Text-to-speech can't really work on a tablet until Nokia or someone develops good voices for use in Linux. It apparently takes a lot of work to develop a decent voice rather than the computer-tinged voices that are so common even in Windows. But there are a few good voices in Windows, good enough that for a moment one can even get the illusion that they might be human. I recently purchased one called Samantha, and I am finishing Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White using Samantha. I recently finished Pride and Prejudice using Samantha as well.

In fact, text-to-speech is the main reason I ever run Windows these days, but I like text-to-speech enough that I tend to permanently keep one computer in Windows. (I also use it for watching Netflix instant movies.)

As you might be able to tell from my literature choices, I love Project Gutenberg, and am not so attracted by Kindle or the Sony Reader, because I don't like to pay. However, the magic of being able to download a current book while sitting in a hospital waiting room, which I recently did using my Centro, was amazing. Unfortunately, it was an audiobook from Audible.com, which didn't work in that situation because I didn't have headphones with me. But something about it was fantastic anyway.

The whole world of audio and text has not made the next logical jump, which I think is where the real future of books on computers lies. Why do I have to choose between audio and text? Why not scrolling text, with audio? That is great, and in Windows, I can get that using TextAloud and a good Windows voice. In many cases, I actually PREFER a computer voice to a human voice, because I can't get a human voice accompanied by scrolling text!

I understand that there are excellent voices for Macs, too, by the way. I have heard demos that sounded fantastic. One user said his Mac sings to him.

I still dream of being told bedtime stories by Marylin Monroe, or getting the current news from a Walter Cronkite in his prime. I think that such voices will become available, but perhaps not for five or ten years.