how to make a text to speech program in notepad

How To Create Your Own Text To Speech Converter Using Notepad

How To Create Your Own Text To Speech Converter Using Notepad!:- Want to amaze your friends by creating your own text to speech converter using nothing but Notepad ? Notepad is the most common text editor that everyone is familiar with. If you can create a text to speech converter using nothing but Notepad , that sure is guaranteed to amaze your friends. Dig into the article to learn how to hack this simple trick.

STEP 1 – First of all, launch Notepad . For that, press WIN+R keys together to open the Run dialog box, type in Notepad and hit enter key. Alternatively, you can launch it by searching for it in the Windows Search .

When the Notepad opens up, copy paste the following code.

Hit the File tab and then on Save as option. Save the file in .vbs format. I have saved the file as merabheja.vbs as shown in the screenshot given below.

Navigate to the location where you have saved the file and double click on it to open it.

There you are. Now you can type in the text that you want to be converted to speech in the input box. Hit OK button when you are done. Now you will be able to hear your computer reading out the text that you have entered.

Hope you had fun checking out the article. Seems like you are so much into hacks and tricks. Why don’t you check out our article on the topic How To Secretly Hide Files Behind An Image ? If you get stuck with any of the steps, feel free to tell us by leaving comments. We would be more than happy to help.

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2 thoughts on “How To Create Your Own Text To Speech Converter Using Notepad”

Well, it replies it in Microsoft’s voice. How to make a TTS engine with our own voice.

Excellent tool and so easy to build – thank you! I use Notepad FREQUENTLY – Thank you!!!

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How to Create a Simple Text to Speech Application?

In this article, we will create a simple text-to-speech script. For this, we will be using the notepad++ but you can use any editor of your choice. 

Implementation:

Follow the below steps to implement the text to speech application:

Step 1 : First open the notepad and write the below-shown code. You can use any text editor notepad++ , atom , sublime text etc. 

Step 2:  Save as with file extension (.vbs) . VBS ( Virtual Basic script) written in the VBScript scripting language. It contains code that can be executed within Windows or Internet Explorer, via the Windows-based script .

Step 3: After saving to .vbs file. It looks something like this shown in below screenshot. 

Icon looks something like this.

Step 4: You are done just double-click to listen to the computer voice. You can also make any voice message computer speaks when you open the computer. Just follow the below steps:

• Type in run shell   Shell:startup paste in to it
• And turn off the windows default sound.

Now, every time when your computer switched on computer reads the voice message set by you.

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Convert Text to Speech With Notepad

By timothy tibbetts.

Google Chrome Required

Please open dictation.io inside Google Chrome to use speech recognition.

Cannot Access Microphone

Please follow this guide for instructions on how to unblock your microphone.

Dictation is now publishing your note online. Please wait..

Speed is the rate at which the selected voice will speak your transcribed text while the pitch governs how high or low the voice speaks.

Speak Reset

#1 Text To Speech (TTS) Reader Online

Proudly serving millions of users since 2015

Type or upload any text, file, website & book for listening online, proofreading, reading-along or generating professional mp3 voice-overs.

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Reads out loud plain text, files, e-books and websites. Remembers text & caret position, so you can come back to listening later, unlimited length, recording and more.

Create Humanlike Voiceovers

The simplest most robust & affordable AI voice-over generating tool online. Mix voices, languages & speeds. Listen before recording. Unlimited!

Additional Text-To-Speech Solutions

Turns your articles, PDFs, emails, etc. into podcasts, so you can listen to it on your own podcast player when convenient, with all the advantages that come with your podcast app.

SpeechNinja says what you type in real time. It enables people with speech difficulties to speak out loud using synthesized voice (AAC) and more.

Battle tested for years, serving millions of users, especially good for very long texts.

Need to read a webpage? Simply paste its URL here & click play. Leave empty to read about the Beatles 🎸

Books & Stories

Listen to some of the best stories ever written. We have them right here. Want to upload your own? Use the main player to upload epub files.

Simply paste any URL (link to a page) and it will import & read it out loud.

Chrome Extension

Reads out loud webpages, directly from within the page.

TTSReader for mobile - iOS or Android. Includes exporting audio to mp3 files.

NEW 🚀 - TTS Plugin

Make your own website speak your content - with a single line of code. Hassle free.

TTSReader Premium

Support our development team & enjoy ad-free better experience. Commercial users, publishers are required a premium license.

TTSReader reads out loud texts, webpages, pdfs & ebooks with natural sounding voices. Works out of the box. No need to download or install. No sign in required. Simply click 'play' and enjoy listening right in your browser. TTSReader remembers your text and position between sessions, so you can continue listening right where you left. Recording the generated speech is supported as well. Works offline, so you can use it at home, in the office, on the go, driving or taking a walk. Listening to textual content using TTSReader enables multitasking, reading on the go, improved comprehension and more. With support for multiple languages, it can be used for unlimited use cases .

Get Started for Free

Main Use Cases

Listen to great content.

Most of the world's content is in textual form. Being able to listen to it - is huge! In that sense, TTSReader has a huge advantage over podcasts. You choose your content - out of an infinite variety - that includes humanity's entire knowledge and art richness. Listen to lectures, to PDF files. Paste or upload any text from anywhere, edit it if needed, and listen to it anywhere and anytime.

Proofreading

One of the best ways to catch errors in your writing is to listen to it being read aloud. By using TTSReader for proofreading, you can catch errors that you might have missed while reading silently, allowing you to improve the quality and accuracy of your written content. Errors can be in sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, but also in your essay's structure, order and content.

Listen to web pages

TTSReader can be used to read out loud webpages in two different ways. 1. Using the regular player - paste the URL and click play. The website's content will be imported into the player. (2) Using our Chrome extension to listen to pages without leaving the page . Listening to web pages with TTSReader can provide a more accessible, convenient, and efficient way of consuming online content.

Turn ebooks into audiobooks

Upload any ebook file of epub format - and TTSReader will read it out loud for you, effectively turning it into an audiobook alternative. You can find thousands of epub books for free, available for download on Project Gutenberg's site, which is an open library for free ebooks.

Read along for speed & comprehension

TTSReader enables read along by highlighting the sentence being read and automatically scrolling to keep it in view. This way you can follow with your own eyes - in parallel to listening to it. This can boost reading speed and improve comprehension.

Generate audio files from text

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech with a single click. This is available currently only on Windows and requires TTSReader’s premium . Adhering to the commercial terms some of the voices may be used commercially for publishing, such as narrating videos.

Accessibility, dyslexia, etc.

For individuals with visual impairments or reading difficulties, listening to textual content, lectures, articles & web pages can be an essential tool for accessing & comprehending information.

Language learning

TTSReader can read out text in multiple languages, providing learners with listening as well as speaking practice. By listening to the text being read aloud, learners can improve their comprehension skills and pronunciation.

Kids - stories & learning

Kids love stories! And if you can read them stories - it's definitely the best! But, if you can't, let TTSReader read them stories for you. Set the right voice and speed, that is appropriate for their comprehension level. For kids who are at the age of learning to read - this can also be an effective tool to strengthen that skill, as it highlights every sentence being read.

Main Features

Ttsreader is a free text to speech reader that supports all modern browsers, including chrome, firefox and safari..

Includes multiple languages and accents. If on Chrome - you will get access to Google's voices as well. Super easy to use - no download, no login required. Here are some more features

Fun, Online, Free. Listen to great content

Drag, drop & play (or directly copy text & play). That’s it. No downloads. No logins. No passwords. No fuss. Simply fun to use and listen to great content. Great for listening in the background. Great for proof-reading. Great for kids and more. Learn more, including a YouTube we made, here .

Multilingual, Natural Voices

We facilitate high-quality natural-sounding voices from different sources. There are male & female voices, in different accents and different languages. Choose the voice you like, insert text, click play to generate the synthesized speech and enjoy listening.

Exit, Come Back & Play from Where You Stopped

TTSReader remembers the article and last position when paused, even if you close the browser. This way, you can come back to listening right where you previously left. Works on Chrome & Safari on mobile too. Ideal for listening to articles.

Vs. Recorded Podcasts

In many aspects, synthesized speech has advantages over recorded podcasts. Here are some: First of all - you have unlimited - free - content. That includes high-quality articles and books, that are not available on podcasts. Second - it’s free. Third - it uses almost no data - so it’s available offline too, and you save money. If you like listening on the go, as while driving or walking - get our free Android Text Reader App .

Read PDF Files, Texts & Websites

TTSReader extracts the text from pdf files, and reads it out loud. Also useful for simply copying text from pdf to anywhere. In addition, it highlights the text currently being read - so you can follow with your eyes. If you specifically want to listen to websites - such as blogs, news, wiki - you should get our free extension for Chrome

Export Speech to Audio Files

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech to mp3 audio files. This is available currently only on Windows, and requires ttsreader’s premium .

Pricing & Plans

• Online text to speech player
• Chrome extension for reading webpages

$10.99 /mo OR $39 /yr

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Visit our contact page , for various ways to get in touch with us, send us feedback and interact with our community of users & developers.

The 6 Best Speech-to-Text Apps for Note-Taking

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Whether you're taking meeting minutes, interviewing someone, or researching for a project, speech-to-text apps are an excellent tool that saves time. Both students and professionals can benefit from using an app that provides speech-to-text functionality.

You can use some apps in the list below in your browser, or you can use them in an app on your phone. Depending on what you want to do with the transcribed notes, some apps may be more valuable than others. You can find the apps on Android and iOS, so your options aren't limited depending on your phone.

1. Dragon Anywhere

Dragon Anywhere provides you with dictation capabilities without any word limits. Suppose you've had bad experiences with talk-to-text apps transcribing your audio incorrectly. You don't have to worry about that with Dragon Anywhere since it has 99% accuracy with powerful voice formatting and editing.

You can use the Train Words feature to teach Dragon Anywhere how you speak. Once you have your audio transcribed, you can share your documents by email, Dropbox, and other apps. The app doesn't limit the length of your documents. You can easily adjust formatting, edit them quickly, and share them on the most common cloud-sharing platforms.

Dragon Anywhere allows you to add custom words for industry-specific terminology for better dictation accuracy. The platform has solid voice formatting and editing options, including selecting words and sentences for deletion or editing.

You can save time crafting emails and dictating your text. You can open your dictation files in Microsoft Word or save your dictation to Evernote as a new note. Furthermore, you can change between Dragon Anywhere and your desktop to complete documents. The app allows you to dictate on multiple mobile devices, as long as you log in to your accounts and synchronize all your customizations.

Download : Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases)

Gboard is a platform that accurately converts audio to text with an API (application programming interface) powered by the best of Google's AI technology and research. You can access Gboard using Google Assistant, and the app transcribes your speech with accurate captions. You benefit from Google's advanced intense learning neural network algorithms in its automatic speech recognition.

You can test the app's Teach Speak-to-Text user interface to manage and create custom resources, such as standard industry terms and acronyms. One of Gboard's key features is its speech adaptation, which provides hints to improve your transcription accuracy of unique words or phrases. The feature uses classes to automatically convert spoken numbers into currencies, addresses, and years.

You can use Gboard to dictate emails, create Google Docs, and in any other app on your phone. You can transcribe video meetings to take meeting minutes. Gboard offers robust language support in over 125 languages and variations. If you're in a noisy room, the app's speech-to-text can handle the audio without needing any noise cancellation.

You can transcribe audio the app receives from the audio on your device's microphone, or you can upload pre-recorded audio from the cloud or your device. You may be interested in learning how to transcribe speech in real-time with Google Translate .

Download : Android | iOS (Free)

3. Speechnotes

Speechnotes is available as a mobile app and a web service. The online version of the platform works in your Chrome browser, so you don't have to download any programs—the company endeavors to provide the best online dictation tool. The app's creators designed it to provide an environment without distractions. The app simulates a blank sheet of white paper to spark your mind.

The app is free, and the creators claim that the accuracy is comparable to Dragon Anywhere. If you're looking for an app that allows you to use voice control other apps, Speechnotes isn't the app you're looking for, and the app is strictly a dictation app.

Features of Speechnotes include Autosave, which saves the document in real time when you make changes, so you don't have to interrupt yourself. You can save your transcription in Google Drive or download it as a document to your computer to email or print your note.

Data from Speechnotes shows that speaking instead of typing allows you to think and talk it out uninterrupted, which supports creative thinking, which is good for content creators. If you have a podcast, you might be interested in what Descript is and how you use it .

Download : Android (Free, in-app purchases)

4. Transkriptor

Transkriptor can convert audio recorded on your device or audio you've uploaded in minutes. When your transcription is ready, you get a notification on your phone, if you allow it, and receive an email.

You can transcribe interviews, video content, meetings, podcasts, and phone calls. You can save time and money using a transcription app to convert audio to text. Before talk-to-text apps, you had to hire someone to listen to audio and make notes, and now you can take advantage of the technology advancements.

Regardless of your profession, if you need to make notes, you can benefit from using Transkriptor. Whether you're a journalist, academic researcher, student, or lawyer, as long as you have to take notes, you can use the app to improve your efficiency.

You can download the text in various formats, such as SRT, TXT, or Microsoft Word, to share the text with others. To make your videos more accessible, you can create subtitles when you convert your event recordings to text. You might be interested in working with closed captions and transcriptions in Adobe Premiere .

Braina is another dictation application with speech recognition software that converts your voice into text on any website or software. For example, you can dictate in Microsoft Word or Notepad. The platform supports over 100 languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Hindi, German, and English. The app is easy, fast, and accurate, helping you be more productive.

Braina is an app you can use to control your computer. You can customize your voice commands and replies to automatically launch any software, open a website, or trigger keyboard macros utilizing the app to interact with your computer via Wi-Fi from anywhere in your home.

The app goes beyond the functionality of Siri and Cortana, providing you with a powerful office productivity tool. Braina is the result of solid research the creators did in the artificial intelligence industry. Like a human brain, the app is a digital assistant that can think, understand, and learn from experience.

Otter can take notes, record meetings, and generate text that you can share. If staff need to miss meetings to meet deadlines, you can record meetings and share notes to keep members in the loop.

You can capture all your important meetings and conversations, whether they take place in person or virtually. Otter assistant integrates with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. You can save the transcriptions in a secure, central, and accessible place.

Otter allows you to customize the app's vocabulary, including names and acronyms. It doesn't matter where you are; you can record and transcribe conversations in person, on your phone, or via video.

Otter for business allows you to connect with your Google or Microsoft Calendar and automatically schedule your Otter assistant to join Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meetings. You can pay more attention to the discussion when you know the app is recording it, and it notes everything participants say. You may be interested in learning about the best tools for transcribing video meetings to shareable documents ​​​​​.

Are You Ready to Increase Your Efficiency?

Once you find a talk-to-text app that works for you, you can take advantage of the functionality to save time on minute-taking and researching topics. Some apps allow you to control your laptop or desktop computer from your phone, as long as you connect your device to your Wi-Fi network.

You can try different apps to see which one you feel more comfortable with. Depending on what you want to use the app to achieve, you can find an app that you can use to take notes, write emails, and write documents.

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• Upload to Google Drive
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Tip: While dictating, press Enter↵ (on keyboard) to quickly move results from buffer to text editor.

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Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can use Speak to have text read aloud in the language of your version of Office.

Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For example, if you're using the English version of Office, the English TTS engine is automatically installed. To use text-to-speech in different languages, see Using the Speak feature with Multilingual TTS .

To learn how to configure Excel for text-to-speech, see Converting text to speech in Excel .

Add Speak to the Quick Access Toolbar

You can add the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar by doing the following in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote:

Next to the Quick Access Toolbar, click Customize Quick Access Toolbar .

Click More Commands .

In the Choose commands from list, select All Commands .

Scroll down to the Speak command, select it, and then click Add .

Use Speak to read text aloud

After you have added the Speak command to your Quick Access Toolbar, you can hear single words or blocks of text read aloud by selecting the text you want to hear and then clicking the Speak icon on the Quick Access Toolbar.

Listen to your Word documents with Read Aloud

Listen to your Outlook email messages with Read Aloud

Converting text to speech in Excel

Dictate text using Speech Recognition

Learning Tools in Word

Hear text read aloud with Narrator

Using the Save as Daisy add-in for Word

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How to Convert Text to Audio Using Notepad

Introduction: How to Convert Text to Audio Using Notepad

Step 1: Step 1: Open Notepad

Step 2: Step 2: Copy and Paste the Code Below

Step 3: Step 3: Save the File

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Voice In Notepad

Place the cursor in the textbox below, start Voice In and dictate. Bookmark this page for easy access.

💡 Tip: You can dictate & format your content below and then copy-paste it into MS Word, Outlook desktop app, etc

Your text will be saved in your browser storage as draft automatically.

Google Chrome Required

Please open inside Google Chrome to use speech recognition.

Cannot Access Microphone

Please follow this guide for instructions on how to unblock your microphone.

Speech to Text is now publishing your note online. Please wait..

Speed is the rate at which the selected voice will speak your transcribed text while the pitch governs how high or low the voice speaks.

Speak Reset

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How to Identify AI-Generated Speech

This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Exposing AI” series . We’re exploring six different types of AI-generated media, and highlighting the common quirks, byproducts, and hallmarks that help you tell the difference between artificial and human-created content.  

In recent years, AI technologies have made it possible to clone someone else's voice and make that "person" say anything you want. You don't even need to be an expert to do it: A quick Google search, and you can have anyone from President Biden to SpongeBob speak your words. It's fascinating, hilarious, and terrifying.

AI voice technology can be used for good: Apple's Personal Voice feature , for example, lets you create a version of your own voice you can use for text-to-speech, designed for people who are losing the ability to speak for themselves. It's amazing that we have the ability to preserve people's voices, so rather than use a generic TTS voice, their words really sound like their own.

Of course, there's the other side of the coin: the potential for rampant misinformation. When the current tech makes it all too easy to make anyone say anything, how can you trust that what you're listening to online was actually said?

How AI voice generators work

Like other AI models, such as text and image models, AI voice generators are based on models trained on massive data sets. In this case, the models are trained on samples of other people speaking . OpenAI's Whisper model, for example, was trained on 680,000 hours of data . That's how it learns not only to replicate the words themselves, but the other elements of speech, such as tone and pace.

Once the model is trained, however, it doesn't need that much data in order to replicate a voice. You might not be overly impressed by the results when giving a model five minutes worth of recordings, but some can output voices that resemble that limited training data. Give it more data, and it will replicate the voice more accurately.

As the tech advances, it's getting more difficult to immediately spot forgery here. But there are some notable quirks and flaws that most AI voices tend to have, which makes spotting them crucial to identifying whether that recording is real or fake.

Listen for weird pronunciations and pacing

AI models are pretty good at mimicking the sound of a person's voice, to the point where it's tough to tell the difference at times. However, where they still struggle is in replicating the way we speak.

If in doubt, listen closely to the inflections in the speaker's "voice:" An AI bot might pronounce a word incorrectly every now and then, in a way that most people wouldn't. Yes, humans mispronounce things all the time, but be on the lookout for mistakes that might offer more of a tell. For example, "collages" might go from co- lah -jez, to co -lah-jez or co- lay -ges. You can hear these exact mistakes from Microsoft's VALL-E 2 model , if you click the first section under Audio Samples and listen to the "Clever cats" example.

The pacing might be affected, as well. While AI is getting better at replicating a normal speaking pace, it also takes weird pauses in between words, or races through others in an unnatural way. An AI model might blow past the spacing between two sentences, which will give itself away immediately. (Even a human who can't stop talking doesn't sound so robotic.) When testing out Eleven Labs' free generator , one of the outputs gave no space between my first sentence "Hey, what's up?" and my second sentence, "Thinking about heading to the movies tonight." To be fair, most attempts did include the space, but be on the lookout for moments like this when determining whether a piece of audio is legit or not.

On the flip side, it may take too long to get to the next word or sentence. While AI is getting better at replicating natural pauses and breaths (yes, some generators will now insert "breaths" before speaking) you'll also hear weird pauses in between words, as if the bot thinks that's how humans tend to talk. It'd be one thing if this was done to mimic someone thinking of the next word they want to say, but it doesn't sound like that. It sounds robotic.

You can hear these pauses in this deepfake audio of President Biden that someone made during the primary earlier this year. In the call, the fake Biden tries to persuade voters not to show up for the primary, and says, "Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect...Donald Trump...again."

There's minimal emotion and variation in the voice

On a similar note, AI voices tend to fall a bit flat. It's not that many haven't become convincing, but if you listen close, there's less variation in tone than you'd expect from most human speakers.

It's funny, too, since these models can replicate the sound of someone's voice so accurately, but often miss the mark when it comes to impersonating the speaker's rhythms and emotions. Check out some of the celebrity examples on PlayHT's generator : If you listen to the Danny DeVito example, it's obvious that it's impersonating DeVito's voice. But you don't get some of the highs and lows of his particular way of speaking. It feels flat. There's some variance here: The bot saying "Ohh, Danny, you're Italian" sounds realistic enough. But soon after, the sentence, "I've been to the leaning tower of Pisa," doesn't match it. The last word of the recording, "sandwich," sounds especially off. The Zach Galifianakis recording further down the page has a similar issue: There are some convincing uses of "um" that make the recording sound casual, but most of the sample is without emotion or inflection.

Again, things are advancing fast here. Companies like OpenAI are training their models to be more expressive and reactive in their vocal outputs. GPT-4o's advanced Voice Mode is probably the closest a company has come yet to making an all-around convincing AI voice, especially one capable of having real-time "conversations." Even still, there are imperfections you can spot if you're listening closely. In the video below, listen to how the bot says, "opposite, adjacent, and hypotenuse" (particularly hypotenuse). Here, GPT-4o pauses, the realistic variance drops out, and the voice becomes a bit more robotic as it figures out how to string together those uncommon words.

Now, it's very subtle: The larger tells are probably the pauses it puts in between words, such as the pause before it says "opposite." In fact, the way it slows down "identify" is probably a tell as well, but it is impressive how normal the model makes it seem.

Is a celebrity or politician saying something ridiculous or provocative?

Spotting AI voices isn't just about identifying the flaws in the outputs, especially when it comes to recordings of "celebrities." When it comes to AI-generated speech of people in power and influence, those recordings are likely going to be one of two things: silly or provocative. Perhaps someone on the internet wants to make a video of a celebrity saying something funny, or a bad actor wants to convince you a politician said something that pisses you off, for example.

Most people coming across a video of Trump, Biden, and Obama playing video games together aren't actually going to think its real: This is an obvious joke. But it's not hard to imagine someone looking to throw a wrench in an election generating a fake recording of a political candidate, playing it over a video, and uploading it to TikTok or Instagram. Elon Musk shared one such video on X , featuring a fake recording of Kamala Harris, without disclosing the video was made using AI.

That's not to excuse content that is real: If a candidate says something that may question their fitness for office, it's important to take note of. But as we enter what is sure to be a divisive election season, being skeptical of these types of recordings is going to be more critical than ever.

Part of the solution here is to take a look at the source of the audio recording: Who posted it? Was it a media organization, or just some random account on Instagram? If it's real, multiple media organizations will likely pick up on it quickly. If an influencer is sharing something that aligns with their point of view without providing a proper source, take a beat before resharing it yourself.

You can try an AI voice detector (but know the limitations)

There are tools out there that advertise themselves as "AI voice detectors," able to spot whether an audio recording was generated using machine learning or not. PlayHT has one such detector , while ElevenLabs has a detector specifically looking for audio generated from the company's own tools.

As with all AI media detectors, however, take these tools with a grain of salt. AI audio detectors use AI to look for signs of generative audio content , such as absent frequencies, lack of breaths, and a robotic timbre (some of which you can listen for yourself). But these AI models are only going to be effective at identifying what they know: If they come up against audio with variables they haven't been trained on, like poor audio quality or excessive background noise, that can throw them for a loop.

Another problem? These tools are trained on the technologies available to them now, rather than the AI audio that is currently coming out or on its way. It might be able to detect any of the examples listed in this article, but if someone makes a fake Tim Walz recording tomorrow with a new model, it might not catch it.

NPR tested three AI detection tools earlier this year, and found that two of them— AI or Not and AI Voice Detector —were wrong about half the time. The other, Pindrop Security , correctly identified 81 of the 84 sample clips submitted, which is impressive.

If you have a recording you aren't sure about, you can give one of these tools a shot. Just understand the limitations of the programs you're using.

• Show /Hide help pane
• User-Interface Language:
• Upload to Google Drive
• Download as file (.txt)
• Word Document (.doc)
• Save Session (Ctrl+S)

Say or Click

Tip: While dictating, press Enter↵ (on keyboard) to quickly move results from buffer to text editor.

Speechnotes

Speech to text online notepad professional, accurate & free speech recognition text editor distraction-free, fast, easy to use web app for dictation & typing.

- New - Speechnotes is now available on Android, with special punctuation-keyboard, commands & more.

NEW Service: Transcribe Audio Files

We started a new professional transcription service for consumers. This means you can now enjoy that service at VIP conditions & low cost of 0.8$/min. Try our new human-transcription service here.

Speechnotes is a powerful speech-enabled online notepad, designed to empower your ideas by implementing a clean & efficient design, so you can focus on your thoughts. We strive to provide the best online dictation tool by engaging cutting-edge speech-recognition technology for the most accurate results technology can achieve today, together with incorporating built-in tools (automatic or manual) to increase users' efficiency, productivity and comfort.

Works entirely online in your Chrome browser. No download, no install and even no registration needed, so you can start working right away.

Designed to Inspire Creativity and Keep You Focused

Speechnotes is especially designed to provide you a distraction-free environment. Every note, starts with a new clear white paper, so to stimulate your mind with a clean fresh start. All other elements but the text itself are out of sight by fading out, so you can concentrate on the most important part - your own creativity. In addition to that, speaking instead of typing, enables you to think and speak it out fluently, uninterrupted, which again encourages creative, clear thinking. Fonts and colors all over the app were designed to be sharp and have excellent legibility characteristics.

Reviews & Users’ Feedback (higher than 4.5 stars!)

We’ve only been on air for a short while and already featured on “ProductHunt” and other international tech magazines. But we are most proud of our users’ feedback. Speechnotes is the highest ranked speech-recognition app on the Chrome-store, rated higher than 4.5 stars! Well above other online alternatives. Here are some of the user reviews we got on the Chrome store :

"I would like to say that I am very pleased with this dictation plug in. It is better and much more accurate than the other two that I have tried. This is definitely my preferred dictation app. In fact, I wrote this review using the app. Thumbs up to the developers!!"

"It does what it says on the tin...& more. Priceless. Tony Hawes. Whose faith has been restored in Apps by this one."

... And there are many more. Read all of them on the Chrome store

Thanks a lot guys! Your feedback gives us great motivation to keep going in developing great solutions

A Free Alternative to Dragon Naturally Speaking

Features built to increase productivity & efficiency for both voice typing & regular key typing.

For many of us, key-typing is slow and thus time-consuming. Speechnotes lets you type at the speed of speech (slow & clear speech). Speechnotes lets you move from voice-typing (dictation) to key-typing seamlessly. This way, you can dictate when convenient and type when more appropriate. You can also dictate and edit your text results right away, and continue dictating. No need to go through app modes or even stop dictation. Insert punctuation marks by speech (voice commands) or by a single click.

Other features built for productivity for both type of typing are: Auto save that saves the document in real time upon any change, so you don't ever have to disturb yourself with it. Export to Google Drive (cloud saving) or download as a document to your computer. One click to email, or print your note. Automatic smart capitalization of letters at the beginning of sentences. No Login, registration, installation, or download needed. Works "right out of the box". So, where are all the automatically saved notes stored? Speechnotes stores all your data on your own computer, through your browser. The advantage is that you don't have to sign in. The disadvantage is that you cannot access these documents from other computers. For that - Speechnotes lets you export to Google Drive. Another small disadvantage is that after many many notes, you might run out of storage room, so, it's a good practice to delete from time-to-time unnecessary older notes. Unlimited usage for free.

Leading Technology

Speechnotes is based on Google's high-end speech-recognition engines. In fact, all your speech is sent to Google, there it gets interpreted using powerful parallel servers and algorithms, and gets sent back to Speechnotes as a stream of possible transcription results. With the right handling of these results and set of commands to the Speech-To-Text engines we are able to achieve results that do not fall in accuracy even when compared to the most professional and expensive software available on the market. Add to that punctuation insertion upon click and voice commands and smart capitalization, and you get one of the most advanced apps out there. Quantitatively, accuracy levels higher than 90% should be expected.

Health Advantages to Voice Typing

Sitting in front of a computer in general may result in different types of Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI). To avoid them the best way is not to sit in front of the computer for long periods of time. But, if you have to, you have to take extra care on your posture. You can read more about it here (http://rsi.unl.edu/) . Voice typing is one of the main recommended ways to minimize these risks, as it enables you to sit back comfortably, freeing your arms, hands, shoulders and back altogether. You can get back to typing once finished dictating for corrections & editing.

Instructions & Tips

Pre-operation: Connect a high-quality microphone to your PC (if you have a built-in microphone it might be good enough). Operation: 1) Click the mic 2) For the first time only: Your browser will popup a request for you to allow the site to listen to your mic. Click "Allow". 3) Start dictating. Speak slowly and clearly. Space your words and emphasize correct diction for better results. 4) Intermediate results will show in the buffer. There are 3 ways to finalize and shift transcription results from the buffer to the text editor itself:    (a) Press "Enter" key on the keyboard    (b) Say or click on a punctuation mark    (c) Wait Troubleshooting: Most common causes for failures are: 1) Hardware problem with the microphone 2) Browser not Chrome 3) Permission to listen not granted 4) Chrome listens to the wrong microphone To fix the last 2 problems, you should click on the small camera icon in the browser's address bar (will appear after you click the mic) and there set the permission to Allow speechnotes and pick the correct microphone from the drop-down list.

Who can benefit from Speechnotes?

Anyone who is tired of ordinary key-typing might find Speechnotes useful. It might also be helpful specifically for people with difficulties in typing. Such difficulties could be of a result of physical condition, or simply not mastering the keyboard typing technique in an early enough age. In addition, people who type a lot as their profession or hobby might find Speechnotes very useful as long keyboard typing might be very tyring, and even have medical implications as side effects. Needless to say, transcribers (from students to professionals) will find Speechnotes super helpful, as they can listen to a recording and repeat the speech into the mic, to get Speechnotes to transcribe it for them.

Compatibility & System Requirements

Speechnotes is really a broad-platform app. As long as you run it through a Chrome browser it will work. No need for installation, disk space or high-end machines. It will run smoothly on your PC, desktop, laptop and Chromebook. You might try it on your tablets and phones, but it might have issues with some devices.

We at Speechnotes value your privacy, and that's why we do not store anything you say or type or in fact any other data about you. Your speech is sent to Google's speech-to-text engines for transcription.

Although we try, speech results might not be accurate. Also, Speechnotes is a service provided AS-IS and we cannot guarantee that it will continue in the future. For that reason, and for the small chance that software failures might happen, we suggest you export your important texts either to Google Drive or to your computer, so to be protected against unexpected data loss. We will not be responsible for data loss or inaccuracies.

We appreciate your Feedback & Support

Speechnotes was developed in 2015 by the Speechlogger & TTSReader teams in order to help people all over the world to type their thoughts, stories and notes in an easier and more comfortable fashion. That's why Speechnotes is free and available online for everybody's access. The need for such a software tool came to our attention from feedback emails we got from our users. If you have feedback, ideas or requests, please contact us , we will be more than happy to hear from you. If you like Speechnotes, please show support by rating us on the Chrome store, sharing with friends, or mentioning us on your posts and blogs. Your friends and followers will appreciate it too. You may also contribute by a small donation ("buy me a coffee" style).

Speechnotes - Dictation Notepad

Professional speech recognition text editor. Accurate, free, easy to use & unlimited.

All rights reserved worldwide to owner. No permission to copy or use code, style, names, and any content without explicit written permission from owner ([email protected]). You may demonstrate usage of Speechnotes, reviews, etc. Thank you.

Enjoy Speechnotes? Please share . Thanks & love, Speechnotes team

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Everything You Need to Know About Text Effects in the iOS 18 Betas

From what the different effects are to how to use them.

• Apple software beta tester, "Helps make our computers and phones work!" - Zach's grandparents

Apple released the third public beta of iOS 18 on Aug. 6, almost two months after the tech giant announced the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta update brings many new features to the iPhone of developers and beta testers, including ways to  customize your home screen  and  RCS messaging . For people who like a little nuance in their texting, you'll also be able to make your texts stand out with new text effects and formatting options.

Text effects range from bolding your text or making the letters explode across the message. You can also use these effects on a single word or phrase in a message to emphasize what you're saying. Before these effects, all you could do was use all caps on a word or phrase, which is fine in some instances, but sometimes I want to make my words dance on screen because I'm dancing -- poorly -- as I type them.

Read more:  An Expert's Guide to the iOS 18 Beta Features

Remember that iOS 18 is still in beta, and I recommend downloading a beta only on something other than your primary device. Because this isn't the final version of iOS 18, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, and it's best to keep those troubles on a secondary device. To avoid any issues, I downloaded the beta to my old iPhone XR instead of my iPhone 14 Pro.

Note that the beta isn't the final version of iOS 18, so there could be more features to land on your iPhone when iOS 18 is released. Apple said iOS 18 would be released to the public this fall, but there's no definitive date yet.

Here's how you can make your texts as expressive as you are.

How to access text effects

1. Open Messages. 2. Tap into a chat. 3. Tap the text box. 4. Tap the A with dashes on its left side, which can be found above the P on the keyboard.

This opens the text effects menu. Across the top of the menu are the formatting options bold, italics, underline and strike-through. Beneath that are eight different effects: Big, Small, Shake, Nod, Explode, Ripple, Bloom and Jitter. 

You can select and use any combination of the formatting options at once, including all together. You can only use one text effect at a time. Text effects also clear any formatting options you may have selected. So you can't bold your message and then use the effect Big -- which causes the message to momentarily balloon in size. 

Most of the effects feel like they could be used in a lot of situations, but a few feel well-suited for certain emotions or contexts. Ripple, for example, feels tailor-made for sarcasm, especially when used on a word like "really."

Be aware that if you select formatting options, you have to tap the text box again for your keyboard to return. If you pick a text effect, your keyboard will automatically come back after you tap your desired effect.

Can you use more than one text effect?

You can use multiple effects in a single message, but you can't apply multiple effects to the same word. So you can't use the Big and Shake effects on your entire message, but you can apply Big to part of the message and Shake to the other part of the message. Here's how.

1. Open Messages. 2. Tap into a chat. 3. Tap the text box. 4. Write your message in full. 5. Highlight the word or words you want to add an effect to. 6. Tap the A with dashes on its left side, which can be found above the P on the keyboard. 7. Tap the formatting options or text effect you want to use.

The formatting or text effect will be applied to whatever you highlighted. You can then highlight and apply further formatting or effects to other words in the message. That means you could use all the text effects in a single message if you try hard enough -- I believe in you.

For more on iOS 18, here's my hands-on experience with the iOS 18 public betas , what to know about RCS messaging and our iOS 18 cheat sheet .

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Kamala Harris Addresses Economy In Speech—Here’s What To Know About Her Policy Agenda

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Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled more details about her economic agenda in a speech Friday in North Carolina, proposing an “opportunity economy” as the Democratic nominee focused on lowering the price of groceries and prescription drugs and addressing the housing crisis with an eye on bolstering the middle class.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 16.

Grocery Prices: The candidate would work in her first 100 days to help Congress pass a national ban on “price gouging” for food and groceries, as well as give the Federal Trade Commission and prosecutors authority to go after companies they determine price gouge, support small businesses in the industry, take a closer look at mergers between big grocery companies and “aggressively” investigate price-fixing in meat supply chains specifically.

Housing Costs: Harris wants to provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and is calling for the creation of three million new housing units within the next four years, proposing a tax credit for developers who build starter homes and investing $40 million in an innovation fund to tackle the housing crisis.

Rental Costs: Harris would also expand a tax credit for housing developers who build affordable housing rental units, and is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would stop predatory investors who buy up rental homes and collude with each other to raise rental prices.

Child Tax Credit: Harris proposed giving families a $6,000 tax credit for newborns in their first year of life, and restore a pandemic-era tax credit of $3,600 per child for middle and lower-class families.

Taxes: Harris also wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers in lower-income jobs, which would cut taxes by up to $1,250, and has previously said she would continue President Joe Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on American households earning $400,000 or less annually, and does support raising taxes for high earners and corporations, according to The New York Times.

No Tax On Tips: Harris has separately endorsed a plan to get rid of taxes on tips for hospitality and service workers, echoing a proposal by former President Donald Trump—which has been criticized by some experts—though a campaign official told CNN tips would still be subject to payroll taxes, and would include an income limit and guardrails to prevent people like hedge fund managers from taking advantage of the policy.

Prescription Drug Prices: Harris proposed a $35 cap on insulin and capping out-of-pocket expenses on prescription drugs at $2,000 per year on Friday, also saying she would speed up Medicare negotiations on the price of prescription drugs—after the Biden administration announced a deal lowering costs on 10 medications—and crack down on anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry that cause higher prices.

Healthcare: The Harris campaign also announced her intention to work with states to cancel Americans’ medical debt, and she proposed expanding subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans that would save health insurance customers an average of $700 on their health insurance premiums.

Paid Leave: Harris has not released a specific paid leave proposal, but she has previously co-sponsored 12-week paid leave legislation, Politico notes, with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., telling the outlet, “I absolutely believe that when they are in office, we will get a paid leave bill done finally.”

Minimum Wage: Harris called for raising the minimum wage in a Las Vegas speech earlier in August, but her campaign has not specified how high she believes it should be raised.

Fed Independence: Harris has vowed to maintain the Federal Reserve’s independence after Trump said he believed “the president should have at least [a] say” on the Federal Reserve’s decisions, with Harris telling reporters, “The Fed is an independent entity and as president I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes.”

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Crucial Quote

Harris said Friday she’d be “laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class” if elected president, calling for “an economy where everyone can compete and have a real chance to succeed.” “Now is the time to chart a new way forward, to build an America where everyone’s work is rewarded and talents are valued, where we work with labor and business to strengthen the American economy, and where everyone has the opportunity not only to get by, but to get ahead,” the vice president said.

What To Watch For

Harris said in her North Carolina speech that she intends to unveil more economic proposals in the weeks ahead. The vice president has still not issued a full policy platform or unveiled proposals for policy issues beyond the economy, and those are also expected in the near future.

How Do Harris’ Policies Compare With Biden’s?

Harris’ economic policy agenda is largely in line with Biden’s economic platform, with some tweaks to emphasize causes that are more important to her, like the child tax credit. “Same values, different vision,” a Harris aide told The Guardian. “She’s not moving far away from him on substance, she will highlight the ones that matter most to her.” The initial plans from Harris’ campaign also suggest the vice president plans to be more aggressive in her policy approaches than Biden, however, as polls have suggested voters hold dim views of how the president has handled the economy. While Biden has also opposed price gouging, Harris’ proposal to enable the FTC and U.S. attorneys to go after companies that hike up prices goes beyond what the president has proposed, Politico notes , and her proposed $40 million investment in the housing crisis is double the amount the Biden administration spent.

Harris’ economic agenda released Friday didn’t go fully in depth about her proposals, which The New York Times reports is by design. The Times reported prior to Harris’ speech that the Harris campaign has adopted a “strategic vagueness” for her economic proposals, believing that being more of a “blank slate” will help ward off attacks and attract more support from business groups.

How Do Harris’ Policies Compare With Trump’s?

Trump’s economic agenda is largely focused on raising tariffs on imported goods, which Harris has said she opposes. The ex-president has also called for cutting taxes and regulations in hopes of lowering inflation, including lowering the corporate tax rate, and has encouraged increasing oil production in order to lower energy prices. In addition to his “no tax on tips” proposal that Harris has also endorsed, Trump has called for ending taxes on Social Security benefits, which Harris has not yet responded to. Experts believe the ex-president’s proposal could speed up Social Security and Medicare becoming insolvent, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projecting exempting taxes on benefits would result in Social Security and Medicare receiving $1.6 trillion less in revenue between 2026 and 2035. The Trump campaign opposed reports of Harris’ economic proposals Wednesday, with spokesperson Steven Cheung saying in a statement, “Kamala Harris can’t hide from her disastrous record of skyrocketing inflation … Americans are struggling under the Biden-Harris economy, and now she wants to gaslight them into believing her bald-faced lies.”

42%. That’s the share of voters who trust Harris more to handle the economy, according to a Financial Times/University of Michigan poll released Sunday, versus 41% who trust Trump more. That’s down from Trump holding a six-point lead over Biden in July, though the poll also showed 42% believe a Trump presidency would leave them better off financially, while only 33% said the same for Harris.

Key Background

Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in July after Biden stepped down suddenly from the presidential race, following weeks of pressure over mounting concerns about his mental fitness. While the vice president has quickly garnered Democrats’ support and risen in the polls, Harris has released few concrete policy proposals in the first few weeks of her campaign—drawing some criticism as a result—with her speech Friday expected to be the most substantive remarks she’s given on policy so far. Her focus on the economy comes as polling has repeatedly shown it’s the most important issue to voters in this election cycle, with the vice president hoping to attract support amid low approval ratings for Biden’s handling of the economy. Harris’ speech also comes days after news that inflation fell in July to its lowest point in more than three years, with federal data released Wednesday showing inflation at 2.9% in July, the first time it’s been below 3% since March 2021.

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