Category: Technology News

The iPhone maker is responding to the popularity of audio books and digital services for reading aloud.

iTunes Spoken Editions is about to become the latest service launched by Apple. The service is designed to read news and magazine articles out loud, and will likely include mobile ads, too.

To start, it looks as though Time, Wired, Mic, Playboy and Forbs will be the first participating publishers.

The iTunes Spoken Editions platform will launch in early October. It will have many components that bring to mind the Audible Channels and Amazon Alexa, among others. This will make it possible for Apple users to listen to certain mainstream news publications without having to read the articles. Therefore, they will be able to hear the articles while they go about their day, whether they are completing various chores or commuting.

It is for this same reason that audio books have taken off in popularity over the last few years. People are often choosing podcasts and audio books over magazine articles and printed books. When it comes to the news, they don’t often read more than the title as well as the first paragraph and possibly the last one.

The iTunes Spoken Editions will be read by a digital speech generator and not by actual human readers.

The news articles and other audio items won’t be read by narrators or journalists. Instead, Apple will be using a text-to –speech engine that is not unlike Alexa.

It is also likely that Apple won’t miss the opportunity to be able to include advertising into this new audio service. Just as SpokenLayer includes ads in its service, this new platform will likely do the same thing. Its goal is typically to help to make up for the rapidly declining revenue from the reduced print subscriptions and the falling readership.

Apple has yet to officially release the full details of its iTunes Spoken Editions platform. That said, it wouldn’t be impossible to believe that it would be able to achieve integration with other services as well. Some have speculated that this could potentially include Apple News and possibly even Apple TV.

After rumors have been circulating on the subject for a long time, the tech giant made its official announcement.

For a long time, rumors have been circulating about a replacement for the Nexus line and now Google Pixel has been announced. The tech giant has announced a new line of high end smartphones. These will take the place of the Nexus flagship mobile devices.

There have been leaks popping up all over the web for the Google Pixel (Sailfish) and the Pixel XL (Marlin).

The company has announced the Google Pixel’s existence and has been suggesting that an October 4 unveiling could be expected. It had been indicating that the unveiling would break away from the traditional rectangle and would be made of an oblong with rounded edges. That said, one of the Google websites (madeby.google.com) is indicating a device with the classic rectangle shape. It contains a graphic that starts from the look of the Google query box and that transforms into a phone. Aside from that graphic, the webpage says “Oct. 4” as well as the Google “G” symbol and the opportunity to enter an email address to receive notifications of updates.

The Google Pixel will be the next among a number of hardware products released with its branding.

Though there had been recent rumors and claims of leaks that showed two new Nexus phones built by HTC, those plans have changed. In August, Android Central reported that the new HTC devices would no longer bear the Nexus name. Moreover, another source, Android Police, recently reported that upcoming Pixel and Pixel XL devices would become “the first phones built by Google.”

The teaser webpage created by Google appears to be confirming the claim Android Police had made. That said, the Android Police report said HTC would be manufacturing the devices, despite the fact that Google designed them.

The industry has been watching the tech brand for a new device such as smartphones ever since the Project Ara experimental modular phone initiative was shut down.

It will be interesting to see what predictions and reports make it on to the scene until the official Google Pixel launch on October 5.