SoundGecko – An Audio Option for Written News

Reading a New York Times article while driving 65 miles per hour down the freeway or riding your bike across town to work isn’t exactly the safest way to gather the news, even if it does seem quite efficient. SoundGecko is a tool that gives you a way to digest the most important news articles of the day without ever having to take your eyes off the road.

SoundGecko is an audio service that translates text into speech, which means you can use the app to convert virtually any news article into an audio file that can be loaded onto your iPhone or any other device that plays mp3 files. Just head to the SoundGecko website, enter the URL of a particular news article you’ve been dying to read, and SoundGecko will email you the file as an mp3. Load the mp3 onto your mobile device, and you’re ready to go. If you use SoundGecko on a frequent basis, then you can use the Chrome extension to make the process even faster.

If you connect SoundGecko to Google Drive or Dropbox, the web-application will automatically copy the mp3 files you request into your cloud storage accounts, making it easy for you to grab the files you want from home, work, or your mobile device. iPhone users can also download SoundGecko’s mobile app to get uninterrupted playback of all the articles they upload to the site without having to drag and drop files into the right device.

Practical Uses:

• Turn any news article into an audio clip
• Learn about the presidential election while driving home from work
• Make a playlist of articles to listen to at the gym
• Listen to lengthy New Yorker articles while you’re walking to the store

Insider Tips:

• SoundGecko syncs with Google Drive and Dropbox
• iPhone users can download the SoundGecko mobile app
• SoundGecko converts all text files to mp3
• Use the Chrome extension to quickly convert files to mp3 without uploading any links

What we liked:

• It’s easier to listen to articles at the gym than to try and read on the treadmill
• SoundGecko supports any website that has a large amount of text content
• Listening to audio files while you drive is much safer than reading
• SoundGecko is free to use

What we didn’t like:

• SoundGecko doesn’t always pronounce words accurately
• Articles behind a paywall usually can’t be translated into speech

Alternatives:

• Nothing

Company Info:

• Launched: 2012
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia
• Founded by: 121cast
• Web site: http://soundgecko.com

Costs:

• Free