Awesome job Michael, I love taking advantage of the cognitive surplus of the internet and having others record the content. http://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/49dc...
@geofree Thanks Jeffrey! :D I love Yarn, btw, :-p thought I'd give a shoutout
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SpokenLayer has been trying this for 5 years. It doesnt work because the way content is written does not lend to a good listening experience. Just think of how an NPR story is told as a journey where a WSJ story is all revealed in the title and first paragraph with the details to follow.
The solution is to take the best written web content and re-write it for the best listening experience.
@gladrobot This is a good point, and a good insight into some of the problems with narrating. You're right, that sometimes the best articles don't sound the same when reproduced in audio form. I think the best way I like to think about this is as a news-alternative to audiobooks. I almost always prefer reading visually, but situations like driving, exercising, and multi-tasking makes reading hard!
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@michaeljsuen1 yes, reading is impossible or unwanted in many situations. That's why audio is perfect. You have to make the narrative engaging or people will mentally tune out after 5 seconds.
@marcosmoralez Wow, thank you Marcos! Agree with the robotic voice part...I love Pocket, but I can't deal with robot voices just yet...
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Seems pretty cool! Would be even better if either Colony FM acquired Mybridge 2.0 and made an audible feed relevant to your liking. I would be HOOKED! Something like it use to exist by the name of UMANO, but it was acquired by Dropbox and *poof*
@ericpatriq Thanks a really interesting suggestion. I haven't used Mybridge myself, but I'm going to look into it. One of our advisors is actually a former Umano co-founder ;-)
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@michaeljsuen1 That's excellent! I loved Umano, shame that Dropbox kept it as an inward tool though. I knew something sounded familiar when I heard about this service! Excited to see where Colony FM goes! My assumption is that your advisor is Prabhdeep, keep up the great work Michael!
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Nice. We've built almost the same thing but with TTS technology https://www.producthunt.com/tech...
You can listen your pocket articles in any podcasting app on any device.
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How much time it takes you to add the article I requested to the play list?
This is a brilliant idea! I've been waiting for someone to come out with some form of this. But, I have submitted two articles, that are completely the wrong narration.
Magic 8 Balls
Colony FM
Colony FM
Halftime Live
Colony FM
Colony FM
Colony FM
Colony FM