Are You Listening?
See that ‘listen now’ button above this text? That’s new, hey! Oooooo!
While reading some posts on Brandice’s blog I noticed she had the same button. Curiously, I clicked. Apparently the one on Brandice’s blog is broken. Nevertheless, I investigated some more.
Odiogo (the name reminds me of Odeo; long-time podcasters will reminisce with that) is a FREE service that offers a text-to-speech tool for bloggers (and others with text-to-speech needs).
It took me less than five minutes to set up:
- I enter my blog feed and e-mail address.
- The next page shows me instructions on how to install the WordPress plugin and activate it with my unique six-digit code. (These instructions — and more — are also sent to my e-mail address).
- I test it and notice it only reads the first couple paragraphs of each of my posts. I searched their simple FAQ and discovered that this was because my feed was only showing summaries of each post. Switched to full text: solved.
As expected, the speech isn’t perfect, and for some it actually might be quite annoying. That’s why I this is a blog and you can read it if you prefer.
Yes, like all modern audio files, there’s an RSS feed (read: podcast) available for the audio files. That’s right, you can subscribe to my blog in iTunes and listen to it on the way to wherever you may decide to commute to. Ooo laa laa!
Click one of the icons below to subscribe in that app:
For all other applications just put this link in your app:
http://podcasts.odiogo.com/giddy-blog-derek-steen/podcasts-xml.php
If you’re reading this far in the future and I no longer use the Odiogo service, then please disregard this post. 
For now, enjoy it, and hopefully the speech will eventually sound more like I’m talking.
You may ask: Derek, why don’t you just read your own blog? Then it would be easier to listen to because you know what you’re reading and you have that sexy Australian accent.
Well, frankly, I’d love to. But that takes time, time, and more time. This is an easy plug-and-go option (for now). 
