Welcome to the launch of PortableVoice.com.  I wanted our first newsletter to introduce PortableVoice a little, explain who we are and what we hope to accomplish.  PortableVoice is owned by NextUp.com.  NextUp.com is a software company primarily focused on using computer speech to turn traditional web content into voice for personal use.  Our Flagship product, TextAloud MP3 will be mentioned a lot on PortableVoice.com, especially in the early going.

One group of users that find TextAloud MP3 very useful is currently a very small but growing group of technology users.  These people are typically news and information junkies, have their radios on AM more than FM, and would rather listen to an audio book or news program than Britney Spears.  This type of person is typically very busy and doesn't have enough time in the day to get everything done, much less time to read for pleasure or just to learn something new.

Well, thanks to technology, these people are finding a new, unique way to solve a few of their problems and satisfy their craving for more information, learning, and reading.  Specifically, a combination of the Internet, audio compression, and affordable portable audio players has opened up new possibilities.  This new opportunity is to collect audio content that is very specific for your tastes and needs, and to be able to listen to it anywhere and at anytime.

Now that we've identified the target market, and hopefully you fit into it, what does PortableVoice.com offer?  We hope to be a starting point for your search for good audio content.  If you are after music files, there are literally thousands of places to find anything you are looking for, from Napster like programs, to music sites like mp3.com.  But, one of our slogans is "MP3, It's not just for Music".  There are very few sites that really cater to people looking for spoken word content to listen to on your portable player.  There are tons of streaming talk radio stations of course.  There are some audio book sites, and we'll talk about those.  But there really isn't one place that can be a starting point, a guide to spoken word audio.  Hopefully that is what we'll offer. 

We have big plans for PortableVoice.com.  We aren't too sure how many of you are out there, and don't really know if we can make any money with this site, but we are going to do our best to hang in there, teach people the possibilities and how they can improve their life or at least get more out of their time.  We'll pass along some great tips, point out some other great sites you need to use, tell you about our great software and software from others that can be useful, and we may even sell a little content along the way (see the Bible offer coming soon).  It's too soon to tell how well we'll do with this, but browse around the site and let us know what you think.  Let us know what we could do better.  At least let us know you are out there.

Stay tuned for new content and newsletters as we roll out the site, and thanks for visiting.

Ken White
NextUp.com

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