The Sound of Data

Before we can have Android speak to us, we first need to give it a voice. Setting up TTS on Android 4.2 and newer is easy. Select the “Language & input” option in the Settings program, then scroll down and select the “Text-to-speech output” item. This will display the text-to-speech output settings shown in Figure 15, Text-to-speech output settings.

The default preferred speech engine in Android 4.2 is Google’s own TTS technology. If you have SVOX or another third-party engine installed, it will also be listed on this settings page. From this screen, you can also modify the rate of speech playback, ranging from very slow to very fast. I prefer the default normal speed, but try each setting to see which of the five playback ...

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