TOBY SHAPSHAK: Now the news can be read to you
Widely available text-to-speech services are transforming the way we consume news and use our smartphones
I can’t help it. I’m a news junkie. I read all the news. All the time. And I’ve found a new way to get my fix. I first noticed it on the Daily Maverick site: a solid right-facing arrow, the universal icon for the "play" button. So, I played it. A nice voice read me the article. It was great. Then I spotted it on businesslive.co.za, then in the updated News24 app. If I don’t see the text-to-speech functionality, I "select all" for the article and get Siri to read it to me (by right-clicking the "speak" option).
It’s the latest joy of these joyous smartphone thingies that we love — and love to hate — so much. There’s no denying how truly and wonderfully useful they are. But there is also no denying that they have become a new digital deliverer of some deep fear of missing out gene that we all suffer from. We all have an inner geeky feeling-left-out teenager self, it seems. So, we indulge in our social media addiction on our smartphones. But I realised this year how profoundly my...
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