Here is a very useful tip on what you can use the Google Text-To-Speech service on Android for

I didn’t realize how good it was the moment I’ve got the tip from the Google+ user +Theodore Maniatis, but now after been using it, I can see how useful it was. The tip was posted in the comments on my blog post about Audiobook Player apps for Android, and was about using the Google Text-To-Speech service together with ebooks instead of listening to audiobooks.

I must say that I am quite surprised on how good that works! Yes of course a real narrator that you can listen to with audiobooks sounds more natural, but Google’s Text-To-Speech service, is really, really good too, good enough for me to use, because there is so many benefits with using it instead of AudioBooks. One benefit is that you can read your ebook when you want to read it yourself, and then when you are in your car for example, you can let the Google Text-To-Speech service continue to read it for you instead. And when you stop driving, just hit stop or pause, and then continue to read when you want to read yourself again. Brilliant.

Most ebook readers can sync your ebooks with all your devices too, so you can continue to read where you left of from any device. A huge benefit over audiobooks.

Another benefit is that you can practice speed reading with Google Text-To-Speech service. Just turn it on and read a long with it, you will read the book a lot faster with the text-to-speech on and listen to it while you read together with it. Trust me, I know, because I have already read two complete books this week with this method. You can also choose a faster speed than normal when you read along with it, but that is not necessary because even normal mode will speed up your reading a lot, because you won’t do as many pauses in your head anymore.

This is a very useful way for me to read. I can even turn the text-to-speech on when I am at my office and listen to it while I do “office work”. The only drawback is that it doesn’t support my language, so I have to use it for English books or make my own ebooks from News sources to read. You can easily do that with the Calibre software.

Google Text-to-speech Engine powers most text applications, and can read the text on your screen aloud. I use the excellent Moon+ Reader Pro for my ebooks. It’s very good and can sync your reading position via DropBox.

Here is some of the things Google Text-To-Speech service can do:

• Google Play Books to “Read Aloud” your favorite book
• Google Translate to speak translations aloud so you can hear the pronunciation of a word
• TalkBack and accessibility applications for spoken feedback across your device
• and many other applications in Play Store

Languages supported: English (United Kingdom), English (United States), French, German, Italian, Korean, Spanish