Geoff from geoffmobile.com shows his process for making his phone read books (ebooks and other text such as web pages, blogs, emails, etc.) aloud using Text to Speech (TTS) on Android.

Yes, you can make your phone read a book to you, using your headphones, or even in the car. And what’s more, you can create the book yourself using text from any web page.

Here’s the process, using an Android smart-phone and a PC or Mac desktop:

1. On your desktop, find the article you want the phone to read. Save it as a HTML file from the web site, or as a RTF file.

2. Install Calibre, a free ebook creator software. You can get it from: calibre-ebook.com/
It works on both Mac and PC.

3. Using Calibre, open the HTML or RTF file you saved, and select the “Convert” option to convert it to EPUB format.

4. Put the EPUB file you created on your Android phone. You can do this by emailing it to yourself (and then use the Opera mobile browser on your phone to download from your email to your phone), or you can connect the phone to your computer using the USB cable, and then transfer the EPUB file by copying it to the phone).

5. Install the free Android application called “FBReader” as well as the “FBReader TTS Plugin”. You will need both of these applications for it to work. You can get them from the Android Market (Google Play store) or from their website: www.fbreader.org/

6. Using FBReader on your phone, open your EPUB file. View the page of the book you want to start reading, and then go to the menu and choose “Speak”.

7. That’s it! Also note that if you go into the Accessibility settings on your phone, you can change the voice and language to other options such as British English, French, German, etc.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Have fun and please let me know your comments!

p.s. the article that my phone was reading is: “Lockdown – The coming war on general-purpose computing” by Cory Doctorow, posted January 2012. A great article, I highly recommend it. Article link: boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

Cheers,
Geoff
geoffmobile.com

Technical notes:

Camera : Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V (manual white balance)
Audio: Zoom H1 connected to lapel mic under my shirt
Audio processed with Audacity (I used the SC4 compressor and Amplify effects).
Video edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on a Windows 7 Dell PC (Intel i7 and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow). Audio synced with video using Pluraleyes from Singular Software.

A Birds in the House Production
birdsinthehouse.com

Yopo Cafe
1122 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada
phone: 604-609-9676
Restaurant web site: www.yopocafe.com/

Geoff from geoffmobile.com visits Yopo Cafe in Yaletown.

This is yummy Great Chinese food in Yaletown, downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

Thanks for watching!
Cheers,
Geoff

Technical notes:
This is a very “mobile” video: it was filmed and edited entirely on a Google Nexus S Android Smartphone (on the Wind network) using the “Movie Studio” app available in Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). No desktop computer or separate video camera was used for the creation of this video!

Geoff from geoffmobile.com talks about the future of TV and how he thinks it will be very useful to connect his phone and Youtube to his TV.

Google Youtube Remote

market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.ytremote&hl=en

Thanks for watching! Please rate, comment, and subscribe
Cheers,
Geoff

Technical notes:
Canon EOS T2i, 50mm 1.4 lens, Technicolor Cinestyle, Magic lantern unified, Sony ICD-SX712 with lapel mic for audio, edited with Adobe Premiere on a Windows 7 Dell PC (Intel i7 and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow)

Here’s the latest joke from Geoff geoffmobile.com

and a discussion of one of my new favorite bands, Dirty Loops from Sweden.

Check out some of Dirty Loops videos here:

Dirty Loops’ Website:

www.dirty-loops.com

Dirty Loops’ Channel on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/user/dirtyloops/videos

Dirty Loops Cover of Baby by Justin Bieber (so amazing!!!)

Try the “Twitter Interesting Stuff Finder”: (also works on mobile phones!!)

gpeters.com/twitter

To listen to our music (band: Windflower):

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0AE0E27543C76417

Cool channels to follow on Youtube:

Mike Falzone:

www.youtube.com/user/mikefalzone

Hannysocks:

www.youtube.com/user/HannySocks

Woggyflush:

www.youtube.com/user/Woggyflush

Midnightjustice:

www.youtube.com/user/Midnightjustice

This video was brought to you by geoffmobile.com
Thanks for watching and see you next time

Please rate, comment, and subscribe =)

Cheers!!
Geoff

Technical notes:
Recorded on a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V and a Sony ICD-SX712 with lapel mic, edited with Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5 and Audacity on a Windows 7 Dell PC (Intel i7 and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow).

Geoff talks about his day.

Summary:
-Hi good morning.
-Having a little rest, had to wake up early.
-Comfortable bed.
-Here’s an update!
-I’ve renovated my social media! My twitter has a new background image twitter.com/gpeters and my facebook has a new image facebook.com/geoff.peters
-I went to West Vancouver to play the Steinway Piano for 3 hours, it was fun!
-Interesting videos on Youtube (thanks woggyflush!). www.youtube.com/woggyflush
-Recipe for Mango Clafoutis will be posted soon! at geoffmobile.com
-Joke about a dancer that I told last night at a party
-Remembering and celebrating the wonderful life of my grandfather, Martin Jake Peters.
-Advice about spending time with family because life is short!
-Thanks very much, have a great day!
Geoff

Glowbal Grill

www.glowbalgroup.com/glowbalgrill/

1079 Mainland Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada
604-602-0835

This was the special of the day; we had a yummy lunch! Thanks to Glowbal for all the great lunches see you again soon!

Part of the SAP Lunch on Us Food program.

yaletowninfo.com/sap-lunch-in-yaletown/

Filmed on a Google Nexus S.

Geoff Peters, an active contributor to independent media and content, talks about the change from a traditional “ownership” model of media consumption (CD’s, DVD’s) to the current cloud-based on-demand structures (Youtube, Netflix, Flickr, Facebook) that are emerging in prominence today.

Presented by the Best Run Toastmasters club at SAP in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Intro
Survey:
- How many of you have bought a CD or DVD in the last 2 months?
- How many have watched music or video on Youtube, for entertainment purposes, in the last 2 months?
- Closing of Blockbuster, Netflix ending their mail order service = is this a trend?
- In this speech I will talk about this new paradigm of on-demand, cloud based media consumption.

1. What is On Demand?
- When I go to Home Depot, I can buy a bag of sand. Say I want to create a rock garden in my living room. I can bring it home. That sand, a piece of nature, is now owned by me. Now I legally own part of nature.

- When you go to the beach, there is lots of sand.
- But the sand is part of nature, no-one owns it. You can go to the beach and enjoy the sand on-demand.

- New media is more like going to the beach. There is no need to take the beach home (my apartment can’t fit all the sand anyways). I don’t want to buy CD’s or DVD’s and bring them home

2. “From a Copy Economy to an Access Economy” – Gerd Leonhard
- What is the cloud? = your data is hosted by a third party
- Software examples: Gmail, Youtube, SAP On Demand, Netflix, Facebook. Not just hype.

3. Implications:
- With mobile, we are always online, even in car.
- Have access to everything, anywhere, at anytime.
- Revenue / monetization: Subscription based, or advertising.
- Everyone gets more connected and inter-dependent.

Conclusion: This is a paradigm shift – a dramatic change: “A fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions”.
Cloud, on-demand, access, mobile, streaming – key features of media for the next 5 yrs.

Recorded on a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V. Edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 on a Windows 7 PC computer.

for more videos from Geoff Peters please visit:

geoffmobile.com

Thanks a lot for watching, see you next time!

Cheers,
Geoff

Geoff Peters from geoffmobile.com talks about the future of Google Android, Apple iOS (iPhone) and Nokia’s Symbian in light of the recent news about the increasing popularity and growth of Google Android and the Symbian “burning platform” memo sent to Nokia employees by their CEO.

Also mentioned is a comparison between the standardization on Android and the PC/Windows platform consolidation of the late 80′s / early 90′s.

I also talk about the latest news about the future of Wind Mobile with regards to the difficulties Globalive has had in the Canadian courts (re: court decision that puts Wind Mobile’s future in doubt). I really like Wind Mobile’s service and I hope they are allowed to continue being in business by the Canadian Government.

Here’s a helpful video tip from Geoffmobile. The idea is to check around the edges of the frame for distracting elements before or while shooting.