TTS on Android - what a saga

[Wiggo]

OK, so the good news is that I've managed to get it working, and it's not at all bad.

Getting there was painful, though. I 'bought' the upgrade via Central (you have to downlaod the latest Central - 2.0.0.74 - and I suggest you uninstall the present version first because its own upgrader is broken, then download the latest from ALK). I moaned a bit that I was paying €4 when it was free in the US. I got an upgrade code via email, and after entering that in to the licensing section the TTS button activated itself. The instructions provided said I would need to download the voices from Central, but this just kept crashing.

I emailed support, moaned via Facebook and called them several times. So they refunded my €4, which was not what I wanted. Then after several days they changed the info on the website to say that TTS on Android depended onyour particular set-up. I knew I had the TTS engine because I'd installed it ages ago to play with the free SatNav thing on Android.

Then support started telling me I didn't need anything from them, just select a voice with an asterisk. But I didn't have any. Then magically, there was one. I have no idea why, but now it works. So here's my setup:

Download "TTS Service Extended" from Android Market, install it and select a default engine - I have selected Pico TTS, FWIW.

Select a language and speech rate, and probably for good measure restart the phone.

Buy the upgrade from Central (remember you need the latest version), install the new license key then get a refund.

Cross you fingers and hope for CoPilot support to improve.

[hellybob]

What Android phone have you got and what version of Copilot are you using?

[Wiggo]

T-Mobile G1 running Android 1.6 and CoPilot 8.0.0.606

As it seems to be a little dependent on other factors as well, for the record I am wearing brown socks and a lycra leopard print posing pouch. I was facing in the direction of Mecca when I did the install. I do not own a dog.

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