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A Talking iPod

The talking iPod is another innovation by Apple, which does not stop changing the world`s music-listening habits. The talking iPod will be able to convert the names of tracks, albums and bands into human speech. This way there will be no need for users to look at the screen while selecting music, and making the device easier to use while driving, cycling or jogging.

Relying on home PC processing power and clever software, the system will analyse each album title, song name and artist and convert them into sound files, which will be loaded into the iPod, with the song files. The Clickwheel will still be operated as usual, but in addition to that users will hear the names of songs and bands through their headphones, even when the names are very difficult to understand.

"It is possible to create very high quality text-to-voices these days", says professor Steve Renals, a speech technology expert at Edinburgh University.The patent also makes clear that text-to-speech technology is likely to spread to other hand-held electronic devices such as mobile phones and palm-top computers. However, safety experts are concerned that pedestrians, cyclists and motorists might be involved in accidents when they are distracted by their digital music players.