2. Tweaking your voice settings
If you're not happy with the sound of the voice used for spoken menus you can change the character and the speed of the voice. To change the default voice on Windows XP, go to Settings in the Start Menu, select Control Panel and then select Speech. By default, Windows users only have one voice, called Microsoft Sam, but additional voices can be installed. Under voice type, there's a bar to define the speed of the voice.
Mac users have over 20 voices included by default under Mac OS 10. You can find your Mac's voice settings by going to System Preferences from the Apple menu, and locating the Speech icon. Same as Windows, you can adjust the type of voice and the playback speed.
In theory, iTunes should detect when you've made changes to your system's speech settings and reload your iPod nano with new voice files the next time it's connected, however, in Windows XP, we could only get the new voice settings to take after doing an iPod firmware restore through iTunes. Under Mac, system-voice changes seemed to take immediately.
3. Check your iPod settings
After enabling spoken menus through iTunes, you should be able to hear the voice cues on your iPod right away. If you don't, check the Settings menu of your iPod, click on General, and you should find an option for turning spoken menus on and off.That's all there is to it. For those of you who've already configured your computer's voice to suit your taste, step one may be all it takes to get the desired result. If you have any other tips on improving MP3 player accessibility, please share them in the comments section below.
Tags: MP3 Player, Apple iPod, window, Apple iPod Nano, MP3
