Web Talk will read websites from your iPhone or iPod touch. The text-to-speech engine works by reading the text copied to the clipboard. Web Talk admirably attempts to do this with one of four voices. This app is not without its problems but does a decent job of reading copied text no matter how long the piece is. Overall, this app is the example of a great idea implemented with limited attention to detail.
If it can be copied to the clipboard then Web Talk can read it. A problem I experienced is that not every website has copyable text. Articles from the iPhone version of USA Today, for example, cannot be copied into clipboard. These instances are rare, however, and most of the time there is not a problem copying text from a website.
Web Talk will actually read e-mails or any other copyable text from your iPhone or iPod touch. Just select and copy the text using the new cut, copy, and paste functionality, load up Web Talk and hit play. It reads directly from the clipboard. This is a neat, however unintentional, feature the app has to offer
Web Talk has four distinctly horrible voices to choose from. The quality of these voices range from indecipherable to robotic droning. The female\'s voice, Sarah, sounds like a nasally nerd. You can visualize the thick glasses. My favorite was Alan who talks with a Scottish accent. The voice\'s are horrible, really, but wouldn\'t be so bad if they didn\'t talk so fast. Which brings me to the largest oversight of the application. You cannot adjust the speed at which the program recites the text.
The built in web browser is decent. I found that the back button worked but not the forward button. Web Talk remembers the last website visited and supports landscape mode. It would be nice if there was a favorites or most visited feature as most people will visit the same news or forum site. You can navigate to different websites as the program is reading to you, but the voice cuts in and out as the website loads.
This program is a good starting point for something greater. With an update adding the ability to control the speed of the speech it would be considerably easier to comprehend what is being spoken. Some clearer voices wouldn\'t hurt a bit either. Web Talk leaves a lot to be desired but does provide a basic text-to-speech engine for your iPhone or iPod touch.
