at any
given time.
Once you've filled up your playlist, you just click onto any source to
see a list of its latest stories. You can select stories one by one
and have BuzzVoice convert them to audio on-the-fly, or you can tap an
"auto" icon and have the app read you all of a site's recent stories
without interruption.
BuzzVoice alternates between a female and a male voice, the latter of
which sounds only slightly like Johnny 5. Aside from the occasional
mispronunciation of a person's name, the voices actually do a pretty
good job at playing anchorman (and anchorwoman). They're surprisingly
lifelike and generally quite listenable.
In addition to site-specific feeds, BuzzVoice can play a mix of
stories from all the sources you've selected, giving you a radio-like
podcast of your Web-based news. If you want to expand your repertoire,
there's also a "Top News" station that collects the most recent
stories from around the Web and a "Top Blogs" station that focuses on
sites like Lifehacker, Mashable, and Gizmodo. Or you can pick from the
app's topic-specific "BuzzRadio" stations to drill down on a
particular subject -- anything from Android news to politics, sports,
or even celebrity gossip.
The BuzzVoice Android interface is pleasant enough to use, though with
all of the options available, it does take a bit of time to figure out
how to best navigate the system and take advantage of its features.
The app also includes a widget that lets you control playback from
your home screen. It's a simple four-by-one box with functionality
similar to most other audio-oriented widgets: You tap it once to open
the app and select your station, then use its controls to play, pause,
or move around within the playlist.
BuzzVoice will be launching in the Android Market later this week.
(It's already available on the iPhone and online.) The app will cost
$4.99, which includes a lifetime subscription to the basic BuzzVoice
service.
We'll have some free copies to give away once the app debuts...stay tuned.
--
Salam,
Agus Hamonangan
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